and herd them into camps for extermination.

I am not naive enough to think that the Republicans could not get back in power. As one poster pointed out, Republicans are perceived, rightly or wrongly, as "better" at national security and events might play out where voters will look to them again to "make them safe." [Shudder]

I would like to ask Bill Greener an honest question. Are you reading the posts that unanimously refute your assertion that Sotomayer was treated with respect during her confirmation hearings? Maybe you should, because I think it goes to the heart of why the GOP is foundering. I think most minorities and women perceive the GOP as a party you can attend, but will never really be a part of. It will always be about the perceptions of the white, male base and if you can't understand them, and totally line up with their belief system, you're not a true Republican. The idea that a nonwhite person might think their values and background and belief system is just as good as theirs, or that they are living up to their value system as well as they are, is just incomprehensible to them.

I don't know what it's going to take to ditch the condescending, scolding tone of the current Republicans. Recently, minority leader John Boehner opened a news conference on health care reform with this statement: "We have told the President over and over again..." So what? His whole attitude was that the President is some willful child who will not do as they say. Who needs it?

Sooo much better than the fraud of the Wingnut!

The party of no- the do-nothings!

What have they accomplished for our country from 1994-2006? 12 years!

Twelve years! How have they moved our country forward?

The Senate- a 100 Member debating club - all with the same goal- more contributions.

Step outside the Senate- Senators?

8 years of 'no child left behind' - the USA -does not even rank within the top 25 for education in the world.

Healthcare reform - A - Healthcare crisis that Obama, Clinton and McCain ran on- Healthcare reform-

FYI- Obama won.

Senator Durbin of Illinois stated the Banks own the Senate. I am sure he will probably be stating the same for the Energy bill and the Healthcare bill.

On C-Span- John McCain"s response to the healthcare problem was that there was not enough competition.

A C-Span viewer asked him regarding his solution to the healthcare problem that we have had 40 years of competition- why do we have this crisis?

He then threw back his body and said we have problems- no solution.

Do you think Obama would give this as an answer? While on C-span, Mr. McCain could not thank his GOP Party enough for giving him the nomination of his party.

The press does not question the ability of the congress or leaders in government to understand domestic issues that are facing our country.

Progress? What have they accomplished for our country from 1994-2006?

Sorry, Republicans, but you made this bed. Now you have to sleep in it, assuming you're serious about this issue to begin with. The modern Republican party was built by three men, Barry Goldwater with his opposition to civil rights legislation (cloaked in the mantle of "individual rights", but really a sop to southern whites), Richard Nixon with his ruthlessly conceived and executed "southern strategy", and Ronald Reagan with his Lee Atwater-inspired unspoken messages such as opening his 1984 campaign in Philadelphia, MS of all places. And now you wonder why non-whites have a problem with your party?

While I don't think the writer is attempting to do so, I think that Republicans would like to place blame on the shifting demographic rather than the utter absence of modernity. The idea that the only way to be a "true" Republican is to stick to the ideas of the last 30 years ignores the fact that the party is over ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OLD. The party has been shifting and changing for a long long time, and it loses nothing by making practical changes now.

"Free labor, free land, free men" was the original slogan of the party. While the first was about working and entrepeneurship, the second was about the government GIVING away land and the last was about equal rights (i.e., anti-slavery). I bet if you described the underpinnings of this original philosophy to many a modern Republican, there would be talk of socialism and a downturned nose about "diversity."

While Jack Kemp certainly had some imperfect ideas, he embraced the old school Republican value of inclusion. We not only need more of that, but we need a Republican party that rewards it (with fundraising and national party support for candidates) rather than those who want to stay "idiologically pure" to the expense of actually winning elections. This goes beyond hiring a black guy at the helm who speaks in slang that his own chiildren probably wouldn't be caught dead using. It's about stopping this business where we call certain people "real Americans" by virtue of where they live and imply that others are lesser or don't count at all.

So long as the party sees this as a "demographic problem" (that can be blamed on fate not the party), or a "megaphone problem" ("we just aren't getting our message out"), instead of an "ideas problem" (i.e., "we need new ones") and figures out what those new ideas need to be, the party is going to remain troubled, and the voters will continue to respond accordingly.

I was a GOP voter from 1968 until 1988. I'm still a white Anglo-Saxon female, same like then, but it's highly unlikely that I'll ever vote Republican again.

The two main parties used to be categorized as the Daddy Party (strong on defense, fiscally conservative) and the Mommy Party (more concerned with domestic and social issues than foreign policy.) The GOP has turned into the Crazy Uncle Lew Party -- the loudmouthed old bigot at the family reunion whom everyone tries to avoid. Who wants to hear his same venomous rants about pointy-headed intellectuals, uppity women, limp-wristed homo's, lazy blacks and illegal Mexicans?

And for heavens sake keep your teenagers, boys and girls both, away from him. You know what he's like after a few beers.