Hey y'all, just wanted to stop by and tell y'all that the NRSC is pulling out of Louisiana and has apparently given up on Wanna Be.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee has decided to pull its television advertising out of Louisiana, a decision that drastically reduces the party's chances at its lone takeover opportunity in this election cycle.
The ads, according to buy information obtained by The Fix, will end next Tuesday -- two weeks before the Nov. 4 election between Sen. Mary Landrieu (D) and state Treasurer John Kennedy (R).
NRSC communications director Rebecca Fisher offered no comment when asked about the move to pull down the ads.
The decision to stop advertising in the race against Landrieu reflects a recognition by the NRSC of the stark financial reality it faces in the fall campaign. The Republican committee has been consistently outraised by its Democratic counterpart and, as the political environment has worsened for the GOP in recent weeks, several Republican senators that appeared safe -- Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and Saxby Chambliss (Ga.) to name two -- have suddenly appeared more vulnerable.
And this is my favorite part of all:
The news is a blow for Kennedy who was personally lured into the race by former White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove, and touted as one of the few recruiting successes for Senate GOPers in an admittedly difficult cycle.
Now we are even closer to 60 seats than before. Let me congratulate Mary Landrieu for running a GREAT campaign and all of you pelicans on a job well done!
[Editor's Note]But don't get complacent, y'all! Leave it on the field, and make sure that you volunteer to get folks to the polls, starting on Tuesday, when early voting starts!
In last week's U.S. News and World Report, National Republican Senate Committee Chairman Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), promised a "bloodbath" here in Louisiana. Here's why:
Senator Landrieu has won two very, very close elections (1996 and 2002).
Republicans believe that the Democratic base in this state has shrunk considerably since Hurricane Katrina.
Ensign wants a bloodbath? Then let's give him one. Contribute to Mary by clicking on the link to the right, or by going to the little Louisiana Blue Krewe box on the left side of the blog.
National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Ensign digs a deeper hole by trying to explain the difference in Republican reactions between David Vitter's scandal and Larry Craig's scandal:
Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., the Senate Republican campaign chairman, said Craig "admitted guilt. That is a big difference between being accused of something and actually admitting guilt."
"David Vitter never did that. Larry Craig did," continued Ensign on ABC's "This Week" program.
Whoa! Chairman Ensign is conceding that David Vitter has never admitted guilt for anything? Really? Either Ensign did not see David Vitter's press conference from almost two months ago, or Ensign will try to contend that Vitter never explicitly admitted to soliciting prostitutes, in which case every member of the media covering Washington DC and Louisiana politics should be on the horn to David Vitter's office to get a clarification.
Has David Vitter formally admitted (or will he now admit) that he solicited prostitutes?
