Former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich is seeing some things that should concern Ohio GOP bigwigs. Here's an article from the Washington Post. Some excerpts include:

Jason Mauk, political director for the Ohio Republican Party, said: "To the extent that voters in that district were sending a message to the Republican Party at the state or national level, we have heard that message and we will continue to listen to their concerns."

Uh, "to the extent", Jason? Sounds like you had your hearing aid turned down. The noise you're currently hearing is the collective teeth grinding of Ohio Republicans and Conservatives - who by the way, gave Ohio to the current resident of the White House. It wasn't great strategy by our esteemed Governor, or Larry Householder, or Bob Bennett, or anyone in leadership in this state. The grass roots rallied around ideals and core principles, not "Republicans". We felt our values were under attack and we responded. Unfortunately after unmasking some of the culprits for some of those attacks, we found our friendly neighborhood Republican 'glitteratti'.

Oh, and thanks for "listening" to us. I think they "listen" the way I "listened" to my parents when I was a teenager.

Another tidbit:

GOP officials in Washington said the race carried no significant implications for the 2006 elections. They noted that special elections are often poor predictors of election trends and said they saw nothing to suggest real unhappiness with Bush or the GOP congressional leadership.

If they really feel this way behind the scenes, and aren't just saying that for public consumption, these people are more clueless than I thought. Conservatism win elections for both Republicans and Democrats (remember ol' whatshisname from Arkansas?). Problem is, Republicans turn back into pumpkins at midnight after the election returns are in.

Lastly:

Mauk said the economy, national security and a scandal that has touched Gov. Bob
Taft and other Ohio Republicans may have contributed to the narrower-than-expected outcome. "There does seem to be a sour mood among the electorate at both the state and national level," he said.

Really? Ya think?

Now I understand why Dennis Prager calls the 2 political parties the 'Stupid' and the 'Dangerous'. Pretty easy guess which one is the GOP...

OK, this is the last one:

In his campaign, Hackett used television ads to emphasize his service in Iraq, including images of Bush speaking about the value of military service, while in interviews with the news media he hammered the president and the war. His words against Bush and the war produced strong grass-roots support, and yesterday liberal bloggers said they helped raise $500,000 for Hackett, the bulk of his $750,000 campaign funds.

"We raised a ton of money for Hackett," said Bob Brigham of the Swing State Project site ( http://www.swingstateproject.com/ ), who served as "coordinator of the liberal blogosphere" for the Hackett campaign.

Brigham criticized the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) for not giving Hackett early financial support. "They came in late, and it makes them look irrelevant in everyone's eyes," he said.

DCCC Executive Director John Lapp issued a statement defending the committee. Saying the DCCC would like to fund every House race, he said: "Resources are not infinite. That is why MyDD, the Daily Kos, and the larger blogosphere are so important. You are critical in the effort to expand the playing field well above and beyond the 30 or 40 districts typically in play."

Sounds like a strategy to me. Thankfully it's the Democrats, or we'd be in worse shape.

In looking at which party has the pulse of the 'new media', at least here in Ohio, the Left is light years ahead of the GOP. Columbus has a blog that posts about once every 5 days, and in the biggest county in the state (the one with waterfront property) their idea of utilizing 'new media' is posting a press release every couple of weeks. I'm sure Daily Kos loves that. I'm sure the leadership thinks Daily Kos is a blog by the creator of Fat Albert...