"After years of quiet, relentless organizing, followers of libertarian-leaning GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul have exploded inside the Minnesota Republican Party, becoming its most potent army," the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.
Paul won 12 of 13 open delegate spots to the GOP national convention. The 13th went to Michele Bachmann -- "and only after a Paul supporter dropped out to let her have that spot."
"In Minnesota, more than almost any other state, Paul forces have completed a historic party takeover. They proved their might Saturday, but also firmly established Minnesota as a remote GOP outpost nationally. Now state GOP activists will march to the national convention firmly backing Paul rather than presumed Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney."
Just 100 days away from the Republican convention and the Tampa Bay Times reports organizers are "starting to tackle one of the trickiest and most important elements of the convention -- selecting the speakers."
"It's a matter of juggling monumental political egos, precious little time for maximum TV exposure, appeasing people whose help is needed, and ensuring the best message comes through to win over swing voters just starting to focus on the presidential contest."
"The job is daunting. The networks at best will devote five or six hours over four days to convention coverage, and a good chunk of that is taken by all-but required speeches -- the nominee, his spouse, the vice presidential nominee -- so planners have to make the very most of the limited time they have."
"You're gonna be left with a party that is very pure and increasingly inconsequential. And a political system that is increasingly unable to get off the dime."
-- Former Sen. John Danforth (R-MO), in an interview with ThinkProgress, if ideological purges continue in the Republican party.
John Avlon: "RINO hunting has long been a problem inside the Republican Party, through groups like the Club for Growth--which has dumped $1.4 million against Lugar. They target congressman and senators they label "Republicans in Name Only"and justification is always a defense of fiscal discipline. But peel back the bumper sticker and there is a social conservative litmus test at work as well. Good luck naming a libertarian pro-choicer who has been supported by these forces. Or finding the organized outrage direct at notorious pork barrelers like Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi. Their bottom line is party line."
"What new is that DINO hunting is starting to catch on in Democratic circles. This particular purification purge is still emerging--Democrats are amateurs compared to Republicans when it comes to taking down their own, as evidenced by the asymmetric polarization afflicting the right side of Congress. But just last month, the DINO hunters claimed two kills, knocking off a pair centrist Democrats from the swing state of Pennsylvania, Reps. Jason Altmire and Tim Holden."
"Being a Republican used to mean finding solutions for the American people that worked for everyone. It used to mean having big ideas that moved the country forward. It can mean that again, but big ideas don't often come from small tents."
-- Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), writing in the Los Angeles Times, saying the "extreme right wing of the party is targeting anyone who doesn't meet its strict criteria."
A video shows Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) received a less-than-hospitable reception at the Alaska Republican Party Convention as she tried to introduce Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY).
Alaska Dispatch: "Murkowski has faced some tough crowds in the past, particularly in 2010 when she was running for re-election against Joe Miller in the midst of a tea party uprising. But all of that was supposedly behind her. Her win in an historic write-in campaign against Miller seemed to take the wind out of the tea party movement in Alaska. For various reasons, like Alaska's weird economy and geography, the tea party wasn't gaining as much ground as in other states. That all seemed to change as Murkowski stood before her fellow Republicans at the Hilton in downtown Anchorage on Friday."
"I think a lot of Republicans in Congress want to cooperate and know better, but they're in the thralls of this reign of terror from the Far Right that has dragged the party to the Right."
Mitt Romney's top aides "plan to move quickly after the primaries on Tuesday to integrate the campaign's growing staff with the Republican National Committee, in an effort to avoid logistical stumbles that have hampered past nominees," the New York Times reports.
"Romney has been careful not to push the committee into a formal support role while two of his rivals -- Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul -- continue campaigning for the nomination. But aides to Mr. Romney expect that dynamic to change after Tuesday, when he is expected to win all five of the primaries, including those in New York and Pennsylvania."
NPR reports on research by political scientists Keith Poole and Howard Rosenthal who find that the Republican Party is the most conservative it has been a century.
Said Poole: "The short version would be since the late 1970s starting with the 1976 election in the House the Republican caucus has steadily moved to the right ever since. It's been a little more uneven in the Senate. The Senate caucuses have also moved to the right. Republicans are now furtherest to the right that they've been in 100 years."
"If the Democrats said we had a war on caterpillars and every mainstream media outlet talked about the fact that Republicans have a war on caterpillars, then we'd have problems with caterpillars."
-- RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, quoted by Bloomberg TV, insisting that the GOP's "war on women" is fiction.
"In a move that shows Republicans are coalescing around the party's front-runner, Mitt Romney plans to begin raising money jointly with the Republican National Committee this week," the Wall Street Journal reports.
"The arrangement will allow top donors to write checks as large as $75,000 per person, by giving to party organizations in addition to the campaign. That's far more than the $2,500 ceiling that applies to individual donations to a presidential candidate for the fall election... Acknowledging that the nomination fight isn't over, the RNC also invited other candidates to participate in joint fundraising, but with little expectation they would agree, RNC officials said."
"This is not your father's Republican Party, this is a different party then I'm used to... How much has it changed? How far right has it gone, or how anti-government it has it become? I mean it's just a different. It seems there's almost a different language."
-- Vice President Joe Biden, in an interview on Face the Nation.
John Avlon: "A cleansing bout of craziness in 2012 could be just what the GOP needs. I'm talking about a nominee so far to the right that conservative populists get their fondest wish -- and the Republican Party is forced to learn from the result. Namely, that there is such a thing as too extreme."
"Giving conservative activists everything they want in a presidential nominee would ultimately be clarifying for the Republican Party... There's nothing like losing 40 states to refocus the mind."
John Avlon: "Republicans are in a bruising primary struggle with no candidate close to the 1,144 delegates needed to win the nomination, and leaving aside the advent of super PACS, they did it to themselves by adopting a proportional-delegate rule in 2010."
Boston Globe: "In recent years, Haidt has emerged as one of the country's best-known psychology researchers, using a combination of psychology and anthropology to understand how we arrive at our moral attitudes. One of his key insights is that we are much less rational than we think we are. We tend to make moral judgments intuitively and immediately... When Haidt looks at American politics, he doesn't see a free-flowing, open-minded exchange of ideas. Instead, he sees a conflict between two profoundly different moral mind-sets -- a conservative mind-set and a liberal one -- that dictate where people stand on issues, and are unlikely to change."
GOP pollster Whit Ayres told the Christian Science Monitor the "tone" of the immigration debate has damaged the image of the Republican party among Latino voters.
Said Ayres: "It is pretty obvious that we can't continue to lose Latinos two to one as we did in 2008 and remain competitive as a national party. If we don't do better among Latinos, we are not going to be talking about how to get back Florida in the presidential race, we are going to be talking about how not to lose Texas."
A Fox News Latino poll released this week found that Latino voters
favor Obama by six-to-one over any of his possible Republican presidential challengers.
Jonathan Chait points outs that Republicans have "increasingly coalesced around the a defense of public services for its core constituency at the expense of others."
"The glue holding together the contemporary Republican agenda -- the fierce defense of entitlement spending on the elderly, the equally fierce opposition to welfare spending on the young, the backlash against illegal immigration, the nationalist foreign policy, the cultural traditionalism -- is ethnocentrism. Republicans are defending the shared cultural prerogatives of a certain group of people. That is why I am arguing that the shifting demographic tides will require the GOP to undertake a major reorientation in order to maintain its competitiveness. There's simply no way to transpose their sense of what is and what is not a legitimate government function onto a progressively younger, browner electorate. (Latino voters overwhelmingly support Obama's health care reform.) Their conception of us versus them can work for a while -- it worked quite well with the anomalously old, white 2010 off-year electorate -- but the them is rapidly outnumbering the us."
Sean Trende: "We're finally close enough to Super Tuesday to get a sense of how the overall delegate count might work out in the GOP primary. The end result: Assuming that none of the four candidates drops out of the race, it looks increasingly as if no one will be able to claim a majority of the delegates. The candidate with the best chance is Mitt Romney, but he probably wouldn't be able to wrap up the nomination until May or even June. The other candidates will probably have to hope for a brokered convention."
The Salt Lake Tribune
takes a look at the early days of the Republican Party, when the
founders of the fledgling anti-slavery party "saw Mormons as their
enemies," and how that evolved into the modern trend of Mormons
overwhelmingly supporting Republicans.
"The GOP's first party platform
in 1856 took direct aim at polygamy, placing it in the same sinister
frame as slavery in the hope of cultivating the votes of Christians wary
of the spread of these dual threats to the republic... Later on,
Republicans used their congressional power to wipe away any secular
power Mormon leaders had in the Utah Territory and were the main backers
of a law that disincorporated The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints... Republicans over the next several decades targeted the LDS
Church over polygamy and suspicions that Mormons were attempting to form
their own sovereign country in the Mountain West."
"The GOP's
take on social issues, such as abortion, the Equal Rights Amendment and
gay marriage, drew Mormons into the conservative fold beginning in the
1970s. Church apostle Ezra Taft Benson, who supported the right-wing
John Birch Society and served as Agriculture secretary under President
Dwight Eisenhower, helped further push his fellow Mormons into the
conservative camp. A report by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life
in January showed that about 74 percent of Mormons lean toward the
Republican Party."
David Brooks: "All across the nation, there are mainstream Republicans lamenting how the party has grown more and more insular, more and more rigid. This year, they have an excellent chance to defeat President Obama, yet the wingers have trashed the party's reputation by swinging from one embarrassing and unelectable option to the next: Bachmann, Trump, Cain, Perry, Gingrich, Santorum. But where have these party leaders been over the past five years, when all the forces that distort the G.O.P. were metastasizing?"
Jonathan Chait: "The modern GOP -- the party of Nixon, Reagan, and both Bushes -- is staring down its own demographic extinction. Right-wing warnings of impending tyranny express, in hyperbolic form, well-grounded dread: that conservative America will soon come to be dominated, in a semi-permanent fashion, by an ascendant Democratic coalition hostile to its outlook and interests. And this impending doom has colored the party's frantic, fearful response to the Obama presidency."
Rick Pearlstein argues that Republicans "plant their flag in an uncompromising position, and wait for the world to come around - which, quite often, it eventually does. This is because in a media environment based on the ideology of 'balance,' in which anything one of the parties insists upon must be given equal weight to whatever the other party says back, the party that plants its ideological flag further from the center makes the center move. And that is how America changes. You set the stage for future changes by shifting the rhetoric of the present."
John Heilemann notes many Republicans "are already looking past 2012. If either Romney or Santorum gains the nomination and then falls before Obama, flubbing an election that just months ago seemed eminently winnable, it will unleash a GOP apocalypse on November 7 -- followed by an epic struggle between the regulars and red-hots to refashion the party. And make no mistake: A loss is what the GOP's political class now expects."
Said GOP strategist Ed Rollins: "Six months before this thing got going, every Republican I know was saying, 'We're gonna win, we're gonna beat Obama.' Now even those who've endorsed Romney say, "My God, what [an effing] mess."'
A new Democracy Corps (D) survey finds the Republican brand "is in a state of collapse -- over 50 percent of voters give the Republican Party a cool, negative rating. The presidential race and the congressional battles are interacting with each other to drive down their lead candidate, the party, and perceptions of the congressional Republicans."
Meanwhile, Mitt Romney "may be on the edge of political death. The shift against him is one of the biggest in the polls and he now competes with Republicans in Congress for unpopularity. In the summer of 1996, Bob Dole essentially was disqualified in voters' eyes and never really recovered his footing."
Most interesting: Voters who gave Democrats their victories in 2006 and 2008 "have returned in a big way" led by "a resurgence and re-engagement of unmarried women."
A Wall Street Journal editorial tries to settle down Republicans after Newt Gingrich's trouncing of Mitt Romney in South Carolina:
"As for the GOP establishment, such as it still is, Mr. Gingrich's re-emergence is likely to cause a panic attack. They don't believe he is electable. Our advice would be to relax and let the voters decide. If Mr. Romney can't marshal the wit and nerve to defeat the speaker, then he isn't likely to defeat Mr. Obama."
Mark Halperin: "It seems the Republican Establishment is waiting until after Florida for any panic, hoping Romney can set the universe back in order then. Of course, it will be (even) harder to stop Newt if he wins Florida."
Ted Nesi: "From 1966 to 1968, Rhode Island's then-governor, John Chafee, played a
pivotal role in marshaling support for the doomed presidential bid of
his fellow liberal Republican, Gov. George Romney of Michigan. The very
different roads their sons traveled subsequently are a reminder of the
GOP's transformation in the years since."
A new CBS News poll finds that 58% of Republican primary voters want more presidential choices, while just 37% say they are satisfied with the current field. The percentage of Republican primary voters that wants more choices has increased 12 points since October.
The Republican National Committee is touting an expansive new video database -- which officials call "The Book" -- that operatives say is their "most potent weapon for attacking President Obama in 2012," ABC News reports.
"The RNC will debut a compilation of Obama clips from the newly polished
video library in a TV ad to run across Iowa on Tuesday. The montage is
expected to show 'promises' Obama delivered in Iowa in 2008 contrasted
with economic and other data on the reality now."
National Journal: "The GOP strategy is to refrain from attacking Obama personally, as polls
show he is still well-liked by many voters, even if his policies
aren't. Instead, they aim to undermine him with his own words, by
showing clips reflecting empty promises and lackluster economic
improvement."
John Avlon says Sen. Ben Nelson's (D-NE) retirement announcement is one more sign that centrist politicians are not welcome in today's political parties.
"There was a time when divided government did not mean dysfunctional government. The presence of conservative Democrats and progressive Republicans helped ensure that cross-aisle coalitions could be formed to find solutions on the most pressing issues of the day, from the Marshall Plan to the Interstate Highway System to civil rights. But with the two parties now starkly polarized along ideological and geographical lines, and inter-party RINO and DINO hunting purges increasingly encouraged, centrists from both parties are becoming a rare breed in Washington."
USA Today finds that more than 2.5 million voters have left the Democratic and Republican parties since the 2008 elections, while the number of independent voters continues to grow.
"Democratic registration has fared worse than Republicans in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina and Pennsylvania -- the eight swing states with party registration. Republican losses are biggest in Nevada, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania."
The latest Pew Research poll shows a growing divide between the Republican Party and the Tea Party, as the GOP's favorable numbers have declined in congressional districts represented by members of the House Tea Party Caucus to nearly those of the Democratic Party.
Key numbers: "Currently, 41% say they have a favorable opinion of the GOP, while 48% say they have an unfavorable view... currently about four-in-ten (39%) say they have a favorable view of the Democratic Party, while 50% offer an unfavorable view."
Chris Cillizza: "What happened? To put it bluntly: governing. Establishment Republicans smartly wrapped their arms around the tea party during the 2010 election... But once the tea party helped elect a Republican majority, the expectations of what that majority would do were unrealistic... The establishment wing of the GOP is, ultimately, playing within the pre-written rules of the current political system... What Republican strategists have to bank on is that the distaste for President Obama among tea partiers is great enough to overcome any qualms they might have about voting for Republican candidates who they don't believe entirely represent their interests."
Howard Megdal thinks a new GOP rule which says that any primary or caucus held before April 1 must allocate delegates proportionally could lead to a brokered convention.
"From April 1 on, the winner-take-all primary and caucus states will vote. That means a weak front-runner can earn victories in early states without taking a commanding share of that state's delegates, while several challengers can lose, but still rack up a decent delegate total... 1,163 of 2,380 delegates will be selected before a single winner-take-all primary is held."
"Rather than settle for a nominee incapable of generating enthusiasm," Republicans could use their national convention "to find a candidate more in tune with the Republican voters" including "a compromise candidate who hasn't been in the race at all."
David Frum: "When I entered Republican politics during an earlier period of malaise, in the late seventies and early eighties, the movement got most of the big questions -- crime, inflation, the Cold War -- right. This time, the party is getting the big questions disastrously wrong."
"In the aftershock of 2008, large numbers of Americans feel exploited and abused. Rather than workable solutions, my party is offering low taxes for the currently rich and high spending for the currently old, to be followed by who-knows-what and who-the-hell-cares. This isn't conservatism; it's a going-out-of-business sale for the baby-boom generation."
"The Republican Party has totally abdicated its job in our democracy, which is to act as the guardian of fiscal discipline and responsibility. They're on an anti-tax jihad -- one that benefits the prosperous classes."
-- Former Reagan budget director David Stockman, in an interview with Rolling Stone.
The latest CBS News/New York Times
poll asked respondents who the Obama administration and Republicans in
Congress supported the most, the rich, middle class, and the poor, or
all of them equally.
The Fix:
"While people were pretty evenly split on whether the administration
favors the middle class, the rich or the poor, they were all but
unanimous about which class the Republicans favor; 69 percent said
Republicans in Congress favor the rich, while just 9 percent said the
middle class and 2 percent said the poor. That's
a significant perception problem for the GOP, and the Occupy Wall Street
protesters -- for whatever bad press they have created and will create
due to the actions of some participants -- are rallying support against
the very class that the GOP is thought to favor."
RNC chairman Reince Priebus "is reportedly pushing hard to broker an early-state compromise that would push Nevada's caucus date back to Feb. 4," the Las Vegas Sun reports.
"Were the the state to move from its current date of Jan. 14, Nevada would hold the fifth presidential nominating contest -- after Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida."
"In return for forfeiting its coveted third-in-the-nation contest this year, Nevada would receive promises of stricter future sanctions to protect its early state status in the long term. National party leaders also are promising to send high-level surrogates to Nevada to help the state and county parties raise money."
-- Former RNC Chairman Michael Steele, in an interview with the Daily Beast, on criticism "from his many detractors in the Republican establishment that
he raised too little, spent too much and liked to live high on the RNC
hog."
A new 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll finds that just 45% of Americans overall correctly identify the meaning of "GOP" as Grand Old Party.
The second most popular choice, with 35% of the overall vote, was "Government of the People." "Grumpy Old People" received 7% of the vote, "God's Own Party" 3%, and 1% thought the abbreviation stood for "Gauntlet of Power."
Leonard Steinhorn notes that "there are plenty of rank-and-file Republicans who accept the scientific
facts behind evolution and climate change, but increasingly the party's
base seems to view anything less than a rejection of this science as a
betrayal of conservatism."
He concludes that four factors -- anti-liberalism, anti-intellectualism, religious
conservatism, and corporate self-interest -- "create a such a climate
within the Republican Party that even those inclined to accept
scientific evidence feel cowed or remain silent. Or like Jon Huntsman,
they can run for president and garner a mere one percent in the public
opinion polls."
A new Bloomberg poll finds most unhappy Americans blame Republicans for the current problems in Washington.
The survey shows that 20% of respondents blame President Obama, 19% blame congressional Democrats while 45% pinned responsibility on congressional Republicans.
"For years I have tried to prove that the GOP isn't the Party of
elitist, stereotypical people that lack compassion. When did creativity and growth become
secondary to hate? Hearing the debate crowds go crazy over things like
executions and the uninsured dying makes me sick and sad for my Party
that I devote my time and efforts."
-- Sarah Reidy, the national director of scheduling for Jon Huntsman's presidential campaign, quoted by The Ticket.
"Of course, this is not exactly a loving courtship; it is more like two families joined at a wedding that both would rather not attend. Republicans, whose views on Mr. Obama's plans are still being formulated, may well be seeking to tamp down criticism that they are shrill or contributing to stagnant employment, with many of their members facing re-election in Democratic strongholds. The dynamic may mirror that of the House under Newt Gingrich in 1996; after a prolonged fight with President Bill Clinton about the budget, long-stalled domestic legislation ultimately came to bipartisan fruition."
When former Florida Republican party chairman Jim Greer "goes on trial next year on charges of fraud and money laundering, plenty of prominent politicians may be squirming as the inner workings of the party are exposed," the St. Petersburg Times reports.
"Greer knows the secrets of the state party like few others. As
legislative leaders are deposed by Greer's attorneys, there's every
indication the former high-flying party boss is looking not just for
vindication, but also payback."
"But no political figure in Florida has a more complex relationship with Greer than former Gov. Charlie Crist. Once the closest of friends who vacationed together with spouses, their bond has reached the point that Crist contacted the Florida Department of Law Enforcement this summer after receiving a pair of messages from Greer apparently perceived as a threat."
The controversial gun raffle held by the Pima County, AZ Republican party "was such a success that they ended up raffling off another weapon," the Arizona Daily Star reports.
