No good can come from this for the Republicans or the country:
Republicans looking to recover from Bush-era defeats are turning to an unlikely source for advice: top aides to former President George W. Bush.
Former White House press secretary Dana Perino, former Bush counselor Ed Gillespie and former White House deputy press secretary Tony Fratto are among those set to provide words of wisdom to House Republican press secretaries at their annual workshop this Friday.
GOP House Conference Communications Director Matt Lloyd said Perino, Gillespie and Fratto represented “the gold standard for Republican communications professionals” and were obvious choices to advise the party’s messengers.
This country can not handle another round with the Mayberry Machievellis running the show.
JC
These guys have it made. I wish I could continue to fail at life as much as these losers and still keep getting paid and called on for advice.
blogenfreude
Professionals who communicate by alternately lying and sneering – that’s just what the GOP needs.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
The Repubs are truly the Keystone Kops of politics. They might as well ask Pewee Herman for advice for all the good these morans are going to do them.
If you find yourself in a hole… aww fuck it, let them dig for China.
Krista
…which just goes to show you how truly fucked up the Republican party is.
SpotWeld
I wonder if there will be a point where there is a total reversal of position.
Currently a small group of hard-core “pure right wingers” is fighting to keep the GOP label firmly affixed to thier particular definition of party. It could get the point where they all get bought off with the usual currently (money and/or poltical influence) to just give up the “nameplate” of the GOP to another group of (probably lobbiest backed) politicals to be the next “real GOP”.
Sort of like a failed car company having its few still popular brand names bought up by another company so they can cash in on the value that still exists, lingering from better days.
The Moar You Know
Cure for fail: more fail.
Clap harder, motherfuckers.
Zifnab
Hey, it’s another round of “Tell us what we want to hear” politics. If the Republicans wanted to win an election cycle, they’d be shifting their platform, moderating their position, and appealing to folks outside the immediate base. Instead, they’re bringing in a bunch of Bush-era consultants who have the job of repeatedly hammering home the message that everything is fine, Republicans are popular, and this is a center-right nation.
They’ll all get together and pow-wow until they feel confident enough to stay the course. Then they’ll break huddle, run back in front of the media cameras, declare themselves patriots and revolutionaries, and keep doing the same shit they’ve been doing for the last 30 years.
I guess the logic is either the country has to move or the GOP has to move, and if the GOP refuses to move that only leaves one option. :-p
Sam Simple
I’m guessing tax cuts for the wealthy will play a prominent role in their “advice”. Just a guess, mind you.
Michael
@SpotWeld
The GOP=The DeLorean of Politics
– no power
– lots of flash and gizmos
– no market share
– nobody needs it
Dennis-SGMM
Because nothing says “change” like bringing in spokesholes from a monumentally failed administration.
“What’s the frequency Kenneth?”
SpotWeld
@Michael
And a mythcial vehicle for some to get back to a 1950s that never really existed in the first place?
kid bitzer
wot – – no ari fleischer? no karl rove?
or did he mean: “the gold standard for republican communications professionals who do not already have lucrative gigs in the librul media?”
most shocking omission: no keynote speech from muhammad al-sahhaf?
MattF
The word “communication” doesn’t mean what they think it means. In fact there are quite a few words in that “statement” that don’t “mean” what they “think” it “means”.
D-Chance.
If the Republicans want to know what went wrong, they only have to look at the Bush family and the collective abandonment of Ronald Reagan.
“Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said Saturday that it’s time for the Republican Party to give up its “nostalgia” for the heyday of the Reagan era…”
Yeah, right, Jeb. Your father ridiculed Reagan’s economic plans in 1979, calling it “voodoo economics”. We then had an 8-year run of unprecedented growth in our nation, both with tax cuts AND with tax increases. Your daddy then admitted in his presidential run in ’88 that he didn’t have “that vision thing” (who could have predicted the collapse of the Soviet Union or the tearing down of the Berlin Wall)… and became a one-termer.
