I see. The "rebranding" effort will be led in part by conservative Republicans with the last names Bush and McCain. What could possibly go wrong?

That's some nice snark right there.

Letting what is left of the Republican Party base and discredited current officeholders write their policy proposals is a sure way to expand the party...

"Instead, we want to ask the American people what their hopes and dreams are."

Oh please baby jeezus, let them ask ME!

...and no Huckabee, either. Do you think he was asked?

We do this not just to offer an alternative point of view or to be disagreeable.

To be sure, you also do this because you can't let go of the power that you haven't yet figured out you no longer have.

Instead, we want to ask the American people what their hopes and dreams are.

Asked and answered. Obama elected decisively; now enjoying overwhelming job approval ratings. Try and keep up.

OMG looks like Jeb is going to make a run some time in the near future. They keep coming back like a slasher flick.

"Listening" to the public will only give the appearance of giving a rat's a$$ since they will listen to people who are prescreened and hardened party faithfuls. You're right - more tax cuts and less spending.

"Instead, we want to ask the American people what their hopes and dreams are."

you guys just aren't listening. the american people told you exactly what their hopes and dreams were in the last election. obama got elected. pay attention!

Perhaps they can co-opt that advertising slogan from the pork industry and say they are "The New White Meat".

Ah, but, it still tastes like CHICKEN-hawks.

GREAT !!

More of the SAME !!

John McCain and George Bush's fat little brother will figure this out

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,...*****************************************

Ummm, Bush/McLame,, guys,, judging by the poll numbers and the way this president is loved by most, I would say that the current "America" is doing just fine. So, why do we need a 'New America'? You are saying something is wrong with America? You are saying America is wrong?! Why do you hate our America? C'mon GOP (Groveling, Old man, Partisan hacks), Get Real!

Note to GOP: IF you want a new America, I hear there is some nice land for sale in Siberia. Go check it out. Don't forget to write!

Well, my dream starts with no more Bushes. But heck, they've got Bobby "don't waste money on monitoring natural hazards" Jindal, so what could go wrong there?

Looking to rebrand a struggling Republican Party, a group of party heavyweights ... 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.

Let me gaze into my crystal ball. After an intense heart to heart with a selectively invited audience of teabaggers, err, make that a cross section of Americans, the group will find radically new answers to these and other issues. To wit, tax cuts targeted at the wealthy, less spending, tax cuts targeted at the very wealthy, smaller government, tax cuts targeted at the extremely wealthy, less regulation of everything, tax cuts targeted at the super wealthy, and torture (but only for bad people like islamofadcists and liberals). Oh, did I forget to mention tax cuts?.

I know, this is a great day for America! I don't see how this could fail. Brilliant if you ask me. I'm sure their first item of business will be to ban all numbers.

now we must listen, learn and lead through an honest, open conversation with the American people that will result in building policy proposals

Fixed:
now we must listen, learn and lead through an honest, open conversation with the American people that will result in better attacks against the Democratic agenda.

All of our best attacks, created in a cigar smoke filled room over scotch and brandy, simply aren't working. We need to ask the grunts directly.

Ha ha h aha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ... breathe ... ha h a ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ... breathe . . .

Bush, McCain, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal as its "national panel of experts."

What are any of these clowns experts on? Silver spoon sucking and election gaming? Running mate selection and playing a maverick on TV? Pet transportation and flip-flopping? Volcanoe Monitoring and story embelishment?

This is the best they've got?

Hey, where's the de facto chairman of the party on this one?

Seriously you bunch of latte sippers, Rush will not be amused. You go off the reservation at your own peril, I tell ya.

"... we want to ask the American people what their hopes and dreams are."

Poor man wanna be rich
Rich man wanna be king
And a king ain't satisfied
Til he rules everything
-- Bruce Springsteen, "Badlands"

You know you're on the road to extinction when Mr. "Country First" starts talking about "New America." It clearly means that "Old America" (the four-fifths of Americans who do not identify as satanic DeadState sheep) must be thrown on the ash-heap of history, and abandoned.

It does sound like an attempt at a comeback for vaudville doesn't it?

I wonder how they are choosing their audience. Are these forums open to anyone? It woud be ineresting to go to one, not to heckle, but to attempt real communication.

1) The Republican "base" is a poor place to look for new ideas, but if the goal is actually to know what they are thinking, they would be better off reading right wing blogs.

