Rose v. D MO, Even Republicans Laugh at the Thought

Steve Rose (R), former Johnson County Sun publisher, has decided to run against Dennis Moore (D) for U.S. Congress. Not only are Democrats laughing , but Republicans seem to find the humor in it too.

Scott Schwab couldn’t stop giggling.
“I’m laughing my ‘boo-hind’ off about this,” he said last week. “This is a rush.”
What had Schwab going was the news that longtime Johnson County Sun publisher Steve Rose is running for Congress, a quest Schwab knows something about because he ran, and lost, in 2006 for the same 3rd District seat in Kansas that Rose now seeks.
Schwab, a Republican state lawmaker from Olathe and a former Johnson County GOP chairman, couldn’t get over it.

There is one thing about the Kansas third district that always holds true regardless of what the numbers look like and it is that people in that district LOVE Dennis Moore (or as I like to refer to him, D Mo). D Mo has been good to us over the years, he may be a proud blue dog but he’s our blue dog. He gives us good votes on social issues, he’s good to our communities in all of the district, and is always willing to talk to his constituents.

Every year D Mo has ran with an opponent he has won with increasing larger margins.

Rose may have the name recognition but many republicans feel he isn’t the change they want.

“This is where he’s playing the idiot,” he (Schwab) said of Rose. “You cannot insult the feelings of an exasperated people for decades, then go back and ask for their vote.”
Schwab’s point? The well-known Rose, a moderate, has been denigrating conservatives in his front-page Johnson County Sun column for years. These folks hail from the same Republican Party that Rose now seeks to represent in November 2010 in what he hopes will be a race against six-term Democratic incumbent Dennis Moore.
Just one example: Rose labeled Kris Kobach, who also once sought the 3rd District congressional seat, as a “fanatic” in a July 29 column.
“Move over Pat Buchanan and Lou Dobbs,” Rose wrote. “Kris Kobach has joined your anti-immigration fanatics club.”
It’s tough to overstate the level of antipathy between Rose and the right, and that’s one huge problem Rose faces in his fledgling campaign.
“I’ve got to be honest,” Schwab said. Anti-gay-rights crusader Fred Phelps “has a better chance of getting the Republican nomination than Steve Rose right now.”

Steve Rose is finding himself abandoned by his own party, I guess you really shouldn’t bite the hand that feeds you, someone should have told Rose.

As Rose himself has pointed out many times, the right votes in big numbers. Moderate Republicans, many of whom will form Rose’s base, don’t.
So even if Rose wins the GOP primary next August, he won’t be able to count on conservative backing in a tough race against Moore. In fact, you might expect some of them, Schwab included, to work against him.

Steve Kraske had this to say in his article.