House Campaign Chairs Hit, Hit Back
The heads of the two parties' House campaign arms got into a back-and-forth today -- press release style -- over comments NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions made in a New York Times article. An excerpt from that piece:
In an interview, Mr. Sessions cited rising unemployment in asserting that the administration intended to "diminish employment and diminish stock prices" as part of a "divide and conquer" strategy to consolidate power.
In reaction to Sessions' comments, DCCC Chairman Chris Van Hollen issued a statement that referenced the remarks as "bizarre" and conspiritorial:
"The American people want leadership to address our economic challenges, yet the Republicans are responding with one ridiculous sound bite after another while refusing to offer a constructive alternative to their failed economic policies of the last eight years."The latest remarks by NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions have no place in our current economic debate and reflect a Party more pre-occupied with offering bizarre conspiracy theories than offering credible solutions to get our economy back on track. Families coping with the loss of a job, their home, or their health care need solutions from Washington, not more of the same broken politics embodied by Chairman Sessions and the Republican Leadership in the House, and talk show host Rush Limbaugh."
Not to be outdone, Sessions responded with a released statement of his own, in which he refused to back down from his comments in the NYT article and said Van Hollen was simply "lobbing rhetorical missives":
"I have said it once and I will say it again. Democrats are intent on passing an agenda that puts their liberal interests first, and the future of American jobs second. Despite their efforts to re-frame my comments, I was simply reiterating what many members of the Democratic Party have echoed over the past several weeks, which is that many of the so-called economic 'solutions' proposed by liberals in Washington either already have or have the potential to inflict further damage on our economy and undercut our country's free enterprise system."After publicly feuding with the Democratic leadership over the political merits of Nancy Pelosi's crusade to institute a national energy tax, it appears that my counterpart at the DCCC is lobbing rhetorical missives with the desperate hope of scoring points with the liberal party leaders he infuriated. If Chris Van Hollen, or any other member of the Democratic leadership, takes issue with my comments, then I would urge them to take a look at what some of their own members have been saying about their reckless economic policies."