Top Republicans attempt to rebuild their party by

[ProSense]

• Using the election of Obama as validation of their failed ideology -- Bush: "We're A Center-Right Country"
  
  
• Attempting to kill the Employee Free Choice Act -- Pro-Business Group Sinks Over A Million Dollars Into Ad Linking Blago To Senate Dems And "Union Bosses"
  
  
• Listening to Rove -- Rove Tries To Link Obama To Blagojevich Scandal Despite Previously Arguing There Is No Link
  
  
• Denying reality -- Perino: We’re not occupiers in Iraq; we’re guests.
  
  
• Admiting to torture -- Cheney says waterboarding was appropriate

If they keep this up, Democrats could very well pick up three or four more Senate seats in 2010.

[Warren DeMontague]

1. My favorite line comes from the Neo-Palintologists: "We haven't catered to the fundy right ENOUGH"

"We just need to be MORE vocal about granting rights to fertilized eggs, outlawing birth control, denying global warming and teaching that dinosaurs and humans co-existed 4,000 years ago in public school science class!"

[AllentownJake]

3. Get the Jesus Horses

:rofl:

[sohndrsmith]

7. And they are SO right! We should encourage this.... no?

Isn't that little fundy group sort of mid-lower-right-small one little area of the country shrinking pretty handily? I say they should jump right into that bit of a plan... we maybe should pretend to be threatened by the idea?

I dunno, just a thought... they seem to like fear, those folks I don't quite understand...

[Warren DeMontague]

14. I'm all for it.

Ever notice that when they let these Culture War chowderheads (Palin, Pat Buchanan, etc.) set the tone of the Convention, they get their asses kicked?

All-powerful "values voter", my butt.

[sohndrsmith]

15. It's a plan... ; ) n/t

[Laelth]

It's not a bad plan.

In fact, I love Sarah Palin. She made the Republicans look so bad, Obama couldn't have lost the election if he tried. She's great (for us), and I hope they run her in 2012. Obama will trounce her handily.

The United States is a LIBERAL Country.

:dem:

-Laelth

[leftstreet]

2. These efforts will fail. Smart Repubs will start trending populist

The Dems have gone pro-corporate and smart Repubs will start representing the commoners.

[ProSense]

4. "The Dems have gone pro-corporate and smart Repubs will start representing the commoners." Problem

It's The Conservatism, Stupid

1. Conservatism has failed. The overwhelming majority of the American public now sees the Bush administration as a failure. They failed in Iraq, they failed after Hurricane Katrina, they failed on health care, they failed to deliver rising wages, they failed on the deficit, they failed, they failed, they failed. Why? Liberals need to argue that it wasn’t a product of incompetence, it was a failure of conservative governance. As Alan Wolfe put it in a recent Washington Monthly article, “Conservatives cannot govern well for the same reason that vegetarians cannot prepare a world-class boeuf bourguignon: If you believe that what you are called upon to do is wrong, you are not likely to do it very well.”
   
   <...>
   
2. Conservatism is the ideology of the past—a past we don’t want to return to. Liberals need to embrace the culture war, because we’re winning. The story of American history is that of conservative ideas and prejudices falling away as our society grows more progressive and thus more true to our nation’s founding ideals. Conservatives supported slavery, conservatives opposed women’s suffrage, conservatives supported Jim Crow, conservatives opposed the 40-hour work week and the abolishment of child labor, and conservatives supported McCarthyism. In short, all the major advancements of freedom and justice in our history were pushed by liberals and opposed by conservatives, no matter the party they inhabited at the time.
   
   <...>
   
3. Conservatives are cowards, and they hope you are, too. We’re afraid, they shout. We’re so afraid of terrorists, we have to become more like the things we hate. We’re so afraid, we have to let our government sanction torture. We’re so afraid, we have to let the government spy on us. We’re so afraid, we have to give the president dictatorial powers. We’re so afraid, we just want to rush to the arms of politicians who say they’ll protect us. ...

This is from 2006. Evidently, "Smart Repubs" have a problem recognizing their ideology sucks.

[leftstreet]

5. "Smart" Repubs have had to fight elements within their own party

Left-leaning Repubs have been silenced by the NeoCons and Religious WhackNuts dominating the party.

All I meant was that for the Repub party to truly reinvent itself, it'll have to go populist.

There is no one representing us commoners.

[ProSense]

6. "Left-leaning Repubs" Who are they?

You can't be seriously advocating that there is a block of Republicans who care more about the issues Democrats have advanced than all Democrats?

Who are these so-called silenced "smart" and "left-leaning Repubs"?

[leftstreet]

9. Economic left, not social issue left

"Fiscal conservatism" is far more "left" than the corporate loving DLC.

Jeebus Christ. Richard Nixon himself wanted to institute a Guaranteed Minimum Income.

True fiscal conservative (smart) Repubs may be the first to call for a single payer health care system here. They're likely to rebuild the party on economic issues.

[ProSense]

10. I don't care about the DLC wing of the Party. Who are the "left-leaning" Republicans?

I know a bunch of obstructionist Republicans who are talking shit (in their opposite reality) now that Obama is President, but who are these genuinely left-leaning Republicans?

True fiscal conservative (smart) Repubs may be the first to call for a single payer health care system here.

You mean the same Party that tries to scare people into believing single-payer health care is socialism?

Give me names, not hypotheticals from make-believe land.

[leftstreet]

11. Lincoln Chafee was a good example

There's a nice article here from The Nation

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080303/press

(snip)
The elder Chafee belonged to the once-sizable bloc of so-called Rockefeller Republicans: socially tolerant, fiscally conservative moderates who did not regard cutting taxes as a sacred mission, did not sneer at every government program they came across and did not assume anyone who disagreed with them was morally suspect.

