WASHINGTON, May 15 (UPI) - GOP leaders say they are searching for ways to stop the bleeding after three losses in special elections for U.S. House of Representatives seats.
Some Republicans demanded the resignation of the party's House leaders while others worked on a "re-branding" strategy emphasizing change to cope with a feared Democratic congressional landslide election in November, a Washington Post report published Thursday stated.
2008. U.S. President Bush and the First Lady are visiting Israel to participate in celebrations of the Israel's 60th anniversary. (UPI Photo/Avi Ohayon/ Israeli Government Press Office)

BY PATSY R. BRUMFIELD BOONEVILLE - US Rep.-elect Travis Childers is waiting on election results to become official before moving ahead with much of his plan

The Democratic Party picked up another open seat on Tuesday when Travis Childers of Prentiss County defeated Republican Greg Davis in a special runoff election to replace Roger Wicker in the 1st Congressional District.
this month that a Republican-held House seat has moved under the Democrats' column. Louisiana Democrat Don Cazayoux earlier captured a congressional seat that's been held by the GOP since 1974.
s. He said Childers would be beholden to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and presidential candidate Barack Obama.

If there is such a thing as a useful election defeat, then Tuesday's Republican loss in a special House election in Mississippi would qualify. Maybe this thumping in a heretofore safe GOP seat will finally scare the Members straight, or at least less crooked.
Democrats won with 54% of the vote in a district that a Republican won with 66% in 2006 and that President Bush carried in 2004 by 25 points. It was the GOP's third special election loss this year, and it has Democrats predicting that November will be another rout of 2006 proportions. Oklahoma's Tom Cole, who runs the National Republican Congressional Committee, captured the GOP reaction when he declared that "There is no district that is safe for Republican candidates."

By Matthew Hay Brown | Sun Reporter WASHINGTON - The Democratic special election victory for a Misssissippi congressional seat long controlled by a Republican has party leaders crowing about more gains in November - and Republicans searching for a way to stop the losses.
By winning Tuesday in northern Mississippi, where George W. Bush took 62 percent of the presidential vote in 2004, Travis Childers became the third Democrat to capture a Republican district in as many months. With victories in Louisiana two weeks ago and Illinois in March, the party has expanded its House majority to 236-199.
That is three elections in a row."

By Thomas Ferraro WASHINGTON, May 14 (Reuters) - Republican leaders in the US House of Representatives, stung by a third election defeat in as many months,

By Ken Dilanian, USA TODAY WASHINGTON - Republicans must regain the confidence of Americans and recast their message to voters to avoid a catastrophe in the fall congressional elections, top GOP officials said Wednesday in a stark postmortem of a loss in rural Mississippi.
Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, who runs the committee tasked with helping elect Republicans to Congress, said Tuesday's defeat in Mississippi — after losing GOP seats in other special elections in Illinois and Louisiana — was evidence that "a large section of the American people doesn't have confidence in the Republican Party."
o, and status quo,' " said Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the

A former House GOP leader is calling this year's political atmosphere "the worst since Watergate and is far more toxic than the fall of 2006," citing "deep seeded (sic) antipathy toward the president."
Rep. Tom Davis wrote a 20-page treatise (see earlier note) assessing the state of the Republican Party as we head into the summer and presented it to House GOP rank and file this morning. Davis, who is retiring, is rumored to be interested in finishing his term as the head of the GOP House campaign arm.
"the paradigm has shifted" for Republicans, and that what has happened last night in Mississippi, and earlier in Illinois and Louisiana, is a "trailing indicator" of an unpopular administration.

The post, which had been in Republican hands for 14 years, is that party's third big loss in the chamber this year.
From the Associated Press
e Democrat in Louisiana.