Team of Losers

Dana Milbank
WashPost

House Republicans are holding leadership elections at this hour in a grand Ways and Means Committee room in the Longworth House Office Building. But at the rate they've been going, the GOP will be able to hold their caucus meetings in a phone booth.

Barack Obama's courtship of Hillary Clinton and John McCain in recent days has brought attention to Doris Kearns Goodwin's book on Lincoln, "Team of Rivals." But as the Post's Paul Kane watched Republicans file into the Senate Republicans' lunch meeting yesterday afternoon, it looked like a Team of Losers: George Allen. Elizabeth Dole. Larry Craig. Ted Stevens. John McCain. Dick Cheney. Even Bob Dole.

The Post's Lori Montgomery bumped into Bob Dole in an elevator as he headed to the lunch. "I'm going to tell 'em how to win," said the '96 Republican presidential nominee. And his advice? "Everybody says they need some candidates," Dole said. "I'm here to throw my hat in the ring."

That was a joke. We think.

(More here.)