Mirror, Mirror

Robert Novak brings us this item in which we learn that the Republican leadership is still reluctant to come to terms with the real reasons that they were handed such a stunning defeat in November. Criticism is always difficult to hear, but that does not make it less important. Author Frank Luntz has a new book out, "Words That Work", but you would never know it by looking at the stultified Republican leadership. It took a petition with over thirty thousand signature just to get them to notice that most of the base of the party didn't want to cut and run from Iraq or a resolution that demoralized the troops. Frankly I think we are in for a long drought, unless we are lucky enough to get a serious Republican leader elected to the White House in the next election. The Republicans in the congress certainly are not learning much about why the lost or what they need to do in order to be winners again.

"The Republican Party that lost those historic elections was a tired, cranky shell of the articulate reformist, forward-thinking movement that was swept into office in 1994 on a wave of positive change," Luntz wrote. He went on to say that the Republicans of 2006 "were an ethical morass, more interested in protecting their jobs than protecting the people they served. The 1994 Republicans came to 'revolutionize' Washington. Washington won."

Except for momentary defection to independent candidate Ross Perot in 1992, Luntz has been a Republican operative who has counseled Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani and Trent Lott. But he often has worked for the media, making comments too harsh for the ears of reclusive Republicans. He has clashed frequently with Rep. John Boehner, the current Republican leader of the House who stifled ethics legislation last year when he was still majority leader.

Boehner, elected chairman of the House Republican Conference when the party took control in 1995, tried then to keep Luntz from addressing closed-door meetings but was overruled by Speaker Gingrich. When Luntz in October 2005 publicly warned of rejection by voters in 2006, he was forced to deliver an abject apology before he could speak at a retreat of House Republicans held at the Library of Congress. After seven straight years on the program, Luntz was kept off last week's 2007 session at Cambridge, Md., by Boehner.