NRCC Chairman Tells GOP: Change Or Die

A fairly remarkable statement from the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, Rep. Tom Cole, about tonight's special election in Mississippi. He's warning his incumbents and challengers: change or die.

"We are disappointed in tonight's election results. Though the NRCC, RNC and Mississippi Republicans made a major effort to retain this seat, we came up short.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[Grannysue]

Let's see do the American people get a choice, I choose the later!

[AERO]

You can't fix stupid.

[speakyourmind]

If you listen closely, you can almost hear the fat lady singing...

[mediamarv]

Those eyes, those eyes! Looks like he has spent sleepness nights trying ot figure out how to avoid more politial disaster without disowning bush and having cheney on his ass.

My favorite type of soap opera: hypocrites burning in their own excrement (coming soon to a Fox station near you).

[HippieChick]

"He's warning his incumbents and challengers: change or die"

Since we now know that republicans are firmly in neocon mode and will not "change," then the only way we can save what is left of our nation is for them to "die." I hope to be reading republican "obituaries" on a daily basis.

[apoyo]

Change is good. But change to what. For the better or the worse?

[GerryS]

I think most Americans would agree, any change would be better than the last 4 years-

it would be very hard to NOT do better than W and uncle Dickie have!

[Hallucinocynic]

So, as much as Bill Clinton and the DLC skewed the Democratic Party to the right in order to get elected and reelected, the Republicants will have to skew to the left - e.g., social programs, tax advocacy, less $ for defense - if they want to get elected.

The pendulum swings both ways.

[EspritDeVoltaire]

Right you are, their party is in serious need of EVOLUTION. I mean this both as coming forth from the chimpanzee war mongering, chest beating and dumping the lunatic Creationism/Anti-Life Choice positions. There's only so many crazies in any society.

The US is the most Right Wing of any industrialized nation which isn't outright totalitarian. The Republicans HAVE to move toward catching up with the rest of the world or die. They may tout that we're #1 but the facts like #38 in health care according to the WHO disprove it.

[donballz]

Yes, our totalitarianism is more subtle. Boot on the shoulder as opposed to the neck

[GerryS]

By looking at Tom Cole's eyes, I would say he has some other hidden problems, and not the basic "gosh, he's a repunklican" kind of problems. The kind of problems he wouldn't want his GOP friends to find out-

[BassMent]

Too little too late.

The Neo-conservative movement has been exposed on the national stage as a lie, an utter failure in terms of moving the country forward for the good of the majority of Americans. The true believers, however, do not see this, and still cling to the policies that propelled Newt Gingrich and GWB into office.

Look at how they're treating McCain, who has been forced to retreat into neo-con platitudes on EVERY ISSUE except global warming. Expect him to backpedal on that once the general election starts... because of course every good neo-con knows that global warming is "fuzzy science" (and doing anything about it might cost big oil some of their mega-profits).

McCain is doomed because his party is not nimble enough to truly modify it's approch to governance. Anything they say that sounds "new" will be perceived by everyone outside of Appalachia as a total lie (sorry about the Appalachia thing, I couldn't resist).

[Binx101]

I think Mr. Cole may have more eloquently stated his point if he simply stated - the RepParty needs to change back. Back to before Reagan - back to when they were fighting Harry Truman in a much different set of circumstances. When the warts on both parties - Like Joe McCarthy - were visible.

The neocon coup of the Republican Party has been a gravy train for many and a road to prison for others. The ideologues like Rumsfeld, Perl, Krystoll, Feith, .......... have created tremendous pockets of political collateral. And the puppet beneficiaries like Bush family are like highly privileged aliens from another galaxy.

The neocons are the insurgency in America. Perhaps political death is a better alternative and kill this two party -only system. We'll be talking about this soon.

Binx101
The Almost Daily Binx
http://binx101.wordpress.com

[Felicty]

Better yet, just die.