Holding the event eight months after Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) was shot in the head "fueled such demand... not only did the raffle for the Glock pistol sell out, but they subsequently raffled a deer rifle as well."
Jack Kimball resigned his post as chairman of the New Hampshire
Republican Party after just eight months in the position, reports the Boston Globe, "ending a bitter internal battle that pitted Tea Party activists against long-time Republicans."
"Kimball,
a businessman and former Tea Party organizer, ran for governor in 2010
but lost the Republican primary. He was elected party chairman in
January, beating a candidate favored by the party establishment. Since
then, Republicans have blamed Kimball for lackluster fund-raising and
several special-election defeats... Kimball and his allies have
portrayed the conflict as one between Tea Party activists and long-term
Republicans. More than 50 supporters, some holding 'Don't Tread on Me'
flags, rallied outside the meeting... But others said Kimball was
unprepared to run a major organization."
Former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) told the Financial Times that he was "disgusted" by the Republican party's behavior.
Said Hagel: "The irresponsible actions of my party, the Republican Party over this were astounding. I'd never seen anything like this in my lifetime. I was very disappointed, I was very disgusted in how this played out in Washington, this debt ceiling debate. It was an astounding lack of responsible leadership by many in the Republican Party, and I say that as a Republican."
He added: "I think the Republican Party is captive to political movements that are very ideological, that are very narrow. I've never seen so much intolerance as I see today in American politics."
Former Florida Republican party chairman Jim Greer is "accused of lavish spending, forming a secret corporation and funneling Republican Party money to his own account" which led to his arrest last year. He's maintained his silence while awaiting trail but gave a fascinating interview to WTSP-TV in which he claims the right wing of the Republican party "destroyed my life for no reason."
Said Greer: "If they could have put Charlie Crist in prison they would have done that... They never supported the governor and looked to turn on the governor. And I was, as many said, the last man standing between the governor and the rest of the party."
The Republican Party in Arizona's Pima County, which is represented by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), is in the midst of a fundraising raffle, according to the Huffington Post.
The prize: A Glock 23, a similar model of gun that delivered a near-fatal blast to the Democratic lawmaker's head outside a grocery store earlier this year.
A new Pew Research survey finds President Obama's approval rating has swung negatively by 13 points since earlier this year to 43% to 49%. The favorability rating of the Democratic Party has dropped a net 8 points to 43% to 50%.
However, Republicans have seen their collective approval sink even further, by a net 20 points, to 34% to 59%.
Ben Smith has a forthcoming DNC memo which highlights the current unpopularity of congressional Republicans:
"Today's Republican Party becoming less popular than during impeachment is no small feat. After all, impeachment was a year-long circus that divided the country, consumed the news and distracted the Congress and the nation from other priorities. Of course, that's exactly what the Tea Party-led Republican Congress just put the country through with a crisis it manufactured - a standoff of months where they put their extreme agenda ahead of the nation's most urgent priorities. Newt Gingrich and the GOP-led House overplayed its hand in 1998. They lost House seats in that year's elections and their popularity dropped to near all-time lows. Today's Republican Party has also overplayed its hand. They manufactured a crisis for their own political ends - one that put our nation on the brink of default for the first time in history and led directly to a downgrade in our credit rating. Those who remember the spectacle of impeachment and the damage it brought to the GOP may find it unfathomable that today's Republican Party is less popular than the one of that era. But the behavior of Republicans during this debate, and the consequences of their brinkmanship on our economy, undoubtedly make the judgment of the voters justified."
The Daily Beast reports 19 GOP congressional freshman met for dinner last week and "reveled in the satisfaction of knowing they had dramatically brought Washington to its knees."
"This ragtag band of proud obstructionists is already looking down the calendar to its next targets: blocking President Obama's judicial and federal-agency nominations, radically restructuring Medicare and other entitlement programs, and maybe even killing the gasoline tax."
Charles Krauthammer: "The sausage-making may be unsightly, but the problem is not that Washington is broken, that ridiculous, ubiquitous cliché. The problem is that these two visions are in competition, and the definitive popular verdict has not yet been rendered."
"We're only at the midpoint. Obama won a great victory in 2008 that he took as a mandate to transform America toward European-style social democracy. The subsequent counterrevolution delivered to that project a staggering rebuke in November 2010. Under our incremental system, however, a rebuke delivered is not a mandate conferred. That awaits definitive resolution, the rubber match of November 2012."
House Republicans called for the firing of Republican Study Committee staffers after they were caught sending e-mails to conservative groups urging them to pressure lawmakers to vote against Speaker John Boehner's debt proposal, Politico reports.
Lawmakers in the morning meeting started chanting "Fire him, fire him!" as an offending stood silently at the closed-door meeting.
Said one GOP insider: "It was an unbelievable moment. I've never seen anything like it."
Nate Silver: "If the states are laboratories of democracy, then the Republican Party's research pipeline has run dry. Moderate Republican governors, a thriving species before last year's elections, are all but extinct."
The debate over raising the nation's debt ceiling has driven a wedge between Establishment Republicans and their Tea Party counterparts and Mike Allen reports party elders "practically spit contempt" for what they call "the default caucus" -- the House and Senate members who say they won't vote to raise the debt ceiling under any circumstances.
Said one: "I'm embarrassed to be a Republican. These guys don't understand capital markets. This isn't about who wins an election. This is about whether people are going to be able to finance a house."
David Brooks follows up his previous article on the behavior
of Republicans during the debt ceiling negotiations with another
scathing piece to "identify the people who decided not to seize the
chance to usher in the largest cut in the size of government in American
history."
"The Beltway Bandits. American conservatism now has a
rich network of Washington interest groups adept at arousing elderly
donors and attracting rich lobbying contracts... The Big Government Blowhards. The
talk-radio jocks are not in the business of promoting conservative
governance. They are in the business of building an audience by stroking
the pleasure centers of their listeners... The Show Horses. Republicans now have a group of political celebrities who are marvelously uninterested in actually producing results... The Permanent Campaigners. For
many legislators, the purpose of being in Congress is not to pass laws.
It's to create clear contrasts you can take into the next election
campaign."
"All of these groups share the same mentality. They do
not see politics as the art of the possible. They do not believe in
seizing opportunities to make steady, messy progress toward conservative
goals. They believe that politics is a cataclysmic struggle. They
believe that if they can remain pure in their faith then someday their
party will win a total and permanent victory over its foes. They believe
they are Gods of the New Dawn."
A preview of Sen. Jim DeMint's (R-SC) new book The Great American Awakening by McClatchy reveals that the fierce conservative "casts tough judgments on various politicians he describes as friends."
"He
suggests that former U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis, an Upstate neighbor and an
early political ally, deserved his defeat in last year's GOP primary --
to now-Rep. Trey Gowdy -- because he'd strayed from conservative
tenets... Among other prominent Republicans he calls friends but skewers
on ideological grounds are former Sens. Arlen Specter (now a Democrat)
of Pennsylvania and Bob Bennett of Utah; Sens. Dan Coats of Indiana,
Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma and Kay Bailey
Hutchison of Texas; and former Rep. Mike Castle of Delaware."
Nate Silver: "The Republican Party is dependent, to an extent unprecedented in recent
political history, on a single ideological group. That group, of course,
is conservatives. It isn't a bad thing to be in favor with
conservatives: by some definitions they make up about 40 percent of
voters. But the terms 'Republican' and 'conservative' are growing closer
and closer to being synonyms; fewer and fewer nonconservatives vote
Republican, and fewer and fewer Republican voters are not conservative."
"Republicans are still fairly unpopular -- only about 40 percent of Americans have a favorable view of the party, which is barely better than their standing in 2006 or 2008 (although Democrats have become significantly less popular since then). As long as conservative Republicans are much more likely to vote than anyone else, the party can fare well despite that unpopularity, as it obviously did in 2010. But it means that Republican members of Congress have a mandate to remain steadfast to the conservatives who are responsible for electing them."
"Father, there are many who want to destroy us from outside this nation.
Folks like al-Qaeda and the radical Islamists. But there are folks that
want to destroy us from inside, the progressives and the socialists,
who want to make this nation a nation that's no longer under you, under
God, but a nation that's ruled by man."
-- Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA), quoted by the Marietta Daily Journal, comparing progressives to al-Qaeda during the invocation at the Cobb GOP Independence Day Celebration.
David Brooks: "If the Republican Party were a normal party, it would take advantage of this amazing moment. It is being offered the deal of the century: trillions of dollars in spending cuts in exchange for a few hundred million dollars of revenue increases... But we can have no confidence that the Republicans will seize this opportunity. That's because the Republican Party may no longer be a normal party. Over the past few years, it has been infected by a faction that is more of a psychological protest than a practical, governing alternative."
"The struggles of the next few weeks are about what sort of party the G.O.P. is -- a normal conservative party or an odd protest movement that has separated itself from normal governance, the normal rules of evidence and the ancient habits of our nation."
"If the debt ceiling talks fail, independents voters will see that Democrats were willing to compromise but Republicans were not. If responsible Republicans don't take control, independents will conclude that Republican fanaticism caused this default. They will conclude that Republicans are not fit to govern. And they will be right."
Mark Halperin: "Despite the Tea Party, the Twitterverse and the multimedia dilution of
traditional Republican authority, the old-school GOP rules the roost.
Members of Congress, governors, big-time fundraisers, well-paid pundits
and activist shoguns in early-voting states such as Iowa, New Hampshire
and South Carolina still have the loudest voices. Winning the party's
nomination without the backing of a majority of these groups is a nearly
insurmountable challenge."
"Some are resigned to supporting Romney as the best available option for a
viable general-election challenge -- especially those who fear the
Michele Bachmann surge. Others want to see if Huntsman is for real, if
Tim Pawlenty can muster enough dynamism to be the Romney alternative or
if Perry will be as tough and determined a national candidate as he has
been a Texas battler. It could be early winter -- or even the spring of
2012 -- before the establishment gets off the fence. They want to beat
President Obama but still can't figure out how."
St. Petersburg Times: "With each television network and 13,000 to 15,000 journalists in attendance, it is expected to use more cables and fiber connections and draw more electricity than anything ever held in Florida... As a result, organizers are working with Tampa Electric to determine whether they need to bring in additional power."
A comedian pretending to be President Obama at the Republican Leadership Conference over the weekend launched into a comedy routine that quickly became offensive, the New York Times reports.
The comedian, Reggie Brown, joked that Obama only celebrated half of Black History Month because he is biracial and suggested Obama would look like Fred Sanford of Sanford and Son when he was older. Once Brown began mocking the GOP presidential candidates as well, he was asked to leave the stage.
Tweeted GOP strategist Doug Heye: "Wonder why many minorities have problems with G.O.P.? Our own fault,"
First Read says a big finding from the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll is that the Republican Party's honeymoon after taking control of Congress is more than over.
"Consider: Congress' approval rating is a dismal 18%, down four points from last month; it's not been this low since March 2010 (healthcare month) The GOP's fav/unfav is 30% to 44%, compared with the Democratic Party's 38% to 39% score. What's more, only 10% of respondents have a 'great deal' or 'quite a bit' of confidence in Congress, and majorities of ALL respondents (including Republicans) believe the House GOP has not brought much change. And the number thinking the GOP proposal to overhaul Medicare is a bad idea has increased nine points since April to 31%; just 22% believe it's a good idea. The one piece of non-bad news for Republicans in the poll: They're tied on the congressional ballot with Democrats."
Little more than six months since he was sworn in, Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) "has raised his profile and evolved into Illinois' senior Republican," the Chicago Tribune reports.
"For decades, Illinois' Republican leadership came from governors -- James Thompson, Jim Edgar and George Ryan. But the scandals that surrounded the now-imprisoned Ryan and the inability of the GOP to recapture the governor's office the last three elections have elevated Kirk to the premier partisan role in the state."
John Avlon digs into Tim Pawlenty's "dishonest talking points" about his fiscal record as Minnesota governor and concludes the issue "goes back to a deeper fault line in Republican philosophy -- whether fiscal responsibility and fiscal conservatism are the same thing. It's the difference between believing in the old-fashioned virtues of balanced budgets and believing in the transformational power of tax cuts. The first is a matter of simple math. The second is a matter of theology."
"This not only constrains the options open to ambitious but responsible
executives, it creates a dishonest presidential debate from the outset."
"I think one of the great problems we have in the Republican party is
that we don't encourage you to be nasty. We encourage you to be neat,
obedient, and loyal and faithful and all those Boy Scout words..."
-- Newt Gingrich, in a 1978 address to College Republicans.
For more, Mother Jones has a guide to Newt Gingrich's "greatest (or worst) hits of the past 33 years."
A new USA Today/Gallup poll shows American views of the Tea Party turning more negative since January, with 47% holding an unfavorable view of the movement and 33% holding a favorable view.
The 14-point gap is the largest since Gallup began tracking support for the Tea Party, which stood at 40% unfavorable and 37% unfavorable in March 2010 and remained relatively stable until this latest poll.
Boehner's challenge: "The data reviewed here demonstrate the nature of the political challenges Republican congressional leadership faces in responding to Tea Party-supported members. A majority of rank-and-file Republicans nationwide give the Tea Party favorable ratings, but a sizable minority say their opinion is unfavorable or do not classify themselves as supporters."
John Avlon: "The birther conspiracy theory should now be placed on the ash heap of presidential derangement syndromes that date back to at least the John Birch Society's founder declaring President Dwight David Eisenhower a 'dedicated, conscious agent of the communist conspiracy' -- or, a Soviet spy. The sad difference is that back then William F. Buckley had the decency to denounce that fringe fear-mongering because he realized that it could discredit the entire conservative movement. Today, because the fringe is blurring with the base, conservative leaders seem afraid to confront the unhinged extremists in their midst."
A new study published in Current Biology found that political orientations of young adults are correlated with brain structure.
Researchers conducted MRI scans of 90 young adult volunteers and found that self-described liberals have a larger anterior cingulate
cortex, the part of the brain believed to be responsible for rational cognitive functions and empathy. Meanwhile, those calling themselves conservatives are more likely to
have a larger amygdala, an area that is associated with
emotional response and social integration.
Charlie Cook says Republican pollsters and strategists see reasons for concern "that haven't been heard in almost two years."
"Among the worries the party now has is that a government shutdown could get blamed on the GOP. Additionally, these party insiders believe that taking on entitlements, specifically Medicare, could jeopardize the party's hold on the House, its strong chances of taking the Senate and the stronghold that the party has been established with older white voters -- not coincidentally, Medicare recipients."
Key issue: "Part of what is happening is that there is a giant gap between the attitudes of Republican base voters and those who are swing voters."
John Heilemann notes the Tea Party is causing a major split in the GOP House leadership -- we noted it last week -- which might make John Boehner's reign as House Speaker shorter than he planned.
"Indeed, the specter of a Boehner-Cantor split over a budget deal was
the talk of Washington last week, fueled by the majority leader's
conspicuous efforts to put space between himself and the speaker... Now, it's not inconceivable that what was happening here was a classic
bit of good cop, bad cop. But given the overt pressure already coming
from the tea party and the freshmen, it's not as if another snarling law
dog was needed on the beat. A more Machiavellian--and, to my mind, more
plausible--explanation is that Cantor is seeking to bolster his
credentials with the tea party as a replacement for Boehner should an
insurrection arise against him."
Meanwhile, The Hill notes that each of the 87 House Republican freshmen "has been caught between party leadership nudging it toward compromise on one end and anti-spending activists clamoring for a clash on the other... Yet the past weeks have also exposed splinters in the freshman class, showing that the notion of a cohesive bloc is a myth."
The RNC is considering sanctioning a series of monthly presidential candidate debates beginning in August that would be paired with committee fundraisers, The Hill reports.
Politico: "Under the plan, laid out in a one-page memo co-signed by RNC chief of staff Jeff Larson, the candidates would still be allowed to participate in other, nonparty sanctioned debates. But the RNC is offering an incentive to lure the hopefuls to their plan: access to the party's vast fundraising list and voter file... There's no direct suggestion that any candidates who decline to join the
party's debates would be denied the lists, but that's how at least one
adviser to a potential candidate read it."
Ben Smith reports that South Carolina Republican Party Chair Karen Floyd has "brought into the open the simmering tensions between the traditional early states and the others -- particularly Florida -- jockeying to break into the primary calendar. Floyd's demand: If Florida won't step aside, the RNC should move its convention out of the state."
Wrote Floyd in a letter to fellow members of the Republican National Committee: "But what is disconcerting is the apparent recalcitrance of Florida's Republican-controlled legislature, which is in effect thumbing its nose at the RNC - and feels emboldened to do so because of the 2012 convention location. Simply put, if Florida does not respect the process by which our primary calendar was set, the RNC should not be bound to the process by which the convention site was selected."
Former Louisiana lieutenant governor candidate Caroline Fayard (D) is coming under fire for a recent speech where she compared Republicans to animals that eat their own young, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports.
The Bogalusa Daily News reported that Fayard said: "I hate Republicans. I hate Republicans. They are cruel and destructive. They eat their young. They don't think. They don't allow people to think. They are bullies."
She qualified that statement, however, saying she wasn't necessarily bashing conservatives: "I don't hate conservatives. I am very conservative. I go to church on Sunday. I'm Catholic. I'm pro life."
Dave Catanese
notes that Fayard "has been mentioned as a potential candidate to
challenge GOP Gov. Bobby Jindal, who remains without an opponent seven
months before the election."
The RNC has more than $21 million in debt "as previously unknown expenses from the tenure of former chairman Michael Steele continued to surface," the Washington Post reports.
"The RNC actually paid down $1 million from the debt that chairman Reince Priebus inherited from Steele when he took over as chairman in mid January. But, nearly $1 million in debt -- including a $650,000 bank fee that was far larger than the new regime expected -- was unearthed, leaving the RNC in roughly the same debt position they found themselves at the end of January."
Adam Smith notes that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) on the campaign trail had "an uncanny ability to throw red meat to tea party Republicans petrified over Barack Obama's agenda without stepping over the line toward Crazy Town and potentially turning off independent and swing voters. He managed, for instance, to imply Obama had a Socialist agenda without ever to our knowledge using the S word."
"Until now. Fundraising letters tend to embrace extra-heated rhetoric, and in a solicitation for the RNC Rubio calls Democrats socialists."
Jonathan Bernstein: "When Democrats win, as they did in 1992 and 2008, apparently the first reaction of a lot of people is to become very, very easy marks for "conservative" scam artists. So ratings for talk shows skyrocket, and the best-seller lists fill up with anti-Obama and anti-Clinton and anti-liberal books. There's a lot of money to be made! At least, there's a lot of money to be made if you're willing to traffic in wild rumors, apocalyptic comparisons, and extremism of all varieties. But extremism (yes, including in 1994 and 2010) doesn't help politicians get elected."
"The problem, of course, is that to the extent that politicians are self-interested, they face a major incentive to join in the gravy train and cash in by appealing to those easy marks rather than try to appeal to a majority of the electorate."
The RNC "is considering sanctioning the GOP presidential primary debates and then selling the broadcast rights to news outlets," CNN reports.
However, it is unclear "if it is legal for the RNC to sell the broadcasting rights or whether it would constitute a prohibited political contribution in the eyes of federal law."
Former Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) tells the Penn Current the political parties are now "controlled by the fringes."
Said Specter: "It's just raw cannibalism. The fights between the parties have descended to a level where right now it appears we are going to have two years of chaos, until the decision is made about who is going to be elected president in 2012."
"The people didn't send me here to compromise... If we stick together on everything our leadership is screwed."
-- Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL)
"We need to get back to where we can talk about compromise. It's a word that people have kind of demonized."
-- Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL)
The two freshmen representatives were quoted by Time in a profile highlighting the "very different philosophies" held by House Republicans getting ready to work with or do battle against Senate Democrats and President Obama.
Politico has performed an analysis of 105 votes on amendments and final passage of the House bill that would cut federal spending by $61 billion, finding that the House Republican freshman class has voted in near lockstep on every issue addressed in those votes, ranging from abortion and health care to labor and environmental regulation.
"The votes paint a portrait of a freshman class that is more aggressive on budget cutting than the Republican Conference as a whole, more hostile toward organized labor, less accepting of federal environmental protections and divided over how and when to cut funding for national defense, police forces and firefighting. And it's clear the vote-a-rama gave the freshmen a strong sense of both the potential and limits of their own collective clout."
