NRCC Hits Freshmen Early on Link to Pelosi

In the wake of the procedural vote on the House’s new rules package Tuesday, the National Republican Congressional Committee rushed out a slew of news releases attacking freshman Democrats for helping Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and her committee chairmen in “a virtually unchecked power-grab.”

But the NRCC went on to single out two Alabama freshmen for particular scorn on Wednesday by condemning them for using one of their first votes in Congress to give “San Francisco liberal Speaker Nancy Pelosi” the gavel in the 111th Congress.

Reps. Bobby Bright and Parker Griffith ran as conservative Democrats in their respective districts deep in the heart of Dixie. And while both tried to distance themselves from the liberal wing of the Democratic Party on the campaign trail, the NRCC is signaling early that it will try to make that connection appear to be as close as possible as it targets their seats in the 2010 cycle.

“If there was ever any doubt as to where his political sympathies lie, it is now clear that Bobby Bright is on board with the liberal Democrat agenda in Washington,” NRCC spokesman Ken Spain said.

But Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokeswoman Jennifer Crider decried the partisan attack.

“It’s just pathetic that even after losing 50-plus seats in two consecutive wave elections, the Republican leadership fails to recognize that the American people have overwhelmingly rejected their stale and ineffective partisan attacks,” Crider said. “Unlike the out-of-touch Washington Republicans, the newly sworn-in Democratic Members understand they were sent to Congress to change the direction of the country and help rebuild our economy to get Americans back to work.”