GOP's Big Names Try to Forge New Agenda

Apparently, some in the top levels of the GOP are beginning to realize that a new agenda is needed if the party is to revive its chances of remaining a national party. They will certainly have their work cut out for them as they seek to rein in the Frankenstein monster the party leadership created in the form of the insane and delusional Christianist led party base. With moderates having fled the party in huge numbers over the last 5 plus years, I can just imagine the wingnuts who may show up at the planned town hall meetings only to argue that the party is not sufficiently reactionary and that the party's main platform MUST continue to embrace Kool-Aid drinkers' religious principles. Opportunists in the GOP leadership some years back thought that tapping into the religious nutcase crowd was brilliant/expedient, and now it has come full circle and is biting them in the ass. Sometimes you need to be careful what you set in motion. I wonder if Rep. Virginia "Matthew Shepard Murder Was a Hoax" Foxx will be invited? Here are some Washington Post highlights on the"National Council for a New America" effort:

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Looking to rebrand a struggling Republican Party, a group of party heavyweights including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) are launching a new group that will hold town halls around the country and look to produce GOP ideas on issues like education and health care. Republicans will announce today the creation of the "National Council for a New America," a group led by congressional party leaders that includes Bush, McCain, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal as its "national panel of experts."

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"The NCNA will bring together citizens from across the country to begin a dialogue with the American people through a series of forums, town halls, and an online effort that will engage people in a discussion to meet our common challenges and build a stronger country through common-sense ideas," the letter [announcing the group's creation] says.

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The new initiative comes in the wake of a difficult 100 days for Republicans, who have watched Obama's poll ratings remain high while their own dip. Democrats moved toward a 60-seat majority in the Senate this week after Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter left the GOP. The new group says it will focus on developing Republican ideas on energy, education, health care, national security and the economy. Its first town hall session will be Saturday at a restaurant in Northern Virginia. Cantor, Romney, Bush and other congressional leaders will attend.

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Somehow, I suspect it will be very, very difficult to muzzle the "God, guns, right to life and gay bashing" factions of the GOP which operate in a world devoid of objective reality no matter what the NCNA tries to do. These comments from a New York Times article show what the few sane members of the GOP will be facing in this effort:

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Mr. Cornyn said, adding, “Some conservatives would rather lose than be seen as compromising on what they regard as inviolable principles.”
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Senator Lindsay Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said: “We are not losing blue states and shrinking as a party because we are not conservative enough. If we pursue a party that has no place for someone who agrees with me 70 percent of the time, that is based on an ideological purity test rather than a coalition test, then we are going to keep losing.”

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Personally, I hope the Kool-Aid drinkers continue to hold sway because only by destroying the GOP will they ultimately destroy their own influence and convince the rest of the country that they are truly crazy fanatics.