Inside the Beltway

A BOEHNER MOMENT

The “tea party” apparently doesn’t have a monopoly on tricorn hats and Colonial-style elocutionists. The Campaign for Fair Elections — a “national effort” to push for passage of the Fair Elections Now Act — has enlisted the help of the “Founding Fathers,” a troupe of actors attired as George Washington, Ben Franklin and other historic luminaries. The bipartisan legislation in question would allow candidates to run for office on smaller donations and public funds; the organization is affiliated with Common Cause, Democracy Matters, Public Citizen and other interest groups.

Intent on their mission, the faux Messrs. Washington and Franklin were in West Chester, Ohio, on Monday to harass, uh, visit Rep. John A. Boehner, a Republican in the Buckeye State.

“At the same time Rep. Boehner is asking lobbyists to bundle $100,000 for his ‘cash for speaker’ program, he’s criticizing Democrats for failing to ‘drain the swamp’ in Washington. He needs to back up his rhetoric with action and help pass the Fair Elections Now Act,” insists David Donnelly, spokesman for the group opposed to “pay to play” politics.

Was the mission successful? Alas, no. Mr. Boehner was elsewhere.

“We spent the last day looking for him. We looked in the cornfields, on the golf course, in the tanning salons,” the aforementioned Mr. Franklin tells Inside the Beltway, in resonant baritone. “Somebody did come out of the office and give us a nice little ‘comments’ form, though.”

DOING THE MATH

And the magic number is 36. That is how many seats in Congress that Democrats stand to lose in the midterm elections, exactly 12 measly weeks away.

“Presidents who retain majority job approval from Americans at the time of midterm elections are much less likely to see their party suffer heavy seat losses than are those with sub-50 percent approval ratings. Since 1946, when presidents are above 50 percent approval, their party loses an average of 14 seats in the U.S. House in the midterm elections, compared with an average loss of 36 seats when presidents are below that mark,” says Gallup Poll analyst Jeffrey Jones.

“The clear implication is that the Democrats are vulnerable to losing a significant number of House seats this fall with Barack Obama’s approval rating averaging 45 percent during the last two full weeks of Gallup Daily tracking. The Republicans would need to gain 40 House seats to retake majority control.”

BUMPER PATROL

“To err is human, to forgive divine. Neither is Marine Corps policy.”

— Bumper sticker spotted by Washington Times reporter Shaun Waterman, near Lexington Park, Md.

PARRY WITH PERRY

“The need for border security along the Rio Grande should no longer be underestimated by the federal government, Mr. President. … I respectfully but urgently request that the federal government quickly deploy 1,000 troops to the Texas-Mexico border, as well as additional law enforcement tools and technology.”

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