The Slatest

House GOP Spins Mistress/Abortion-Related Resignation as Exciting Opportunity to Win Special Election

Tim Murphy in 2014.

Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

You simply have to respect the lemons-into-lemonade ambition of this statement by Ohio Republican Rep. Steve Stivers, the chairman of the National Republican Campaign Committee, about the news that Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Tim Murphy has resigned after being caught asking his mistress to get an abortion:

As I said last night, the circumstances surrounding this situation are extremely disappointing to me. However, the NRCC is undefeated in special elections this year and I’m supremely confident that will continue. In the meantime, we look forward to seeing how national Democrats can spin yet another special election loss into a so-called “moral victory.”

That’s hot fire! Also, he’s not wrong about the special elections. (FWIW, based on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s writeup, it looks like the earliest that an election to replace Murphy could be held is next January.) Is the Democratic Party just going to sit there and take this kind of crap from Ohio Rep. Steve Stivers?