Sessions: '100 percent' of House GOP Would Campaign with Romney

By Shane Goldmacher  //  May 9, 2012 | 11:06 a.m.

President Obama lost 42 percent of the Democratic primary in West Virginia to a federal prisoner on Tuesday and top House Republicans couldn't be more delighted. On Wednesday, Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, the head of the House GOP's campaign operation, said the embarrassing showing was a symptom of how deeply unpopular the incumbent has become in broad swaths of the country.

In contrast, Sessions confidently predicted that "100 percent of Republican candidates" for the House would happily appear alongside presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney in their districts. But when Obama comes to town, "I know a huge number of Democrats who will be busy those days," said Sessions, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Sessions, who appeared at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast alongside his top deputy, Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., also predicted that Republicans would surprise political prognosticators and pick up seats in November. "The landscape in 2012 is exactly the same as it was in 2010," he said.

Sessions also suggested that Speaker John Boehner's comments recently that there is a one-in-three chance the GOP could lose the House were an effort to goose fundraising. "He is trying to help me go sell this fight," Sessions said. "If I walk into a room and everyone just assumes we're going to win, it's difficult."

Walden dismissed Democratic efforts to spin the House as up for grabs, saying Democrats face a "slog for 40, not a drive for 25" seats. Walden was particularly heartened by the poor results in West Virginia's coal country for the president on Tuesday: "How embarrassing is it if you're the president of the United States and you're losing to a guy who's sitting in prison?" (Obama carried the state but lost some counties.)

"That doesn't bode well for [Rep.] Nick Rahall," Walden said of the West Virginia Democrat that Republicans are targeting for defeat. Asked if he thought race played a role in Tuesday's results -- Obama performed very poorly in parts of the West Virginia in 2008, as well -- Walden said no. "I think it had to do with his policies," he said, specifically on coal and energy.

Check out a few more highlights from the Christian Science Monitor breakfast after the jump.

-- Sessions declined to say whether he'd run for another term as leader of the NRCC. If he doesn't, he made clear he'd be comfortable with Walden replacing him, saying he couldn't imagine a "more competent" deputy and that he has "great confidence in Greg." Leadership of the group is the source of constant palace intrigue in Washington. -- On the morning after the historic primary defeat of Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., the two GOP lawmaker-strategists said the tea party remains a force for the positive for Republicans. Sessions said tea party challenges are "not only healthy but good for our party," creating a more "energized" electorate. Both sidestepped questions about the implications for American democracy given the thinning out of moderates from the GOP ranks. -- Walden did take aim, however, at what he called "a cleansing on the left" of Blue Dogs and more moderate members, citing the victory Democratic Rep. Mark Critz in Pennsylvania last month over more moderate Rep. Jason Altmire. Walden said the race "to the left" there has given Republicans a pick-up opportunity there in the fall. -- Sessions declined to endorse in the contested Senate Republican primary in Texas. "I am supporting the winner," he said, with a smile.

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