Republican Party

That’s the description being painted of the Republicans, by a high ranking House Republican:

Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, poised to ascend to House Republicans' No. 2 leader this week, said the Republican Party in Washington is no longer "relevant" to voters and must stop simply espousing principles. Instead, it must craft real solutions to health care and the economy.

"Where we have really fallen down is, we have lacked the ability to be relevant to people's lives. Let's set aside the last eight years, and our falling down in living up to expectations of what we said we were going to do," Mr. Cantor told The Washington Times in his district office outside of Richmond. "It's the relevancy question."

That has been the problem for quiet sometime. I think back to the Terri Schiavo debacle. It was a perfect example of Republican grandstanding. For years the GOP promised their followers all these changes in regard to “right to life”, but never delivered. They then saw this woman who they could use as a pillar of their bases wishes and to try and sell their party as the party that cares for the religious rights beliefs. But in years of control, including control of all parts of our government, the Republicans still couldn’t deliver on their promises. Not only that, they never really tried.

So looking ahead, what is the Republican Party to do? Are they going to shed their long time platform of appeasement to the religious right? If they want to become more significant, then they need to. Abortion alone has been an albatross for the GOP. A majority of this country believes in a woman’s right to choose, and when you throw in issues of mortality for the mother, that margin increases even more. But the Republicans have once again ignored the American people, and instead listened to the few loud voices of the religious right; the Dobsons and Perkins out there.

Their claims of “fiscal conservatism” have even fallen flat. Our deficit has increased at record levels under Republican control, and our economy is on the brink. Still they had a presidential candidate out there echoing the hallowed promises of George W. Bush.

Then the Republicans decided to go down the road of school yard politics – calling their opponents name. “He’s a Socialist” was a common meme to describe Barack Obama. Their proof was that he wanted universal health care and to dump money back into the nation – something a majority of this country wants. We don’t want bridges falling down anymore, or a nation to sick to produce. A healthy workforce that can drive safely to work is key to a strong economy.

But instead of listening to people like Cantor, the Republicans are sitting their in self denial. They continue to try and say this country is “right leaning” – that we all still believe in their ideals. Wrong. If the Republicans want to become relevant in the future they need to change their views on government, instead of trying to change an entire nation.

And I can’t believe I am saying that, but he appears to actually have seen what happened on Election Day and is now calling out the GOP on it:

If Republicans and conservatives don’t come to grips with what’s happened — and can’t develop an economic agenda moving forward that seems to incorporate lessons learned from what’s happened — then they could be back, politically, in 1933.

From 1933 to 1980, Republicans repeatedly failed to convince the country they were no longer the party of Herbert Hoover — the party, as it was perceived, of economic incompetence, austerity and recession (if not depression).

Only two Republicans won presidential elections in that half-century, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard M. Nixon. Both were able to take the White House only because we were mired down in difficult wars, in Korea and Vietnam. And Ike and Nixon were unable — they didn’t really try — to change the generally liberal course of domestic and economic policy. The G.O.P.’s fate on Capitol Hill was worse. The party controlled Congress for only 4 of those 47 years.

That’s what happens when a depression begins on your watch and when you can’t offer a coherent explanation of how and why it occurred and what you are going to do differently. That’s what happens when instead of having such an explanation, you spend decades in quarrels between pragmatic but unimaginative moderates who seek to be better tax collectors for the liberal welfare state, and principled but fanciful conservatives who hope for a wholesale rejection of that welfare state. And the fact that there were many successful Republican governors in those years didn’t much change the party’s status nationally.

(emphasis added)

The GOP seems to be laying all their hopes in some GOP Governor lifting them from the jaws of permanent minority status. Their list of stars include names like Bobby Jindal, Sarah Palin and Tim Pawlenty. But as Kristol even points out, having star  governors didn’t help the Republicans that much before.

