The Republican party, being the party “out of power” in Congress and the White House, supposedly has the advantage to gain a large number of seats in Congress and in the governorships this November, but this is not a good time for the Republicans!
The issue of illegal immigration has been stirred into a major controversy by the Arizona law scheduled to go into effect in July; the refusal of the Republicans, except for a few Northeasterners (Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, Scott Brown), to back financial reform at a time when so many Americans want strict regulation is a major shortcoming; the libertarian candidacy of Kentucky Senate nominee Rand Paul makes many Republicans speechless, trying to figure out how to deal with him in a public relations sense; and the “family values” party having to deal with so many members who have ethical and moral problems is an embarrassment! All of these issues make being a Republican in the age of Barack Obama very difficult!
Can the party allow the Tea Party mentality best represented by Rand Paul to take over their party agenda, which is, in many ways, so different? Even Rand Paul now trying to back BP Oil in the Gulf of Mexico disaster further complicates how the GOP is to react to this “loose cannon”, who will provide more “cannon fodder” for the media and the Democratic Party!
Can you imagine a week where House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, and Republican National Chairman Michael Steele are strangely silent? When has a week gone by when the top GOP leaders have avoided the news media?
This is a clear sign of the bind that the Republican party is in, as it should be a year of great gains in the states and the Congress, and yet so many problems and burdens exist, and there is no easy answer as to how they handle these various “hot potatoes”! 🙂
Looks like the Tea Party movement has done more harm than good for the Republicans. If moderates like Brown, Snowe, Collins and Graham were to do more to separate themselves from the “extreme” wing of the party, then they could possibly salvage themselves in the mid term elections. Either way, I prefer the Dems take advantage of a Republican party in disarray and add more seats to their majority in the House and Senate