GOP Sees an Opportunity With Cap-and-Tax Votes

Right after the cap-and-tax bill passed last week a prominent GOP strategist tweeted "50 Democrats just lost their seats for a bill that will die in the Senate". The GOP is not wasting time reminding voters of the extra costs the Democrats just voted to impose on them:

Republicans believe a handful of junior House Democrats may have taken a career-ending vote by supporting the controversial energy bill last week and are planning to launch an ad campaign in targeted districts to try to seal their fate.

The National Republican Congressional Committee is planning to air TV and radio commercials and unleash robocalls against Democrats who hail from districts that could be adversely affected by the narrowly passed legislation, are GOP-leaning or both.

Those likely to find themselves with targets on their back after the 219-212 vote: freshman Reps. Harry Teague of New Mexico, Betsy Markey of Colorado, John Boccieri of Ohio, Thomas Perriello of Virginia and Alan Grayson of Florida and second-termer Zack Space of Ohio.

The GOP’s hope is do to these vulnerable Democrats what Republicans famously did to former Rep. Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky, the Pennsylvania Democrat who ensured that her career was limited to one term when she cast the deciding vote for President Bill Clinton’s budget package in 1993.

“There’s a reason why over 40 Democrats in swing districts voted against this,” said NRCC spokesman Ken Spain. “They realized that voting for [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi’s bill wasn’t worth the price of millions of dollars in TV ads that would be required to put up what will ultimately be a futile defense of this vote. The question is: What were the others thinking?”

Private businesses are getting into the act as well. Gateway Pundit has the story of a local bakery company that's running messages on their electronic signs blasting a local congressman whose vote may put them out of business.

The eight GOP turncoats who voted for this pig are getting blamed for the bill's passage, but in fact all they did was give cover to Democrats to vote against it. The bill probably would have passed anyway, but the Dem leadership would of had to force some of their more reluctant and endangered members to vote for it.

That certainly doesn't the GOP voters, though. Those people still need to go.

Whether this bill gets past the Senate may not matter in the 2010 elections. The fact that these Democrats were willing to vote for this monstrosity will be enough to convince voters that they aren't doing what's best for the local constituents. All politics is local, and the home folks are going to hear how their representatives voted to pile additional taxes and fees on them to combat a mythical global warming problem.