"My name is what happens when a Greek and a German get married. It's a clash of cultures but I am learning to live with it. My kids are Jack and Grace, my wife is Sally, my dad is Richard and my sister is Marie. I don't know how it happened but I am learning to live with it."
-- RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, talking about his unusual name on Fox News Channel's Fox and Friends.
Dave Weigel has a great piece on how the crowd at CPAC is dominated by adoring supporters of the father and son political duo Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) -- much to the chagrin of the event organizers and party brass.
"This annoys CPAC organizers, for two reasons. First: Paul's supporters have all the lungs and confidence of fourth-century Christians overwhelming the pagans. They boo loudly and interrupt the 'war criminals' and 'neocons' that the rest of the crowd spent the last decade venerating... The other annoyance for CPAC brass: The crush of Paul supporters has rendered useless the event's straw poll, once a pretty good barometer to find out who conservatives backed for president."
A Smart Politics analysis of more than 500 PolitiFact stories over the last year finds that statements made by Republican politicians have been rated as false at more than three times the rate of those made by their Democratic counterparts.
Leading the way for the GOP with the largest number of false statements: Sarah Palin with eight, Michele Bachmann with seven, and John Boehner, Mike Pence, and the National Republican Congressional Committee with four each.
Last night's surprising defeat in a vote to reauthorize parts of the Patriot Act shines new light on the influence of the Tea Party on House Republicans.
First Read: "The question for House GOP leaders -- as well as the Obama White House -- is what the vote means on future matters, such as the upcoming push to raise the debt ceiling. This was the first test of the vote-counting abilities of the House GOP leadership. And either they knew this was going to go down and wanted to make a point, or they were surprised, which means their job in keeping their caucus in line is going to be as tough as the so-called 'Conventional Wisdom' crowd has been predicting."
Former RNC Chairman Michael Steele's 2012 convention team "raked up nearly $1 million in charges -- using a line of credit backed by federal funding -- before they were fired by the newly elected party chairman last month," the Tampa Tribune reports.
Example expenses: "They rented an exclusive waterfront mansion, wined and dined at five-star restaurants and hired family members and friends, all on the taxpayers' dime."
"Since the 1970s, the federal government has subsidized both the Republican and Democratic party conventions as part of the public financing program for presidential campaigns. Parties can use the money for any legitimate political expenses."
Dick Wadhams "unexpectedly dropped his bid for re-election as chair of the Colorado Republican Party, warning GOP leaders that their chances in 2012 could be 'severely undermined' by a strategy aimed solely at uniting conservatives," the Denver Post reports.
Said Wadhams: "I have loved being chairman, but I'm tired of the nuts who have no grasp of what the state party's role is."
He added: "I have tired of those who are obsessed with seeing conspiracies around every corner and who have terribly misguided notions of what the role of the state party is while saying 'uniting conservatives' is all that is needed to win competitive races across the state."
RNC chairman Reince Preibus will tap Jeff Larson as his chief of staff, The Ticket reports.
Though Larson was in charge of the party's 2008 convention he also gained another sort of notoriety: He provided his credit card for Sarah Palin's infamous $150,000 clothing makeover.
RNC Chairman Chairman Reince Priebus announced the party has about $23 million in debt as it prepares for the 2012 election cycle, the Washington Post reports.
The committee's year-end financial report will show $21 million in debt through year end, but a more up-to-date total is closer to $23 million. That's about $8 million higher than previously reported.
Mark Halperin: "Not yet. The GOP is offering nothing on the public's Issue One (jobs), while Obama is calling for spending on construction, education and energy. Republicans won in November by critiquing Democrats on Issue Two (the deficit), but Obama has laid a trap. Now that the GOP is running the House, it must deliver the superlean budget it promised without angering Tea Party passionistas who reject compromise with the White House. Obama is using his renewed strength to box the Republicans in."
A new Gallup Poll finds opinions of the Republican Party have improved to the point where now more Americans have a favorable than unfavorable opinion of the party, 47% to 43%.
It's the first time the GOP's been viewed more positively than negatively since 2005.
The Fix: "Even before President Obama took the podium, it was a good night for his party. Why? Because the coverage on all the cable channels leading up to the speech focused on the fact that Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) AND Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) were both slated to give responses to the President's speech. The dueling speeches highlighted the ongoing divide between the establishment GOP and the tea party movement at a time when lots and lots of casual political watchers were tuned in. Republicans need to find a way to heal this rift or at least litigate it in a less public manner heading into 2012."
Recently ousted RNC Chairman Michael Steele tells CNN he's "disappointed" he lost the recent election but that many in his party are relieved.
Said Steele "I think the people in the party, particularly the establishment, are breathing a sigh of relief. They have control of the RNC now; let's see what they do with it."
First Read notes the Republican party's favorable ratings in the latest WSJ/NBC poll have gone from a net positive in December (38%-37%) to a net negative now (34%-40%).
Furthermore, only 25% say the Republicans in Congress will bring the right kind of change.
Said GOP pollster Bill McInturff: "I think this has been a pretty short Republican honeymoon."
He's been ousted as RNC Chairman, but it's worth revisiting why Michael Steele's term was so memorable. He was definitely "the gift that keeps on giving."
Reince Priebus was elected as RNC Chairman on the seventh ballot, replacing Michael Steele who dropped out of the voting after four ballots.
Priebus was the only candidate to gain votes on every ballot.
National Journal: "In winning the chairmanship, Priebus will take over a committee deeply
in debt and beset by management problems after Steele's tumultuous two
years in office. The RNC is more than $20 million in debt, according to
internal finance figures; a $5 million line of credit comes due in late
February, though RNC officials are negotiating a new payment plan."
A year ago at their winter retreat, House Republicans invited President Obama and the media to attend "and were quickly schooled on policy and politics on national TV. Obama stole the spotlight at the Republican meeting, and the GOP looked weak," Politico reports.
This year, Obama "hasn't been invited, and the Republicans are curbing press access to their retreat, a three-day weekend meeting designed to motivate the party as the new Congress begins."
Republican leaders gather Friday to pick a new party chief amid hopes that fresh leadership might revitalize the Republican National Committee, the Wall Street Journal reports.
"But evidence abounds that the RNC's varied woes run deeper than the troubled stewardship of its current chairman, Michael Steele. The organization fell short last year in many of the traditional ways it tries to boost GOP candidates, such as deploying its huge database to find Republican voters and unleashing its usual army of volunteers. It spent a minimal amount on television advertisements, and far less than in 2006, the prior midterm election, on aid to state parties and coordinated campaigns with candidates."
CNN: "It's anybody's guess which candidate will emerge as the next chairman of the Republican National Committee after Friday's election, but RNC watchers largely agree on one thing: the reign of Michael Steele has come to an end."
C-SPAN notes the RNC meeting begins at 10:30am ET with the election of the new Chairman expected to begin around 12:45pm ET.
Mike Murphy: "RNC elections are very hard to predict. They run under special rules of gravity based nearly as much on personal relationships as ideology. My handicapping -- a partially informed guess at best -- is as follows. Reince Priebus, the very able Wisconsin state chair is the clear front-runner. Michael Steele the incumbent is way behind and nearly certain to lose. Most of the voters are still not telling outsiders their choice. But the actual committee members are talking to each other and those of us who have been around politics a long time and know a lot of committee members are hearing a certain buzz from the murky situation.That said, I think the likely final dynamic of the race will be Priebus versus the winner of a not-Priebus contest among the other candidates: (Maria Cino, Ann Wagner, Michael Steele and Saul Anuzis)."
The Hotline's latest whip count for Friday's vote has Priebus at 38 votes, Steele at 17, Anuzis at 14, Wagner at 14 and Cino at 12. There are still 73 undeclared vores.
Mark Halperin: "Despite (or maybe because of) the GOP's big midterm victory, not a soul has stepped forward to be the face of the party. It is always difficult for the opposition to provide a clear counterweight to the President, but never in recent memory has a party, let alone an ascendant one, been so headless."
"Republicans were able to win the midterm rout without a public captain but were outfoxed in December's lame-duck session by a President who took full advantage of the bully-pulpit mismatch. Now Obama has both the platform and the mojo, and it will take a strong Republican voice to be heard."
Matt Taibbi: "John Boehner is the ultimate Beltway hack, a man whose unmatched and self-serving skill at political survival has made him, after two decades in Washington, the hairy blue mold on the American congressional sandwich. The biographer who somewhere down the line tackles the question of Boehner's legacy will do well to simply throw out any references to party affiliation, because the thing that has made Boehner who he is -- the thing that has finally lifted him to the apex of legislative power in America -- has almost nothing to do with his being a Republican."
"I think that there's gonna be politics, that's what happens in Washington. They are going to play to their base for a certain period of time. But I'm pretty confident that they're going to recognize that our job is to govern and make sure that we are delivering jobs for the American people and that we are creating a competitive economy for the 21st Century. Not just for this generation but for the next one. And so my expectation, my hope is that John Boehner and Mitch McConnell will realize that there will be plenty of time to campaign for 2012 in 2012."
-- President Obama, on what he expects from Republicans as he returns from his vacation.
Politico reports incoming House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) asked Chief Justice John Roberts to "preside over the staff ceremony, which may be a first in congressional history. Aides in Boehner's Washington and district offices are expected to take the oath in the Capitol in a private, low-key event with no press coverage."
We noted over the weekend that Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) said she became a Republican after reading Burr by Gore Vidal. However, TPM notes that in 2004 she reportedly attributed her party switch to a different novel by the same author.
Said Bachmann: "I was reading a book, 1876 by Gore Vidal, and what he was writing about just didn't ring true. I remember thinking, 'You are such a fraud. What you're writing about isn't true,' and I remember looking out the window and thinking 'Am I becoming a Republican?'"
In an interview with Human Events, Sen. James DeMint (R-SC) suggests he's doing some fence mending after opposing his fellow Republicans on primary endorsements and key pieces of legislation.
Said DeMint: "Friendships are really important to me, and I love my colleagues, but frankly, I'd just had enough. I think I was right where the rest of America is -- enough is enough. Folks, we can't keep taking home the bacon and take care of the best interest of the country. And so, it was very painful. I think we're trying, right now, at restoring some of those friendships."
Not a big surprise, but Politico finds a majority of the RNC's 168 members indicate that they will not support RNC Chairman Michael Steele for another term.
"Fifty-five members, some of whom have endorsed one of Steele's challengers, have signaled that they will not support the chairman under any circumstances. An additional 33 pledged their support elsewhere. Just as telling, not a single member of the committee said that Steele was their second choice in the race - a grave indicator in a contest likely to be decided in multiple ballots."
Steele will face his rivals at a RNC debate at 11 am ET today.
Former RNC political director Gentry Collins dropped his bid to become chairman of the RNC, explaining to Politico that members of the committee preferred to have one of their own lead the party.
"Collins won the support of only three members of the 168-member committee and it was clear that he faced long odds heading into the final weeks before the party holds its vote for chairman."
While Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) has become a champion of conservative principles -- going so far as to found a Tea Party caucus in the House -- that wasn't always the case. A video shows Bachmann speaking to Michigan Republicans about "how she shed her youthful Democratic roots and became a Republican."
The story: "Until I was reading this snotty novel called Burr, by Gore Vidal, and read how he mocked our Founding Fathers. And as a reasonable, decent, fair-minded person who happened to be a Democrat, I thought, 'You know what? What he's writing about, this mocking of people that I revere, and the country that I love, and that I would lay my life down to defend...I knew that that was not representative of my country. And at that point I put the book down... I looked out the window and I said, 'You know what? I think I must be a Republican. I don't think I'm a Democrat.'"
The Fix notes that of the last 12 party-switchers in the House of Representatives, just six won their next elections. Of the last four party-switchers in the Senate, only Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) won re-election.
"The problem with party-switching is twofold: the party you leave takes it personal affront and does everything it can to beat you AND the party you join is skeptical about your real motives with doubts lingering about whether you are a wolf in sheep's clothing."
RNC Chairman Michael Steele's decision to run for another term caught nearly everyone by surprise.
First Read: "We now know two things about the election for RNC chair, which takes place next month: 1) it will be MUCH more interesting to watch, and 2) it's going to be all about Steele and his stewardship of the committee. At an RNC candidate forum a couple of weeks ago, Steele's tenure was hardly mentioned. Now? It's going to be the chief issue between now and next month's election."
Mike Allen: "Top donors say that if he wins, they will publicly formalize their de facto boycott of the RNC under Steele. So there's going to be pressure for the field to consolidate behind a few challengers. Wisconsin GOP Chairman Reince Priebus is the favorite, and could win outright if Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour publicly embraces him. Otherwise, it'll probably turn into a second-ballot race between Steele and one of the other challengers: Ann Wagner of Missouri, former RNC co-chair; Gentry Collins, who was RNC political director until last month; Maria Cino; and Saul Anuzis, former Michigan Republican chairman."
Controversial RNC Chairman Michael Steele will announce tonight that he is running for re-election, Fox News has learned.
"Ending weeks of rumors that he would not seek a second term, Steele plans to throw his hat into the ring during a conference call with RNC members at 7:30 p.m. ET, the sources said. Steele is said to be amused by false reports of his retirement and intentionally kept his plans secret for the last month in order to flush out competitors for the post, Fox has learned."
Former Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) is likely to enter the race for RNC chairman now that Michael Steele is expected to announce he will not seek reelection, Politico reports.
RNC Chairman Michael Steele is expected to announce he will drop out of the highly contested race to keep his post, sources told Fox News.
Mike Allen: "Friends warn that you never know with Steele, but confide that he has
sent them the clear signal he's dropping out. That's based in part on
the erosion, in the last week, of votes he had been counting on."
RNC Chairman Michael Steele "intends to announce his reelection plans on Monday evening, and key supporters expect him to drop out of the hotly contested race," according to Politico.
Steele "has built no known reelection team or structure, making the prospect of a campaign unlikely in the face of competition that grows fiercer by the day. But allies said Steele has not revealed his plans, and the chairman has been nothing if not unpredictable."
"This weekend is a pivotal moment for D.C. Republicans and how they hold the line on the tax cut deal," notes The Hotline
"Too many Republicans have already voiced support for the deal for them to turn against it unanimously, but you already see supportive members like Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) questioning the actual substance of the bill. It will be interesting to see if the GOP leadership can hold their members in line, because the Tea Party leaders like Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) have already come out against it. As cliché as it sounds, it really is a battle for the soul of the GOP, and whether a place for compromise exists within the party."
The RNC has quietly disclosed more than $4 million in previously unreported debt in amended filings with the FEC, meaning yet another headache for embattled party chairman Michael Steele, ABC News reports.
A must-read New Yorker profile of House GOP leader John Boehner (R-OH) notes he "seemed an unlikely clarion for an anti-establishment revolt" but was actually "among the first Beltway Republicans to recognize that the rise of the Tea Party represented, for Republicans, a near-miracle of good luck."
"Boehner aggressively wooed the insurgents, spending much of the summer traveling, often by motor coach, to campaign events -- he attended more than a hundred and sixty -- and donating millions of dollars from his own campaign chest to the challengers. He adopted the overheated Tea Party rhetoric in vowing to dismantle the Obama health-care plan ('this monstrosity'), and, after the election, he announced a renewal of the Republican moratorium on budgetary earmarks and forswore domestic travel by military jet, a relished perk of his predecessors."
"Do you allow yourself to be held hostage and get something done for the sake of getting something done, when in fact it might be perverse in its ultimate results? It's almost like the question of do you negotiate with terrorists."
-- Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), quoted by ABC News, comparing negotiations with Republicans to negotiations with terrorists.
The RNC acknowledged that the party is facing a "cashflow challenge," the Washington Post reports, "and that many of those who provided political services to it during the 2010 election would not be paid this week as originally planned."
Politico reports an FEC report filed today will show the committee owes $15 million and Ben Smith notes the party laid off 10 staffers yesterday.
Walter Shapiro notes the bipartisan "smile-button summit" at the White House yesterday "was all for show in a political pantomime that fooled only those already credulous enough to believe in Taliban imposters. By Thursday, at the latest, Washington will be back to its old ways by treating the lame-duck session of Congress as a blood sport. Republicans will snarl about the Democrats' support for job-killing tax increases while Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid will fulminate about the GOP's preference for millionaires over hard-working American families. Congressional leaders in both parties will dispense with Standard English and lapse back into a language of epithets known as Partisan Speak."
"Speaker Boehner is our Dwight Eisenhower in the battle against the Obama Administration. Majority Leader Cantor is our Omar Bradley. I want to be George Patton -- put anything in my scope and I will shoot it."
-- Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), in a PowerPoint presentation obtained by NBC News, making his case to become the leader of the House Energy and Commerce panel.
The Hotline notes an interesting statistic of the new political landscape: "In 2011, there will be more Republican minorities holding governorships, Senate seats and representing majority-white House districts than Democrats."
"Overall, the clear majority of minorities in Congress are Democrats. But the numbers above reflect an inconvenient reality that, even with their much more diverse caucus, Democrats face similar challenges as Republicans in recruiting, nominating and electing minority candidates to statewide office and in suburban and rural districts that are majority-white."
The Rubio syndrome: "Of course, the flip side for Republicans is that any time a non-white candidate wins a statewide election, their names immediately vault into contention for national office or leadership."
RNC political director Gentry Collins resigned from his post "with a stinging indictment of Chairman Michael Steele's two-year tenure at the committee," Politico reports.
In a four-page letter to Steele and the RNC's executive committee, Collins "lays out inside details, previously only whispered, about the disorganization that plagues the party. He asserts that the RNC's financial shortcomings limited GOP gains this year and reveals that the committee is deeply in debt entering the 2012 presidential election cycle."
Update: The Fix reports Collins is considering a bid for RNC Chairman.
Michigan Republican National Committeeman Saul Anuzis announced that he'll challenge RNC Chairman Michael Steele for leadership of the Republican party.
Anuzis, who ran for the post two years ago, is the first major challenger to announce a bid to unseat Steele.
Connecticut GOP Chairman Chris Healy "is strongly considering" a bid to replace RNC Chairman Michael Steele and in an interview with Roll Call "unleashed a scathing critique of Steele's leadership."
Said Healy: "I think at some point someone has to step up and say the emperor has no clothes. I'm more than willing to do that. I think I can give the RNC what it needs over the next two years. I don't have any confidence that the current management can get it done."
The Fix: "There is an active effort underway among prominent Republican National Committee members to recruit a serious alternative to Chairman Michael Steele if and when he decides to stand for a second term early next year, according to a series of sources familiar with the conversations."
Sen.-elect Marco Rubio (R) has been tapped by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to deliver this week's GOP response to President Obama's weekly radio and video address, Roll Call reports.
With Tea Party candidates in Delaware, Colorado and Nevada leaving Republicans just shy of a Senate majority, "a bloc of prominent senators and operatives said party purists like Sarah Palin and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) had foolishly pushed nominees too conservative to win in politically competitive states," reports Politico.
"Movement conservatives pointed the finger right back at the establishment, accusing the National Republican Senatorial Committee of squandering millions on a California race that wasn't close at the expense of offering additional aid in places like Colorado, Nevada and Washington state... But the blame over who lost the Senate isn't just taking place within Washington. It's now the turf on which a more fundamental debate within the conservative movement is taking place. It's a familiar purity vs. pragmatism battle that has been raging since the GOP lost its majority status in the Senate."
While some infighting is natural after an election, Republicans seem awfully close to violating the Eleventh Commandment.
Republican sources tell NBC News that Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) may try to run for GOP Conference Chair, now that Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) has stepped down.
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), writing in the Wall Street Journal: "Congratulations to all the tea party-backed candidates who overcame a determined, partisan opposition to win their elections. The next campaign begins today. Because you must now overcome determined party insiders if this nation is going to be spared from fiscal disaster."
"Many of the people who will be welcoming the new class of Senate conservatives to Washington never wanted you here in the first place. The establishment is much more likely to try to buy off your votes than to buy into your limited-government philosophy. Consider what former GOP senator-turned-lobbyist Trent Lott told the
Washington Post earlier this year: 'As soon as they get here, we need to
co-opt them.'"
RNC Chairman Michael Steele, "exuding new confidence after a 48-state 'Fire Pelosi' bus tour, said he may seek reelection as chairman in January despite critics who think he has been weak on money, management and message," Politico reports.
Said Steele: "Oh, if I run, I'm going to win. Yeah, I'm thinking about it, and I'll let people know what I'm doing. I'm not playing coy or cute. I'm going to assess and evaluate what I think the party needs based on how we do this week, where I think the party needs to go based on how we do this upcoming week, what additional work still needs to be done."
