Nothing says "GOP Comeback" like "eager volunteers" wearing "The comeback starts now!" T-shirts...

[Amerigo Vespucci]

"The comeback starts now!"

Welcome to the Republican National Committee's winter meeting -- and the GOP's alternate reality, where happy days are nearly here again.

By Mike Madden



http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/01/30/rnc/

Jan. 30, 2009 | WASHINGTON -- The eager band of volunteers standing in the lobby of the Washington Hilton as the Republican National Committee winter meeting rolled into its second day made for a strange sight Thursday afternoon. One part Wal-Mart greeters to two parts Alex P. Keaton, they wore the sartorial train wreck that has become the unofficial uniform of young Washington apparatchiks trying to look "grassroots": a T-shirt, in this case bright blue, over a button-down shirt and dress slacks. "The comeback starts now!" their T-shirts declared. Nearby, a few had taken their laptops and commandeered a table by the hotel bar to live Twitter the afternoon's festivities on behalf of their choice for RNC chairman, Michigan GOP boss Saul Anuzis. An aide to one of Anuzis' rivals, meanwhile, whispered to reporters about the scandalous rumor making the rounds of the meeting: Some of the volunteers, allegedly, were one-time devotees of Ron Paul.

That's the state to which the Republican Party has been reduced -- a tiny knot of true believers engaged in a cutthroat battle to win a majority of the GOP's 168 national committee members. It's a voting population so small it makes student government elections seem complicated by comparison. And it's also a very narrow demographic, with a unique, perhaps eccentric, view of the world. If the mood and the speeches at the winter meeting are any guide, Republicans are seeking refuge from electoral defeat in an alternate reality, one where the public still loves them -- or would if they could only improve their sales pitch. And where going along with President Obama's agenda just isn't in the cards.

To the Republican base, and the members gathered at the Hilton, the House GOP's unanimous, losing vote against an economic stimulus bill on Wednesday wasn't a Bronx cheer aimed at a popular new president, but rather a heroic stand on behalf of the American public. Playing to the hardcore grass roots, the party's leaders made clear Thursday that they plan to stick to their new formula, the one they think will lead them back from the wilderness -- even if it sounds pretty similar to the one that got them there in the first place.

"The first task, in my view, is to find the voters who've left the party," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told the RNC. "As we do this, the temptation for some will be to run from our principles or to dilute our message. I think that's a temptation we need to resist. These people were Republican for a reason. You don't get them back by pretending to be something else. And you certainly don't gain voters by running away from the ones that are most loyal."

[TwilightGardener]

1. What a bunch of sad fucknecks. The country rejected their bullshit, but they have

no other material, so they cling to it like frightened spider monkeys.

[Why Syzygy]

3. It would be sad, if it wasn't so freaking hysterical!

I'm lovin it. I guess they haven't figured out that Rove fixed the vote for them in two elections. They actually believe they WON, and can do it again. Of course the guy that had the proof took one plane flight too many.

[BOSSHOG]

2. Back to

endless war, a devastated economy and free flowing hate. Those conservative values never cease to amaze.

[L0oniX]

4. They might as well where "I'm An Idiot" t-shirts n/t

[KharmaTrain]

5. Upcoming GOOP Outreach Programs...

Here's the site of the upcoming GOOP Black Caucus gathering:...Michael Steel presiding...



Meeting of the GOOP Hispanic Caucus:...Lou Dobbs featured guest..



Meeting of the Log Cabin Repugnicans...No one dares to open the door...




The GOOP's Women's Caucus...sponsored by SarahPAC...You Betcha...


(it's beyond the glass ceiling)

and the Rushbo Limbaugh Admiration Society...groveling required...




:rofl:

[Javaman]

6. didn't the whig party have a similar slogan? nt

[kenny blankenship]

7. They probably still have some Whip Inflation Now buttons they can hand out

No sense in those going to waste.