NATIONAL
April 11, 2013 | By David Horsey
The Republican National Committee's Spring gathering is taking place this week at Loews Hollywood. That is not Hollywood, Fla., or Hollywood, S.C., or Hollywood, Ala. - all real towns in really red states - but Hollywood, Calif., the place where Sean Penn, Ben Affleck, Alec Baldwin, Susan Sarandon, Barbra Streisand, Jane Fonda, Martin Sheen, George Clooney and the rest of the entertainment industry's liberal horde earn their keep. Like Nixon going to China, the Republicans have entered hostile territory.
NATIONAL
April 9, 2013 | By Maeve Reston and Seema Mehta, Los Angeles Times
After the crushing presidential loss in November, national Republican leaders offered a blunt message in a postelection report: Unless the party appealed to women, minorities and voters with divergent views, there was little hope of reversing their national losing streak. The first test of the party's will to reshape its image comes Wednesday as the 168 members of the Republican National Committee - who represent some of the party's most conservative voices - meet in Hollywood for a three-day retreat to discuss their messaging problems and calendar changes that RNC Chairman Reince Priebus hopes will position them to win in 2016.
NATIONAL
March 29, 2013 | By Michael A. Memoli and Kim Murphy, Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON - One of the longest-serving House Republicans apologized Friday for using the term "wetbacks" to describe the migrant workers his family once employed in California, calling it "insensitive" and saying, "There was no malice in my heart or intent to offend; it was a poor choice of words. " The comment by Rep. Don Young of Alaska, which drew a rebuke from the House speaker and others, flies in the face of his party's efforts to improve its appeal to minority groups, particularly Latinos.
NATIONAL
March 19, 2013 | By David Horsey
A new report commissioned by the Republican National Committee reads like an anti-GOP critique from the “lame stream media.” It describes the party as too rigidly ideological, too in thrall to greedy corporations, too disconnected from nonwhite and young voters, and in desperate need of new ideas. The authors of the report appear to hail from the Bush wing of the Republican Party. They include Ari Fleischer, George W. Bush's White House spokesman; Sally Bradshaw, a veteran advisor to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush; and Republican National Committeeman Henry Barbour, nephew of Haley Barbour, the former Mississippi governor and RNC chairman who worked on the presidential campaign of Vice President George H.W. Bush in 1988.
NEWS
March 18, 2013 | By Alexandra Le Tellier
It's official. The Republican party has lost its grip. That's according to a study commissioned by the Republican National Committee to assess the current state of the party. According to Times political reporter Paul West, the study, released Monday, found the GOP to be “smug, uncaring, ideologically rigid” and a turnoff because of “stale policies that have changed little in 30 years and an image that alienates minorities and the young.” Of course, none of this should come as a surprise to the GOP. As the Blaze's Chris Santarelli asked on Twitter : “Wonder how much this report cost to say what every observer said 4 months ago.” What's most interesting is the party's recommendation for a way forward.
NATIONAL
March 18, 2013 | By Paul West, Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - The Republican Party is smug. Uncaring. Rigid. An immovable collection of "stuffy old men. " The assessment did not come from Democrats still gleeful about November's victory - the fifth time Republicans have lost the popular vote in the last six presidential elections. It came from the Republican Party itself. An unflinching analysis commissioned by the Republican National Committee and released Monday said female, minority and younger voters have been alienated by what they see as the GOP's stale policies and image of intolerance.