RNC Chairman Michael Steele "is taking steps to run for another two-year term and outlined his plan in a conference call last week to a handful of state GOP officials," CNN reports.
In fact, Steele already has picked two current RNC staffers to help run his re-election campaign. He will need to secure the support of 85 RNC members to win another term - half of the 168 people who make up the committee.
"Folks make mistakes. Lord knows I'm familiar with foot in mouth disease."
-- RNC Chairman Michael Steele, on Meet the Press, saying he can relate to Republican candidates "whose campaigns have been pockmarked by poor publicity over gaffes or misstatements."
The Oklahoma Election Board says Republicans "have seen a net increase of 28,599 registered voters since Jan. 15, compared to a net increase of 313 for Democrats," Tulsa World reports.
The St. Petersburg Times has a must-read piece on the incredible rise of former Florida GOP chairman Jim Greer.
"His current predicament is widely known. Much less discussed -- in fact never before told -- is how Greer ascended to such prominence in the first place. He is a man with limited education and a past that includes resume fibs and racy run-ins with the police -- also, though, an undeniable ability to shake the right hands, meet the right people and charm the ones who had what he wanted."
The latest National Journal Political Insiders Poll finds that when comparing the RNC to the DNC, "the 93 GOP Insiders who responded to the poll this week were withering in their assessment and 73% said that the DNC was out-performing the RNC. Only 15% said that the RNC was besting the DNC and 12% said neither committee had stood out."
"To those who say we should focus on fiscal issues, instead of the right to life, I say 'what is more fiscally responsible than rolling back this administration's effort to expand funding for abortion at home and abroad?' What is more fiscally responsible than denying any and all funding to Planned Parenthood of America?"
-- Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), quoted by The Hill, criticizing moderate Republicans for focusing on "public policy alone."
"I will say this: If we do not govern according to our principles and if we don't follow through on the things we say we're going to do, I think there will be a third party in this country."
-- Sen. John Thune (R-SD), in an interview on C-SPAN.
Sarah Palin will join forces with RNC Chairman Michael Steele next month to hold to fundraising rallies, CNN reports.
"With a reputation as a political outsider, Palin's move is partially seen as an effort to mend fences with GOP insiders as she ponders a possible 2012 presidential bid."
House Republicans will unveil their "Pledge to America" today and the early reactions among conservatives are decidedly mixed.
National Review: "The pledge is bolder. The Contract with America merely promised to hold votes on popular bills that had been bottled up during decades of Democratic control of the House. The pledge commits Republicans to working toward a broad conservative agenda that, if implemented, would make the federal government significantly smaller, Congress more accountable, and America more prosperous."
Red State: "These 21 pages tell you lots of things, some contradictory things, but mostly this: it is a series of compromises and milquetoast rhetorical flourishes in search of unanimity among House Republicans because the House GOP does not have the fortitude to lead boldly in opposition to Barack Obama... It is dreck -- dreck with some stuff I like, but like Brussels sprouts in butter. I like the butter, not the Brussels sprouts. Overall, this grand illusion of an agenda that will never happen is best spoken of today and then never again as if it did not happen. It is best forgotten."
"Republicans constantly claim to be the party that defends the Constitution. We have no legitimate right to that claim until we get right on gay rights."
-- GOP strategist Mark McKinnon, writing for the Daily Beast in the wake of yesterday's successful effort by Senate Republicans to block repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
Michael Scherer: "Not since Barry Goldwater thumbed his nose at country-club Republicans in 1964 has a rebel movement created such a crisis of legitimacy among the GOP establishment. And like that rebel movement, this one may spur an evolutionary change in the party that could last a generation."
"At a time of historic economic insecurity, the Tea Party movement has
stolen the hearts of conservatives. It now has a chance to send as many
as seven new Senators to Capitol Hill with their dreams of a radically
smaller government, unfettered financial markets, defanged regulation
and shrinking federal entitlements."
A new Public Policy Polling survey suggests that Republicans may not want their current leaders to keep the reins, even if their party takes control of Congress in November. Just 21% of GOP voters prefer to keep House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), while 57% want to replace the party's leadership.
"Republicans are split over whether Boehner should be elevated to the Speakership, with a third favoring him, a third preferring someone else, and a third unsure. A third also would like someone other than McConnell to become Majority Leader in the less likely event the GOP takes charge of the Senate, but only 27% want McConnell himself."
A new Pew Research/National Journal survey finds that 54% of Americans do not know who leads the Republican party and 18% volunteer that "nobody" leads the party.
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R)
each are mentioned by 5% of the public, while another 4% mention House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH).
Former President Bill Clinton said the Republican Party is embracing "ideology over evidence" and even questioned whether former President George W. Bush would fit in among the party's candidates this year, the AP reports.
Said Clinton: "A lot of their candidates today, they make him look like a liberal."
Christine O'Donnell's surprise victory in the Delaware U.S. Senate GOP primary "left Republicans in conflict, senior party officials openly fretting that the Senate is now out of reach and Democrats overjoyed that the opposition has handed them a late and desperately needed chance to reframe the national argument about the 2010 elections," Politico reports.
"Aside from the political implications of the upset, the outcome prompted a round of deep Republican soul-searching about what it said about their party when a political pillar in Delaware like Rep. Mike Castle, a respected lawmaker who was considered a shoo-in for the Senate seat, could not even come within six points of defeating the controversial and still largely unknown O'Donnell."
Mark Halperin: "She is the canary in the coalmine for a level of intraparty bloodletting that will likely cost the party one Senate seat in November. And if the GOP establishment doesn't figure out how to build a bigger tent and still win elections, the price Republicans will pay will be a whole lot higher starting on November 3, into the new Congress, and when they try to beat Obama in 2012."
The Washington Post notes RNC Chairman Michael Steele "has packed his travel schedule with some unusual destinations in recent weeks: Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands."
"The itinerary is fueling speculation that Steele is positioning himself to run for a second term as chairman -- and concern among some that he may be spending time on that effort instead of on winning midterm elections."
With just over two months until the midterm elections, RNC Chairman Michael Steele is heading to Guam next week, according to a press release.
"Steele will deliver the Keynote Speech at the September 7th Republican Primary fundraiser. He will also be a guest the following day, September 8th, at a luncheon fundraiser also to benefit Guam's GOP Senatorial and Gubernatorial candidates."
Ben Smith notes the trip may be more about securing a crucial group of delegates if Steele is to be re-elected next year.
First Read: "One of the more profound changes in American politics is how much more conservative the nominees inside the Republican Party have become..."
"This rightward movement inside the GOP appears likely to pay big dividends this fall. Republicans are energized, Democrats are not (right now), and the economy is hardly humming -- all of which are a recipe for significant Republican gains in November. But when we head into the 2012 presidential election, when the electorate expands, you got to wonder if a Republican Party that doesn't have room for a John McCain of 2001-2007, a Charlie Crist of 2007-2008, or a Lisa Murkowski of 2010 can reclaim the center of American politics and the presidency, even if they gain control of Congress in the fall."
"The answer to that question is not going to come from me. It's going to come from the results of 2010. It's going to come from campaigns that are run across the country and the platform that candidates run on and people who get elected and go to Washington."
--Marco Rubio, in a New York Times interview, when asked who the leaders are in the Republican Party.
"We are saying to the Republican Party, you know, get some courage to stand up for the things that are right for this country. Don't stand there and hide from the issue because you are afraid of the politics. The issue of public policy that governs the future of my children is more important than your politics, and if you can't see that we'll replace you."
-- Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R), in an interview on Meet the Press, on the Tea Party movement.
The RNC "spent twice as much as it raised in July, leaving the committee with just over $5 million on hand with less than three months left before the 2010 midterm elections," the Washington Post reports.
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) "is the most powerful Republican in American politics -- at least for the next three months," Politico reports.
"Barbour, who runs the Republican Governors Association, has more money to spend on the 2010 elections - $40 million - than any other GOP leader around. And in private, numerous Republicans describe Barbour as the de facto chairman of the party."
"It's not just because he controls the RGA kitty but rather it's due to close relationships with everyone who matters in national GOP politics--operatives like Karl Rove, Ed Gillespie and other top Republicans running or raising cash for a network of outside political groups. Together, these groups are essential to Republican hopes of regaining power because Democrats are cleaning their clocks through more traditional fundraising efforts."
"Obviously he's been a disaster... Michael Steele has failed miserably in the things you're supposed to do -- raise money and basically go out and articulate the message. It's not going to matter though. In 11 weeks from now, what he says and does in the next 11 weeks is not going to matter."
-- Political consultant Ed Rollins, on Face the Nation, on RNC Chairman Michael Steele.
A very interesting finding from the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll: "The GOP has a HUGE generic-ballot edge in the South (52%-31%), but it doesn't lead anywhere else. In the Northeast, Dems have a 55%-30% edge; in the Midwest, they lead 49%-38%; and in the West, it's 44%-43%."
Influential GOP officials called on the RNC to open "an investigation into the leaking of internal documents and sensitive information to the media -- a major source of distraction for the party in this critical election year," CNN reports.
"In one of their first orders of business at the opening of the RNC's Summer Meeting taking place here in Kansas City, Republican state party chairs approved a resolution urging the RNC executive committee to launch an investigation into the leaks."
Former Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) will no longer be attending the RNC summer meeting in Kansas City, CNN reports.
A Coleman spokeswoman did not cite a reason for the change in plans. His decision to stay away from the meeting could be a sign that Coleman is trying to tamp down chatter about a possible challenge to chairman Michael Steele, after his early jockeying irked some RNC members.
RNC Chairman Michael Steele is trying to set up meetings with foreign ambassadors to the United States, according to an email obtained by Politico - "an effort that has puzzled diplomats as well as fellow Republicans."
"The staffs of high-level American political figures typically go directly to an embassy's political officer officer to set up meetings with an ambassador. Steele's outreach to foreign representatives heading into the final stretch of the mid-term election cycle is exasperating senior Republicans, already fed up with the controversial chairman's knack for bad publicity."
RNC Chairman Michael Steele told Evan Gahr that he will seek a second term as head of the Republican party and brushed aside speculation about a potential challenge from former Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN).
Said Steele: "Norm is an old friend. Norm is not going to challenge me for RNC chairman. If he does I'll put my record up against anyone who comes after to me. I feel confident we'll get re-elected. I'm not worried about that part of it."
David Klinghoffer: "With its descent to baiting blacks, Mexicans and Muslims, its accommodation of conspiracy theories and an increasing nastiness and vulgarity, the conservative movement has undergone a shift toward demagoguery and hucksterism. Once the talk was of 'neocons' versus 'paleocons.' Now we observe the rule of the crazy-cons."
A new CNN/Opinion Research survey finds Democrats hold a 46% to 39% advantage over the Republican party "on the question of which party cares more about the needs of people like you, with the Democrats and the GOP tied on which party can bring the kind of change the country needs."
But the poll indicates that the Republicans are "slightly ahead when it comes to which party agrees with you on the issues (a two point advantage) and on which party can improve the economy (a three point advantage). The Republicans hold an eight point margin over the Democrats on which party shares your view of the government and which party can effectively manage the government."
Marc Ambinder: "The chaos at the Republican National Committee threatens to cost Republicans the chance to take control of the House of Representatives, Republican strategists fear. During midterm elections, the national committee plays two essential roles. First, it serves as a bank account that can be drawn upon to shore up House races or put others into play. Second, it coordinates the party's field operations and funds joint Victory committees with state parties. The RNC, at the moment, is barely fulfilling the second function and has less than $10 million on hand, so it cannot help much with House races."
Meanwhile, Politico reports Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) is considering a run for chairmanship of the RNC "and has begun talking to associates about taking on Michael
Steele, should the embattled current chairman seek another term in
January."
The RNC failed to report more than $7 million in debt to the FEC in recent months -- "a move that made its bottom line appear healthier than it is heading into the midterm elections and that also raises the prospect of a hefty fine," the Washington Times reports.
RNC Treasurer Randy Pullen accused Chairman Michael Steele "of trying to conceal the information from him by ordering staff not to communicate with the treasurer -- a charge RNC officials deny." Pullen said that he "had discovered $3.3 million in debt from April and $3.8 million from May, which he said had led him to file erroneous reports with the FEC."
The Hotline notes Pullen's allegations "are sure to incite fireworks" at the party's August meeting. "Both Steele and Pullen have allies on the party's budget committee, where influential members of the RNC often find themselves. The proxy battle between the 2 is likely to dominate the gathering in Kansas City."
Although the RNC insisted it would be reimbursed for expenses at a Hollywood bondage-themed nightclub, the Daily Caller notes that "months later, there's no evidence in Federal Election Commission filings that that has happened."
"According to FEC reports, the California political operative who initially incurred the nightclub expense on behalf of the RNC, Erik Brown, did not send money to the RNC. Neither did an RNC employee, Allison Meyers, who took young donors to the club, which features topless women dancers imitating lesbian sex acts."
RNC Chairman Michael Steele has canceled a planned appearance in Aspen, the Denver Post reports.
He had been scheduled to appear at the Aspen Ideas Festival today for a one-on-one conversation with former Rep. Mickey Edwards (R-OK).
The AP reports Steele is "staying put" as head of the Republican party but GOP elders "are working around Steele, illustrating their lack of
confidence in his leadership."
"This is not President Obama's war. This is
America's war... Michael Steele is backtracking so fast, he's going to
be in Kabul fighting here pretty soon."
-- Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), in an interview on Face the Nation, on RNC Chairman Michael Steele's comments on the Afghanistan war.
Although he fell short of directly calling for RNC Chairman Michael Steele's ouster, the Wall Street Journal reports Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is the highest-profile Republican to withdraw his support from the party chairman.
The former presidential candidate called Steele's recent comments
on the Afghanistan war "wildly inaccurate and there is no excuse for them."
Said McCain: "I think that Mr. Steele is going to have to assess as to whether he can still lead the Republican Party as chairman of the Republican National Committee."
After Michael Steele suggested the Afghanistan war cannot be won, former South Carolina GOP chairman Katon Dawson, who finished second to Steele in the RNC chairman's race last year, is calling on the committee to oust him as chairman, CNN reports
Said Dawson: "The RNC should do the responsible thing and show Steele the door. Enough is enough."
"We don't have a lot of Reagan-type leaders in our party. Remember Ronald Reagan Democrats? I want a Republican that can attract Democrats. Ronald Reagan would have a hard time getting elected as a Republican today."
-- Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), in an interview with the New York Times Magazine, in which he also said the Tea Party is "just unsustainable" and "will die
out."
"As I look out at the political landscape now, I find plenty of slogans on the Republican side, but not very many ideas. Indeed, if you raise specific ideas and solutions, as I've tried to do on health care with Ron Wyden, you are attacked with the same vigor as we've seen in American politics all the way back to slavery and polygamy; you are attacked as being a wimp, insufficiently pure, and unreliable."
A new 527 group conceived by Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie "and launched this year with predictions that it would raise $52 million to support Republican candidates has thus far failed to live up to the fundraising hype," Politico
reports.
In fact, the group, raised only $200 last month "bringing its total raised since launching in March to a little more than $1.25 million."
Jim Greer, the former head of Florida's Republican Party, was arrested this morning, the Orlando Sentinel reports.
Greer has been charged with "four counts of grand theft, one count of attempt to defraud and one count of money laundering for his role overseeing state Republican spending."
The St. Petersburg Times asked Gov. Charlie Crist whether he felt responsible
for his handpicked chair's actions. Crist
answered: "I do not feel complicit."
Jacob Weisberg: "One way to understand the divisions in the Republican Party is as a clash of regional philosophies. Northeastern conservatism is moderate, accepts the modern welfare state, and dislikes mixing religion with politics. Western conservatism is hawkish, hates government, and embraces individual freedom. Southern conservatism is populist, draws on evangelical Christianity, and plays upon racial resentments. The big drama of the GOP over the past several decades has been the Northeastern view giving way to the Southern one. To see this transformation in a single family, witness the shift from George H.W. Bush to George W. Bush."
"For the Republican Party, politically, there's good news and bad news in our new NBC/MSNBC/Telemundo poll on the subject of immigration. Let's start with the good news: The Arizona anti-illegal immigration law, passed by a GOP-led legislature and signed by a GOP governor, has been a short-term political winner. The poll shows that 61% of the public supports the law, and a Republican congressional candidate who backs the law beats a Democratic candidate who opposes it, 40%-26%. But here's the bad news: Latinos, once a semi-swing group of voters, now have swung overwhelmingly for President Obama and the Democratic Party, and younger Hispanics are moving to the Democrats in even greater numbers."
An internal RNC document paints "a damning picture" of the party's finances as compared to the previous five election cycles, CNN reports.
"The document, pulled together during a recent review sparked by concerns over RNC spending practices, said the committee had $12.5 million in cash on hand at the end of April."
"By comparison, the average cash on hand at the end of April from 2002-2009 was $40.4 million. And that average includes the odd numbered years when there are fewer election contests."
Unmentioned in news this morning that the Republican party will pick Tampa as the site for their 2012 national convention: Ben Smith points out the city is known as the "lap dance capital of the world" with 56 different clubs that are adult-oriented.
Given the scandal over RNC expenses at a "bondage-themed nightclub" earlier this year, one wonders if this was a wise choice.
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) "is becoming something of a tea party hero, even a potential conservative kingmaker, a status that is not making the freshman senator many friends among fellow Republicans in Congress," the Washington Post reports.
"His efforts, highly unusual for a freshman, have upset senators on Capitol Hill, where he's viewed by many as an ideologue willing to purge centrist veterans."
Said DeMint: "I feel a sense of urgency that some of my colleagues don't. The Republican Party, at least a segment of it within Washington, has increasingly joined the big-government, big-spending, earmarking ranks."
"In a move that seemed to surprise many members of Maine's Republican Party, a group of tea party-style activists redefined the party platform at the convention Saturday," the Portland Press Herald reports.
A vocal majority "supported a wholesale replacement of language worked on by the party establishment since at least January."
Maine Politics: "The official platform for the Republican Party of Maine is now a mix of right-wing fringe policies, libertarian buzzwords and outright conspiracy theories."
With Sen. Robert Bennett's (R-UT) defeat at the Utah Republican convention over the weekend, First Read notes that for the third time in a year, Republicans "essentially sent a message that one of their elected officials wasn't conservative enough for the party's nomination."
"But what does it say about the size of the GOP's tent that there isn't room enough for Bennett, Arlen Specter, and Charlie Crist? ... And what kind of message does Bennett's defeat send to other GOP officials? (Who will be the next Republican who will want to team up with a Ron Wyden or any other Democrat for that matter?) Translation: Don't be surprised if Lindsey Graham is a no-show later this week when Kerry-Lieberman roll out the energy/climate bill."
RNC Chairman Michael Steele "has asked for the resignation of two senior officials, more fallout from payments for donors at a sex-themed nightclub in Los Angeles," the AP reports.
"Finance director Rob Bickhart and his deputy both submitted their resignations."
Roll Call reports that Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) has "suspended" a Republican policy group just "one year after its splashy launch in part because of the intense negative attention it received from the Democratic campaign committees and other groups after its introduction."
The group "was intended to be a traveling forum of Republican leaders who could engage the public in a broad-ranging discussion of hot-button issues."
"The Republican Party's best-connected political operatives have quietly built a massive fundraising, organizing and advertising machine based on the model assembled by Democrats early in the decade, and with the same ambitious goal -- to recapture Congress and the White House," Politico reports.
"The new groups could give Republicans and their allies a powerful campaign apparatus separate from the Republican National Committee. Karl Rove, political architect of the Bush presidency, and Ed Gillespie, former Republican Party chairman, are the most prominent forces behind what is, in effect, a network of five overlapping groups, three of which were started in the past few months."
Said Gillespie: "Where they have a chess piece on the board, we need a chess piece on the board. Where they have a queen, we shouldn't have three pawns."
Staff departures continue at the RNC, reports CNN, as three members of the communications team are leaving for other political jobs.
A RNC official "stressed that the departures had nothing to do with the turmoil that has rocked the RNC in recent months. Several top officials were either fired or quit the committee last month in the wake of a spending scandal involving a risqué nightclub."
"I think he's a guy who's willing to get down into the weeds. Because he immerses himself in that and understands it so well -- the positions he adopts may not always be the ones that everyone else in our conference comes to."
-- Sen. John Thune (R-SD), quoted by Politico, explaining that Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) sometimes break ranks with his GOP colleagues because he actually thinks about policy.
