Republicans Running From Bush (Part 1, Updated):
So, so, so Senator John Thune, the Republican who defeated Tom Daschle in 2004, had one of those rare moments of DC honesty last week when he said, "If I were running in the state this year, you obviously don't embrace the president and his agenda." And, if you look at the Republican candidates' websites in some of the truly close races, man, you can barely tell that a Republican is President.

Like, for instance, check out the site for Indiana congressman Mike Sodrel, in a tight race against Democrat Baron Hill, who proudly has a picture of himself with Bill Clinton on his home page. You can dig, into Sodrel's photo section, or the On the Issues section, and, while it may be there somewhere, damned if the Rude Pundit can find the words "George Bush," let alone an image of the man that's ostensibly Sodrel's party's leader.

But if you go back, via Archive.org's Wayback Machine, why you can find that back in June of 2004, why Mike Sodrel had Bush's grinnin' puss on his home page. Hell, Sodrel even touted his closeness to President Bush, with the chair of the Indiana Republican Party promising that Sodrel "will fight alongside President Bush" on defense issues. And, at one point, Sodrel had a section just for pictures of himself with the Bush/Cheney campaign. What a difference two years makes, huh? To go from proud and open butt boy to cowering closeted cretin in so short a time, despite the fact that there's little evidence that Sodrel ever actually opposed Bush on anything.

And that's the way it goes for so many Republicans, running away from Bush like so many rats on so many ships heading into the drink. Back in 2002, to continue picking on Indiana, Chris Chocola prominently featured Tom DeLay and Dick Cheney on his campaign site's homepage, with Bush mentioned throughout. Now, much like Sodrel, the Rude Pundit can't find hide nor hair of the President on Chocola's website in his campaign against Joe Donnelly.

Let's keep this party going - but, fuck, it'll have to wait because Archive.org just got all flaky and is rejecting the Rude Pundit's advances.

More as soon as it's back.

Update: According to Google, Chris Chocola's entire site mentions the word "Bush" only once. The same thing goes for Mike Sodrel's site. One mention. That ain't runnin'. It's screaming crazy to get away.

Thanks to rude reader Leighton for the heads up.