“White rednecks” who “didn’t show up to vote for us” partly cost GOPers their cong. majorities, Rep. Adam Putnam (R-FL) told fellow Republicans today. And Putnam, seeking the post of GOP conference chair, chided ex-Chair J.C. Watts (R-OK) for ruining the conference’s ability to serve its members.

Three Republicans in the room independently confirmed to the Hotline the substance and context of Putnam’s remarks. But Putnam’s chief of staff insists that the remarks were taken out of context.

Examining the 2006 midterms, Putnam blamed the GOP defeat on “the independent vote, the women vote, the suburban vote.” He said that “heck, even the white rednecks who go to church on Sunday didn't come out to vote for us.”

DID BUSH FORGET CHENEY WAS IN THE ROOM? It was no doubt inadvertent, but it was hard not to find some symbolism in the moment Thursday in the Oval Office when President Bush seemed to forget that Vice President Dick Cheney was in the room. Representatives Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader who is soon to become the first female speaker of the House, and Steny H. Hoyer, the Democratic whip, had come to the White House for lunch. As the two Democrats, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney sat in front of a fireplace, the president spoke about the importance of working together to get things done. "Both of us recognize - all three of us," Mr. Bush said, apparently referring to himself, Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Hoyer, "recognize that when you win, you have a responsibility to do the best you can for the country." The omission of Mr. Cheney, the embodiment of the administration's approach to national security, raised an intriguing question. As Mr. Bush grapples with the loss of his Republican majority in Congress, how far will he go to reinvent himself, and who - or what philosophies - is he willing to jettison along the way? New York Times: On a Shifting Playing Field, a Sense of Rising Expectations

The conservative Insight magazine reported February 27, 2006, that "senior GOP sources" say Cheney is expected to resign after the mid-term Congressional elections in November, 2006.

Elizabeth Dole, Mitt Romney, George Pataki, George Allen, and Condoleezza Rice have all been mentioned as possible candidates for the vice presidency if Dick Cheney resigns.

"Every single member of the Republican leadership in the House should be replaced," says Viguerie. "They have failed the conservatives who put them in office, and they have failed the people of this country."

But by 9 p.m. on election night, Mehlman was on TV talking about reconciliation with the Democrats and using the b-word. "There are areas we can work in on a bipartisan basis," Mehlman told Fox News.

Mr. President, there is no other conclusion we can draw as we go to the polls tomorrow.

Sir… you have been making this up as you went along.

This country was founded to prevent anybody from making it up as they went along.

Those vaunted founding fathers of ours have been so quoted-up, that they appear as marble statues: like the chiseled guards of China, or the faces on Mount Rushmore.

But in fact they were practical people and the thing they obviously feared most, was a government of men and not laws.

They provided the checks and balances for a reason.

No one man could run the government the way he saw fit—unless he, at the least, took into consideration what those he governed saw.

A House of Representatives would be the people’s eyes.

A Senate would be the corrective force on that House.

An Executive would do the work… and hold the Constitution to his chest like his child.

A Supreme Court would oversee it all.

Checks and balances.

Where did that go, Mr. Bush?

And what price did we pay because we have let it go?

Saddam Hussein will get out of Iraq the same way 2,832 Americans have, and thousands more.

He’ll get out faster than we will.

And if nothing changes tomorrow, you, Sir, will be out of the White House long before the rest of us can say… we are out of Iraq.

And whose fault is this?

Not truly yours. You took advantage of those of us who were afraid, and those of us who believed unity and nation took precedence over all else.

But we let you take that advantage.