It's Delusional Right-Wing Governors Day

GOP assclown, Mark Sanford (R-SC)

When I woke up this morning, ex-Republican Congressman/murder suspect Joe Scarborough had his pal, the delusional right-wing governor of South Carolina on MSNBC's dreadful morning show as a guest. That's because today is Delusional Right-Wing Governors Day in Miami and it isn't easy to find a governor either more extreme right or more delusional than Mark Sanford. It's a conference of Republican governors, featuring an empty-headed media darling from Alaska, and 16 of the nation's 21 GOP governors, the others being too busy trying to cope with the Bush Economic Miracle in their states to participate in the gloomy dog and pony show in Miami.

And, remember, the governors are the least catastrophic aspect of the precipitous GOP decline. Yesterday the Republican Governors Association dealt with the cheery topic, An In-Depth Evaluation of the 2008 Election Cycle. Although on Scarborough's silly show, Sanford blamed all the country's woes on Barney Frank and... some other Democrat whose been fighting to keep the Bush Economic Miracle from causing the country even worse harm, the governors were... franker in their meeting.

The Republican Party is ill situated to serve a changing America, they said. Members make excuses for corruption. The Bush administration and congressional leaders are fiscally irresponsible and have ceded the tax issue-- of all issues-- to the Democrats. Large swaths of the country are off limits to GOP candidates. Republicans have lost the technology advantage, and if they were part of a corporation, "heads would roll." It's going to be worse in 2010.

...They are convinced that their counterparts in Washington are incapable of finding a formula for resurgence and that the answer lies in the states.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty-- passed over by Sen. John McCain for the No. 2 spot on the presidential ticket and one of nine GOP governors who preside over states won by Barack Obama-- offered a summary of his party's predicament at the governors' opening lunch.

"We cannot be a majority governing party when we essentially cannot compete in the Northeast, we are losing our ability to compete in Great Lakes states, we cannot compete on the West Coast, we are increasingly in danger of competing in the mid-Atlantic states, and the Democrats are now winning some of the Western states," Pawlenty said. "That is not a formula for being a majority governing party in this nation."
As if that weren't enough, he ticked off a few more challenges.

"Similarly we cannot compete, and prevail, as a majority governing party if we have a significant deficit, as we do, with women, where we have a large deficit with Hispanics, where we have a large deficit with African American voters, where we have a large deficit with people of modest incomes and modest financial circumstances. Those are not factors that make up a formula for success going forward."

Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, at 37 the youngest of the group, was more succinct: "They fired us with cause." He was referring to the loss of at least six senators and more than 20 House members, the first time since 1932 that the party has lost so many seats in consecutive elections.

Everyone would like to blame the party's woes on the corruption of Ted Stevens, as though Stevens' activities weren't at the core of GOP governance and as if dozens of Republican elected officials-- both in a state hopelessly mired in bottomless graft-- and in the U.S. Senate weren't full-fledged accomplices of Stevens'-- from Mitch McConnell and Pat Roberts to Susan Collins and Norm Coleman. But not every governor has as bright post-mansion career opportunities as their Alaska colleague and they have to chart a course that will not bury their party for a generation.

"The Republican Party is going to need a lot more than just a comb-over in my opinion," Gov. Pawlenty said. "Ronald Reagan was president a long time ago."

...[M]any attendees appeared unsure about how best to regain control of Congress and the White House. Republican pollster Frank Luntz was blunt in his assessment of the 2010 elections, which also include congressional races. "The governors may be OK, but the party is in deep, deep trouble," he said.

In the hallways and bars of the hotel where the meeting was held, two trains of thought appeared to be emerging over the best strategy to pursue.

The first, championed by Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, was that Republicans need to broaden their voter base. This summer, Democrats conducted a huge voter-registration drive that helped bring more supporters to the polls in November. Mr. Crist said that, in Florida, a large number of new Democratic voters helped flip a state that in 2004 had solidly backed Republican President George W. Bush. Another factor affecting the Florida race was the party's loss of Latino voters and other key demographic groups, Mr. Crist said.

"You have to be inclusive, you have to work for a big tent," he said. "That's about as obvious as the nose on your face."

Other attendees pushed for a return to conservative roots. South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford compared the Republican Party to a corporate brand that has become tarnished. His own tenure has been marked by intraparty struggles. In 2004, the Republican-dominated legislature overrode his veto on more than 100 spending bills.

This morning's NY Times described the conference as "decidedly subdued," despite Madam Airhead skipping around with the entire news media in tow. All that was missing was a promotional shopping tour of Neiman Marcus... or Out Of The Closet. Palin's foibles couldn't cover up an overriding message the rest of the governors were grappling with: "Republicans have just endured their worst back-to-back elections since 1930 and 1932." Many think it will get worse.