“I think it’s working out just fine,” a smiling Boehner told reporters when asked about the slogan that has become the butt of jokes on Capitol Hill.

The slogan is part of a new effort by House Republicans “to fix Washington,” outline plans to help Americans and raise their floundering election-year prospects of retaking control of the legislative body from Democrats.

“Democrats, not drugs, is what the American people need,” House Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer said in poking fun at the campaign and antidepressant slogan.

Some Republicans have also complained, saying privately that the slogan makes them look foolish.

Others, like Rep. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican, say, “Another slogan doesn’t do much. People are more concerned about what we do.”

“We have to be bolder than this. If we don’t, we will get the change we deserve.” Flake said.

With polls showing voters favor Democrats on a host of issues, they are expected to increase their House majority in the November elections. This week, Democrats won their third straight special election to fill a vacant seat in a previously Republican district, raising their House majority to 236-199.

Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia, a former chairman of the House Republican campaign committee, wrote colleagues: “The loss of three straight special elections … are canaries in the coal mine, warning of far greater losses in the fall, if steps are not taken to remedy the current climate.”

Boehner said of the Davis memo: “I frankly thought it was well done, rather insightful, and really laid out the challenge that we face.” 

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- Photo credit: Reuters/Darren Staples (another anti-depressant medication.)

Yet another loss will likely strike fear in the hearts of many Republicans who are worried that it could have even bigger ramifications this November as they try to claw their way back to a majority.

In the race to represent northern Mississippi, Republican Greg Davis lost to Travis Childers despite a last-minute effort by Vice President Dick Cheney to woo voters at a campaign fundraiser for Davis on Monday. Childers will have to run again in November, this time for a full two-year term.

He will fill a seat vacated by Rep. Roger Wicker who was appointed to fill Sen. Trent Lott’s seat and expands the Democratic House majority to 236-199.

“His victory has sent a thunderbolt across America tonight,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat who is chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Van Hollen also tried to broaden the meaning of the victory, arguing it was not only a setback for House Republicans but also “the Bush administration’s misguided policies and John McCain’s campaign for a third Bush term,” referring to the presumed Republican presidential nominee.

And a top House Republican appeared similarly grim in his assessment of the loss.

“The results … should serve as a wake-up call to Republican candidates nationwide,” said House Republican Leader John Boehner, an Ohio Republican. “As I’ve said before, this is a change election, and if we want Americans to vote for us we have to convince them that we can fix Washington.”

Earlier this year, Democrats won the Illinois seat held by the previous Republican House Speaker, Dennis Hastert, and captured the Louisiana seat held by departing Republican Richard Baker.

Are voters sending Republicans a message or are these isolated victories for Democrats?

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- Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Young (Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi takes the podium for the first time in January in her new position)

“Either congressional Republicans are going to chart a bold course of real change or they are going to suffer decisive losses this November,” Gingrich wrote on Tuesday in HumanEvents.com, a leading conservative voice.

Gingrich, who helped Republicans win control of the House for the first time in 40 years in 1994, is now a commentator who likes to give his party unsolicited advice.

Gingrich says the Republican loss in the special election in Louisiana’s sixth congressional district this past weekend should be “a sharp wake up call” for party members.

Gingrich noted President George W. Bush carried the district by 19 percentage points in winning reelection in 2004. In the end, Democratic State Rep. Donald Cazayoux defeated Republican Woody Jenkins. Republicans tried to cast Cazayoux a liberal by comparing him to Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama, but voters didn’t seem to buy it.

The former Georgia lawmaker also pointed to polls that show Americans now favor Democrats on a host of issues, including taxes and the war on terrorism.

Gingrich said House Republicans should instruct their leader, John Boehner, to come up with a plan for “real change” within a few weeks. He made a number of suggestions, including repealing the gas tax this summer and paying for it by cutting federal spending.

In response, Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said his boss agrees that the party “can only succeed this year by being agents of change and reform.”

“In the coming weeks, we will be laying out Republican policies that embody the sort of changes we need,” Steel said.  

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage. 

- Photo credit: Reuters/Mark Avery (file photo)