Sen. Rick Scott had a plan. The Florida Republican would lead his party’s Senate campaign committee in a year that was likely to be good for the GOP, celebrate as Republicans racked up victories, and reap the rewards of a job well done. That plan hasn’t worked out especially well.
But as it turns out, Rep. Tom Emmer had a very similar plan. The Minnesota Republican would lead his party’s House campaign committee in a year that was likely to be good for the GOP, celebrate as Republicans racked up victories, and also reap the rewards of a job well done. Indeed, Emmer had remarkably high hopes: The Hill reported late last year that while the congressman said a majority wasn’t guaranteed, “he asserted that as many as 70 Democrats could lose their seats in a possible wave.”
Eleven months later, such rhetoric now appears absurd. It was against this backdrop that The Washington Post asked Emmer what other Republicans should take away from the House race results. He replied:
“They won a majority. That’s what we set out to do four years ago. It’s only happened three times now in the last 68 years. They should be extremely happy. They won the majority, and we get to be the check on the Biden administration for the next two years.”
Asked how many seats the GOP is likely to end up with, Emmer said, “We’ll be in the majority.” Asked about the possibility of Democrats somehow managing to get to 218 seats when all is said and done, Emmer once again responded, “We will be in the majority.”
There’s no great mystery as to why the Minnesotan is pushing this line: Emmer not only wants to avoid blame for Republicans’ underwhelming, far-worse-than-expected results, he also wants a promotion, hoping to become the next House majority whip if there’s a GOP majority. That would be the No. 3 leadership post in the Republican conference — behind only the speaker and the majority leader — and Reps. Jim Banks of Indiana and Drew Ferguson of Georgia are eying the same post.
The problem for Emmer is that he’s effectively telling Republicans not to believe their lying eyes. Democrats obviously overperformed and exceeded expectations. Telling GOP members to be “extremely happy” while they look for someone to blame for the discouraging results probably won’t work. And yet, the Minnesotan has some company. This morning, Donald Trump — who’s also hoping to avoid blame for his party’s disappointing results — published an item to his social media platform declaring, “WE WON! … Big Victory, don’t be stupid. Stand on the rooftops and shout it out loud!” Just two days earlier, the former president conceded that the election results were “somewhat disappointing” in “certain ways.” Evidently, he talked himself into a more uplifting take soon after. Or put another way, as Republicans lick their wounds and point their fingers, there’s a contingent within the party that wants them to celebrate failure. I wish them luck with that.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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