[oogabooga]

This guy's still missing the mark. The Republic Party has to jettison the NeoCons, who have controlled the Republic Party for around 35 years, dating back to Cheney and Rumsfeld in the 70s under Nixon. Bush ran Reagan's presidency, and ironically, Cheney runs Bush Jr's. The problem is the Republic Party candidates in the hinterlands mouth the traditional Republic Party stances (small government, balanced budgets, maximum personal freedom, keep government out of people's lives), but it's the authoritarian NeoCons who run the national party and government. The NeoCons despise the traditional Republic Party beliefs. Now the base voters of the Republic Party are seeking an alternative. Obama might pick some of those. Others will stay home. And still others will vote for Barr.

[djthedj]

Barr is a neocon. He's just lying (as he has throughout his career) to try to hold on to some tiny shred of his political life. If the LP is dumb enough to nominate him, they will prove that they are just as worthless as the main 2 parties.

[mellene]

The republicans may fear extinction, but it is hard to kill a tarantula so I'm not worried about them facing extinction at all.

[SShaw490]

Tom Cole's problem is that all he can offer America is promises that the Republican party will change. In other words, he's left to do the same things they did in '00, '04, '06 and so on - and he's left with making the same promises they've broken for 8 straight years. Nobody with a functioning brain believes the Republican party will ever change.

The best evidence I can find is this: The 02 version of John McCain was the kind of Republican that people would like to see. He opposed tax cuts that led to deficit spending, he opposed the religious right, he was pro-choice, he was fairly pro-environment, he was anti-lobbyist; now he's the nominee of his party, but in order to get there, he's done an about face on all those issues. In other words, rather than the Republican party changing their ways and adopting his, he had to change himself to their position. So why would anyone think they're all of a sudden going to start keeping their promises to change?

[S1m0n]

The GOP has thrived on voters not actually expecting anything to change. They vote for the republicans because that party at least bothers to mouth the right words, so voting for them's less of an insult.

[dadw5boys]

THREE CHEERS FOR NEWT GINGRICH!!!!!!

OR AS THE TAXPAYERS KNOW HIM NEWT GETRICH!

His line-o-crap combined with the gang from Let's Steal the Public's Equity Group lead by Freidman and the New World Order have finally driven a stake into the heart of the beast that is the Republican Party.
A Politicial Party that holds meeting on how to destory the very system of government worked to balance the rights of the citizens to that of the Corporate World.
They meet to design ways of creating a servant class of Americans. Zero population growth really cut the number of Native Born Citizens so they could bring in the immigrants who fear questioning the authorities. All the research, think tanks and study groups started just to WRITE LAWS for the Republican (SO CALLED) Lawmakers made them lazy so they seldom even bothered to reasd the bills they submitted and could have cared less what was hidden in the stacks of paper that GAVE AWAY THE CITIZENS RIGHTS. Why should they? Less than 5 % of Republicans ever served in the Military and of that 5% few did more than hide in the Reserves!

[owiseone]

Anger over the destruction of the US is so palpable right now that it is frightening.
Voters have finally awakened to the raping and pillaging done by the Bush administration which continues unchecked.
Now that the economy has taken a dive, even the rich are giving up the Republican party.
Bush, Cheney and their fellow Republicans have killed life as we have known it here, and millions and millions of citizens are mad as hell, and scared to death.

We are witnessing not only the death of the Republican party, but the end of life in the US as we have known it.

[doc1400]

RNC; CHANGE OR DIE

DIE

[Weathermaker]

This guy is your typical neocon idiot. In 2004, campaigning for W's reelection he said: "I promise you this, if George Bush loses the election, Osama bin Laden wins the election. It's that simple." Enough said.

[Raymondf]

Sounds like Mississippi, better get with it. We are ready in West Virginia. It will Be McCain by at least 20% points in a Democratic state.

[ProgressiveBum]

And I'm sure WV's 5 electoral votes are going to swing the election...

[paganmist]

...what?

[punch]

a day late and a dollar shy, the republican party is so morally bankrupt, they simply can't be believed.

[apoyo]

Wish it was only one day and only one dollar.

People who died would still be alive.
People who had jobs wouldn't be jobless.
People who had homes wouldn't be homeless
People in college wouldn't be penniless.
People with hopes wouldn't be hopeless.

