GOP pushes for gains

WASHINGTON -- The Republican Party chairman said the GOP is fighting "the tide of history" in trying to make gains in the November elections, as he and his Democratic counterpart previewed an acrid home stretch by trading bitter accusations on Bush administration policies.\nRepublican National Committee Chairman Marc Racicot shied away Sunday from making any "extravagant promises" about his party's prospects for winning seats in Congress and capturing more governorships in this year's midterm elections, in which the president's party traditionally loses seats. However, Racicot said, "We are inspired sincerely every day to believe that we can do those things."\nDemocratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe predicted his party would take control of the House, keep its majority in the Senate and win as many as seven new statehouses.\nMcAuliffe framed the elections as a nationwide referendum on Bush's domestic policies, which he called a "disaster."\nAs an example, he cited the Congressional Budget Office's projection last week that the nation will remain mired in deficits until Bush's income tax cuts expire in 2010, as current law requires. "I think the issue is going to come down to who will do a better job on the domestic agenda, the kitchen-table issues," he said on the CBS program "Face the Nation."\nHowever, McAuliffe said, the "political environment" made it impossible for Democrats to call for a repeal of the tax cuts before 2010. Bush has said delaying or rolling back the tax cuts would amount to a tax hike, warning in January that "Not over my dead body will they raise your taxes."\n"So why do the Democrats want to get into the debate when the president said he would veto it over his dead body?" McAuliffe asked.\nRacicot said on the same show that the income tax cuts, a sweeping education overhaul and corporate-reform measures were among Bush's greatest accomplishments. But, he said, the election will be "driven by local issues, we think, around the country"