ROVE Says: Republicans have lost control of the message

Rove: Republicans should fold in payroll tax cut standoff

By Jonathan Easley - 12/21/11 05:16 PM ET

 

Former Bush adviser Karl Rove said he agreed with the Wall Street Journal’s blistering assessment on the failure of House Republican leadership in the payroll-tax debate, and conceded that Republicans have “lost the optics” and should fold on the issue.

“I think the Wall Street Journal editorial hit it right on the nail, the question now is how do Republicans get out of it,” Rove told Fox News on Wednesday.

In a scathing editorial on Wednesday, the conservative newspaper said House GOP leadership had “thoroughly botched” the payroll tax cut fight, and in doing so put President Obama in a “stronger reelection position” that opens the door to Democratic majorities in both the House and the Senate.

   

Rove said that no matter who is to blame, Republicans have lost control of the message.

“They’ve lost the optics on it,” he said.

But then Rove goes on to say what the Repugs should do to make themselves look good (hah!)

“The only way to win it is to sit there and ruin their own Christmases and wait until the president heads off to Hawaii for his, and then lambast the Democrats for having abdicated their responsibility of passing a year-long tax cut,” Rove said.

“There’s only one way out of it,” he continued. “Is to stay in Washington, wait until President Obama gets on an airplane and heads for Hawaii, and then hold a session in the House, vote the two month extension and use the opportunity to beat up on the now long absent Democrats and Harry Reid and the absent president and say look - this is going to not be good for the companies that have to write the paychecks.”

And at the same time senior senate REpug members are concerned about getting re-elected

Senate Republicans are worried the standoff over extending the payroll tax holiday could hurt their chances of winning the upper chamber next year.

Senior Republican aides have made clear in private conversations that their bosses are not happy with how House Republicans have handled a bipartisan Senate compromise to extend tax relief for two months.

 “It’s not helping,” a veteran Senate Republican strategist said of the House GOP fight against the Senate package. “Senate Republicans are tired of paying the price for the lack of legislative thoughtfulness in the House.”

And McCain has to voice in also and he doesn't sound happy

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), an influential voice in the Senate Republican conference, warned that Boehner’s strategy is hurting the party’s image.

“It is harming the Republican Party. It is harming the view, if it’s possible anymore, of the American people about Congress,” McCain said Tuesday in a CNN interview. “We’ve got to get this resolved and with the realization that the payroll-tax cut must remain in effect.”

They know what the Repugs in the house did is wrong.

They know Boehner is a butt.

But the House isn't smart enough to admit it.

Are you smart enough to kick their butts out of office in 2012 and beyond?