2) At some point, I expect Republicans to target Wall Street more, even as they continue to argue for policies that benefit savvy investors rather than economic production.

3) I can understand including Cantor, Thune and McCain. A non vote in congress counts as a no anyway. Bush and Romney are unemployed. But it's nice to see Jindal and Barbour have nothing else to do.

And meanwhile the 'real' republican party would love to get ride of each and everyone of those guys. Rush has already mentioned McCain leaving, Mormons and brown people aren't exactly their kind, and if this was ancient times, the word Bush would be stricken from all texts because he wasn't a 'real' conservative.

"...we want to ask the American people what their hopes and dreams are."

I suppose "a future free of Republican influence" isn't quite what they have in mind, but I'll share my thoughts if they'll listen.

And why isn't Cheney on the panel?

The last great rebranding effort that seized Republican imaginations was the PNAC, of which Jeb was a founding signatory (with W apparently considered so lightweight in 1998 he was a included out).

I figure this is actually the National Council for a New American Century, and once again Shrub is left outside looking in. This time, he's got Centurions like Wolfie and Rummy, Perle and Pipes too keep him company.

I guess Joe the Plumber's hopes and dreams weren't inspirational enough.

"we want to ask the American people what their hopes and dreams are."

I'd say putting Bush and McCain front and center truly answers the hopes and dreams of the majority of Americans. With them up front, reminding everyone how the Republicans all insisted for over a decade that those two morons were good leaders, the Republican party will be seen by anyone with two brain cells as the party of Really Bad Ideas.

Having those assclowns stay on the national stage IS a dream come true, since they are two of the best advertisements for the Democratic party we could ever have. I hope they live long and never lose their taste for publicity.

"That said, who wants to wager that, after the NCNA completes its forums, Republicans will discover what they really need to do is push for more tax cuts and spending cuts?"

What will be fun is when I read this quote, either on this blog or quoted on some other blog once the NCNA presents their new "vision".

"...now we must listen, learn and lead through an honest, open conversation with the American people."

Isn't that an admission that they haven't been listening? Not listening since, FDR or at least since Nixon.

In the classical sense of a pyramid of representative Democracy, shouldn't the Repo's National Party have been getting trickle up info from their state and local level members?
The answer is no, because those members have been required by a dictatorial Repo hierarchy to repeat their national party's talking points and to toe a rigid party line.

So the RepoTaliban Party emerged as a party of middle class hating, bible thumping bigots, who cheated George Bush into the Presidency and burrows like minded “Party before country� demagogs in the federal and state bureaucracies, to destroy this nation from within.

"comeback for vaudeville" - Well, we'll see how the new and disproved Cantor plays the Catskills?

Puhleeeeze. How many of these groups do they form every week? Have any of these groups actually ever done anything? Have they ever acheived anything that they set out to do?

Perhaps this 'new' GOP could take the best ideas from the leaders of GOP passed. They could develop an honest national environmental policy (Teddy Roosevelt), spending on national infrastructure (Eisenhower), stand up for the civil rights of others (Lincoln), and maintain a beleif in the separation of church and state (Jefferson). And as long as we're rebranding, let's think of a new name....we'll call this new GOP the....Democratic Party.

Camera pans slowly in on the assembled panel. Bush is seen in the background checking the list of questions to be asked by the preselected assemblage of "real americans".

McAce is going over the talking points submitted by Rush and Hannity while Jindal is looking into a mirror grinning broadly to see if any pulled pork has been left wedged into his teeth leftover from the barbecue thrown earlier at McAce's eighth home.

Romney is devising his cautionary script to undercut the lot of them as he pursues, once again, his unattainable quest for the presidency.

The camera pans back. The camera crew beats a hasty retreat as they begin to run in fear. AAn enraged Sara Palin has shown-up on a snowmobile with the "first dude" lock and loaded.

One cameraman decides to stay to film the carnage. Rush can be seen croaching down behind the barbecue pit munching on a pig leg bone smiling at the predictable end to this ill devised plan aat rebuilding the Party of Lincoln.

Pawlenty (unseen in the distant background sitting in the last Pontiac ever built) begins to create his political action committee for his probable 2012 run.

Shots and screaming are heard in the distance. Chaos ensues...

What fun.