[knowhelpnow]

So true!!!

[freshnotbitter]

The problem the Republicans have is that they just can't do anything. They are utterly ineffective. Either they do nothing and sit around watching as things get worse (energy, immigration, inflation, stock market, dollar devaluation, income tax discrepancy, etc.) or they bungle the only thing they seem to have any desire in doing: waging war in the mid east while building schools, hospitals, roads, and good government for Arabs who hate us. Republicans love the Arabs and Israelis who hate them and they hate their own citizens as we saw in Katrina.

In short, the Republican is your garden variety a-hole.

[GerryS]

FnB-

Please review the last 8+ years(probabily longer). The repuglicans are not ineffective. They have studied and then changed how the US house and senate operate, effectively shutting down the Dem's and the will of the electorate.

While we curse them and suffer because of their causes, if we underestimate them again, we will be double screwed!!

[djthedj]

"Either they do nothing and sit around watching as things get worse (energy, immigration, inflation, stock market, dollar devaluation, income tax discrepancy, etc.) "

They directly caused the inflation, dollar devaluation and income tax discrepancy. I'd hardly call that doing nothing.

[msmaggie]

Big, big, big mistake to underestimate the enemy in any sort of battle. These Republicans you so readily scorned got the likes of W elected. TWICE. Be careful dismissing them as garden variety assholes.

[lthuedk_1]

Republican Party members cannot think for themselves. That's what makes them such tremendous goose-stepping, lock-minded robots. They support dictatorships because extreme authority appeals to the fearful, corrupt, imbalanced, and insecure.

They can't help themselves.

http://www.light-to-dark.com/senate_republicans_visit_iraq.html

They continue to extol the virtues of a 100 year war, a right-less citizenry, profit at any cost, and a bleak future for all but the wealthy. All embodied and delivered in the half-living person of their McManchurian Candidate, they've become what they follow.

http://www.light-to-dark.com/McBush.html

The chance of the Republican Party cleansing it's theobots, Neo Cons, and militant corporatists on it's own is slim. Only Justice, loss of seat, and attrition can provide relief. Perhaps they should think about losing just to save the party, as they tend to stay at lock step position for the continuing march off the cliff's edge.

We tried to reach them years ago but the ear flaps were down and blinders up. The Boehners will continue to spew santorum, the McConnells and Scaifes will continue to swiftboat their own party's hopes for survival. Lock step to the end. All we can do is watch.

[speakingtruth2power]

Their blind loyalty to corporatism has repressed America's true nature

of populism for over four foul decades but W's corrupt and incompetent

leadership has awoken the people and even voter fraud and the best

efforts of their MSM will not stop the reassertion of power to the people.

[owiseone]

You are correct, but power to the people may get very complicated.

If Obama is our next president, he will have his hands full with people who expect him to perform miracles. He has such a cool head, and such wisdom that if anybody can lead, reassure people, ask for patience, it is he.

But what a job! The people will insist upon taking back their power after having relinquished it these almost eight years. I just hope it's in a peaceful way. Bush/Cheney have created desperate times, and people may do desperate things. The elections won't be the "fix" we hope for as things have unraveled beyond repair.

[knowhelpnow]

I really hope so but you can't guarantee it.

[IntelligentDesign]

Basically what he is saying is that Republicans need to be more like Democrats or risk further campaign defeats - which is to say that the Republican led 1994 fascist revolution (aka contract with America) has run its course, and that is a very good thing.

When he says that "time is short" he really means that it's already too late, so you best start making plans for life after office - and I would add line up a legal team to answer charges of corruption, voter fraud and aiding and abetting the Iraq war crime (or look into a permanent Paraguay getaway).

[totalliberal]

"I encourage all Republican candidates, whether incumbents or challengers, to take stock of their campaigns and position themselves"......... To grab as much cash from your friendly lobbyists as possible before the door hits us in the ass this November. After all we have republican lifestyles to keep up and medical insurance to buy.... on the "free" market. Yikes!

[KillTheMessenger]

How about becoming liberals like sane people?