Republican Party

California Republicans cast about for ideas to revive their ailing party on Saturday, but struggled to define a clear vision for expanding their appeal beyond the dwindling ranks of older white conservatives. At a glum gathering of Republican faithful, GOP leaders hewed to the party's traditional call to scale back government, even as many voters demand just the opposite to stop the economy's downward slide.

Following President Obama's call Tuesday evening for a return to fiscal responsibility, Republicans responded -- by demanding the country return to a policy of fiscal responsibility. If that sounds like the two parties are on the same page at last, the GOP's actual message -- expressed most directly by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal in the party's official response to Obama's speech -- was that the party was prepared to oppose the president's economic program at almost every turn.

The reviews were swift and scathing: Off-putting. Amateurish. Disastrous. And those were fellow Republicans reacting to Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who delivered the nationally broadcast follow-up to President Obama's speech to Congress on Tuesday night. (Not surprisingly, Democrats echoed the criticism.) Even allowing for hyperbole, it was not, by most accounts, a winning performance by Jindal.

In just the last couple of weeks, he clumsily pronounced a Supreme Court justice to be near death and suggested he could sue a fellow senator and the Republican Party. He's raised almost no money for his reelection bid next year and is in serious danger of losing his once-safe seat to the other party. Party insiders are terrified practically every time he opens his mouth, but he seems determined not to go gently into the night.

"Class warfare" comes in many flavors. There's the variety practiced by feudal overlords upon their serfs, and the variety waged by the Jacobins of the French Revolution against the monarchists. Then there's the variety that Republicans claim to find in President Obama's proposed budget -- a taking from the rich to reward the undeserving poor.

When President Obama needs to reach out to the political opposition, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood often gets the call to be the go-between. "He's our ambassador beyond his portfolio," said White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. When Obama traveled to Capitol Hill to meet with GOP House members, LaHood was by his side. When a group of moderate Republicans came to the White House to talk over the stimulus package, LaHood was in the room. Defense Secretary Robert M.

Partisan tensions are escalating over President Obama's plans to revamp the nation's healthcare system and push through other policies, just as Congress is taking up the heart of his first-term agenda. In the latest sign of the combative environment, Democratic and progressive groups announced Thursday that they were launching an Internet and television campaign to promote Obama's goals and -- in some cases -- to paint Republicans as obstructionist.

Sen. Arlen Specter's defection from the Republican Party drew cheers Tuesday from President Obama and other top Democrats. But some key players in the party base viewed the move with suspicion -- demanding that if Specter wants to call himself a Democrat, he had better start acting like one. As a moderate Republican, Specter maintained friendly relations with Pennsylvania's powerful labor unions, which were glad to have him on their side on many issues.

Sen. Arlen Specter's decision to switch parties Tuesday further erodes the GOP's legislative power and adds a key player to the Democrats' quest for a filibuster-proof majority to propel President Obama's ambitious agenda.

Sen. Arlen Specter received a hero's welcome at the White House on Wednesday, while the Republican Party he left behind continued to grapple with the implications of his defection. Specter stunned his colleagues Tuesday by announcing he would run as a Democrat in next year's Pennsylvania Senate primary, further decimating the ranks of a party whose popularity has been waning in recent years.