A new Washington Post/ABC News poll finds the "tea party" movement "appeals almost exclusively to supporters of the Republican Party, bolstering the view that the tea party divides the GOP even as it has energized its base."
That conclusion also suggests that the tea party may have very little room for growth.
Morton Kondracke: "The Republican party is on track to score big victories in 2010, but also in danger of long-term suicide unless rescued from right-wing madness. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham will not be the GOP's savior, but the more the party follows his advice and example, the better off it will be."
A new Pew Research Center survey finds Americans continue to find it difficult to name a leader of the Republican Party. Only 29% of respondents named someone, while 18% said nobody and 52% were unsure.
Residuals from 2008: "Among those offering a name, John McCain continues to be mentioned more frequently than any other Republican as the party's leader, though only 8% of Americans cite him. Sarah Palin is named by 4%, Mitt Romney by 3%, and 2% of Americans name Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich as the Republican Party's leader."
The Republican Governors Association has "embraced the symbolism" of Guy Fawkes, "a Catholic radical who is remembered primarily for his failed attempt, on November 5, 1605, to blow up the Houses of Parliament and kill King James I," Time reports.
A new website, RememberNovember.com, has a
video "that showcases far more Hollywood savvy than one can usually
expect from Republicans. Again, the Fawkes tale has been twisted a bit.
This time, President Obama plays the roll of King James, the Democratic
leadership is Parliament, and the Republican Party represents the
aggrieved Catholic mass."
"The RGA, under the control of Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, is clearly stepping out of the stodgy, safe territory it normally inhabits. It is aiming to tap into the vast well of anti-government fury now coursing through the nation."
Josh Marshall: "I find this completely bewildering. The Republican Governors Association is embracing the mantle of a 17th century radical who tried but failed to pull off a mass casualty terrorist attack to kill the King of England and all of Parliament. Only now Obama plays the role of James I. Guy Fawkes is their new hero?"
A new Gallup poll shows Democrats now have the smallest advantage in political party affiliation in five years. During the first quarter of 2010, 46% of Americans identified as Democrats or leaned Democratic, while 45% identified as or leaned Republican.
However, the six-point rise in Republican support since last year
"is due entirely to a growing proportion of independents who lean to the
Republican Party, rather than an increase in the percentage of
Americans who identify as Republicans outright."
A Marist Poll finds that 79% of Americans think it's a bad idea to replace President Ulysses S. Grant on the fifty dollar bill with that of President Ronald Reagan, while just 12% say it's a good one and 9% are unsure.
"Barely 6 1/2 months before the midterm elections, an internal investigation by the Republican National Committee has revealed that the organization is beset with questionable financial management and oversight and is spending more money courting top-dollar donors than it raises," the Washington Times reports.
"The investigation found that the Republican Party's national governing body is losing money on its major-donors' fundraising program -- spending $1.09 for each $1.00 raised, according to RNC members privy to the investigation's findings. It typically costs about 40 cents for every dollar raised from donors who give more than $1,000."
"Both the national Democratic and Republican party committees spend about two-thirds of the money they take in on the care and comfort of committee staffs and on efforts to raise more funds, with lavish spending on limousines, expensive hotels, meals and tips," a Washington Post analysis shows.
Monthly reports "illustrate cultures in which vast sums are consumed with limited
accountability."
"Neither committee appears to have clear internal spending guidelines, and their reports do not explain hefty expenditures in categories such as 'office supplies' and 'tips' that consume tax-exempt party funds."
The RNC spent more than $340K at a semi-annual meeting in Honolulu in January, The Hotline reports, "the latest example of the party spending lavishly on itself while GOP officials worry they won't have enough money to take advantage of a promising national landscape this fall."
The figure does not include airfare for 33 staffers, which could amount to tens of thousands more.
Some great detail in the Orlando Sentinel on the stunning rise and fall of Florida Republican party chief Jim Greer:
At an out-of-state RNC meeting, "an aide kept walking in and handing notes to Greer." When a concerned committeewoman asked what was happening back in Florida, she discovered the notes were blank. Greer simply wanted them delivered to make himself look important.
"I work every day in this job, as I like to put it, to turn the elephant. Now, I don't know if you ever had to turn an elephant, but the end you have to start with is not necessarily the best place to start."
A new Public Policy Polling survey finds that just 28% of voters across the country say they approve of the current direction of the Republican Party with 51% disapproving.
Among voters who identify with the party, just 54% say they like where it's headed.
The fact that the party is still likely to do well in the 2010 midterms speaks to the bad mood of the country and the poor view of the Democratic leadership.
"A friend who agrees with you 80 percent of the time is your friend and ally. He's not a 20-percent traitor."
-- Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R), quoted by the New York Times, reminding the audience at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference of an old adage from Ronald Reagan.
Smart Politics notes that of the nearly 400 members of the House of Representatives running for reelection, Republicans are 36% more likely to incorporate the United States flag prominently on their campaign websites than Democratic members.
"Five years after President Bush's failed response to a natural disaster in New Orleans deeply damaged his party's credibility and helped sweep them from power, top Republicans speaking to supporters in New Orleans tonight made no mention of Hurricane Katrina," Ben Smith writes.
"The series of speakers to the Southern Republican Leadership Conference at a Hilton conference center on the Mississippi River paid passing tribute to New Orleans' food, its culture, and its championship football team, but made no reference to the disaster still shadowing what Mary Matalin called a 'vibrant city.'"
The Democratic party's favorable rating has dropped to 41%, according to a new Gallup Poll, the lowest point in the 18-year history of this measure.
For comparison, the Republican party's favorable rating is now at 42%.
Late last summer, Democrats enjoyed an 11-point favorable image advantage over Republicans. Now, the favorable ratings of the two parties are essentially tied.
Although the RNC raised more than $11 million in March -- mainly because of the health care battle in Congress -- the DNC raised even more, pulling in more than $13 million.
The RNC at the end of last year "struck a deal with the Michigan Republican Party that if the state party could raise what turned out to be a half a million dollars for the RNC from its donors, the committee would immediately give the money back, in a scheme apparently devised to increase the RNC's 2009 fundraising numbers," the Daily Caller reports.
According to a former RNC offiical, the possible motivation for such a deal was so contributors "would be able to give more money to the Michigan state party than the federal limit of 10k."
Prominent Republican strategist Alex Castellanos called on RNC Chairman Michael Steele to step down "after a series of embarrassing headlines raised questions about Steele's ability to lead the party into November's elections," CNN reports.
Said Castellano: "I think a change in the direction now, at this point, would do the party good."
First Read: "All signs are still pointing to yes. First, we hear that the RNC is set to announce to a big fundraising haul from March (fueled in large part due to health care's passage). It could be the committee's best fundraising month under Steele and PERHAPS the best single fundraising month in the history of the committee (for a midterm year). Second, the new consulting team Steele will bring in also will buy him some time (and perhaps some love from the establishment community that was upset it didn't get a piece of the consultant pie when the Andersons stepped in). And third, we're just too far into this cycle -- it's just seven months until Election Day -- to make this kind of change. To be forced out, a large group of state party chairs would have to get together. And at this point, those folks have their own issues to deal with (including their own state conventions and campaigns)."
"But one thing is crystal clear (and it was crystal clear before the sex-themed club story broke last week): Steele is not coming back to lead the RNC during the 2012 cycle. For all intents and purposes, he appears to be a lame duck chairman."
Joshua Green: "Michael Steele told ABC News that racism lies behind the torrent of criticism he's received pretty much since becoming RNC chairman. Let's get something straight: Michael Steele has plenty of problems, but his race isn't one of them. Steele is hapless, solipsistic, and incompetent. When he isn't embarrassing his party with his personal antics, or his staff's, he's setting it up for failure by driving away its top fundraisers and not keeping pace with Democrats. It's impossible to imagine his magisterial display of buffoonery going unpunished in almost any circumstance -- but it is going unpunished, and Steele appears to be in no danger of losing his job. Far from being a problem, his race is all that's standing between Steele and a pink slip."
"In another serious blow to the Republican National Committee, one of its top fundraisers -- and its few remaining connections to the traditional GOP donor base -- has resigned a senior, unpaid position," Ben Smith reports.
According to another "major Republican fundraiser," former Ambassador Sam Fox was "deeply troubled by the pattern of self-inflicted wounds and
missteps" and had
"lost confidence" in RNC Chairman Michael Steele.
A new Rasmussen survey finds the number of people identifying themselves as either Democrats or Republicans both increased during the final weeks of the health care reform debate.
According to Politico, the RNC sent a fundraising mail piece earlier this month with a return number that leads to a phone sex line offering "live, one-on-one talk with a nasty girl who will do anything you want for just $2.99 per minute."
Sarah Palin has asked the RNC "to remove her name from an invitation that suggests she might attend a series of committee fundraising events timed to coincide with next week's Southern Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans," CNN reports.
Though Palin will speak at the early cattle call for potential 2012 presidential candidates, she will not be participating in any RNC fundraising event.
It's certainly ironic since, as ABC News notes, Palin used rap star LL Cool J to promote her Fox News show without his approval.
As troubles at the RNC mount, the Wall Street Journal reports "a group of former Republican officials are starting an outside political group that could compete with the RNC for wealthy donors and prominence."
"The group, American Crossroads, hopes to raise $52 million from wealthy Republicans and corporations, according to officials involved with the organization. The goal is to mount an independent campaign to help Republican candidates win in the November elections."
The new group "will be run by former RNC Chairman Mike Duncan and Joanne Davidson, a onetime RNC co-chair. Former RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie and former White House adviser Karl Rove are informally advising the organization."
In the wake of the expense scandal at the Republican National Committee, the Family Research Council urged supporters to stop donating to the RNC "and instead contribute to its own coffers or to candidates with like-minded goals," CNN reports.
Said FRC president Tony Perkins: "I've hinted at this before, but now I am saying it -- don't give money to the RNC. If you want to put money into the political process, and I encourage you to do so, give directly to candidates who you know reflect your values."
Earlier, we noted big Republican donors are already bypassing the RNC.
The RNC "has been on the defensive this week because of some questionable expenditures," First Read notes, and is "pushing back today by sending around a list of what the Democratic National Committee has spent money on, including more than $2 million on luxury hotels and caterers, $75,000 for car services, and $262,000 for 'other events' at the Kennedy Center, Fenway Park, and a D.C. nightclub."
The only problem is that there is nothing shocking in the list of Democratic expenditures that comes close to matching what Republicans spent on "bondage-themed nightclubs" and private jets.
Even worse, they've kept the story going for another day.
As a DNC statement points out, "if Republicans want to compare our spending to their spending and allow
us to say 'Michael Steele approved spending money at a Hollywood sex
club' a few more times -- that's fine with us."
Since Michael Steele became RNC chairman in January 2009, "a growing number of prominent GOP donors has stopped contributing to the RNC, choosing instead to direct their money to outlets such as the party's Senatorial Committee," the Daily Caller reports.
"According to filings with the Federal Election Commission, at least eight of the RNC's top individual donors have declined to contribute in the past 14 months... Each of the individuals had a record of contributing thousands to the RNC in past years but since 2009 have chosen to direct their money to the NRSC, National Republican Congressional Committee or individual campaign committees."
"I haven't given up on Republicans. I do believe that there are Republicans of good conscience who want to work together on issues, we want to continue to do that."
-- White House adviser David Axelrod, in an interview with ABC News.
Jonathan Martin: "It has almost become routine now: There is some controversy surrounding Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, Republican professionals are embarrassed, some of them gripe about the latest episode and then they move on -- until it happens again."
The Hotline reports that Allison Meyers, director of the RNC's "Young Eagles" program, was fired yesterday after reports that the RNC reimbursed a GOP operative nearly $2000 for an after party at a topless, bondage-themed nightclub in West Hollywood.
Red County reports that the now scandalous charges for a "bondage-themed nightclub" ended up on a local GOP operative's credit card for just one reason: because the RNC staffer's credit card was declined at the end of the night.
Though the RNC originally blamed the operative, Erik Brown, an email chain reportedly exists to back up the staffer's request: "Please help me out and I'll be sure you are reimbursed right away by the RNC."
"And it's a good thing for him that there is such an email exchange because if not, the RNC might still be demanding that it be reimbursed for those charges, as it thundered in its first reply yesterday morning. Now think about that one for even more than a second, because it represents the type of thing people hate about politicians in general: CYA and throw underlings to the wolves to protect the boss at all costs."
Here are more details on the Republican party's latest headache:
According to Red County, the RNC outing at a "bondage-themed nightclub" was an after-party for a number of young Republicans donors. GOP operative Erik Brown was reportedly reimbursed for nearly $2000 for the party.
"According to sources who were in attendance that night, the 'official' part of the evening started with 50+ person dinner at the Beverly Hills Hotel, then carried on throughout the evening, eventually ending up at Voyeur. While RNC employees, who were in town to recruit members to its 'RNC Young Eagles' program, did participate throughout the entire evening and did find their way to the bondage-themed club, Michael Steele himself was 'not in attendance' for any portion of the evening."
Meanwhile, Tucker Carlson defends his scoop: "The story we ran today is accurate, as the RNC knows."
A RNC spokesman tells Greg Sargent that the party has "undertaken an investigation in the wake of news that nearly $2,000 in party funds was spent at a bondage-themed club that features topless female dancers imitating lesbian sex."
"The spokesperson adamantly denies that Michael Steele was the party who spent the money at the club and says Steele strongly disavows such actions."
Two knowledgeable sources tell the Daily Caller that RNC chairman Michael Steele "once raised the possibility of using party money to buy a private jet for his travel."
"While Steele has not purchased a plane, he continues to charter them. According to federal disclosure records, the RNC spent $17,514 on private aircraft in the month of February alone (as well as $12,691 on limousines during the same period). There are no readily identifiable private plane expenses for Democratic National Committee chairman Tim Kaine in the DNC's last three months of filings."
Another questionable expense: $1,946.25 at Voyeur West Hollywood, "a bondage-themed nightclub featuring topless women dancers imitating lesbian sex."
David Frum told Mike Allen last night that "he believes his axing from his $100,000-a-year 'resident scholar' gig at the conservative American Enterprise Institute was related to donor pressure following his viral blog post arguing Republicans had suffered a devastating, generational 'Waterloo' in their loss to President Obama on health reform."
Said Frum: "There's a lot about the story I don't really understand. But the core of the story is the kind of economic pressure that intellectual conservatives are under... the elite isn't leading anymore. It's trapped. Partly because of the desperate economic situation in the country, what were once the leading institutions of conservatism are constrained."
Former Bush speechwriter David Frum says the "overheated rhetoric" by Republicans over health care reform is paralyzing the party.
"Yes, it mobilizes supporters -- but by mobilizing them with hysterical accusations and pseudo-information, overheated talk has made it impossible for representatives to represent and elected leaders to lead."
"Now the overheated talk is about to get worse. Over the past 48 hours, I've heard conservatives compare the House bill to the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 -- a decisive step on the path to the Civil War. Conservatives have whipped themselves into spasms of outrage and despair that block all strategic thinking."
"I think the Republicans have a level of energy but inside that energy they have their own problem and fissures. They're basically at the behest of a fringe group that's taken control of their own party and their own leaders are scared of it. "
-- White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, in a forthcoming interview on 60 Minutes.
The National Journal's Political Insider's Poll finds that when Republican insiders were asked whether RNC Chairman Michael Steele was an asset or a liability, 71% said Steele was a liability, while only 20% said he was an asset. Another 9% said he was neither or both.
Though Republicans hold a 46% to 43% advantage in the generic congressional ballot, a new Public Policy Polling survey finds the lead "can hardly be taken as mandate, given that 60% of voters disapprove of the Congressional GOP compared to just 23% who think it's doing a good job."
For comparison, the latest WSJ/NBC News poll shows Democrats with a three point edge in the generic ballot, 46% to 43%, as does Gallup, 47% to 44%.
Alan Abramowitz: "2010 is likely to be a very good year for Republicans. Yet there is a real danger that Republican leaders and strategists will interpret a strong showing in the midterm election as vindication for a strategy based largely on energizing the Party's conservative white base. That base is indeed energized. But it is also shrinking due to the steady growth in the size of the nonwhite electorate. By 2020 nonwhites will probably make up over a third of the American electorate. Unless Republicans can expand their support among nonwhite voters, they will have to win a much larger share of the white vote than they have in any recent presidential election in order to remain competitive."
"The way that it was presented as some kind of marketing ploy, I don't like that, but I think there's real substance here. I mean you don't have to put a name on it, but I think it's gone far beyond anything that's liberal."
-- Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), in an interview with the St. Petersburg Times, defending the recently leaked RNC fundraising presentation that claimed President Obama was taking the country towards socialism.
RNC Chairman Michael Steele "is spending twice as much as his recent predecessors on private planes and paying more for limousines, catering and flowers -- expenses that are infuriating the party's major donors who say Republicans need every penny they can get for the fight to win back Congress," Politico reports.
"I'm not frightened by bipartisanship... We should be brave enough to stand up and say let's work together until we finish defeating the left and then we won't have to work with them as much."
Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) "made no apologies for trying to stop President Obama's agenda in Congress, telling conservative activists he proudly wears the 'Party of No' label that Democrats have tried to pin on Republicans," CNN reports.
Said Pence: "Some folks like to call us the 'Party of No.' Well, I say 'No' is way underrated here in Washington, D.C. Sometimes 'No' is just what this town needs to hear."
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) said the Tea Party movement must learn to work with Republicans or they'll see conservatives lose more ground, the Salt Lake Tribune.
Said Hatch: "If we fractionalize the Republican Party, we are going to see more liberals elected."
He also defended Republican use of the filibuster in the Senate.
Hatch: "To pass anything they want in the Senate, they have to get 60 votes, and that is how we stop a lot of crap."
In a four hour meeting with Tea Party activists, RNC Chairman Michael Steele pledged that the national Republican Party "will not to meddle in local races," CNN reports, especially in GOP primaries featuring candidates backed by the activists.
"I think the president is trying to re-engage with Republicans, but, quite frankly, he's not dealing with the party of Lincoln. He's dealing with the party of Palin."
-- Former Clinton White House chief of staff John Podesta, in an interview with the Financial Times.
Politico reports on RNC Chairman Michael Steele's meeting next week with 50 Tea Party leaders noting it "represents something of a breakthrough in the GOP's courting of the tea party. Though Steele and other GOP leaders have occasionally scored meetings with individual leaders of national groups involved in the tea party movement, Tuesday will mark the first large-scale get-together between the national party and grass-roots activists from a wide array of regional tea party groups."
Federal Eye reports the NRCC has sent out another mailer with the word "Census" featured prominently throughout the document. Though the tactic was deemed legal because the mailer did not use the name or seal of the U.S. Census Agency, observers argue it could confuse elderly Americans on the lookout for the government's decennial census questionnaires, which go out next month.
Democratic lawmakers introduced a bill this week that would require mailings with the word "census" to clearly indicate the sender's name and return address and an unambiguous statement that the mailing is not associated with the U.S. Census Bureau.
A new Washington Post/ABC News poll finds that nearly six in 10 Americans say the Republicans aren't doing enough to forge compromise with President Obama on important issues; more than four in 10 see Obama as doing too little to get GOP support.
In addition, nearly two-thirds of Americans say they want Congress to keep working to pass comprehensive health-care reform.
In an interview with Washingtonian, RNC Chairman Michael Steele talks about "a double standard that he believes has been applied by his critics" and suggests it's race-related.
Said Steele: "I don't see stories about the internal operations of the DNC that I see about this operation. Why? Is it because Michael Steele is the chairman, or is it because a black man is chairman?"
Florida Republicans "are livid over newly revealed records that suggest outgoing chairman Jim Greer used the party as a personal slush fund for lavish travel and entertainment," the St. Petersburg Times reports.
Records also show that the party's executive director "padded his $103,000 salary with a secret, $260,000 fundraising contract and another $42,000 for expenses -- at the same time the once mighty Florida GOP was having to lay off employees amid anemic fundraising."
Another sign of trouble: "House Speaker Dean Cannon transferred $665,000 of party money in the days surrounding Greer's resignation to a separate political committee called the Florida Liberty Fund, suggesting lack of confidence in the party election machine."
Nate Silver looks at 25 issues that President Obama has "made an affirmative effort to push forward since taking office a year ago" and and summarized public opinion data on each of them.
