Some Republicans fear winning back the House in 2010 could cost the party in 2012

Some worry a Republican takeover of the House would make it easier for Obama to win reelection. A GOP majority would give the president a scapegoat to blame whenever things went south. The Republicans would own the economy along with the president, who has shown himself adept at shifting as much blame as possible onto the Bush administration and would no doubt do the same to the House GOP.

Fleischer noted that one year after their election, House Republicans would face a dilemma in the fall of 2011.

“What will Republicans and what will Republican presidential candidates do in the fall of 2011, with appropriations bills one or two months before Iowa caucuses?” Fleischer said. “House Republicans will have to compromise with Senate Democrats or shut down the government.”

“I see a terribly messy, internally fractious 2011 if Republicans take the House, and it could hurt our chances to win the presidency,” he said.

House Republican leadership aides argued that in the current political climate they would have leverage to extract major concessions on spending from Obama and a Democrat-controlled Senate. Voters are angry and fearful about government spending, they said, and are likely to grow more so.

As for having a better chance at a more lasting majority in 2012, GOP aides said that the party with control of the White House has unique advantages in a general election that would be hard for Republicans to overcome, namely that the president’s core constituencies are energized to vote in large numbers. If the president is not on the ballot, they said, that gives them a better chance to make big gains.

Charlie Cook of the Cook Report wrote Saturday that experts are mixed on whether Republicans will actually get to the 39 House seats they need to wrest control from the Democrats.

McCarthy said he has been told, “Kevin I’m rooting for you hard to go get to 37.”

Democratic National Committee spokesman Hari Sevugan said fear of holding the House is a sign that “Republicans aren’t interested producing solutions to America’s problems.”

“Their interest is only in solving their own political problems,” Sevugan said. “If Republicans aren’t interested doing their job as elected officials and governing, we’re sure the American people will save them the trouble.”

*This article originally stated Boehner would likely become majority leader.

E-mail Jon Ward and follow him on Twitter