By host Tom Ashbrook:
These are tough days for the GOP. Scandal. Deficits. A brutal war. And war in its own ranks over where to go next.
The Republican Party that, it seems, only yesterday saw itself as the country’s “permanent majority” has lost both houses of Congress and now looks with mounting alarm at GOP prospects in the ‘08 presidential election.
Conservatives boo John McCain. Rudy Giuliani polls strong, but doesn’t buy the conservative social agenda. Rush Limbaugh and Tom De Lay go on air bemoaning the party’s state of affairs.
Time magazine’s cover has Ronald Reagan in tears. It’s too soon to write off the GOP, but it’s a glum day in the clubhouse right now.
This hour On Point: Republican thinkers share their views on the GOP’s deep winter of discontent.
Quotes from the Show:
“Republicans can still come back if they got the message of 2006 and if they straighten out their act before 2008.”David Keene
“Conservatives and conservatism did not lose the 2006 election. It was liberal Republicans such as Tom Delay, George Bush, John Baynard, Roy Blunt. … All these gentlemen engaged in a massive expansion of government in the last 10-12 years. Republicans became that which they beheld.” Richard Viguerie
“The party has become addicted to power. … In my view, it’s not difficult for the Republican Party to regain its moorings.” Kellyanne Conway
Guests:
David Keene, president of the American Conservative Union
Richard Viguerie, conservative activist, author of “Conservatives Betrayed: How George W Bush and other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause”
Kellyanne Conway, Republican pollster, president and CEO of the Polling Company.