[ProSense]

13. Chafee lost his seat because he toed the Republican line and became an independent

after he lost. He is, in fact, no longer a member of the Republican Party. People switch party affiliation all the time.




edited typo.

[sohndrsmith]

8. Wait. I thought the smart Repubs voted for Obama... n/t

[Warren DeMontague]

16. Never happen. The GOP grunt work is done by the fundy crazies, but the money comes from, well, money

this is why Fuckabee never stood a chance.

[specimenfred1984]

18. "smart repubs", LMFAO!!!

Name 1

[ClarkUSA]

12. Good job of meme-busting. We must always be vigilant but...

Is anyone even listening to them whining/lying/BSing anymore, though? I get the distinct feeling that Americans are so cynical
about the Republican brand that everything they say (and especially when they try to attack Obama) is immediately discounted.
That's the reason why only 24% of Americans (aka. Palin lovin' wingnuts) think Obama has done something illegal with regards
to Blago while the rest approve of Obama's handling of the transition in general.

[ProSense]

17. GOP launching 'renewal' think tank

GOP launching 'renewal' think tank

The Republican National Committee is building a new, in house think tank aimed at reviving the party's policy heft.

The think tank will be called the Center for Republican Renewal, and it has been mentioned as part of RNC Chairman Mike Duncan's platform for re-election, but was begun shortly after the election as a new RNC office, separate from the campaign, a Republican official said.

Though Washington has many conservative think tanks, many inside the party and the conservative movement viewed November's failures as, in part, a product of stale ideas, and like the Democrats after 2000, some in the GOP have called for a revival of the conservative intellectual infrastructure.

It’s important that we continue to move forward as a party and do so in a way that is consistent with the Republican ideals of sound governance," said an RNC spokesman, Brian Walton. "We’re building a team that will identify the best ideas from across the country, and that will provide principled solutions to the nation’s challenges."

The center is hiring six staffers, according to a conservative job board: an executive assistant, economic policy analyst, health care policy analyst, energy/environmental policy analyst, national security policy analyst, and legal policy analyst.

[Starry Messenger]

19. Republicans live in Bizarro World...

hence my sig file.

[madrchsod]

20. reminds me of the republicans in illionis after they dumped ryan

jack ryan that is...he was at 45% until his "sex scandal" broke. the republicans had to import mr 29% alan keyes and the party has`t recovered since. in fact they ran the "milk nazi"-oberweiss twice in the illinois 14th and the democrat foster kicked his ass.

keep going further to the right republicans and you`ll be a minority party for a lot of years to come...

[ProSense]

21. In Private Memo, RNC Chief Concedes That GOP Is Bereft Of Ideas, Vows Change Of Direction

In Private Memo, RNC Chief Concedes That GOP Is Bereft Of Ideas, Vows Change Of Direction

By Greg Sargent - December 19, 2008, 5:51PM

In a frank and private memo sent today to Republican National Commitee members, the RNC chairman acknowledges that the GOP has grown too addicted to ideology, places politics before policy, and is bereft of ideas -- and that it's imperative that the party shift towards a genuine effort to develop concrete policy solutions to people's problems in order to rescue itself.

The memo -- which we obtained from a Republican operative -- was written by RNC chief Mike Duncan to explain the RNC's recently-announced decision to create a new in-house think tank called the "Center for Republican Renewal," which is devoted to coming up with new policies and ideas to chart a new direction for the party after November's devastating losses.

The memo -- which reflects just how deep a hole the party finds itself in -- also reveals some concrete details about the new think tank, including the appointment of Steven Duffield, the executive director of the GOP's 2008 Platform Committee, as the organization's new chief.

"Republicans have grown accustomed to having our party recognized as the `Party of Ideas,' but we must acknowledge that many Americans today believe the party is stale and does not deserve that label," reads one of the memo's starker assessments, adding that "we have not used our principles to provide solutions to the kitchen table concerns of middle-class America."

<...>

The memo also says that the Renewal think tank is creating a "Board of Advisers" to the center that will include former GOP cabinet secretaries, current and former high-level state and federal office-holders, and other Republican leaders. Full memo after the jump.

Republican National Committee

To: RNC National Committee Members
Fr: Chairman Robert M. "Mike" Duncan

Re: The Center for Republican Renewal

Date: Friday, December 19


I am pleased today to announce the creation of the Center for Republican Renewal, a new office of the Republican National Committee that will identify, generate, and promote public policies that advance Republican principles of sound governance. I began exploring this idea in the days immediately following the November election. I would like to take this opportunity to explain the concept and how you as a Committee Member can participate in this exciting new endeavor.

<...>

The Decision to Create the Center for Republican Renewal


It was in light of this history that I decided in early November to commit the RNC to a similar, policy-focused effort. Republicans have grown accustomed to having our party recognized as the "Party of Ideas," but we must acknowledge that many Americans today believe the party is stale and does not deserve that label. This is not a critique of our principles of a strong national defense, growth-focused economics, constitutionally-limited government, and a defense of traditional values. Rather, it is a reflection that we have not used our principles to provide solutions to the kitchen table concerns of middle-class America.


We must recognize that being the "Party of Ideas" requires daily effort to apply principles to the particular public policy questions of the day. All Republicans have an obligation to develop principled solutions rather than falling back on ideology alone; we must show how our ideology can be applied to solve problems. When we have a Republican President, that challenge falls to the White House and Congress. However, when the table is set as it is today, the RNC must play an enhanced role.


I believe we have an opportunity - and an obligation - to regain the American people's trust by showing them that it is the Republican Party that will provide the principled policies that will better improve the lives of all Americans. To do that, we must:

<...>

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