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Former Rep. Steven LaTourette (R-Ohio) is the new head of the Main Street Partnership.
Nearly a year ago, Republicans for Environmental Protection gave up. The group didn't end its mission, exactly, it just decided to drop its party label. After years in which the Republican Party grew increasingly hostile towards science, environmental protections, and conservation efforts, "Republicans for Environmental Protection" was out; "ConservAmerica" was in.
As the Republican brand deteriorates, they're not the only ones who've decided to move away from the "R" word.
The Republican Main Street Partnership, a Washington-based group that has promoted moderate GOP lawmakers and policies, will remove the word "Republican" from its title and welcome center-right Democrats in 2013, Yahoo News has learned.
The organization's board of directors voted Tuesday morning to scrap party identification from its title and be known simply as "The Main Street Partnership." The group's new president, former Ohio Republican Rep. Steven LaTourette, told Yahoo News that he plans to begin conversations with Blue Dog Democrats and centrist groups in the coming months.
The group formerly known as the Republican Main Street Partnership also has a super PAC, Defending Main Street, and it too intends to start looking out for -- and talking to -- center-right members of both parties.
So, let me get this straight. The group that ostensibly exists to help moderate the Republican Party has grown so frustrated with the GOP's radicalism that it's giving up and starting to appeal to Democrats who may be more amenable to the organization's outreach?
As Josh Marshall put it, "In other words, the Republican Main Street Partnership doesn't seem to be able to find enough Republicans to be on Main Street."
We hear a lot from pundits about how Republicans would benefit from a Democratic Leadership Council-style group to help move the GOP from the extremes, following the Clinton-era model that worked to Democrats' electoral benefit 20 years ago.
And yet, with the Republican Main Street Partnership abandoning its party label altogether, the campaign to moderate the party is nowhere on the horizon.
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A campaign to moderate the Republican party might not be on the horizon, but Main Street America and ConservAmerica might be setting the stage for a new center right party that will replace a dying radicalized Republican party. I am reading more and more in the mainstream press that leads me to believe the media is becoming fed up with Republican radicalism. If the Republicans bounce the world economy off the debt ceiling, I suspect Republicans in even the most gerrymandered of districts will be in trouble.
...but Main Street America and ConservAmerica might be setting the stage for a new center right party that will replace a dying radicalized Republican party.
I believe that that new center right party will be the Democrats, and a new progressive party will come up from the left.
largenose, you might be right. The Democrats have staked out a very centrist position.
Centrist position on what?
Inspector - on almost everything. Only those who watch Fox and live in the right wing echo chamber think otherwise.
Didn't you ever notice that no matter which Dem is being discussed they are "THE MOST LIBERAL EVAH!"? No, probably not. The echo chamber is circling the empty chamber in your skull.
Can you imagine someone with the minus-number IQ "Inspector" has actually inspecting anything? God help us all, whatever it would be.
I have argued for years that the natural party alignment that will emerge will be a Progressive Party, a Democratic Party and a right wing of libertarians, and radical republicans called the Republican Party....which will become more and more marginalized over time eventually going the way of the Whigs. The splinter groups that make up that right wing party, libertarians, fundamentalist Christians, and policy hawks will be lost in the political wilderness.
Inspector,
What MsJoanne said. Obamacare, for example, which conservatives claim is very far left was actually designed in the Heritage Foundation think tank as a Republican response to Hillarycare. It was first implimented by that severe conservative Mitt Romney. It is a very centerist response to health care. Another example is defense. Obama left in place lots and lots of policies installed by Bush/Cheney that progressives find offensive. Frankly I can't think of a single position taken by the Democratic party that doesn't circle around the American center, most a little right and a few slightly left.
Ms J. The only thing I like about fox news is fox business's Imus in the morning. I am not a rebublican I am not with the Tea party. I believe that government has too much power and spends way too much of my money. The democrats that are running the whitehouse and senate are far left liberals that want to send this country into total bankrupcy and ultimately control every aspect of our lives. I also believe that they truly think that we are too stupid to have personal responsibility. The democratic party has in fact moved to the extreme left and the republicans have moved too far to the right. So please drop the fox news crap because you are way off base. As for TC Don't make me smack you down like the readheaded stepchild you are again. You only have three things to say and none of them are helpful in a debate In a battle of wits you are totally unarmed. Ron, Obamacare itself has alot of problems. The one that bothers me the most is how the democrats handled the passage. All behind closed doors and they left no room for debate.
The key word here is "former". Perhaps "sanity" is a contagious condition?
All one has to do is look at this "moderate" La Tourette's voting record to see he would scare even blue dogs. Where was this fella when in 2011 everything to come out of the House was about womens reproductive rights? Where was he during the credit downgrade? We can all be Monday Morning quarterbacks, and yes, Republicans not from the South do indeed have to have an outlet, but I don't trust the man or this organization until I see action.
