On the Scene

IT’S 3 am. at the National Republican Congressional Committee headquarters, and a rumpled Ed Rollins stretches out on the couch and puts his feet up on the coffee table. In among the mounds of files on his desk sits a paper plate of cold cuts, stale remnants of a dinner he never had time to eat. Twenty months ago, when Rollins took over as co-chairman here, he’d planned on picking up five to ten seats this year and positioning the Republican Party for a 1992 takeover of Congress. tonight, he’ll be happy to keep his losses in single digits.

No one ever said that electing Republicans to a House that hasn’t seen a GOP majority since 1954 would be easy. Tonight’s go-around was all the more of a challenge: the party that occupies the White House traditionally takes its lumps in off-year elections (Reagan lost 26 seats in 1982). Yet until George Bush re-read his lips on taxes, it stood poised for a net gain.

IT’S 3 am. at the National Republican Congressional Committee headquarters, and a rumpled Ed Rollins stretches out on the couch and puts his feet up on the coffee table. In among the mounds of files on his desk sits a paper plate of cold cuts, stale remnants of a dinner he never had time to eat. Twenty months ago, when Rollins took over as co-chairman here, he’d planned on picking up five to ten seats this year and positioning the Republican Party for a 1992 takeover of Congress. tonight, he’ll be happy to keep his losses in single digits.

No one ever said that electing Republicans to a House that hasn’t seen a GOP majority since 1954 would be easy. Tonight’s go-around was all the more of a challenge: the party that occupies the White House traditionally takes its lumps in off-year elections (Reagan lost 26 seats in 1982). Yet until George Bush re-read his lips on taxes, it stood poised for a net gain.