The Republican Party is in such a state of disrepair and scandal that television news hosts can't keep track of which prominent figures are dealing with marital problems and which are simply abandoning ship.
On Sunday, "Meet the Press" host David Gregory offered an innocent but humorous slip-up, accidentally accusing former Republican Utah Governor and current China Ambassador Jon Huntsman of having an affair.
Gregory was going through the list of potential Republican presidential candidates and their various shortcomings when he exchanged Huntsman's name for that of Senator John Ensign (R-N.V.), who has admitted to an affair with a former staffer.
"Jon Huntsman has hurt his chances with an affair that came out," said Gregory. "Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney, Ensign, [Mike] Huckabee. Excuse me. I said Huntsman. I meant Ensign. There was no affair with Jon Huntsman. He was taken out, has gone over to China to be ambassador. Excuse me. Excuse me."
Sufficiently embarrassed, Gregory felt the need to revisit and re-apologize for his verbal slip-up later in the segment.
"I just want to make sure everyone heard that that I misspoke when it came to Jon Huntsman," he said. "My apologies. No family turmoil there."
At which point, prominent Republican strategist Mike Murphy chimed in: "Mrs. Huntsman is on the other line."
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Amidst the laughs was a somewhat serious discussion about the dilapidated state of the GOP. While Gregory's mischaracterization of Huntsman's family situation spoke to how bad the Republican brand currently is, a more telling comment came from David Brooks. The New York Times columnist, arguing that the GOP needed to lose "two or three national elections" before coming back to prominence, declared that the party's cure in 2012 could come in the form of Gov. Mitch Daniels. Why? Because he "is just a good manager."
"I take the maximalist view," Brooks said of his party. "I thought the British conservative party needed to lose three elections before they changed. I think this Republican Party is going to have to lose two or three national elections. So I take a long term, most pessimistic view possible. But what is the route back? It's two things: The first thing is boring, sensible, practicality. That's why I think of the potentials, Mitch Daniels, the governor of Indiana, is the most sensible short-term answer to the Republican problem, a guy who is just a good manager."