Republicans Suffering "Power Outage" - Newsweek

With constant ongoing investigations and indictments, the Republican Party is suffering big time. They are so deep in the muck of corruption and cronyism it is very possible they could loose one or both houses of Congress come '06. As Newsweek reports in this week's edition: Bush and his fellow Republicans have little margin for error. Three forces--sky-high gasoline prices, the massive costs of rebuilding the Gulf Coast and ever-gloomier public assessments of the war in Iraq--have combined to weaken Bush's reputation as a strong leader, and leave him vulnerable to the kind of second-term fiascoes that tend to befall all presidents: think Ronald Reagan and Iran-contra, or Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. Indeed, polltaker Frank Luntz, who helped develop the "Contract With America" message that swept Republicans to power in 1994, was on the Hill last week warning the party faithful that they could lose both the House and the Senate in next year's congressional elections. It may be too much to ask at this point in the game considering the short attention span of both the media and the talking heads on TV or the press. But if this current situation continues and results in further indictments of say Rove or Libby. Or Fitzgerald paints with a broader brush and implicates Bush and Cheney in the "conspiracy theory" bandied about in the WP today. Then add to that an SEC charge against Frist for insider trading then all bets are off IMO for the Repubs retaining their majority. Another chink in the armor of the Republican election machine to remember is that right about the time the '06 campaigning begins, a trial could very well be underway for OMB Director David Safavian, who was arrested on a three count indictment. MORE.....