With polls showing a possible bloodbath in November, House Republicans have been working feverishly to rebrand themselves. But they’ve hit a snag with their new motto, “The Change You Deserve.” It happens to be a trademarked advertising slogan for Effexor, a prescription drug to treat depression.
Republicans have good reason to feel depressed. Democrats have won three special elections this year in U.S. House seats that were once considered safely Republican. On Tuesday, Democrat Travis Childers beat Republican Greg Davis in a Mississippi district that President George W. Bush carried handily four years ago.
House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio called the loss “a wake-up call.” Republicans said the same thing after they lost seats that were held by former House Speaker Dennis Hastert in Illinois and Rep. Richard Baker in Louisiana.
Most voters feel the country is on the wrong track, polls show. A Gallup survey last year found fewer voters identify themselves as Republicans than at any point in the last 20 years. Some party leaders say things haven’t been this bad since their post-Watergate malaise. “The Republican brand is in the trash can,” Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia fumed in an open letter to his colleagues. “If we were dog food, they’d take us off the shelf.”
So what’s a Republican to do?
One, recognize that negative campaigning isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Davis tried to link Childers to Barack Obama, as though that would scare off Mississippi voters. It failed. In Hastert’s old district, voters made it clear they are wise to and weary of the vitriolic campaign style of failed Republican candidate Jim Oberweis.
Two, recognize that your immediate future is tied to John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president. This rankles some Republicans more than losing three House seats does. Rush Limbaugh a few months back said that nominating McCain would “destroy” the GOP. But McCain seems to realize that Republicans lost the U.S. House in 2006 because voters lost trust in Republicans, largely because of sleazy scandals and wasteful spending. McCain is evidence that a Republican can be true to conservative principles without being slavish to them.
McCain is going to set a new tone for Republican leaders, and that’s going to be a welcome change, whether they deserve it or not.
