Republicans aim to take out future Democratic stars

[Elmore Furth]

Republicans rat-f***ing strategy coming out into the open. Kill them in the cradle before they can grow: Iowa's Representative Bruce Braley's Braley, Arizona's Representaive Gabrielle Giffords and Connecticut's Representative Chris Murphy have all been targeted by the National Republican Congressional Committee.

This is a bipartisan strategy like in Nevada in 2006 and 2008 when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid recruited a former staffer and then a state legislator named Dina Titus to take on Republican Representative Jon Porter in the state's swing 3rd district knowing Porter was plotting a 2010 Senate run against him.

When the conservative-leaning American Future Fund reserved $800,000 worth of ads in Rep. Bruce Braley's (D-Iowa) district last week, heads -- or at least our collective head -- turned.

Many pointed to the ad as evidence that independent spending is taking on a new life this cycle -- targeting heretofore impregnable incumbents.

Ask strategists from both parties about the strategy behind the Braley buy, and the answer you get is close to unanimous: Republicans are trying to take him out before he has a chance to grow into the Democrats' next Senator-in-waiting. And, even if they can't beat him this year, they want to bloody him for future -- and bigger -- campaigns.

It's little secret that Braley has his eyes on a statewide campaign -- preferably a run at Sen. Tom Harkin's (D-Iowa) seat if Harkin, 70, retires in four years.

Republicans aim to take out future Democratic stars