Republican National Committee

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.

With an eye on the White House in 2016, Republicans spent this week in Hollywood mapping a path to a resurgence - determining how to streamline the primary process and close their deficit with Democrats among key voter blocs such as single women and Latinos. But members of the Republican National Committee largely tiptoed around the greater challenge facing their party: The GOP's stance on issues such as marriage, reproductive rights and President Obama's healthcare plan are diametrically at odds with some of the very voters the party is trying to win over.

Michael S. Steele completed his first 100 days as Republican national chairman this weekend, but the party let the milestone pass without notice. Steele made history in January as the first African American to head the Republican National Committee. It's been largely downhill since, with Republicans in disarray and Steele under siege over a variety of problems, many self-inflicted.

Republican leaders on Thursday focused on one of the most pressing challenges the party faces as it strives to retake the White House in 2016 - its deep and persistent unpopularity among crucial voting groups, such as Latinos and single women. Speaker after speaker told members of the Republican National Committee, meeting in Hollywood, that the party and its candidates needed to be part of those communities not just when elections near, that they needed to highlight areas of shared interest and that they must promote minority and women candidates among their ranks.

President Bush on Monday tapped Ken Mehlman, a key architect of his reelection campaign, to serve as chairman of the Republican National Committee. The committee must approve the choice at its winter meeting in January, but it is expected to ratify Mehlman without much dissent. "When there is an incumbent president, he can pretty much have whoever he wants as the chairman," said Gary Bauer, a longtime conservative activist.

Republican officials voted Friday to elect their first black national party chairman, a response in part to election defeats that have left the party's base more white and Southern at a time when the country is growing more diverse. The election of Michael Steele puts in the limelight a charismatic African American who has championed outreach to minorities as key to the party's future.

Republican leaders on Thursday focused on one of the most pressing challenges the party faces as it strives to retake the White House in 2016 - its deep and persistent unpopularity among crucial voting groups, such as Latinos and single women. Speaker after speaker told members of the Republican National Committee, meeting in Hollywood, that the party and its candidates needed to be part of those communities not just when elections near, that they needed to highlight areas of shared interest and that they must promote minority and women candidates among their ranks.

A night out at a risque West Hollywood nightclub was an "after-hours nonofficial get-together" that followed a meeting of young Republican donors and should not have been paid for with party money, a top Republican National Committee official said in a memo released Tuesday. RNC Chief of Staff Ken McKay said no senior party officials attended the outing at Voyeur, which features performers in bondage and sadomasochistic scenes. Nor did party officials know of the purpose of the reimbursement to the donor who paid the nearly $2,000 tab, the memo said.

Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke said Friday that he would stop using the name "Conservative Republican National Committee" in his fund-raising efforts to avoid threatened legal action by the Republican National Committee. Republican National Committee Chairman Haley Barbour sent Duke a letter Tuesday threatening to sue him for violating consumer-protection laws and to prohibit him from using the name. Barbour said the name was misleading.

Though states will continue to hold primaries into June, a Republican candidate could secure his party's nomination on March 14. * Source: Republican National Committee; researched by MASSIE RITSCH / Los Angeles Times

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson has resigned. Nicholson, 69, a former Republican National Committee chairman, was picked by President Bush to head the VA Department in 2005. Nicholson said his resignation would take effect no later than Oct. 1.

A man who was being paid to register voters by the Republican Party of Virginia was arrested Thursday after he was seen dumping eight registration forms into a dumpster. Colin Small, 31, was working as a supervisor as part of a registration operation in eight swing states financed by the Republican National Committee. Small, of Phoenixville, Pa., was first hired by Strategic Allied Consulting, a firm that was fired by the party after suspect voter forms surfaced in Florida and other states.

WASHINGTON - The Republican National Committee has abruptly dropped ties to a firm running a major get-out-the-vote effort in seven swing states after Florida prosecutors started an investigation into possible fraud in voter registration forms. Working through state parties, the RNC has sent more than $3.1 million this year to Strategic Allied Consulting, a company formed in June by Nathan Sproul, an Arizona political consultant. Sproul has operated other firms that have been accused in the past of improprieties designed to help Republican candidates, including dumping registration forms filled out by Democrats.