GOP struggles to reinvent without losing itself
The party agrees it must change or face catastrophe in November. But that's about all members can agree on.
WASHINGTON — The bad news has come from Illinois, Louisiana and Mississippi -- a string of unexpected Republican defeats in congressional elections that have prompted GOP leaders to say, with candor unusual in politics, that the party is facing an outright catastrophe this November.
Increasingly, top Republicans are calling on their party to reinvent itself or risk driving away more voters and donors. The GOP image is so stale, said Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), in a memo to colleagues last week, that "if we were a dog food, they would take us off the shelf" because nobody is buying it.
But even while facing crisis, the GOP is finding that change, if it comes, will not come easily.
The difficulty of a swift reinvention was on display last week as the central players in Washington's conservative community gathered for their weekly strategy session, the Wednesday Meeting, held in a conference room of Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform organization.
A senior advisor to the GOP's presumptive presidential nominee, John McCain, was on hand along with the Republican Party's national chairman to make the case for McCain's brand of Republicanism.
McCain's approach -- tough on taxes, but receptive to immigrants and committed to easing global warming -- could help paint the GOP in new colors, more attractive to independent voters, Latinos and women. Some GOP leaders now say that by embracing McCain and his policy platform, Republicans would instantly "rebrand" and reinvigorate their party.
At first, that message from McCain advisor Carly Fiorina and RNC Chairman Mike Duncan seemed to resonate with the 200 or so Republicans in the room, many still absorbing the loss only hours before of a Mississippi House seat once considered among the party's safest.
But one participant at the Wednesday Meeting rose to question the soundness of the Arizona senator's plans for more government action to combat global warming. Similar ideas, the speaker said, had proved to be a disaster in Europe. Heads nodded and dozens of economic conservatives and global-warming skeptics applauded.
Global warming is one of several knotty topics causing Republicans to skirmish among themselves as they reckon with a horrific political landscape: President Bush's record-low approval ratings, an unpopular war, a sagging economy and persistent scandals.
- McCain Keeping the Door Open Aug 30, 2004
- Patching up the parties May 25, 2008
- The Drive to the Center Mar 10, 2000