Of the 25 issues, Obama's position appears to be on the right side of public opinion on 14, it's on the wrong side of public opinion on five issues and for the remaining six the polling "is probably too ambiguous to render a clear verdict."
Republicans, however, have overwhelmingly opposed almost all of these measures with the exception of three.
The NRCC added 14 new candidates to its "Young Guns" program and promoted 15 of its Young Guns to "Contender" status.
However, the Boston Phoenix notes that of the 14 added, one is a woman; of the 15 promoted, one is a woman.
"There are now four women in the program, out of 64 candidates. That's an even lower percentage than the current female makeup of Republican House members -- which is below 10%."
A new Rasmussen Reports survey of likely voters finds that "voters now trust Republicans more than Democrats on nine out of the 10 key issues" tracked by the poll.
Notable numbers: Voters trust Republicans more than Democrats on the economy by 46% to 42% and on health care by 49% to 37%. Democrats lead Republicans only in government ethics by 33% to 30%.
A new Public Policy Polling survey finds that American voters favor the New Orleans Saints over the Indianapolis Colts in the Super Bowl by a 32% to 22% margin. Another 46% had no preference.
"There's a significant partisan divide within those numbers, as Democrats prefer the Saints by a 36-21 margin while Republicans say they want the Colts to be victorious by a closer 26-25 spread. Independents lean toward the Saints as well, 33-20."
"Republicans are stepping up their campaign to win donations from Wall Street, trying to capitalize on an increasing sense of regret among executives at big financial institutions for backing Democrats in 2008," the Wall Street Journal reports.
"GOP strategists hope to benefit from the reaction to the White House's populist rhetoric and proposals, which range from sharp critiques of bonuses to a tax on big Wall Street banks, caps on executive pay and curbs on business practices deemed too risky."
"Women sometimes need a little more handholding, or they need their friends to help them make a decision. And by our going in and talking to them and recruiting and educating and
training them to either get involved in a campaign or become a
candidate, we're giving them the tools so that they can do that on their
own."
-- RNC co-chair Jan Larimer, quoted by The Hotline, on the Republican party's strategy to recruit more women candidates.
Scientific American reports on a new study in which subjects "were able to accurately identify candidates from the 2004 and 2006 U.S. Senate elections as either Democrats or Republicans based on black-and-white photos of their faces. And subjects were even able to correctly identify college students as belonging to Democratic or Republican clubs based on their yearbook photos."
"The RNC avoided a potentially embarrassing resolution that would have given the party an ability to impose sanctions on candidates who do not follow key elements of the GOP platform, a move that would have shone a spotlight on some of the party's best recruits," according to The Hotline.
"GOPers meeting in Honolulu this week unanimously said the party is in good shape to make big electoral gains this year, but many worried that the proposed resolution could highlight differences between conservatives and several more moderate contenders."
"As much as a lot of you folks may find me fascinating to write about and to opine on and to theorize and to, you know, put out there as some example, whatever, God, I don't know what, but at the end of the day, it's not about me..."
-- RNC Chairman Michael Steele, quoted by The Hotline, to reporters at the RNC meeting in Hawaii.
"Republicans delight in depicting President Obama as hopelessly out of touch with average Americans, but the decision by the Republican National Committee to hold its winter meeting at a tropical resort is turning the accusation on its head," Politico reports.
"Yet at a moment when millions are out of work and millions more struggling to get by, the party's governing board will plot its comeback on the island of Oahu, sipping drinks poolside, catching rays on the beach that abuts the villa and raising questions about whether they're as politically tone-deaf as they accuse the president of being."
A new Public Policy Polling poll found that only 19% of voters nationally are happy with the direction of the Republican Party, compared to 56% who are unhappy with it. Even GOP voters are displeased with where the party's going: Just 38% say they are unhappy with the current direction to 35% who support it.
Analysis: "This much seems clear: if the Republicans keep winning even with a heavily damaged national brand it's an indication voters are choosing much more by what they're against right now than what they're for. I think a GOP controlled Congress for next year is still unlikely but it could be the best thing that ever happened to Barack Obama's reelection hopes."
In a related piece, Politico notes that "it is indisputable that the GOP has surged, especially in the past several months" but that it is "also indisputable that the rise has little to do with the voters' view of Republicans writ large -- and that the very concerns that got them booted from power persist today."
Ramesh Ponnuru: "Republicans shouldn't get carried away. There are 10 months to go before the midterm elections, and the political climate can change a lot in that time. Just ask President Obama: according to Gallup, the proportion of Americans who disapprove of his performance jumped from 26% to 42% over the past 10 months."
The economy could revive
The Republican Party is still unpopular
Republicans are disorganized
Republicans have no agenda
The tea parties are not enough
The bottom line: "The better Republicans' prospects become, the more Americans are going to ask whether the party is ready to lead. Chairman Steele recently said that he wasn't sure it was. It was another gaffe; it was also true."
"Appearing today on Laura Ingraham's radio show, RNC chairman Michael Steele that he wrote his book Right Now before he became chairman. The problem is," TPM reports, "the book itself doesn't read like it could have possibly been written before January 2009 -- it was clearly written in late 2009, either in November or December, and is based entirely on current events up to that point."
"The book is full of references to current events in 2009: The stimulus bill, the health care debate, foreign policy, ACORN, the party switch of Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the Tea Parties and the 9/12 March on Washington, etc."
With Republican party infighting "reaching a crescendo after the latest string of off-message comments" from RNC chairman Michael Steele, "the man who narrowly lost to Steele in last year's contentious race for the chairmanship is re-emerging ahead of an important RNC gathering later this month," CNN reports.
Katon Dawson, who lost to Steele by just 14 votes in last February's RNC election, will be at the committee's Winter Meeting in Hawaii on Jan. 25.
One potential problem if he wants to push Steele out: FITS reports Dawson has rejoined the "whites only" country club that he left a year ago while running for the job.
1. "Crazy nonsense empathetic. I'll give you empathy. Empathize right on your behind. Craziness."
-- Steele, explaining why he's opposed to empathetic judges.
2. "The problem that we have with this president is we don't know him. He
was not vetted, folks... He was not vetted, because the press fell in
love with the black man running for the office."
-- Steele, forgetting President Obama actually won a national election.
3. "Could you help a brother out? No more national conventions with 36
people of color in the room."
-- Steele, urging Florida Republicans to send delegates to the Republican National Convention who "look like Florida."
4. "It's not even really a web site."
-- Steele, trying to downplay technical problems with the redesigned RNC web site.
5. "I can say without hesitation that this government is totally theirs...
Everything that comes out of it and everything that results from it is
on their plate."
-- Steele, almost gleeful that Republicans lost the U.S. Senate race in Minnesota.
RNC Chairman Michael Steele has taken a lot of heat lately, but one has to question how he could write a book offering a blueprint for how Republicans could win back power, when as Greg Sargent notes, no one seemed to even know he was writing one.
Said one senior Republican: "Everyone came to work one day and said, 'Hey, Steele has written a book.'"
"Michael Steele makes a number of old-time Republicans very nervous. He comes out of a different background. He went to seminary ... he's African-American ... But I think he's pretty close to what we need. He's different, he's gutsy and he's going to make a number of Republicans mad."
-- Newt Gingrich, quoted by the Los Angeles Times, on the RNC Chairman.
The Hotline reports House and Senate leadership aides "are furious with RNC chair Michael Steele and have angrily confronted the RNC's press shop over their inability to keep the chair on message."
In a daily conference call with congressional aides, a senior RNC press aide "admitted the shop had no control over Steele's interviews as he embarks on a book tour to sell his blueprint for a GOP comeback. Steele has hired a public relations firm, the RNC aide said, and the press shop has no control over when interviews are scheduled."
"I'm telling them and I'm looking them in the eye and say I've had enough of it. If you don't want me in the job, fire me. But until then, shut up. Get with the program or get out of the way."
-- RNC Chairman Michael Steele, in an ABC News Radio interview today, to a group of prominent Republicans who have blasted him over his leadership.
Jim Greer, the embattled chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, will resign, CNN reports.
"The longtime ally of Gov. Charlie Crist has been under fire for his management of party money and his involvement in contested primaries. Critics of the chairman -- including backers of Marco Rubio, Crist's conservative rival for the GOP Senate nomination -- have been demanding his ouster for months. Greer was appointed by Crist in 2007."
The battle for the soul of the Republican party has taken another victim.
Update: Greer's statement: "I cannot be a participant in the shredding and tearing of the fabric of the Republican party."
Newsweek reports "the NRCC's fundraising woes are also a sign that the insurgent Tea Party movement that's energized the conservative base has yet to pay off for the Republican Party in terms of small-scale donations -- the kind of grassroots support that proved critical to bringing Obama and congressional Democrats to power last year."
"A call to arms for grassroots America, this book argues for abandoning 'conservatism-lite,' returning to core conservative principles, and launching an uncompromising campaign for limited government. The path to a Republican renaissance has already been laid, says Steele: the target is the Obama agenda, the method is active opposition, and the time is Right Now."
RNC Chairman Michael Steele "is using his title to market himself for paid appearances nationwide, personally profiting from speeches with fees of up to $20,000 at colleges, trade associations and other groups -- an unusual practice criticized by a string of past party chairmen," the Washington Times reports.
"Mr. Steele, elected in January to the $223,500-a-year RNC post, is working with at least four outside agencies in Washington, New York, Boston and Nashville that book the speaking engagements. He charges between $8,000 and $20,000 for an address, plus first-class travel and lodging expenses."
Said former RNC Chairman Frank Fahrenkopf: "Holy mackerel, I never heard of a chairman of either party ever
taking money for speeches. The job of a national chairman is to give speeches. That's
what the national party pays him for. We didn't have a rule book back
then, but being national chairman was and is a full-time job."
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), the chairman of the Senate Republican Steering Committee, is locked in a battle with National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn (R-TX) over the future makeup of the Senate Republican conference, The Hill reports.
Said DeMint: "Every Republican campaigns on being a conservative, but if you look at what we do once we're in office, most people join the club rather than the country after they get here, particularly in the Senate."
A new Public Policy Polling survey finds that there are still more Republicans unhappy with their party in Congress than Democrats: 35% of GOP voters expressed disapproval of their leaders in Washington while 27% of Democrats did.
The big difference: By a 77% to 12% margin, GOP voters mad at their party still plan to vote for it next year. The Democrats displeased with theirs only plan to support it by a 54% to 38% margin.
Arizona Republican Party executive director Brett Mecum is the subject of a criminal complaint "alleging he used the Republican's voter database to stalk a young female graduate student," reports the Huffington Post.
According to the affidavit, Mecum "is using Voter Vault to stalk." Voter Vault is used by the Republican Party to micro-target the party's message and to canvas specific demographics.
The Hill reports that GOP opposition has solidified against the administration's agenda, noting that House Republicans voted unanimously against all three major Democratic bills in December.
While the House has passed an omnibus spending bill, estate tax cut extender and financial regulatory reform measures since the beginning of the month, "not one Republican backed any of the measures."
The Republican National Committee "will launch a round of national radio ads touting the party's efforts to stand in the way of health care reform," reports The Hotline.
The 6-figure ad buy, hitting the airwaves Wednesday, features RNC Chairman Michael Steele "arguing the GOP is blocking new entitlement programs that will hike costs."
Last week, Steele released a memo urging Republicans to "spend every bit of capital and energy you have to stop this health care reform."
David Frum thinks the Republican's "no, no, no" policy is a losing strategy.
"The furious rejectionist frenzy of the past 12 months is exacting a terrible price upon Republicans. We're getting worse and less conservative results out of Washington than we could have negotiated, if we had negotiated... Even if we gain seats in 2010, the actions of this congressional session will not be reversed. Shrink Medicare after it has expanded? Hey, we said we'd never do that."
"I hear a lot of talk about the importance of 'principle.' But what's the principle that obliges us to be stupid?"
"One of the things that concerns me is that in the United States there's a real talk of 'maybe we need to have this big tent and make sure that we just accommodate every view.' That's what will kill the conservative movement."
-- Mike Huckabee, speaking at a fundraiser last week in Canada.
A new Washington Post poll finds Republicans and GOP-leaning independents are "overwhelmingly negative" about President Obama and the Democratic Party more broadly, "with nearly all dissatisfied with the administration's policies and almost half saying they are 'angry' about them. About three-quarters have a more basic complaint, saying Obama does not stand for 'traditional American values.' More than eight in 10 say there is no chance they would support his reelection."
However, the survey "also reveals deep dissatisfaction among GOP voters with the party's leadership as well as ideological and generational differences that may prove big obstacles to the party's plans for reclaiming power."
If the conservative "purity test" is enacted by the RNC next year, The Hotline notes it would have the effect of eliminating several prominent GOP Senate recruits from receiving party money, including Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) and Rep. Mike Castle (R-DE).
First Read: "The Cold War ended some 20 years ago... Income-tax rates are at historically low levels... And does anyone remember what a "Contra" is? It's a lot like how it took Democrats generations to kick their Kennedy and FDR habits. Can the GOP keep playing the Reagan card in a world that's changed so much since his presidency? Did you know that the youngest person to have cast a ballot for Reagan in 1984 is now 43 years old? And that, by 2012, that person will be 46?"
"It's amazing what everyone in the conservative movement now applies to Reagan. As we and others have pointed out, Reagan himself might not have passed this purity test when he was governor of California or even president (remember his tax increases, the deficits he racked up, and his amnesty for illegal immigrants?). A Bush has run for president FOUR of the last SIX presidential elections, and yet that name apparently is now a four-letter word with GOP activists. They need someone else to rally around. So in the absence of someone currently, the gravitation is Reagan. We get it on one level. But the nostalgia doomed the Democrats for years because the hardest thing to do in politics is look favorable against a ghost. It can't be done."
Politico: "Trevor Francis, communications director of the Republican National Committee, abruptly resigned Monday, and two Republican strategists familiar with the situation said he was pushed out because Chairman Michael Steele didn't feel he was getting enough credit for the GOP's electoral success earlier this month."
First Read has obtained a resoultion being e-mailed around to Republican National Committee members for comments that proposes a conservative litmus test of sorts for candidates.
If a candidate disagrees with three of the 10 items on the list, the RNC would withhold financial assistance and an endorsement from that
candidate.
A new CNN/Opinion Research poll suggests that the Democrats may be the party of pragmatism and Republicans may be the party of
ideological purity.
"The poll indicates that a slight majority, 51%, of Republicans
would prefer to see the GOP in their area nominate candidates who agree
with them on all the major the issues even if they have a poor chance of
beating the Democratic candidate. Forty-three percent of Republicans say
they would rather have candidates with whom they don't agree on all the
important issues but who can beat the Democrats."
In constrast, Democrats polled "seemed to place a slightly higher priority on electoral
victory: 58% say that they would like their party to nominate
candidates who can beat Republicans, even if they don't agree with those
candidates on all the issues."
Jon Meacham: "Her political celebrity is so powerful that it has reduced a large part of the Republican Party to irrationality and civic incoherence. According to Gallup, Republicans are more likely to say they would seriously consider voting for Palin for president (65 percent) than to say she is qualified for the job (58 percent). At the moment she is promoting a book. But she is also, inevitably, promoting a distinctive political sensibility."
"What Obama advisers privately refer to as 'Palinism' has created a climate of ideological purity inside the GOP. To deviate from the anti-Obama line at all -- that is, to acknowledge that politics is the art of compromise -- risks the censure of the party."
After news broke that the RNC's health insurance covered abortions, Politico reports the party will opt out of such coverage.
Said RNC Chairman Michael Steele: "Money from our loyal donors should not be used for this purpose. I don't know why this policy existed in the past, but it will not exist under my administration. Consider this issue settled."
Until the announcement, the RNC's plan had covered elective abortion -- a procedure the party's own platform calls "a fundamental assault on innocent human life."
The RNC's health insurance plan "covers elective abortion -- a procedure the party's own platform calls 'a fundamental assault on innocent human life,'" reports Politico.
FEC records "show the RNC purchases its insurance from Cigna. Two sales agents for the company said that the RNC's policy covers elective abortion."
Politico notes that the "growing schism between the Republican Party's ascendant right wing and its shrinking moderate core has clear gender undertones" which "raises fresh questions about the GOP's ability to recruit, elect and even tolerate the sort of moderate women who used to be part of its ruling mainstream."
Key statistic: There are just 17 Republican women in the House today.
"And with less than a year to go before the 2010 midterm elections, Republicans have enlisted just 13 more to challenge Democratic incumbents. Even if all of them won, Republicans would have at most 30 women in the House -- about half the number Democrats now have."
Gawker has an interesting video of RNC new media director Todd Herman pointing out that Fortune 500 companies -- and presumably political parties -- can learn a lot from the Internet communication strategies of Al Qaeda.
The video was shot when Herman still worked for Microsoft.
First Read: "While impressions of Obama's professional performance are mixed, the same can't be said of the Republican Party at large. Put simply, the GOP's brand is still a mess. According to the poll, just 25% have a positive opinion of the party (compared with 42% for the Dem Party), which ties the GOP's low-water mark in the survey and which is a worse score than it ever had during the Bush presidency. (Honest question: Can the party still blame Bush for their problems if their numbers have gotten lower since he left the scene?) In addition, only 23% approve of the way in which congressional Republicans have handled health care (compared with 43% for Obama). And looking ahead to the 2010 midterms, 46% prefer a Democratic-controlled Congress, versus 38% who want a GOP-controlled Congress. Last month, Dems held a 43% to 40% advantage."
"Also, don't miss this: Despite being out of office and (relatively) out of the news, Sarah Palin's fav/unfav in our poll has dropped from 32%-43% in July to 27%-46% now. In fact, her numbers now are nearly identical to Nancy Pelosi's (26%-42%). By the way, both Palin and Pelosi are more popular than the Republican Party."
"And so this idea that we're suddenly going to establish litmus tests, and all across the country, we're going to purge the party of anybody who doesn't agree with us 100 percent -- that guarantees Obama's reelection. That guarantees Pelosi is Speaker for life. I mean, I think that is a very destructive model for the Republican Party."
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is out with a new political ad spoofing the now famous Apple advertisements. However, instead of "I'm a PC and I'm a Mac," it's now "I'm a Democrat and I'm a Republican."
"I sense that our party is kind of in a nostalgic mode where we look back to the good old days. However good they were, and there were some good days, is completely irrelevant in 2009... We just can't be the party of no. Republicans need to offer, based on their own principles, solutions to these problems."
-- Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R), quoted by the GW Hatchet, on the Republican Party.
A new CNN/Opinion Research poll finds the Republican Party's favorable rating is at lowest level in at least a decade. Just 36% of those questioned say they have a favorable opinion of the GOP, with 54% viewing the party negatively.
In contrast, 53% have a positive opinion of the Democratic Party, with 41% holding an unfavorable view.
Said pollster Keating Holland: "The Republican party may still be battling the legacy left to them by George W. Bush. They have also spent a lot of time in 2009 working against Democratic proposals. That hasn't left them a lot of time so far this year to present a positive, post-Bush message."
Mike Allen notes a Pew Research survey shows "the share of independents in the electorate is the highest in 70 years (36 percent), while the share of voters who call themselves Republicans is the lowest in 30 years (23 percent, compared to 35 percent for Democrats)."
"If you seek to be a perfect minority, you'll remain a minority. That's not how Reagan built his revolution or how we won back the House in 1994."
-- Newt Gingrich, quoted by The Corner, defending his endorsement of Dede Scozzafava (R) in the upcoming NY-23 special election over Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman.
The Republican National Committee reported raising $22.9 million for the 3rd quarter. By comparison, the Democratic National Committee reported $24.2 million for the quarter.
NBC News: "In fact, the DNC says that this is the first quarter they've outraised the RNC since 2004. Of course, it helps having an incumbent president raising money for you, as he's doing tonight."
Overlooked in the new Washington Post/ABC News poll: Just 20% of Americans nationally identified themselves as Republicans, the lowest that number has been since 1983. In contrast, Democrats are at 33% and independents are at 42%.
Brutal finding: "Less than one in five voters (19%) expressed confidence in Republicans' ability to make the right decisions for America's future while a whopping 79% lacked that confidence."
Former Rep. Mickey Edwards (R-OK), writing for The Atlantic:
"Here's the thing. One campaigns as a member of a party (Madison's warnings against parties -- permanent factions -- having been long since disregarded) but on election steps across an invisible line and becomes not a representative of a political faction but a part of the government sworn to serve the nation's interests rather than the cause of partisan advantage. That may lead one to vote for or against a proposition, but for reasons other than, and far more important than, the desire to be true to one's team. Olympia Snowe is guilty of no more than having taken her oath of office seriously. It's something more of her colleagues should try."
