Elation, But...

The Mississippi First is fantastic news - there is no other way to put it. The decline of the GOP brand, a regional party's loss in its region, the failure to tie a conservative Dem to Wright or Obama - any of one these would be reason alone to dance in the streets. Add on Cole sending up warning flares, and it just keeps getting better - even if he may not be around for long. But...


We should be cautious not to get ahead of ourselves. As nice as it is to see the GOP seemingly collapse into total disarray, the fight in November has yet to be fought. The Democrats won in 2006 thanks to focus and discipline in message, candidate selection, and funding. To borrow from Alan Greenspan, we should be wary of falling prey to irrational exuberance when the time comes to make the tough decisions in the coming months. There is little question now that the 50 State strategy is paying dividends, but Dean's playbook calls less for throwing the hail mary in the all 110 GOP seats seemingly easier to take than the MS01 than building operations that make victories like Childers' possible when the opportunities present themselves.


Make no mistake, every Republican should be watching their back this cycle. This will help us across the board as those who would ordinarily focus on raising money for their colleagues instead batten down the hatches and leave nothing to chance on the home front, but if the blogosphere is awash in fundraising pleas premised on little more than "The MS01 was R+10, so we can win in..." we may start putting our eggs into the wrong baskets.



Of course, it's difficult for me to fill in a sample district, because R+9 districts include the AZ02 where Thrasher could do it this time, the CO04 where Musgrave is again in danger, and the IN08 which was one of the big pickup Dem pickups in '06 thanks to Brad Ellsworth. Hunting season's open, folks!