Melanie Morgan

Sunday's newspapers are filled with political pieces about the state of the GOP, the blogs are busting at the bytes discussing this subject, and I have been doing some head-shrinking of the political establishment and their abject failure to excite anyone, with anything, or any idea.

Let's review the bidding, shall we?

John McCain is the salvation of the Republican party. Yessir!

That's what Politico.com reports the GOP (on Capitol Hill are saying.)

SFGate.com is reporting that California's Republican Governor in Name Only, AS(S) wants to re-brand the party. 

That, of course, means that he wants to throw overboard the conservatives who helped elect him.

Mark Williams, a conservative talk-show host, award-winning journalist and long time friend examines why this is a recipe for diaster. Williams discusses the problems facing conservatives in this report on the California 4th district  here.

It appears that the only Republican in California to correctly assess the political misfortunes of the GOP is State Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, who is quoted by SF Chronicle reporter Carla Marinucci.

"California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner - the only Republican besides Schwarzenegger elected to statewide office - said his party's image has been battered because GOP officials have forgotten the party's core principles: lower taxes, less government.

"Spending has skyrocketed. ... There's been this real crisis in earmarks, which are not justified, and there's been corruption because of ethics violations," he said. "Republican Party leaders have done a terrible job and let the country down."

Now we are getting somewhere....

The truth hurts, but no one can deny the facts. Schwarzenegger is responsible for signing state budgets that are bloated with Democrat pork, laden with special interest spending, and will lead to what I predict will be a landslide election for whomever becomes the Democrat standard-bearer in 2010, (either Antonio Villaraigosa, Jerry Brown, or Gavin Newsom.)

Under Schwarzenkennedy, state spending has increased 30 percent since 2004. But I do not see a 30 percent increase in vital services like highway improvements, or border security. I have seen a lot of Democrats get $170,000 a year jobs, thanks to Maria Shrivers' influence on her husband, and that of Susan Kennedy, the liberal lesbian Chief of Staff to both the recalled Gray Davis and the current RINO Governor. I have witnessed  many fat-cat public service employee contracts signed by Schwarzenegger, that will start bankrupting local city's like Vallejo on a massive scale in the next few years. 

Sigh.

The GOP can brand, re-brand, market strategies or whatever the hell the focus groups tell the strategists is the cool buzz word of the week. The plain fact of the matter is that in California, and across the country, Republican leaders have betrayed the conservative principles on which they ran. 

The public gets it. Conservatives get it. The Democrats get it. When will Republicans understand? Perhaps this November, when it will be too late.