Posted on 11/05/2008 8:30:36 AM PST by BGHater
The soul-searching of the Republican Party has begun in earnest after it suffered a massive election defeat in Congress and lost control of the White House to Democrat Barack Obama.
Lacking weapons to stop an ambitious Democratic policy agenda, the Republican Party will now undergo an enormous debate over its political philosophy and whether, as a minority, it should work in a bipartisan fashion or resort to confrontational tactics that would show a contrast between the two parties but were largely rejected by voters in Tuesday’s election.
That strategy will be spearheaded by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who barely survived his own reelection bid Tuesday after Democrats littered the airwaves with attack ads and dispatched political heavyweights to prop up the campaign of his opponent, Bruce Lunsford. His House Republican counterpart, Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), is likely to face a challenge for his leadership position following a second cycle of major losses in his conference.
“The American people want and deserve accountability from Washington Democrats, and Republicans will stand on principle to ensure they get it,” Boehner said Tuesday night, adding that the party would resort to its principles of “freedom, opportunity, security and individual liberty.”
With voters effectively repudiating the presidency of George W. Bush, handing Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) a resounding defeat and sending the GOP further into the minority in Congress, Republicans are already jockeying to shape the coming debate over their party's future.
Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor who sought the GOP nomination in 2008 and may seek it again in 2012, said Republicans “lost part of our brand.”
“If we are going to re-establish the base of the Republican Party ... it will have to be based on small government, low spending,” Giuliani said. “It doesn't mean no spending — it means disciplined spending.”
But the objective of cutting spending and slashing earmarks is not universally shared, especially among senior appropriators like McConnell, who campaigned largely on his ability to shower his state with hundreds of millions of dollars of pet projects.
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), an ardent foe of earmarks who heads the conservative Steering Committee, placed the blame on Republicans for abandoning conservative principles by supporting measures like the $700 billion financial rescue package and sending pork projects back home.
“Americans have again rejected the Democrat-lite strategy of higher spending and bigger government, and it’s time for Republicans to chart a new, more principled course,” DeMint said. “Democrats didn’t run on their true liberal agenda ... They ran against President Bush and congressional Republicans whose image was tarnished by scandals and broken promises.”
But not everyone agrees with the call for more confrontational tactics that would make it difficult for Democrats to fulfill their campaign promises.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R), a potential 2012 presidential candidate, said Tuesday night that the party instead needs to reach out more to groups that have sided largely with Democrats by proposing new ideas, including assistance for higher education.
"We can’t be the party that does so poorly with Hispanics, does so poorly with African-Americans, has a 20 percent deficit with women, in many cases, and expect that to result in a governing majority for our country,” Pawlenty said on ABC. “This is going to have to be a more pragmatic party, a more solutions-oriented party ... This is going to go on as an internal debate for many months.”
Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio, a centrist Republican, said it was his responsibility to help “unite this country and move it forward during one of the most critical periods we have ever faced, both domestically and internationally.”
“While we must stand firm in our convictions, we have major issues we must tackle together immediately,” Voinovich said.
Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) echoed those sentiments, saying that the election results mean that it is time to “put partisanship aside as we try to solve the many challenges facing our country.”
As the de facto head of his party, McConnell will be faced with the daunting task of leading the GOP out of the wilderness and will be “under incredible pressure to come back and be confrontational,” one former GOP leadership aide said.
Many Republicans expect McConnell to emerge as a more focused leader next Congress, since his strategy this year was often complicated by his own reelection fight and the GOP keeping its distance from President Bush.
But his strategy would partly be determined by how Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) decide to govern — whether they negotiate with the GOP or attempt to railroad legislation through with their robust majority.
Republicans view that scenario as a political boon, since it would unify a broken Republican Party, similar to how President Bush’s failed attempt to overhaul Social Security unified Democrats after they lost the 2004 elections.
“The best thing they can do for the Republicans is to immediately try to ram through tax hikes, more spending and not try to work with Republicans to find common ground,” one senior Senate GOP aide said.
Just in from a friend in England. To me, it makes a lot of sense:
An excellent response to the several points made on that website and thanks very much for sight of it. My view has also been for some time time now that the Republicans have failed to modernise their responses to various issues and, much as I’d have voted for Mr McCain, it was sadly clear how he had nothing much to say about economic issues et al. I felt his campaign hit the slides when the worldwide financial crisis came and, quite frankly, whilst I agree with most of what Sarah Palin says, she came over as a fish out of water on this side of the of the pond and a dangerous “finger on the button”. Add the plainly toxic effect that the Bush administration seems to have had on the country and here was an almost certain recipe for conservative political disaster at the polls.