Republicans have faces a serious blow. They risk being the party of a double header in economic depressions. The party paid big for the first one, and the possibility of another one will do only more damage to the party. We could end up seeing if our two party system of government can operate with only one party.

Now the GOP infighting really gets interesting. In one corner we have former presidential nominee John McCain, and in the other corner – Republican Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina:

"McCain, who is proponent of campaign finance reform that weakened party organizations and basically put George Soros in the driver's seat," DeMint said. "His proposal for amnesty for illegals. His support of global warming, cap-and-trade programs that will put another burden on our economy. And of course, his embrace of the bailout right before the election was probably the nail in our coffin this last election. And he has been an opponent of drilling in ANWR, at a time when energy is so important. It really didn't fit the label, but he was our package."

I have been waiting for something like this to happen. The head of the RNC announced this week that he was filing suit to get rid of the legislation McCain helped create and is so proud of – campaign finance reform. Now we have the battle heating up even more.

But let’s stop and think for a minute. We are approaching the two week mark since the Republicans were sent packing by the American people. So far they have blamed the following for their defeat:

• John McCain
• George Bush
• Election Finance Laws
• The Economy
• The “Liberal Media”

What’s missing from that list? How about a little self blame. This has been a continuous problem of the GOP for years now. They refuse to give themselves any blame for anything. It reminds me of when Mark Foley was busted. It wasn’t Foley’s fault, but rather those evil children he was going after. Perhaps if the GOP wants to be taken as a serious party and be able to compete in our political system in the future, then they need to really examine themselves and engage in some self criticism. If they don’t do that then they have changed nothing.

Be afraid Republicans! Erick Erikson has launched "Operation Leper" to go after the McCain staffers who leaked stuff to the media about Palin. TBogg has all the great details, along with evidence of the power of Erickson.

Welcome to a war our nation as a whole isn't in. This is a war we can sit back, watch and laugh at. For months we heard about a divided Democratic Party, but that was possibly to hide this growing division.

The wingnuts have had a horrible year. They saw the loss of their first great white hype hope, Fred Thompson. Then they really lost out when the people of their party stood up and rejected their pick for nominee three times over. First Fred, then Mitt and finally Huckabee. They were forced behind a candidate they couldn't stand. Now their new messiah, Sarah Palin, is being exposed for the fraud and idiot she is. The righty blogs can't pick a winner for anything.

Jonathan Martin is reporting about a secret session of conservatives planned for after the election:

Two days after next week's election, top conservatives will gather at the Virginia weekend home of one of the movement's most prominent members to begin a conversation about their role in the GOP and how best to revive a party that may be out of power at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue next year.

The meeting will include a "who's who of conservative leaders -- economic, national security and social," said one attendee, who shared initial word of the secret session only on the basis of anonymity and with some details about the host and location redacted.

The decision to waste no time in plotting their moves in the post-Bush era reflects the widely-held view among many on the right, and elsewhere, that the GOP is heading toward major losses next week.

Oh to be a fly on the wall. The conservative movement has been greatly crippled by people like George Bush and Karl Rove. Will they be able to turn that around? Hopefully not.

It used to be that the Republicans would bash the Democrats for not having any unity. Now it appears the shoe is on the other foot.

The Ohio GOP has been busted for illegally funneling almost $500,000 dollars into a fund for Ken Blackwell during his failed try to retain the Secretary of State office in 2006:

The letter says Ohio's Republican party collected nearly half a million dollars from a federal GOP account in October 2006. They also took in $20,000 from a state GOP account the same month and another $25,000 in November 2007.

The letter doesn't indicate which candidates received the party's largesse. But according a state GOP spokesman, the money supported just one candidate -- former Republican Secretary of State Ken Blackwell. Blackwell ran for governor in 2006, and lost.

Remember - this is the same GOP that supported Ohio's former Governor Bob Taft who was convicted of receiving illegal contributions. The Ohio GOP is just as corrupt as the national GOP, if not more.