My Tuesday column begins like so:
I spent some time this morning familiarizing myself with the Republican Party’s “Growth and Opportunity Project” document, or “GOP” for short. Get it? It’s an unintentionally hilarious report that seeks to repair the demographic hemorrhaging at the federal level of the party — the accelerating marginalization of Republicans due to the same nonsense we witnessed over the weekend at CPAC.
RNC chairman and Mos Eisley cantina alien Reince Priebus introduced the report over the weekend in time for the conservative cosplay gathering in Maryland, and it sounds as if he’s ballyhooing the plan as the centerpiece of his legacy as chairman. Even though it was authored by Henry Barbour, Sally Bradshaw, Ari Fleischer, Zori Fonalledas, and Glenn McCall, it’s Priebus’ magic wand for fixing everything — I mean everything — that’s devouring the party.
At the national level, a majority of Americans generally wouldn’t cross the street to piss on a Republican’s shoe. In fact, the “GOP” (zing!) report included a brief description of two focus groups, one in Ohio and another in Iowa, in which Republican voters described their own part as “scary,” “narrow minded,” “out of touch” and the party of “stuffy old men.” Yikes. [continue reading here]