GOP House Wannabes Are Toning It All Down

Here’s the story of a Republican from the Teawinger Class of 2010 seeking to return to the U.S. House of Representatives who is finally beginning act as if he understands that harsh rhetoric on so many fronts only serves to scare, anger, and alienate voters:

“My name is Congressman Bob Dold!” said the fleece-clad man making his way through a popular restaurant here.

Well, not exactly. His name is Bob Dold, but he isn’t a current member of Congress. He’s a former congressman who represented the 10th District of Illinois. “And I’d like to again,” he tells a table of diners about to tuck into a giant cheese crepe.

Mr. Dold is seeking a political resurrection in next November’s election, after just one term on Capitol Hill. After riding the Tea Party wave to Washington in 2010, he was swept out of office by the Obama tsunami in Illinois in 2012.

Now he is among at least nine Republicans, a mix of former incumbents and previous challengers, who are running again — but with a difference. This time they have shelved their incendiary remarks about President Obama and the national debt in favor of a narrower focus on the Affordable Care Act, which they hope will attract moderate voters from both parties, even in heavily Democratic districts, who are disenchanted with its rollout.

The campaigns, if successful, could be an indication of change in some corners of the Republican Party as many former firebrands mellow their messages and people like Mr. Dold, who benefited from the Tea Party but was one of the more moderate members of the House, try to capitalize on the center. At the very least, their campaigns show that some people who ran vociferously against Washington appear eager to get back there.

They figure their odds of winning next year are much better in a nonpresidential election without Mr. Obama at the top of the Democratic ticket.

By: dave-dr-gonzo

David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.

* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.