Conservatives have spent decades building a think tank structure that churns out "experts" who think that global warming is a hoax, that cutting taxes never reduces government revenues, that the best foreign policy is to bomd/invade those countries that disagree with us, up is down, black is white, etc. And conservatives have spent decades building a communication structure (Washington Times, Fox News, talk radio) to tell their supporters all of these "facts" and to ignore the "liberal" media. As a consequence, their supporters live in a comfortable idealogical cocoon and aren't going to stop drinking the cool-aid any time soon. So, going on a listening tour is just going to result in hearing the same old things. Trying to educate their supporters on what is going on in the real world will just lead to their rejection. Until the think tank and communication infrastructure change, Republican leaders will remain in the back seat will the party drives itself to irrelevancy.

We'll know if this thing has legs if:
a) they ever specifically disagree with Rash Lardbaughl or suggest that he's maybe not the World Authority on what it means to be a Replicant
b) they don't walk that back
c) they attract any support after that happens.
I'm not holding my breath.

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."

<inigo_montoya>
"Experts"? They keep using that word. I do not think it means what they think it means.
</inigo_montoya>

"National Panel of Experts"

heh.. that's a good one.

As I remember, the big "concern" for political satirists after Obama's election was "What do we do for material" (or so). This is almost too easy.

Yes, former Perts - No longer perky, jaunty and spry.

But, that branding iron featuring a Circle with the word Jerks in the center is becoming more popular, day by day.

@Winknandanod

This is the best they've got?

Yes.

See Hipporider's post on April 30, 2009 at 12:05 PM.

Additionally, Republicans (and a few Democrats) should really go back to college and take a few classes in public administration and political science. Our increasingly urbanized world needs competent managers able to deal with large masses of people and their problems. If our leaders can't deal with this, America and the rest of the world are headed for disaster.

@KTinOHIO
And why isn't Cheney on the panel?

Typically a puppeteer isn't front and center with the puppets.

There is a scene in his movie, The Jerk, where Steve Martin is taught an important lesson by his black father. The Republican leaders who are rebranding their shit should already know we know the difference between shit and shinola! -Kevo

So how do we tell them what we want?

1. I want medical insurance that isn't administered by someone whose pocketbook is affected by paying out claims.

2. I want student loans that don't carry a lot of excess interest that goes into some CEO's pocket.

3. I want an FDA, an OSHA, a USDA, an EPA, an SEC, etc. that have both the will and the power to go after businesses in their respective jurisdictions who violate my well-being.

And that's just off the top of my head.

Actually Republicans have no interest in cutting spending at all. They just want the money spent on massive useless weapons systems, coal mining and oil drilling in sensitive environmental areas.

That's what is really important to Republicans. Who needs to worry about making the rent, paying the mortgage, feeding the children or caring for a sick relative when you've got more money than God already?

The real Republican slogan is:

"If you have one dollar in your pocket, we want it in ours."

And that's the truth.

Wow, a lib lite theocracy that's just as corrupt as the Democrats on illegal aliens!

Annnd, another big benefit of R's going wingnut shows: They are losing people to whom "conservative" is still a word with meaning.

Jim Webb revealed himself recently with a great capital-C-conservative, don't-change-for-change's-sake, so-broke-we-gotta-do-something speech about the American way of jailing. This came from a self-professed non-politician and a guy who just doesn't up and get flighty by reading one poll or headline.

It makes no more sound to the Republicans than a tree falling in an anechoic chamber. To be fair, it didn't set the D's on fire either, but there was no hue and cry and demand for him to apologize, not even from Blowmentum.

Webb felt himself to be politically secure enough to do this as a Democrat. Can we imagine his party's reaction if Sen. Jim Webb, R-VA did the same thing?

The obstructionist party of failure and hypocrisy cannot understand that changing their name and not their policies will just continue to push them into obscurity.

We tried their ways and it nearly destroyed our nation. People took note out of 'necessity' to keep from losing everything America stood for.

Rebranding is stupid unless the party realizes we need regulation, and that tax cuts for the wealthy don't work...just for starters.

They failed...they won't change...so they will continue to fail if allowed to regain power. They are no longer a national political party.

Our 2 main political parties are now Democratic Socialists and Conservative Democrats.

Far Right wing republican conservatism is destructive and no longer a viable part of the political landscape. There is no Far Left party in America as "Leftists" are only defined as disagreeing with conservatism.

The Republican Party is done...ended.
It is the Democratic Party that will split into 2 parties... and Specter is a perfect example of this coming split.