Recalling the GOP Convention’s Festival of Falling Stars

[babylonsister]

Bob Benenson’s Jigsaw Politics: Recalling the GOP Convention’s Festival of Falling Stars
By Bob Benenson, CQ Staff


There are plenty of numerical measures of the Republican Party’s declining fortunes since the 2004 national convention in New York City, which renominated President Bush and sent him to what turned into a troubled-plagued second term in the White House.

There is the steep decline in approval ratings for Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney . There are all those lost seats that in 2006 and since have cost the GOP its majorities in the Senate, the House, governors’ offices and several state legislative chambers. Most recently, there was the generic poll conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs for the Associated Press from July 31 to Aug. 4, which found 53 percent of respondents want the Democrats to control Congress, compared to only 35 percent who want the Republicans in charge.

But as we prepare to head out in a couple of weeks for the back-to-back Democratic convention in Denver and Republican convention in St. Paul, another way of illustrating the GOP’s hard and fast slide emerges. A look at the list of featured speakers at the 2004 Republican convention is itself a graphic illustration of why just four years ago seems like the good old days to so many Republican loyalists.

The roster is a virtual meteor shower of Republicans stars who have fallen within this one presidential election cycle.

Let’s start with the Monday opening day session, kicked off by House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois in his role of permanent chairman of the convention. His re-election in November 2004 would extend his time as Speaker to eight years, the longest tenure for a Republican in the nation’s history. But the GOP’s loss of 30 seats and their majority in the 2006 elections relegated Hastert to the back benches and prompted him to resign his seat last November. Symbolically, a Democrat won the March special election to take over his Republican-leaning district.

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http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docid=news-000002936265

[Mist]

1. Hastert, Frist, and George Allen? "falling stars" is putting it kindly. nt

[gratuitous]

2. Memories, light the corners of my mind

Oh, for the heady days of the permanent Republican majority! These are the latter day heroes of today's conservative movement.