Giuliani would help in northeast house races

Washington Times:

House Republicans see a 2008 ticket topped by former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani making congressional races in Democratic strongholds of the Northeast more competitive, improving the party's odds for picking up the 16 seats to win back the majority.

The popularity of the former mayor — polls in the region show Mr. Giuliani neck and neck with Democratic front-runner Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York — promises to put in play congressional races in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania — districts that typically vote Democrat.

"He would make it possible to knock off [Democratic] first-term members of Congress," said Rep. Peter T. King, New York Republican, who has endorsed Mr. Giuliani. "He would bring out a lot of Republican voters and get a large number of conservative Democrats and independents."

The outlook was shared throughout the ranks of House Republicans, but most declined to be identified in deference to the other candidates for the nomination.

New Jersey Republican State Committee Chairman Tom Wilson said Mr. Giuliani is "as close to a favorite son as there is" in the Garden State, and Pennsylvania Republican Party Chairman Robert A. Gleason Jr. called a Giuliani ticket the "best-case scenario."

"With Giuliani at the top of the ticket, [Democrats] might lose control of the House," Mr. Gleason said. "We believe we [in Pennsylvania] could win back the four seats we lost [in 2006] and possibly pick up another one."

Proponents of a "Giuliani bounce" at blue-state polls say it could propel challenges to Democrats including Reps. Kirsten Gillibrand and John Hall in New York, Christopher Carney and Paul E. Kanjorski in Pennsylvania, Steven R. Rothman in New Jersey and Christopher S. Murphy in Connecticut.

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I think it is a little early to jump to that conclusion and Democrats obviously don't buy it. The races are still going to come down to issues and Republicans are going to have to not only win on the immigration issue, but they have to turn the war in Iraq into a winning issue. They cannot just leave it up to Gen. Petraeus and the troops to win the war in Iraq, but they have to demonstrate how wrong the Democrats have been about the war for the last year and how they would have lost it if they had been given their way. They need to start this campaign now. The Democrats campaigned for two years to convince people the war was lost when it wasn't. The Republicans owe it to the troops who have won to condemn the Democrats attempts to lose.