The Republican Party eats their own; George Allen feels shunned

Although the National Republican Senatorial Committee raised a great deal of money for the 2006 Congressional races, many individual Republican elected officials kept a tight hand on their checkbooks out of fear for their political future. There is now party in-fighting as to whether the reason for the enormous amount of lost seats was due to money or message. On one hand, I can understand the desire of certain Republicans to hang onto their own cash for the future; on the other hand, it seems a bit selfish to refuse to help your fellow party members, especially when some of the officials are not up for re-election anytime soon:

A number of Republicans who lost their gavels gave time and money to individual colleagues, but never made a direct contribution to the NRSC, including Sens. John McCain (Ariz.), Susan Collins (Maine) and Olympia Snowe (Maine), who won 74 percent of the vote in her reelection.

Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) gave $15,000 to the NRSC, leaving $11.5 million in his account even though he will not face reelection until 2010.

Others feel that they did all they could possibly do for their party, and they have no regrets:

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), who won her race by 26 percent, gave $250,000 to the NRSC this year (based on publicly available figures), but said she hasn’t considered giving more of the $7.3 million still sitting in her war chest.

“Not at all,” said Hutchison. “I’m in the top three of my caucus. I certainly did my fair share.”

Thankfully, some Republicans have caught on to the fact that extra money would not have helped one bit. This year, Americans demanded change, and MESSAGE was more important than MONEY (as we CLEARLY saw in the Virginia Senate race, where FORMER Senator George Allen outspent Senator-elect Jim Webb by 2 to 1):

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said “not a thing” would have changed his $50,000 NRSC donation to include more of the $2.8 million on hand as of his last reporting period. “They basically had everything they needed and money wasn’t a determining factor.”

Unfortunately, FORMER Senator George Allen still doesn't get it, and he faults his own party for not coughing up the cash:

Outgoing Sen. George Allen (R-Va.), though, said the disparity in committee fundraising was one of many factors that could have tipped the roughly 7,000 votes that sealed his fate.

“Heck, when you lose a race as close as ours was, by three-tenths of one percent, it’s like a close football game when you lose by one point,” Allen said of the urge to play Monday-morning quarterback. He noted, though, that the DSCC’s financial upper hand brought an overwhelming number of attack ads into his Virginia race. “I know that they did pour in. They just inundated us. They were not flattering.”

WHO wasn't flattering? The Democratic party for standing by each other and helping those in need? The Democratic party for offering change and a better, more positive message for the future of America? The Democratic party for countering your own vicious and hate-filled attack ads on Jim Webb? What does that even mean, George?

AND ARE YOU STILL SERIOUSLY BLAMING YOUR LOSS ON COMMERCIALS AS OPPOSED TO YOUR OWN GAFFES, MISSTEPS, AND POOR POLITICAL HISTORY?

Obviously, others in the party do not agree with Allen's assessment:

One senior GOP aide said message rather than money made the difference in Virginia and across the country, but hoped this year would serve as a wake-up call. “Hopefully this is a lesson learned for some of these chairmen who are now ranking members,” said the staffer.

It's time for the Republican party to grow up, and move on. Figure out what you did wrong, and get ready for the next election cycle. You'll never win by crying sour grapes.