Poor Michael S. Steele. The recently appointed GOP chair is already wiping rotten tomatoes off his jacket, and the worst part is, they were thrown by his fellow partisans:
Jim Nussle, who served in the House of Representatives from 1991-2007 and was President George W. Bush's last Office of Management and Budget chief, told the Des Moines Register that Mr. Steele was not the figure the GOP needed to turn itself around.
"I don't think we've found that yet in Michael or anybody else yet for the party," he said. "So we're going to have to struggle through that for a while."
The Republican Party has been looking for its new "big toe" for some time, weathering two massive election day defeats in 2006 and 2008. Not to mention, the near-comedic showdown between Rush Limbaugh and Mr. Steele earlier this year over who was the de facto leader of the Republican Party.
I agree with Mr. Nussle, but we probably come to the same conclusion for very different reasons. The GOP's main problem is it is stuck in the 1950s as long as it is controlled by the religious right. When the party realizes that the Christian right is yesterday's Chevrolet, and decides to return to fiscal conservatism, the tent doors will open wide again.
Bonnie Erbe writes for U.S. News & World Report's Thomas Jefferson Street blog.
