Robert Matsui
US Rep. Robert Matsui of California, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), was Wednesday's guest. Here are excerpts from his remarks:
"As long as we have a breeze, we have an excellent shot of taking the House back. I know there are a lot of skeptics.... [But] we targeted very well and our challengers are doing extremely well at this time."
"We have 35 seats that we are actually targeting.... We have 18 seats that we think are really in play right now."
"The House races will probably be decided individually. The Republicans are saying that; we feel pretty much the same way. My guess is that there will not be coattails either way."
"The 1,000 casualties will recall attention to exactly what this war is all about and the fact that we haven't found weapons of mass destruction or tied Saddam Hussein with Al Qaeda."
"We had him scheduled for two - and possibly three - events. These would have been very big ... in terms of our fundraising and the fact that he would bring our base out. That is a big loss to us - much greater than anyone could ever imagine."