Focus groups by Democracy Corps (D) find that those who make up the base of the Republican Party "stand a world apart from the rest of America."
"These base Republican voters dislike Barack Obama to be sure -- which is not very surprising as base Democrats had few positive things to say about George Bush -- but these voters identify themselves as part of a 'mocked' minority with a set of shared beliefs and knowledge, and commitment to oppose Obama that sets them apart from the majority in the country. They believe Obama is ruthlessly advancing a 'secret agenda' to bankrupt the United States and dramatically expand government control to an extent nothing short of socialism. They overwhelmingly view a successful Obama presidency as the destruction of this country's founding principles and are committed to seeing the president fail."
Interestingly, though many have suggested race is a factor in criticisms of President Obama, the topic rarely came up in these focus groups.
Some interesting comments on reports that Senate Republicans were playing hardball with Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) by threatening to block her from a key committee post if she backed the health care reform bill:
Matthew Yglesias: "The Republicans do this the right way. The Senate Republican caucus is organized, like the House caucuses of both parties, like a partisan political organization whose objective is to advance the shared policy objectives of the party. The Senate Democratic caucus, by contrast, is organized like a fun country club trying to recruit members. Join Team Democrat and Vote However You Want Without Consequence! But it's no way to get things done."
Steve Benen: "It often goes overlooked, but it's worth remembering that the Senate Republican caucus, unlike Senate Democrats, have mechanisms in place to enforce party unity and discipline. When Democrats break party ranks on key bills, there are no consequences. Those who let GOP leaders down, however, know in advance that enticements like committee positions are very much on the line."
Marc Ambinder explains why the redesign of the official Republican party website has fallen flat:
"It's not timed with the start of any major advocacy campaign -- or political campaign. And it portrays itself as something it's not: diverse and ready to embrace new ideas. That may be what the party leadership aspires to, but, at least when it comes to diversity, a few pictures of Hispanics and African Americans doesn't make up for... well, the history of the party."
Making matters worse, the site has been down repeatedly throughout the day.
The Obama campaign's former online guru, Joe Rospars, to TPM: "You
know your web program is in trouble when your site can't even handle
the traffic bump from people making fun of your web program."
"I am not the leader of the Republican Party. Don't want to be the leader of the Republican Party. It's silly for them to keep talking about how I'm the leader of anything, it's just creating more curiosity about me. It's 21 years, more popular than ever. Lord, thank you for my enemies."
"The reality of it is that Fox News often operates almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party. And it is not ideological... what I think is fair to say about Fox, and the way we view it, is that it is more of a wing of the Republican Party."
-- White House communications director Anita Dunn, in an interview on CNN.
A new Quinnipiac poll shows President Obama's approval rating holding steady at 50%, but finds Republicans get their lowest grades since Obama was elected on several measures:
Voters disapprove 64% to 25% of the way Republicans in Congress are doing their job, with even 42% of Republican voters disapproving
Only 29% think Republicans on Capitol Hill are acting in good faith
Voters trust Obama more than Republicans 47% to 31% to handle health care
By a 53% to 25% margin, voters have an unfavorable opinion of the Republican Party
Said pollster Peter Brown: "Republicans are taking a public opinion pounding."
The poll also finds voters oppose President Obama's health care reform plan, 47% to 40%, but they do back specific features of it, including overwhelming support for a public insurance option.
Even after an exciting presidential election, recent polls indicate Americans are still very much consumed with political news. Political Wire's continually growing traffic confirms this finding.
However, Public Opinion Strategies (R) notes that what's driving this "is the surge in Republican interest. In 2005, the last year following a presidential election, Republicans, Independents, and Democrats all reported roughly the same level of interest in the news. But this year, four-in-ten Republicans say they are following national political news 'very closely' -- up 15 points from 2005, and fully 11 points higher than their Democratic counterparts today."
David Leonhardt: "One of the country's two political parties has no answer to an enormous economic issue -- the fact that the federal government cannot pay for its obligations. This lack of engagement is a problem, just as it was a problem when Democrats were saying that welfare was working, teachers' unions were always right and stagflation couldn't happen."
"For now, there is little reason to think the Republicans are on the
verge of a Clinton-like reform. But it is hard to see how they can
ultimately stick to their current platform."
On Laura Ingraham's radio show, RNC Chairman Michael Steele responded to his reported slap down by Republican lawmakers for meddling in policy issues.
STEELE: No I'm not going rogue and that's a factual inaccuracy, I did consult with Senator McConnell and Congressman Boehner... Again that is typical Washington stuff, trying to create a tempest in a teapot... The one thing I've always stated from day one is I don't do policy, I do politics...
INGRAHAM: Were you told to stop meddling in policy?
STEELE: No I wasn't told to stop meddling in politics. A certain one or two senators wanted to know what that was all about... There's some staffers who clearly have a bug up their you know what. That's their problem.
After reading about the GOP slap down of RNC Chairman Michael Steel, First Read asks, "Is Steele to the RNC and the DC GOP establishment what Howard Dean was to the DNC and the DC Dem establishment? Sure looks like it to us."
Of course, there's one major difference: Dean was loved by the Democratic base, while most Republicans seem indifferent to Steele.
Republican leaders, "in a private meeting last month, delivered a blunt and at times heated message to RNC Chairman Michael Steele: quit meddling in policy," reports Politico.
Lawmakers "were particularly miffed that Steele had in late August unveiled a seniors' 'health care bill of rights' without consulting with them."
"Steele was taken aback by the comments from House Minority Leader John Boehner, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, Senate GOP conference Chairman Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Senate GOP policy Chairman John Thune of South Dakota and grew defensive during the 10-minute discussion."
"The RNC, according to one source, was planning to roll out more policy initiatives."
Ed Kilgore: "It's possible, and perhaps even probable, that the GOP strategy for 2010 is to create a political environment so toxic and voter-alienating that Republicans can win a very low turnout election by whipping their base into a genuine frenzy. That's obviously not a very good scenario for the country, and it remains to be seen if it's even good for the GOP."
Ronald Brownstein notes that in midterm elections, "the electorate tends to be whiter and older than in presidential elections" which should help Republicans in next year's midterms.
"But that dynamic also means that Republicans could do very well in 2010 without solving their fundamental demographic challenges. In the 2012 presidential election, the young and minority voters central to Obama's coalition are likely to return in large numbers. The risk to the GOP is that a strong 2010 showing based on a conservative appeal to apprehensive older whites will discourage it from reconsidering whether its message is too narrow to attract those rapidly growing groups."
Brendan Nyhan: "In short, there's no question that the GOP party brand is in worse shape than any opposition party in recent memory. The question, however, is whether this difference in party valence will (a) persist through next November and (b) translate into fewer GOP House seats at the polls, especially once we account for the generic Congressional ballot, which should (in principle) take much of this difference into account... Those questions remain to be addressed."
Sen. John McCain "is working behind-the-scenes to reshape the Republican Party in his own center-right image," Politico reports.
He is "recruiting candidates, raising money for them and hitting the campaign trail on their behalf. He's taken sides in competitive House, Senate and gubernatorial primaries and introduced his preferred candidates to his top donors."
"It's all part of an approach that is at odds with most other recent failed presidential nominees, whose immediate response to defeat was to retreat from the electoral arena. But those familiar with McCain's thinking say he has expressed serious concern about the direction of the party and is actively seeking out and supporting candidates who can broaden the party's reach."
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) urged his party "to shift to offering health care solutions instead of just rejecting what President Obama and the Democratic majority in Congress are proposing," reports Politico.
Said Jindal: "I think now is the perfect time to pivot and to say, not only here's what we're against, and not only here's how we're going to contrast ourselves, but here's what we're for."
Sources tell Politico that the House GOP leadership is "especially wary" of the damage inflicted on the party's reputation by bomb-throwing Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), who called last year for an investigation into whether members of Congress are "pro-America or anti-America."
"Like all conservatives, I am concerned about this administration's accumulation of economic power. Still, you have to be aware that there's a line where legitimate concerns begin to collapse into paranoid fantasy."
-- Former Bush speechwriter David Frum, quoted by the Los Angeles Times, worried that the GOP base is being whipped up by extreme rhetoric and conspiracy theories.
Looking at party identification nationally, a new Public Policy Polling survey finds Democrats
dropping from 40% to 35% since April with independents as the main beneficiary, going
from 27% to 30%. Republicans have gained a point, from 33% to 34%.
However, as was pointed out yesterday, the most striking movement is
among senior citizens. In April, PPP had them breaking down evenly between the
parties at 37%, with 26% as independents. Today, 46% identify as Republicans, 33% as Democrats and 22% as independents.
Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) "generated the kind of buzz other politicians covet when he launched his bid to help rebrand the Republican Party last spring," Politico reports.
But his National Council for a New America "has since flamed out -- at least publicly."
"Since its launch, the National Council hasn't held a single public event, despite more than 5,000 invitations to take their show out on the road. Congressional ethics rules limit what Cantor can do with the group because he launched it from his leadership office, making it harder to organize events and recruit partners. Despite that caution, the group is still taking heat from outside watchdog groups that argue he is violating the spirit, and perhaps the letter, of those rules."
Republicans played a trick on Democrats today by redirecting angry telephone calls coming into their switchboard to the Democratic National Committee, CNN reports.
"The DNC released a Web video early in the morning accusing the GOP of inciting mob activity at town hall meetings. At the end of the video, the DNC instructs people to call the Republican National Committee to express outrage. Callers who dial the RNC's main number to voice their concern about the DNC's charges are told to press 1, which sends them to the DNC's main switchboard."
Update: The Washington Independent reports RNC Chairman Michael Steele took full credit for the phone prank.
An analysis of Gallup Tracking Poll data finds just four states "show a sizeable Republican advantage in party identification, the same number as in 2008. That compares to 29 states plus the District of Columbia with sizeable Democratic advantages, also unchanged from last year."
Massachusetts is the most
Democratic state in the nation, along with the District of Columbia.
Utah and Wyoming are the most Republican states.
In an interview on Hardball, former Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA) followed up on recent comments made by Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH) about how the Republican party is losing its appeal.
Said Davis: "Politics has been defined by culture over the last few cycles, and we've become a rural party and a Southern party. We've been losing inner suburbs and the like. A lot of this was the policies of the Bush administration."
Furthermore, as the GOP increased its focus on cultural issues, it also caused a widening education gap:
Davis added: "The high education areas Obama carried -- 78 of the 100 counties with the highest education. McCain carried 88 of the 100 counties with the lowest education. As we move to cultural politics, that's been the shift."
"Political comebacks tend to come in two forms. The first is when a party stumbles back into power because of the mistakes by the other side. A classic instance came in 1976, when Watergate enabled Jimmy Carter to win the presidency," notes Adam Nagourney.
"The second kind of march back to power, which takes longer but is more enduring, reflects a party's success in coming to grips with changing conditions -- demographic, ideological or both -- and in finding a leader who has mastered the new political terrain. Mr. Nixon did this in 1968, and Bill Clinton did it in 1992."
"Republicans today seem to be fixated on the first form of comeback."
"Comeback kids are nothing new in American political history -- think back no further than Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton -- but there may be no more compelling rehabilitation story today than that of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who has once again emerged as a rallying force for dispirited Republicans and a font of ideas second to none in his party," the Washington Times reports.
The Gingrich comeback strategy "includes building a center-right majority in Congress and the state legislatures -- regardless of party identification -- even if that means the heretical idea of Republicans actively promoting and backing conservative Democratic candidates in selected races where a GOP candidate would have little chance of winning."
Said the former House Speaker: "I would urge conservatives in California to find a Democrat to run in
every Assembly and Senate seat in California that can't be contested by
Republicans, and then to run a Republican in every seat they could
possibly win, and then have an overt goal of creating a bipartisan
conservative coalition. I'd do the same thing
nationally."
Jonathan Martin and Chris Cilliza rave about "an inspired performance" on Meet the Press by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) yesterday.
"Why? Because unlike other Republicans who seem to be so fixated on scoring political points on President Obama, Graham was willing to point out where his own party had strayed while also making a reasonable argument for GOP ideals...
"Does one solid performance on a Sunday show mean that Graham is the new 'it' guy for the GOP? No. But the notoriously private Graham seemed to
signal on Sunday that he is ready to take more of a leadership role."
Greg Sargent got the partisan breakdowns from the new Washington Post poll which asked respondents who they trust to handle health care, the economy, the budget deficit, and terrorism. On every issue, majorities of independents trust President Obama, while small minorities trust congressional Republicans.
On health care, 51% of indys trust Obama, and 26% trust GOPers in Congress.
On the economy, 51% of indys trust Obama, and 31% trust the GOP.
On the budget deficit, 52% of indys trust Obama, and 30% trust the GOP.
On terrorism, 53% of indys trust Obama, and 36% trust the GOP.
"Given that pundits often wonder whether all-hallowed independents will be turned off by Obama's ambitious agenda, you'd think this storyline would enter the media narrative."
Rep. Bob Inglis (R-SC) -- "who made a name for himself in the late 1990s as one of Bill Clinton's most zealous pursuers, an impeachment manager who attacked the moral failings of the president with a gusto that earned him a devoted following" -- tells the Wall Street Journal that the Republican Party needs to "lose the stinking rot of self-righteousness" and "to understand we are all in need of some grace."
He now says South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's (R) political fall "could be a saving grace for what
remains of his governorship."
Said Inglis: "This may be an
opportunity to extend a little grace to other people, to realize that
maybe it's not 100% this way or that way."
Even though President Obama's overall ratings remain high, some in the national media interpreted two new polls as showing the end of the president's honeymoon period.
However, Steve Benen points out that the polls show the favorability of the Republican party hitting new all time lows.
NYT/CBS Poll: "While Republicans have steadily increased their criticism of Mr. Obama, particularly on the budget deficit, the poll found that the Republican Party is viewed favorably by only 28% of those polled, the lowest rating ever in a New York Times/CBS News poll. In contrast, 57% said that they had a favorable view of the Democratic Party."
WSJ/NBC poll: "25% hold a favorable view of the Republican Party, which is an all-time low for it in the poll. 45% hold a favorable view of the Democratic Party."
"The Republican Party didn't make a deal with the devil," the Las Vegas Sun observes in the wake of Sen. John Ensign's (R-NV) admitted affair. "It made a deal with God, or at least people who said they were God's representatives -- a certain class of very political and ideological preachers."
"The deal, engineered by Republican operatives such as Lee Atwater and Karl Rove, went like this: Be against gays and abortion and for prayer in the schools, and in return, those preachers would proclaim the GOP the party of God and deliver millions of suburban and rural voters -- enough to win elections for three decades."
"But the deal carried a risk: Any behavior by Republican officeholders or public figures that seemed at odds with a certain kind of Old Testament morality -- a tryst in an airport bathroom, a painkiller addiction, a sexual harassment lawsuit -- and voters might feel betrayed and manipulated. And the deal would collapse."
Ronald Brownstein: "To reread the major political books from the years around Bush's reelection is to be plunged, as if into a cold pool, back into a world of Democratic gloom and anxiety. Those books were linked by the common belief that Republicans had established a thin but durable electoral advantage that threatened to exile Democrats from power for years, if not decades. Many books from that time assumed Democrats could avoid that eclipse only by adopting the tactics used by Republicans in general and Rove in particular..."
"In fact, by the time most of these books were published, the Republican 'fortress' looked more like a crumbling sand castle. Bush's reelection proved the high point of Rove's vision, and even that was a rather modest peak: Bush's margin of victory, as a share of the popular vote, was the smallest ever for a reelected president... By the time Bush left office, with Democrats assuming control of government and about two-thirds of Americans disapproving of his performance, his party was in its weakest position since before Ronald Reagan's election. Rather than constructing a permanent Republican majority, Rove and Bush provided Democrats an opportunity to build a lasting majority of their own that none of these books saw coming."
A former Republican party official in South Carolina "apologized after his posting on Facebook suggested a gorilla that escaped form a Columbia zoo was an ancestor of first lady Michelle Obama," reports the Charlotte Observer.
Wrote Rusty DePass: "I'm sure it's just one of Michelle's ancestors -- probably harmless."
"The comment has since been deleted, but DePass confirmed to WIS-TV that he made it, apologizing and saying it was a joke about statements Obama has made about evolution."
-- Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), quoted by the Deseret News, when Republican delegates at his state party's convention "applauded as a way of blaming national Republicans, himself included, for the deficit and other problems of the Bush years."
In an interesting interview with George Stephanopoulos, House GOP leader Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) spoke bluntly about many of the Republican party's problems.
Said Boehner: "We're digging ourselves out of a deep hole. We took it in the shorts with Bush-Cheney, the Iraq War, and by sacrificing fiscal responsibility to hold power."
Boehner also acknowledged that the GOP hasn't done a good enough to job shaking the "party of no" label.
According to the latest Political Insiders Poll, 65% of Democrats say former Vice President Dick Cheney is the voice of the Republican party. However, Republicans are split between Cheney and saying there is "no dominant voice."
Republican strategist Mike Murphy in the latest issue of Time magazine:
"Despairing Republican friends have been asking me what I think we should do to rebuild the GOP and begin our certain and inevitable comeback. My answer disappoints them: 'Build an ark.' I say this because I've made a career out of counting votes, and the numbers tell a clear story; the demographics of America are changing in a way that is deadly for the Republican Party as it exists today... Young voters need to see a GOP that is more socially libertarian, particularly toward gay rights. With changing demographics come changing attitudes, and aping the grim town elders from Footloose is not the path back to a Republican White House. The pro-life movement can still be a central part of the GOP -- it has support among all ages (and a slim majority of Latino voters) -- but the overall GOP view on abortion must aggressively embrace the big tent."
Almost 4 out of 10 (38%) Republicans and Republican-leaning independents have an unfavorable opinion of their own party, while just 7% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents have an unfavorable opinion of the Democratic Party, according to a new USA Today/Gallup poll.
Gallup: Asked to name the "main person who speaks for the Republican Party today," Republicans across the country are most likely to name three men: Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, and Dick Cheney... Both Republicans and Democrats overwhelmingly say Barack Obama is the main person who speaks for the Democratic Party.
Update: Greg Sargent contacted Gallup and found that just .5% of Republicans say Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin speaks for the party.
Pew Research: "The proportion of independents now equals its highest level in 70 years. Owing to defections from the Republican Party, independents are more conservative on several key issues than in the past. While they like and approve of Barack Obama, as a group independents are more skittish than they were two years ago about expanding the social safety net and are reluctant backers of greater government involvement in the private sector. Yet at the same time, they continue to more closely parallel the views of Democrats rather than Republicans on the most divisive core beliefs on social values, religion and national security."
A Republican source confirms Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) will attend tonight's GOP fundraising dinner. She'll likely be sitting at head table with an introduction but no speaking slot.
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's "on-again, off-again appearance at Monday night's gala GOP fundraising dinner is off -- again," reports Politico.
"After being invited -- for a second time -- to speak to the annual joint fundraiser for the National Republican Congressional Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Palin was told abruptly Saturday night that she would not be allowed to address the thousands of Republicans there after all."
"The Alaska governor may now skip the dinner altogether, and her allies are miffed at what they see as a slight from the congressional wing of the Republican Party."
"We need to accept the role of the loyal opposition much more gracefully than our opponents did. If you haven't noticed, the meanest people in politics are on the American left."
-- Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R), quoted by the AP, saying Republicans must be more "friendly" if they are to "emerge from the political doldrums."
Democracy Corps finds the Republican Party "with a net favorability rating of -15 points (30% favorable, 45% unfavorable. By comparison, the
Democratic Party enjoys a relatively strong +8 rating (46%
favorable, 38% unfavorable). The image gap between the two
parties also remains near its all-time high."
Furthermore, Dick Cheney's "persistent visibility does not appear to be helping matters for the Republicans. With a net favorability of -20 (31% favorable, 51% unfavorable), the former vice president is at his lowest level of popularity since Democracy Corps first measured it in 1999. Cheney is a deeply divisive figure, popular only with the conservative base of the Republican Party but unpopular with everyone else, including independents (among whom he has net -26 favorability rating) and moderate Republicans. In fact, President Obama (+5) is more popular with moderate Republicans than Cheney (-9)."
