It’s true that Democrats are spending ad money in a number districts recently considered safe. But NRCC chairman Pete Sessions dramatized that fact in a peculiar way in an interview with Roll Call today.
Sessions said that it’s telling that the DCCC is spending money on “African Americans like Sanford Bishop. And when you have to retreat back to … your hard base you’re having to make tough decisions.”
Democrats are seizing on the remark.
“NRCC Chair Pete Sessions started the cycle by declaring the Taliban is a model for how Republican can become an insurgency, and today he’s reached yet another low,” said DCCC spokesman Ryan Rudominer. “House Republican leaders like Pete Sessions’ ignorant statements and divisive world views belong in the past just like the exact same failed economic agenda he and his Young Guns have pledged to return to.”
This, Dems say, is part of a pattern. Last week, Sessions made light of the skin color of the Princeton University basketball team at a meeting with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. “How often can you go see a bunch of white guys play basketball?” he quipped.
In fact, there were several African-Americans on the Princeton team last year, including coach Sydney Johnson.
Bishop is the only member of the Congressional Black Caucus benefiting from DCCC ads this cycle. Last cycle the DCCC pitched in for Reps. Andre Carson (D-IN) and David Scott (D-GA).
Brian Beutler
Brian Beutler is TPM's senior congressional reporter. Since 2009, he's led coverage of health care reform, Wall Street reform, taxes, the GOP budget, the government shutdown fight, and the debt limit fight. He can be reached at brian@talkingpointsmemo.com.
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