Chief political reporter Adam Nagourney today writes the first edition of"Political Action," anew political column in the Times that will run in the paper every Tuesday until the November elections. The first entry is (rather predictably) "The Republican Divide [1]."
"With fewer than 50 days left until Election Day, as many as 40 House and 10 Senate seats are in play, fueling Democratic hopes of capturing power in November. Washington is awaiting polling data that will show how much success the White House has had in trying to put Democrats on the defensive on national security - and whether that effort has been undercut by the battle among Republicans over what is permissible in interrogating terrorism suspects.
Nagourney claims "Republicans face additional peril from a public distressed at a Republican-controlled Congress that accomplished little this year." He concludes that the Republican intra-party tussle over interrogating terrorism suspects could "feed an anti-incumbency sentiment already threatening Republicans this fall."
Or so he would wish, apparently. Nagourney has long been a killjoy [2]when it comes toRepublican chances in 2006. Check out the headlines to some of his past stories: "Bad Iraq War News Worries Some in G.O.P. on '06 Vote." " A Cry of Concern by Republicans at Voter Unease on Corruption and Excesses," and most notoriously [3], after a special election in which the Republican won by five points, "Narrow Victory by G.O.P. Signals Fall Problems."