Thursday, November 09, 2006

Mehlman stepping down

WASHINGTON - Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman, whose party lost both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections, will step down from his post when his two-year term ends in January, GOP officials said Thursday.

The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because Mehlman had not yet made his intentions public.

The officials said Mehlman made the decision not to run for a second term more than a month or two ago — well before the election.


He was probably planning on going out after a victory instead of a crushing defeat. This just continues the dismantling of the Republican machine, what with Rumsfeld stepping down and Bolton's nomination in doubt (well, it's dead, really).

What's interesting is the shape of the future Republican party. I'm not the political expert, so I'll let other people say what they think that future might be, but to this layman, it seems that the party of the neocons is dead.

4 comments:

michele said...

I think that when the party gives into it's desire to consolidate power, then they fail. I believe that if they learn from this that Republicans want them to act like Republicans (lower taxes, smaller government, less spending) then they will come roaring back. You can tell that they got the message by Pence's vision statement. Let's see if they are prepared to walk the talk.

How do I know they will be successful? Fifty-nine percent of those voting wanted lower taxes and less government and they didn't think the Republicans stood for that.

Nat-Wu said...

fan boy, I didn't say the GOP was dead, I said "the party of the neocons is dead". Specifically the neocons. The Republican party can turn in one of two directions: either centrist or towards the evangelical fringe. I don't believe for a second that after the repudiation they suffered in this election that they can play the neocon game of supporting business interests while pandering to the "values voters". I say this because those voters already saw through that shell game. The neocons are dead, at least until they come up with another game plan.

Becoming a business interest party is also too single issue to have an entire party run on, and that's the Libertarians' area anyway. That's why I say it's either centrist or to the right. But heck, I could always be wrong.

Nat-Wu said...

Michele, the problem is that Americans always say they want lower taxes and less government. The reason neither party ever delivers is that Americans don't want the lowered level of services and lifestyle that comes with it. I guess if they're just playing politics they can act like they're going to deliver on that promise, but they won't, so I don't think that's much of a permanent strategy.

Nat-Wu said...

Hear hear!