A.P. Serves Up Another Sloppy Kiss for the G.O.P.

GOP wins House seat in Obama's home district

HONOLULU – A Honolulu city councilman has defeated two Democrats to give Republicans a midterm election victory in the U.S. congressional district where President Barack Obama grew up.

Nice of the A.P. to admit that Obama grew up in Hawaii. Their commentators will have none of this nonsense.

Charles Djou's win Saturday is the latest triumph for the GOP as it looks to take back control of Congress. And it came as a blow to Democrats who could not rally around a candidate and find away to win a congressional race that should have been a cakewalk. The seat had been held by a Democrat for nearly 20 years and is located where Obama was born and spent most of his childhood.

Did HERBERT A. SAMPLE, Associated Press Writer, write that paragraph, or was it Frank Luntz?

"This is a momentous day. We have sent a message to the United States Congress. We have sent a message to the national Democrats. We have sent a message to the machine," Djou said. "The congressional seat is not owned by one political party. This congressional seat is owned by the people."

Three paragraphs into this G.O.P. press release, and now it's time for some facts. Wait, I didn't mean facts, I mean what the Democrats say (hah!):

But Democrats believe the success in Hawaii will be short-lived. Djou will only serve through the remainder of 2010, and another election will be held in November for the next term.

Djou received 67,610 votes, or 39.4 percent. He was trailed by state Senate President Colleen Hanabusa, a Democrat who received 52,802 votes, or 30.8 percent. The other leading Democrat, former U.S. Rep. Ed Case, received 47,391 votes, or 27.6 percent.

Oh. So basically, when Djou runs against one Democratic candidate this November, he's toast. In other words, what Democrats say.

Republicans see the victory as a powerful statement about their momentum heading into November. They already sent a Republican to the U.S. Senate to replace the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts — a place that was once thought to be the most hostile of territories for the GOP. Now Republicans can say they won a congressional seat in the former backyard of the president and in a state that gave Obama 72 percent of the vote two years ago.

Not noted is that Djou is toast in November, and thus will not be contributing to any hypothetical G.O.P. takeover (no matter how hard A.P. tries to pimp same). And I do admire the way Mr. Sample and company carry Gooper water by ignoring Democratic victories over this time span.

Now is the time when we dance post some comments.





UPDATE: A.P. has updated their post, and now the third paragraph is a statement from Chris Van Hollen:

But Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., chairman of the Democratic campaign committee, said the result was "a clear case of local Democrats not being able to work out a solution where you could get one (Democratic) candidate against one (Republican candidate)." He said that would change by November.

Better, but A.P.'s initial impulse remains: whatever happens is good for McCain/Republicans/Plutocrats/Teh Peeps Who Sign Our Paychecks.
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