He suffers from political "Tourette's Syndrome" - everything he believes in is a swear word.
Maybe the "K Street Partnership" would have been more seasonable or perhaps the "Angry White People Partnership".
No, no . . . they need something more militaristic - appropriate for hawks - and something topical that describes their world view . . .
I've got it!! The "Dick Army."
Or the Armey of Dicks!
The Dick Army. So much awesomeness!
If this guy is a "moderate Republican" then we're in much worse trouble than we thought. Like everything else Republican, this is most likely a disinformation conspiracy.
I have lizards in my yard that change color every time they jump on something. I believe we are seeing the same thing happening in the Republican world. I would be real careful about what I pick up - no matter what they call it.
What's a "moderate ruthugniCant" - the current crop are bat-crap crazy! I believe that they've inhaled the fumes of their own feces so long that it's taken their brains! So this "new group" don't want to be labeled as being Republicans - that speaks volumes; and when will the lame-stream media parrots actually start acknowledging that the current GOTP is to bear the blame of the morass that's going on in Washington?! Will the GOTP be allowed to blow up the world economy with this "faux debt ceiling" farce?
See the Tea-baggers have shown that they never took a civics lesson and they have NO idea about how government is supposed to function; so they stand on an ideology that hasn't been working since Raygun first applied trickle down economic theory! But the old farts that have been there for decades and still feign NO knowledge of what is happening - they need to be horse-whipped for treason and then jailed! In both cases these people do not need to hold public office because they do not have the interests of the public in their minds!
That's because it's not supposed to function.
Now their talking on the news about the total Republican Party is a load of crap. No kidding how many of us here been saying that same thing for how long now. The Tea Crap Party is the Republican Party and has been for years now, not just from 2010. Republican jokers will say anything to get elected than do only things for rich bastards and have everybody else pay for the total disaster after. Bush used the excuse of saying he brought in really religious people and what were they called by God, Jesus, and the light hypocrites. When you going to learn when you elect trash you get trash or when they steal elections they are corrupt. Republicans are the worst scum on this planet and are about as worthless as they can get in the eyes of God.
Uh, can we pop a bubble in THIS little Canard:
"We hear a lot from pundits about how Republicans would benefit from a Democratic Leadership Council-style group ..., following the Clinton-era model that worked to Democrats' electoral benefit 20 years ago."
Clinton won with a 43% plurality in 1992 against a president who lied about raising taxes after saying "Read my lips... no new taxes."
He lost the House in a sweeping GOP victory in 1994
Riding a spectacular bullmarket, Clinton was re-elected with 48% of the vote.
By 2000, with a greatly disillusioned Democratic base, Republicans ran roughshod over a party abandoned by the moneyed interests Clinton swore we could woo without losing our souls.
2004, the DLC coordinates opposition to Governor Howard Dean, the first Democrat to inspire left wingers since 1984, influencing the victory of John Kerry who loses to a man who gets us into an unprovoked war and presides over his first of two recessions.
Luckily, the despised Howard Dean takes the helm at the DNC and invests resources amongst the Democrats with very little influence at the state level who parlay mistakes the Republicans make nationwide and start winning elections DLC strategists said we couldn't hope for.
2008, arguably liberal Barack Obama leads ANOTHER decisive victory by lefty Democrats to gain a majority that got us Obamacare.
Can we PLEASE not re-write history and say the DLC was in any way helpful?
I praise "the big dog" for his heavy lifting during the campaign of his clearly superior Democratic party successor, Barack Obama, but I cannot attribute much of anything before 2012 to Clinton as far as advancing progressive goals, nor any electoral strength the Party currently enjoys. His posse, the DLC, has done even less.
Bill Clinton was never a Democrat. I take great joy in my record of not voting for President twice during his term in office.
The vaunted two party system may turn into a three party one, at least temporarily, while this gets itself sorted out.
the Stones' best album! Thanks for making me "Happy", Steve! Wild horses couldn't drag the republican house away from their self-destruction
yeah, i know i made an incorrect RS song reference...anyone listening? lol
I have noticed for years that people refuse to be labeled Republicans. They are "Independents" or "Libertarians" or even members of the "Tea Party”, Never Republicans. Those people are crazy.
It’s all about branding and marketing. The ideas don’t change and the attitudes are the same. They are just trying to hide behind a new brand name to confuse the issue. But come the election, all those "Independents" or "Libertarians" or even members of the "Tea Party” vote Republican.
sounds just like when the "Christian Children's Fund" removed "Christian" from the name since people have shat all over that word too with their actions and the inaction of what they promise.
Run away! Run Away! Cue the coconuts!