"I'm Not Dead Yet"

The Republican Comeback

Don’t look now, but the Republicans are making a comeback. For all the talk of an Obama political machine, and for all the arguments that the GOP is merely the party of “old white men,” it was the Republican Party that gained a House seat in Louisiana on Saturday.

Now admittedly, the Democrat who lost was the indicted William “$90,000 in the freezer” Jefferson. But Jefferson’s alleged corruption aside, it was still seen as a safe Democratic seat. And now, obviously, it’s not. Moreover, the Republican victor, Anh “Joseph” Cao, proves something hopeful about the Grand Old Party—that it can recruit bright new talent into its ranks.


Lousiana Republican Anh 'Joseph' Cao (AP)

Cao, 40, was one of the hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese “boat people” who escaped the communist tyranny of his home country in the 70s. Which is to say, Cao epitomizes the American Dream, and he chose the Republican Party as the expression of that dream.

This is hardly the narrow Republican Party of liberal media stereotypes.

Now Rep. Cao will represent Louisiana, the same state where Republicans a year ago elected Bobby Jindal, an Indian-American, to the governorship. This is hardly the narrow Republican Party of liberal media stereotypes.

But not only is the GOP recruiting new and exciting candidates, but familiar faces are winning big, in spite of the supposed transformative sweep of the well-funded Obama-fied Democratic Party.

Last Tuesday, in Georgia, Republican Senate incumbent Saxby Chambliss—who had won a 3 percent plurality of the vote on November 4, but fell two-tenths of a percent shy of the needed 50 percent—earned a landslide 14-point victory in the runoff against his Democratic challenger. Chambliss’ 57:43 re-election, along with the pick-up in Louisiana, suggests that maybe the anti-George W. Bush wave of Election Day has already crested.

And it underscores the continuing Republican grip on the South. The South is not the whole country, to be sure, but it represents about a third of the population. In other words, it’s a strong base.

Yes, the Democrats have the White House and both chambers of Congress. But this is very much a two-party country, and statewide elections are coming up next year in New Jersey and Virginia. And then, of course, there’s 2010.

Stay tuned.

Fox News