Your brother then fired the fatal shot in the heart of Reagan conservatism with his Eye-rack War of Choice (as I recall, we didn’t enter into a war with a third-party country after our Marines were killed in Lebanon), the blowing up of the budget, the rampant neglect of anything and everything else that didn’t involve those phantom “tairsts” or Exxon profits.
And, now, YOU deign to offer advice? To abandon… Reagan? After we saw an election when the Democratic nominee won by EMULATING Reagan every step of the way? With specific plans… uplifting oratory… a reassuring calm and collected poise at all times… always promoting the picture of a brighter America (that “vision thing” again). Yeah, that’s all nostalgia, let’s shit-can it and go for a Bush III as our 2012 candidate. What a fucking crock.
Go away, Jeb. No one from your family should see the political light of day ever again.
Warren Terra
I’m not familiar with the other two, but Perino became a byword for mindless, ill-informed, aggressive partisanship that signally failed to achieve any traction whatsoever for her desired narratives with either the press corps or the broader public.
Now, maybe as the Dubya press secretary for the post-Katrina era she was dealt an impossible hand but it didn’t seem like she was bringing any added value to the exercise. It’s far from obvious that she’s someone to learn from; mostly she seems to appeal to their base because she seemed so much like having Laura Ingraham or some other Right-Wing Talk Radio Host as the Press Secretary.
Ash Can
Yet more proof that the GOP isn’t going to make any comebacks until the current generation dies out — which, come to think of it, may not take that long if they’re this fucking stupid. These people don’t have the sense God gave the average wooden clothespin.
gil mann
Geez, that’s like if the Democrats were still getting advice from people like Bob Schrum.
Zifnab
Didn’t we have a pair of market crashes – one in ’82 and one in ’87 – that were the direct offshoots of deregulation in the financial markets, specifically the Savings and Loan Industry?
And didn’t the tax cuts target the wealthiest 1% of Americans while the tax increases targeted everyone under the Social Security tax cap?
Are you sure you’re thinking of Reagan? Are you sure you’re not referring to Clinton?
Keith G
If there truly were a “gold standard for Republican communications professionals” that would be Marlon Fitzwater.
But since he had been a bit critical of 43’s admin., he probably was not on their short list.
Ash Can
@D-Chance.: Don’t kid yourself about Reagan’s “conservatism.” For years he was considered too lunatic fringe to win the GOP presidential nomination, and did it in 1980 only because the country was in poor economic straits and his rhetoric, as Renato once said here, made Americans feel better about themselves and their country the way getting drunk makes you forget that you’re jobless and broke. Notice that all the ways you’ve named in which Obama emulates Reagan are cosmetic — speaking, folksiness, that sort of thing. Obama’s good at all that, but he has well-thought-out policies and ideas to go along with it. Reagan had no such substance behind his smoke and mirrors. He ran up the deficit with his reckless defense spending, got the US involved in foolhardy (if not outright illegal) military ventures, and alienated many allies. He was a fraud.
HitlerWorshippingPuppyKicker
I think this is good for the country.
The GOP is operating right now on a mixture of chutzpah and hubris. Anything that further exposes their dumbassity and stupidiness works for our side, as near as I can tell.
Pour it on. I’d give money to a drive to put GWB himself on tv on a relentless series of ads to promote the GOP. Those people are toxic. Keep the lights and the cameras and the microphones on them 24 x 7.
These folks had popularity ratings right down there with athlete’s foot and mold. Let’s see more of them.
jake 4 that 1
No good can come from this for the Republicans or the country:
The only danger to the country is we’ll all laugh ourselves into comas or overdose on popcorn.
“the gold standard for Republican communications professionals”
Yep. And as usual the gold has been used to gild a 200 lb. turd.
What’s that verse from the Bible? Something about a dog and its vomit?