CQ Politics notes a new Gallup survey found that only 11% of Republicans are Hispanics or blacks or members of other races. That compares with 36% of Democrats who are non-white and 27% of independents.
House Republicans "have launched a coordinated public relations blitz against 17 congressional Democrats that seeks to tie them to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her accusations that the CIA misled Congress about the interrogation of terror suspects," CNN reports.
"Specifically, the multi-faceted campaign targets these Democrats with television or radio ads, or a pre-recorded telephone message to constituents' homes, that criticizes the members of Congress for voting against initiating an investigation into when Pelosi learned about the use of waterboarding."
Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), speaking on behalf of the Republican Study Committee, released a video in front of the Lincoln Memorial to illustrate how he claims President Obama is dividing the nation.
It reminds me of a recent Saturday Night Liveskit in which the Republican leadership plots a strategy that shows them to be completely tone deaf.
A new CNN/Opinion Research poll finds that 70% of Americans have a favorable opinion of Colin Powell, while just 30% have a favorable view of Rush Limbaugh and 37% have a positive view of Dick Cheney.
On Face the Nation, Colin Powell said he is still a Republican and that former Vice President Dick Cheney is "misinformed" about his party affiliation.
Said Powell: "I am still a Republican. I'd like to point out that in the course of my 50 years of voting for presidents, I have voted for the person i thought was best qualified at that time to lead the nation. Last year I thought it was President-now Barack Obama."
Howard Fineman: "Right now there are two RNCs here in Washington, side by side. The contrast is instructive. One, the Republican National Committee, is a clueless self-parody. The other, the (R)ush-(N)ewt-(C)heney tag team, is providing the real muscle as the Republican right begins to build traction in taking on President Obama and the Democrats."
RNC Chairman Michael Steele told Fox News that part of his job is to "manage the money" and suggested that if committee members strip him of that authority he'll step aside.
Said Steele: "They can contemplate all they want to, but the reality is if they want a figurehead chairman you can have a figurehead chairman, but it won't be Michael Steele."
In a speech obtained by CNN, RNC Chairman Michael Steele will later today tell party leaders, "The era of apologizing for Republican mistakes of the past is now officially over. It is done. We have turned the page, we have turned the corner. No more looking in the review mirror. From this point forward, we will focus all of our energies on winning the future."
However, the blueprint Steele offers is one from the past. "As conservatives we must stop acting like we don't really believe in our principles. Too often we act as if we are scared to apply our timeless principles to today's problems and challenges... For Reagan's conservatism to take root in the next generation we must offer genuine solutions that are relevant to this age."
The RNC meeting finishes tomorrow with a vote on a controversial resolution that calls on Democrats to rename their party the "Democrat Socialist Party."
The decline in Republican Party affiliation among Americans in recent years is well documented, but a Gallup analysis now shows that this movement away from the GOP has occurred among nearly every major demographic subgroup. Since the first year of George W. Bush's presidency in 2001, the Republican Party has maintained its support only among frequent churchgoers, with conservatives and senior citizens showing minimal decline.
So far in 2009, aggregated poll data show the divide on party identification is 53% Democratic and 39% Republican -- a marked
change from 2001, when the parties were evenly matched.
The two U.S. Senators from South Carolina may represent the future of the Republican Party -- it's just not clear which one.
According to The State, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) shouted down a heckler at a party meeting over the weekend saying "he wanted to build an open party that could win in Pennsylvania and Connecticut, as well as South Carolina."
Said Graham: "I'm a winner, pal. Winning matters to me. If it doesn't matter to you, there's the exit sign... I'm not going to give this party over to people who can't win."
But Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), who followed Graham, disagreed and asserted that he'd rather have 30 Republican senators who stand on principle than 60 who have none.
A solid 57% of Republicans said former Vice President Dick Cheney has "hurt the Republican Party since leaving office" in this week's National JournalPolitical Insiders Poll.
Representative comments:
"Anything that reminds the public of the Bush administration harms
the party's ability to turn the page. If he'd had any concern for his
public image when he was in office, he wouldn't have to worry as much
about defending his reputation now."
"There is nothing Dick Cheney can say or do to help the Republican
Party today. The best thing he can do is disappear for the next 10
years."
Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) and South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) will hold another "tea party protest" on Thursday night, the Dallas Morning News reports. However, this one will be a teleconference.
"The Republican Governors Association said it is expecting 30,000 people to dial in. Perry and Sanford will each speak and then organizers will open up the tele-town hall for an hour-long Q&A session. The governor's group plans to use Thursday night's sequel to gather phone numbers and email addresses that will be a useful tool for future political races."
A RNC member tells Roger Simon that when committee members meet in an extraordinary special session next week, they will approve a resolution rebranding Democrats as the "Democrat Socialist Party."
RNC Chairman Michael Steele didn't want the meeting to be held, but members exercised "a rarely used party rule that allows any 16 RNC members from 16 different states to demand a special meeting" forcing Steele's hand.
"A further comeuppance -- a vote of 'no confidence' in Steele -- is not being contemplated, I am informed, because Steele's opponents in the RNC have already won a major victory by forcing him to accept greater controls on how he spends party funds."
"Why get in a fight with Rush Limbaugh... It's not a very comforting vision to say my vision for the Republican Party's future is for Rush Limbaugh to shut up..."
-- Karl Rove, in an interview on Fox News, backing up former Vice President Dick Cheney in his recent skirmish with Colin Powell.
Charlie Cook notes that "when Democrats lost their House and Senate majorities in 1994, polling for organized labor showed that the top issue for union members voting Republican for Congress was guns, something that had nothing to do with unions... It was the presidential loss in 2000, on top of the congressional losses in 1994, that convinced the Democratic Party to simply shut up on guns."
"Republicans need to think about this in terms of their emphasis on certain social and cultural issues. The GOP has turned away a large number of highly educated, economically upscale voters who would be a natural fit for the party were it not for these divisive subjects... Generationally, Republicans are killing themselves with voters who are now under 35, who see the party as narrow and intolerant. As Will Rogers used to say, 'When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.'"
Yesterday, former Vice President Dick Cheney made the point that he'd rather have Rush Limbaugh as spokesman for the Republican party than Colin Powell.
Tonight, the DNC had some fun pointing out that Powell's approval rating (80%) is higher than that of Cheney (18%) and Limbaugh (26%) combined.
"Well, if I had to choose in terms of being a Republican, I'd go with Rush Limbaugh, I think. I think my take on it was Colin had already left the party. I didn't know he was still a Republican."
-- Former Vice President Dick Cheney, in an interview on Face the Nation, on whether Colin Powell or Rush Limbaugh were a better spokesman for the Republican party.
"People that are social conservatives are also economic conservatives.
But a lot of the economic conservatives are not social conservatives.
Throw the social conservatives the pro-life, pro-family people
overboard and the Republican party will be as irrelevant as the Whigs."
RNC Chairman Michael Steele hosted a radio show this morning and discussed President Obama's forthcoming pick of a Supreme Court nominee:
"Good morning y'all, we're back in the house. We're talking a little bit of Constitution and a little bit Supreme Court. And a whole lot of saving America's judicial system and saving our rights as citizens and not having empathetic judges decide cases, but rather judges who are actually understanding the rule of law and what the Constitution and those laws are all about. And how to apply the facts to the law and the law to the facts. And adjudicate my case. I don't need some judge sitting up there feeling bad for my opponent because of their life circumstances or their condition. And short changing me and my opportunity to get fair treatment under the law. Crazy nonsense empathetic. I'll give you empathy. Empathize right on your behind. Craziness."
First Read: "Could the Republican Party have gotten off to a rougher start in the Obama era? It's hard to think so. Even with Bush and Cheney no longer heading the party, the GOP finds its favorability ratings at or near all-time lows. Despite their enthusiasm for their unified opposition to Obama (on the stimulus, the budget), they're blamed more for the lack of bipartisanship in DC. While starting out with all the advantages in NY-20, they still found a way to lose that race. Despite the initial positive reaction to his victory as RNC chair, Michael Steele's reign has been, shall we say, not good. And holding on to 41 votes in the Senate, they enabled a Republican who proved he could win in the increasingly blue state of Pennsylvania to switch parties, giving Dems the prospect of a filibuster-proof majority."
"Yes, Obama is popular right now. And, yes, the GOP is still paying for the sins of Bush and Cheney. But what has to disappoint Republicans right now is that most of their recent problems have been self-inflicted. And to top all of this off, an effort to re-brand the party ends up causing an internal fissure between one of the party's supposed rising stars, Eric Cantor, and many of the leading conservative voices, including Rush Limbaugh. Never mind the silly debate over whether Reagan should be used as an icon or not. The issue of Reagan reminds us of the Kennedy-obsession Democrats had for decades. One could argue it took the Democrats nearly 30 years to kick the Kennedy habit (maybe longer). So, this Reagan issue may take the Republicans another 10 years to get over."
Time magazine's cover story on how the Republican party -- with no new ideas and a lack of leadership -- has lost its way:
"As the party has shrunk to its base, it has catered even more to its base's biases, insisting that the New Deal made the Depression worse, carbon emissions are fine for the environment and tax cuts actually boost revenues -- even though the vast majority of historians, scientists and economists disagree. The RNC is about to vote on a kindergartenish resolution to change the name of its opponent to the Democrat Socialist Party. This plays well with hard-core culture warriors and tea-party activists convinced that a dictator-President is plotting to seize their guns, choose their doctors and put ACORN in charge of the Census, but it ultimately produces even more shrinkage, which gives the base even more influence -- and the death spiral continues."
"Capitulating to critics on the Republican National Committee, embattled Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele has signed a secret pact agreeing to controls and restraints on how he spends hundreds of millions of dollars in party funds and contracts," the Washington Times has learned.
Just last week, Steele accused the resolution's proponents of a power grab "scheme."
"Do you realize that under our dynamic leadership of our leader, we have gone from 55 and probably to 40 (Senate seats) in two election cycles, and if the tea leaves that I read are correct, we will wind up with about 36 after this election cycle. So if leadership means anything, it means you don't lose... approximately 19 seats in three election cycles with good leadership."
-- Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY), quoted by the Louisville Courier-Journal, blasting fellow Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
In an interview with the Huffington Post, James Carville said that it's impossible for the Republican Party to abandon -- or even soften -- its alliance with the Christian Right.
Said Carville: "I don't think they can do that because their party would crumble... That is not an option really available to them. They can talk about other issues and do other things, but once you have a Republican nominee, or serious Republican leaders who are pro-choice or pro-gay marriage, they are going to lose a lot of their voting base. These people will break off. And I don't think that's a real open discussion among people that really know what is going on in the Republican Party."
Politico notes that Republicans "looking to recover from Bush-era defeats are turning to an unlikely source for advice: top aides to former President George W. Bush."
"Former White House press secretary Dana Perino, former Bush counselor Ed Gillespie and former White House deputy press secretary Tony Fratto are among those set to provide words of wisdom to House Republican press secretaries at their annual workshop this Friday."
"The problem isn't that Americans are less conservative. It's that our credibility with them is shot. It's that we left them along the side of the road on our way to drinking that Potomac River water, getting high on power and influence and forgetting how we got where we are."
Former Rep. Jim Nussle (R-IA) told the Des Moines Register that the Republican Party "needed a thorough reorganization and that new Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele was not the figure the GOP needed to turn itself around."
Said Nussle: "I don't think we've found that yet in Michael or anybody else yet for the party. So we're going to have to struggle through that for a while."
Nussle considered seeking the RNC chairmanship after the 2008 election but decided against it. His remarks suggest he might be rethinking his future.
After she wrote an New York Timesop-ed on the state of the Republican party after Sen. Arlen Specter switched parties, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) sat down privately with Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) to let her vent about what she thinks is going wrong with the Grand Old Party, CQ Politics reports.
After the meeting, Snowe had nothing but good things to say about McConnell and focused her criticism on other wings of the party.
Just asking: If RNC Chairman Michael Steele is not involved in the GOP's rebranding effort and cannot freely use party resources, what exactly is his role?
Ron Brownstein: "Specter's switch shows that Republicans haven't yet paid the final bills for Bush and Rove's insular strategy. That price has been especially steep in the Northeast. In 1988, George H.W. Bush won eight of the 11 states from Maryland to Maine. Even as recently as 2000, Republicans won 40 percent of the House seats and held eight of the 22 Senate seats from those states. But amid the younger Bush's polarizing, Southern-inflected conservatism, Northeastern Republicans fell through the floorboards: They now hold only 18 percent of the region's House seats and, since Specter's switch, just three of its 22 Senate seats. In 2008, Barack Obama won all 11 Northeastern states and a combined 60 percent of their votes. Some weakened individual Democrats may provide isolated electoral opportunities for the GOP in 2009 and 2010, but across much of the Northeast, Republicans are now about as relevant as Whigs."
On C-SPAN's Washington Journal program this morning, Newt Gingrich talked about the Republican Party and RNC Chairman Michael Steele.
Said Gingrich: "The Republican National Committee is this tiny group of people, some of whom have been there 20 years or more. And they all think they're precious. And they all think they should be taken care of. And they all think that the job of the chairman first of all is to make the RNC members happy."
According to Ben Smith, Sen. John McCain confirmed that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) was invited to be part of the Republican party "rebranding" effort but the group has not heard back from her -- another apparent disconnect between her Washington, D.C. and Anchorage offices.
"Do you really believe that we lost 18-to-34-year-olds by 19 percent, or we lost Hispanic voters, because we are not conservative enough? No. This is a ridiculous line of thought. The truth is we lost young people because our Republican brand is tainted."
CNN reports on a new effort to revive the image of the Republican Party and to counter President Obama's characterization of Republicans as "the party of no."
"It will involve an outreach by an interesting mix of GOP officials, ranging from 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain to Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor and the younger brother of the man many Republicans blame for the party's battered brand: former President George W. Bush."
Also involved: Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Mitt Romney.
"A battle over control of the party's purse strings has erupted at the troubled Republican National Committee, with defenders of Chairman Michael S. Steele accusing dissident RNC members of trying to 'embarrass and neuter' the party's new leader," the Washington Times reports.
Top party officials have called "for a new set of checks and balances on the chairman's power to dole out money. The powers include new controls on awarding contracts and spending money on outside legal and other services."
Olympia Snowe: "It is true that being a Republican moderate sometimes feels like being a cast member of Survivor -- you are presented with multiple challenges, and you often get the distinct feeling that you're no longer welcome in the tribe. But it is truly a dangerous signal that a Republican senator of nearly three decades no longer felt able to remain in the party."
CQ Politics notes that "if there is a silver lining for Michael Steele in the GOP's special election loss in upstate New York, it could be that the new head of the Republican National Committee is finally taking more flak from Democrats than fellow Republicans."
In a Web video released April 24, Broken Steele, the Democratic National Committee used Steele's own words to portray
him as the Republican loser in the wake of the Murphy victory.
As the Obama administration works overtime to spin media coverage of their first 100 days in office, the DNC works overtime trying to define the opposition party in a new video.
"We're not even the loyal opposition at this point. Tedisco appears not able to pull out a victory in an overwhelmingly
Republican district; to me that's the final indignancy."
-- Manhattan Attorney Dan Isaacs, quoted by the New York Daily News, making his case for being the new GOP party chairman in New York.
House Republican Whip Eric Cantor's monster first-quarter campaign finance report is no more remarkable for its impressive bottom line -- $963,900 -- than for what it says about his exploding share of Republican fundraising clout, CQ Politics reports.
While the fifth-term Virginian more than doubled his take from the comparable first quarter of the last non-election year -- 2007 -- the other six members of the House Republican leadership combined to produce $25,900 less in the first three months of 2009 than they had two years earlier. Together, those six raised $1,031,100 for the first quarter of 2009 -- only $67,200 more than Cantor.
Politico: "The Democratic Party is seizing on the current high profile of past GOP figures -- from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich to former Vice President Dick Cheney -- to diminish the present Republican Party. Those two will be cast, along with former Bush aide Karl Rove, as the party's leaders in a multimedia Democratic National Committee campaign opening Wednesday with a web video."
Meanwhile, the Huffington Post reports another Republican congressman has apologized to Rush Limbaugh for calling him merely an "entertainer." Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-KS) now calls the talk show host "a great leader."
First Read: "It's been pretty impressive how Franken has been so disciplined during this recount period. Indeed, until last night, when had we heard from him? Clearly, the GOP thought they were dealing with the stereotype that was Al Franken -- not the guy who proved to be a candidate who, well, got more votes than Norm Coleman. In fact, this has been a problem for the GOP in general the last few years when it comes with dealing with Democrats: They believe their own stereotypes about their opponents, rather than actually dealing with their opponents at face value."
"Could you help a brother out? No more national conventions with 36
people of color in the room."
-- RNC Chairman Michael Steele, quoted by the Miami Herald, urging Florida Republicans to send delegates who "look like Florida" to the next Republican National Convention.
"I don't know how the Democratic Party operates because I'm not one of them, but every time we had an opening, somebody like Karl Rove and Ken Mehlman and the Republican apparatchiks in the White House decide who is going to represent Minnesota. Closed out the party, closed out everybody else. That's what's going on now... 'We will continue to fund you, just to keep the Democrat out of the Senate.' At some point, somebody has to deal with what's the will of the people of Minnesota."
-- Former Sen. David Durenberger (R-MN), quoted by MinnPost, on the meddling of the RNC in the disputed Minnesota Senate race.
First Read: "During the first 11 weeks of the Obama presidency, congressional Republicans have achieved this feat: They have maintained (for the most part) a unified opposition to Obama and the Democratic agenda. All Republicans, save for three moderate GOP senators, voted against Obama's stimulus. And every single Republican voted against the Democratic budget. But looking at recent polls, we've got to ask: Where has this gotten the GOP so far? The recent New York Times/CBS poll showed the Republican Party's favorability rating at an all-time low, matching the result from last month's NBC/WSJ poll."
The GOP spin from a strategist: "My sense is we are making progress towards reclaiming mantle of fiscal responsibility, which is first step towards rebuilding. Obama is hugely popular, which makes for a tough environment. But that will/must fade with time, and we'll get our second look from public."
According to the Baltimore Sun, RNC Chairman Michael Steele "lashed out" at GOP infighting at a fundraising dinner "and urged the party faithful -- some of whom have criticized his erratic statements -- to be more like him: "unconventional, unpredictable ... to do from time to time the unexpected."
Steele "jokingly acknowledged the rough road he has traveled since taking over
the national party this year" and "expressed frustration with the public airing of party doubts
about his leadership that have dogged his first months as chairman."
In a CNN interview, RNC Chairman Michael Steele announced he's finished with efforts to reach out to President Obama.
Steele: Look, I like the president personally, even though I think he has got a little thing about me, that I haven't quite figured out what that is.
CNN: You haven't spoken to him? Steele: No.
CNN: You've reach out? Steele: Several times, and I'm done.
CNN: So there is no bipartisanship going on there? Steele: Not, not that I know of.
CNN: Is there any professional jealousy? Steele: Not on my part. What would I be jealous of?
CNN: He's the president of the United States. Steele: I'm chairman of the RNC, so, what's your point? We both have leadership responsibilities and roles. I'm not equating the two. My point is: you are on your track. I'm on my track. You do your thing. I do my thing.
"God has a way of revealing stuff to you, and making it real for you,
through others. And if that's part of the plan, it'll be
the plan... If I run it'll be because that's where God wants me to be
at that time."
-- RNC Chairman Michael Steele, in an interview on CNN, on whether he would consider running for president.
Meanwhile, Ben Smith has video excerpts of the interview in which Steele suggests the Rush Limbaugh flare up was actually a strategic decision to understand who would stand up for him.
"Republicans invented this. I don't like it but there are chickens coming home to roost."
-- Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), quoted by the Financial Times, on a parliamentary short-cut
which could be employed by Democrats in passing health care reform that
had been devised by Republicans to push through the Bush tax cuts.
Newt Gingrich is stepping up his efforts to attract conservative Christians "like never before," reports U.S. News and World Report.
"Gingrich has launched an organization devoted to bringing
conservative evangelicals and Catholics into the political process and
to strengthening the frayed alliance between economic and religious
conservatives... This spring, Gingrich will speak to a handful of large gatherings
for politically conservative clergy... And this fall, Gingrich is planning to release a movie about the
role that Pope John Paul II's 1979 trip to Poland played in bringing
down the Soviet Union."
In an interview with the Huffington Post, James Carville said that it's impossible for the Republican Party to abandon -- or even soften -- its alliance with the Christian Right.
