Heading for the hills

 
When even White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs is forecasting a possible Republican majority in the House (video at link), you have to wonder if the rest of the Democratic Party is all but resigned to such an outcome this November.

The looming consensus that we’re headed for a Republican House also carries implications for our District.  First is that, given that Nan is considered one of this year’s highly competitive candidates and John Hall is considered vulnerable even by partisan Democrats, the math involved in anticipating a new GOP majority in Congress all but assumes that Nan will be part of the new freshman class in the House.  Second, even if he survives the election, Rep. Hall would be drastically weakened as a member of a disgraced House minority emphatically out of favor with the American people.  It’s clear that Nan is much more in touch with the District’s values and priorities, and when she joins the new majority we’ll have an even better chance to recover from the economic distress we’re in now.

Mr. Gibbs’s forecast is tentative, and it’s probably a pre-emptive effort to raise the bar for Republican expectations so that anything short of an overwhelming Republican majority after the midterms will be seen as a moral victory for his party.  But, wow, what a sea-change we’ve seen:  just 16 months ago none other than TIME Magazine was declaring the Republican Party dead and buried (as noted by HotAir.com).

It’s amazing what a difference a year and a half under a detached, self-absorbed President and an unbridled, power-drunk Congress – both bent on transforming the world’s strongest economy into a government-dominated invalid – can make.  Of course, we have no intention of taking a Republican majority for granted; we will keep working as hard as we can every day until Election Day to earn victory for all of us in District 19.  However, Mr. Gibbs’s barely-concealed panic is well-founded, and it is a sign of better things to come for District 19 as John Hall continues to follow his Speaker, and his President, into the political wilderness.

UPDATE:  Gibbs backpedals as Pelosi freaks out.