Thanks to Patience in comments:
Senior Republican officials said they were frequently frustrated by candidates who had been lulled into complacency by the party’s decade of success and ignored their warnings — typically delivered by Mr. Rove or Ken Mehlman, the Republican national chairman — to move early to attack opponents.
The Republican National Committee had sought before Election Day to send a mailing into Mr. Leach’s Iowa district to attack his opponent’s position on same-sex marriage.
Mr. Leach recoiled at the mailing and called Mr. Mehlman, saying he would caucus with the Democrats if Mr. Mehlman did not withdraw it.
“I would rather lose running an uplifting race than prevail by finger-pointing,” Mr. Leach said.
It wasn’t complacency, it was decency. One thing noted in the race by the Iowa press is that David and Leach ran a campaign on the issues and respected each other.
Wow! What a nice man. I got the chance to meet him a couple times (we have vac property in Ft. Madison) and he always seemed like a nice guy. He’s bright and hopefully will have a great future.
I thought those were independent expenditures that couldn’t be coordinated? Congressmen saw the mail first? I’m so shocked.
LOL. Yeah, except Leach has a history of doing this–he made a similar threat in 2002 after they went on the air–I think Ken may have decided to show him something that you know, Ken had no control over like in Tennessee. Snort.