Tom Davis: GOP on the Verge of Taking House

By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers

Former Rep. Tom Davis—the Republican reporters go to for election straight talk—today joined many others predicting that the Democrats are going to get crushed in the fall midterm elections. Calling the GOP surge a "tsunami," Davis said the Republicans could "run the table" and even take control of the Senate.

While today he puts the odds of a House takeover at 50-50, he said that with unemployment expected to be stuck where it is, Democrats uninterested in coming out to vote, and Republicans "aroused and angry," a 50-to-55-seat pickup isn't crazy talk. The GOP needs 41 more to take control away from the Democrats and replace Nancy Pelosi with John Boehner as speaker.

Over bacon and eggs today, Davis, who used to run the National Republican Congressional Committee, said that the election has become a national one and a referendum on President Obama and the Democrats. He said that many voters might show up to vote against their Democratic candidate just to put Obama on notice.

He even suggested that the Senate could turn Republican, though Davis said it remains a long shot. In fact, he suggested that the worst case for Obama would be for the GOP to remain the minority party in both the House and Senate because then the Democrats would have nobody to blame for inaction when the president comes up for re-election in 2012.

But don't count the Democrats out, Davis added. That's because they have more money and control of the agenda, which, if handled right, could keep the House losses to 25 seats.

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