On the October 31 edition of MSNBC News Live, in an interview with Illinois Democratic congressional candidate Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq war veteran who lost both her legs in combat, host Norah O'Donnell asked: "[H]ow do you respond to being called a Defeatocrat?" Additionally, in an interview with Wayne Slater, a senior political writer for The Dallas Morning News and co-author of three books on White House senior adviser Karl Rove, O'Donnell hyped Rove's record of winning elections and asked Slater to affirm that "[h]e's never lost with Bush." O'Donnell also echoed Rove by pointing to the 1938 election, in which “the Democrats lost” but it “wasn't the end of the New Deal,” as purported evidence that Rove and the Bush administration “have built a lasting Republican machinery.” In fact, in 1938 congressional elections, the Democrats lost 72 seats in the House of Representatives and seven seats in the Senate but maintained a strong majority in the both houses with 262 seats compared to 169 Republican-held seats in the House and 69 seats compared to 23 Republican-held seats in the Senate.
From the 10 a.m. ET hour of the October 31 edition of MSNBC News Live:
O'DONNELL: Right. What was it that Karl Rove said sort of the other day about the election, the 1938 elections, I believe, and he said just because the Democrats lost, that wasn't the end of the New Deal, exactly making the point that you're making, that he believes that they have built a lasting Republican machinery that is so powerful, that helped them win in 2000 and 2004, that even if the climate is bad this year, it could come back and help them in 2008, while the Democrats have yet to catch up on that.
SLATER: And Norah, and that's exactly what he believes, [Republican National Committee chairman] Ken Mehlman believes, some other Republican operatives like Matthew Dowd believe that this durable machine, with its effort to cultivate and motivate Christian conservatives, certain business interests, others in a divide-and-conquer mode in the right year -- and this may not be the right year -- but in the right year is still very formidable on the political scene. And the architect of that machine: Karl Rove.
O'DONNELL: And a quick question, Wayne. Has Karl Rove ever lost an election before?
SLATER: Sure, he's lost little elections in Arkansas, I believe, for -- or Alabama for some Supreme Court cases -- uh, seats. But the key here is in every important race --
O'DONNELL: He's never lost with Bush, though, right?
SLATER: That's right. He has won with Bush in every race -- 1994, '98, 2000, 2004, the off-year election in 2002. Every race that counts, Karl wins.
[...]
O'DONNELL: The president says his goal is to finish the job in Iraq or else the terrorists win, and that's not what the Democratic Party wants to do; the Democrats want to cut and run. What is your prescription for how to get out of Iraq, and how do you respond to being called a Defeatocrat?
