Blessed Be Emanuel?

The few times we've seen Rahm Emanuel speaking for the Democratic Party on TV ... we wanted to turn the durn contraption to the wall. An effective TV presence he AIN'T. Emanuel is the second-term Democratic congressman from Illinois and chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Thanks to Stumpy for passing on Jonathan Alter's column about Emanuel, which suggests that maybe the man will be more effective working behind the scenes to try to take back the House of Representatives. Emanuel is targeting 40 House races, not one of which is the NC-5, but the strategy, according to Alter, interests us:

"...Just as Harry Truman ran against the 'Do-Nothing Congress,' Democrats will run against the 'Rubber-Stamp Congress,' which pimped for K Street, took a dive on its critical oversight duties (particularly on Iraq) and helped the president bankrupt the country by shoveling money toward the rich. Emanuel won't say yet which votes supporting Bush he plans to wrap around the necks of incumbents. But look for gut-punch ads that highlight the incumbents' 90-plus percent backing for Bush on issues like cuts in college loans and veterans benefits, privatizing Social Security, selling out to Big Pharma on prescription drugs and halting stem-cell research. Republicans are now scurrying away from Bush, but it may be too late. They can't take those roll-call votes back."

Madam Virginia Foxx has done no scurrying away from Bush that we can detect. So just how dense are the candidates arrayed against her if they don't notice that fact?