As regards religion, I have none whatsoever but respect the views of those who do providing they respect mine. In short, I think the Republican party as a whole needs to take stock, ditch trying to impose their idiot moralistic ideals on everyone and get down to the serious business of sane economics, law and order and a less intrusive foreign policy. The America of today is nowhere near as conservative as it was when I first went to your country some 42 years ago but, after 4 years of Obama raising taxes and the cost of living to what I think may be an unprecedented level, the Republicans need to be ready in advancing their true cause of conservative finances/law and order which, at such a time, may well garner immense support that we would find difficult to believe possible today.
There is almost a parallel here between our Conservative Party and The Republicans - ours have had to adjust which is why they now stand a pretty good chance of succeeding at the next election. Much as I would wish for some more right wing policies from David Cameron and his bunch, I’d sure settle for them as they are in total preference to New Labour masquerading as pro capitalist.
Done - let me know if you think I am anywhere near?!!
I wish Pawlenty would gto away
“Side with more groups”?
Like NARAL? ACORN? AARP? CP-USA?
Conservatives are in for the fight of our lives, for the soul of the party. If Pawlenty gets his way, we’ll be a minority party until 2100.
The GOP can start by kicking each other in the nuts. That should focus their minds on the job
LLS
Neo-Ciceronian is where it’s at!
Seriously though, it’ll be nice just having the twin albatrosses of George Bush and John McCain released from around our necks.
In the Senate the fillibuster should be used selectively.
Filibuster anything that stifles individual rights, such as the Fairness Doctrine. Filibuster anything that promotes democrat funding of their core groups, like ACORN.
All other tax/spending plans, let it happen. Vote against it, but don’t stand in the way. Why allow this misery to happen? Because misery is going to happen anyway. If we filibuster the economic measures, we get blamed for the misery. If the measures pass, we can claim we opposed them and hang the blame on the party in power. With the msm carrying the water for the dems, we won’t win the propaganda battle on the economic front. Let it happen and in two years or four years let the people decide whose to blame.
That’s my take.
Duncan Hunter isn’t doing anything now. (Thank God his son got his seat) He could return to Washington and run a conservative boot camp and help the GOP find thier stones again.
I think after the leadership of the GOP shake out, we have to decide if we are republicans or not. I think that most of the people on this board are not true republicans. Especially not the kind of republican that has dominated our political leadership these last 10 years. Maybe it is time for a seismic shift to a third party. It may take a while but it may also be what is best for this Country. I for one am going to look at alternative parties and figure out if I really want to be a republican anymore.
There are some great conservative people in the republican ranks but they are outnumbered by this kind of republican-lite group that panders to socially liberal groups. I guess they think that they can poach liberal votes but it does not and has not worked.
Maybe if a large number of conservatives (socially and economically) shift away, the GOP will figure out where they need to make their stand. I am beginning to believe that there is no “center” in this country. Politicians that consider themselves “centrist” are either socially or economically liberal. That type of appeasement politician is not good for either side. Especially ours.
No backbone to fillibuster based on these comments from these Senators, where is the party leader to snap some people into action
I just looked at the vote totals from 2004. Bush got 62.039 million votes, just under 900K less than Obama this year. McCain (according to Drudge) got 55 mil and change. Had we just held serve from 2004, we probably would have won.
Regardless of the rhetoric on here, on Rush, and elsewhere about Republicans turning out to vote, they didn’t. I think the is the icing on the cake that conservatives stayed home and that nominating moderate candidates (especially when followed by governing like liberals) gets us a big, fat L.
We will not win any more Presidential elections unless we nominate conservative candidates and demand they behave like conservatives in office.
Rus
dy is toooooo funny. He is one of the reasons republican’s became damaged.
Filibuster anything that stifles individual rights, such as the Fairness Doctrine. Filibuster anything that promotes democrat funding of their core groups, like ACORN.
All other tax/spending plans, let it happen. Vote against it, but don’t stand in the way. Why allow this misery to happen? Because misery is going to happen anyway. If we filibuster the economic measures, we get blamed for the misery. If the measures pass, we can claim we opposed them and hang the blame on the party in power. With the msm carrying the water for the dems, we won’t win the propaganda battle on the economic front. Let it happen and in two years or four years let the people decide whose to blame.
That’s my take.
I agree. The coming economic hurricane will bury the RATS in the next election (assuming there is another election).
YES, they are called yonger voters. The GOP has forgotten about the youth. It's a party of OLD White men.
Rudy is toooo funny, he is one of the reasons the republicans damaged the brand.
Sure, low taxes, low and balanced budget, etc.
But, I’ve got to reject any Republican party that isn’t interested in the moral issues.
After that, Republicans need to fix their primary system so that there are no open primaries. Only Republicans should be allowed to vote in Republican primaries. And why do the most liberal states get to vote first? This is why we ended up with McCain.
If the so-called moderates think people are going to walk away from the pro-life issue, they are delusional.
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