HitlerWorshippingPuppyKicker
Another thing I am noticing here is the aggressive activity of the Bush family/empire to get in front of the GOP efforts to make a comeback. With this recent news, and the appearances of Jeb Bush in recent “rebranding” and “listening” exercises, it’s becoming clear that they want to be big players in the next iteration of GOP power.
Which is, of course, all the more reason to run away from the GOP. But that’s just me.
Left Coast Tom
The only thing that seems odd about this is _Politico_ somehow believing this signifies…something…newsworthy. If this is a conference for House GOP press people, then having former White House press people there seems reasonable enough. Presenting this as a way to “recover from defeats” seems wacky.
MTiffany
Isn’t that sort of like letting pedophiles run a day care?
The Moar You Know
They REALLY need to being Scott McLellan on board as well. I’ve missed watching that tubby little fuck squirm and shed flop sweat everywhere as his soul screams in agony at the lies coming out of his mouth.
The Moar You Know
@MTiffany: More like letting John McCain fly an aircraft.
Comrade Darkness
@Zifnab: Yeah, and two recessions.
Reagan era “growth” was simply massive borrowing against the future. Screwing our children into international debt slavery so the rich could have a party. http://zfacts.com/p/318.html
The American Republic will endure, until politicians realize they can bribe the people with their own money.
Beginning of the end, thanks to St. Reagan.
Cat Lady
The only hope Republicans will ever have for relevancy is to come up with a policy prescription that will bear scrutiny in the light of day, and an articulate messenger who can speak to the middle class and invoke a sense of competence. Obama isn’t an ideologue – he will keep trying things until they work, and so the only thing that Repubs can do is out-competence him. Being more rigidly ideological with every utterance of Obama’s is backfiring because they’re using the wrong weapons. Weirdly, the only one of the clowns involved in this new messaging push with any clue about the way it could work is probably Jeb Bush, whose day is over thanks to the idiot brother. It wouldn’t surprise me at all to see him pushed into a primary by the dead-enders.
Comrade Darkness
@MTiffany:Isn’t that sort of like letting pedophiles run a day care?
On the upside, they’d probably work for free.
chrome agnomen
boy, we sure could use a big hit in this situation! tell mario mendoza to get ready to pinch hit.
RareSanity
They really do think that they have a marketing problem…it’s really quite pitiful. They called for the “Big Guns” to pull them out of a hole, and those guns are Ed Gillespie, Dana Perino, Jeb Bush and smatterings of Newt Gingrich.
In my opinion, Jeb needs to go and kick his little brother’s ass because any chance that he had at national politics was killed and buried in Crawford, Texas. They have the same mannerisms, speech patterns and smugness, just without the “twang”. He doesn’t have a chance…
chrome agnomen
about time to give the rethuglic party, as a whole, a lifetime achievement darwin award.
John PM
Clearly this puts a stake in the heart of Ron Paul’s plan to return us to the gold standard.
RememberNovember
and the irony reading this is the Newt/Coulter banner ads on the sidebar.
Grumpy Code Monkey
@John PM:
I knew there was a joke in there about Ron Paul and gold standards, but couldn’t put it together. Thank you.
John Cole
@chrome agnomen: Win.
Krista
That it is. They’re manufacturing shit sandwiches, and nobody’s buying. But instead of saying, “Gee, maybe people just don’t like shit sandwiches — perhaps we should look at offering something different,” they’re saying “Why aren’t people realizing how much they like shit sandwiches? There must be something wrong with our message! Damn liberal media, refusing to tell people that they’re supposed to adore the taste of shit sandwiches! Call Dana Perino!”
HyperIon
@SpotWeld:
Sort of like the magnetic field reversals that happen periodically. Evidently they are typically preceded by periods of chaotic fluctuations. Then presto, the field flips.
sparky
@Krista: i dunno. to me it makes a great deal of sense that they should keep trying to change the marketing. it’s worked pretty damn well until recently. i think people forget the underlying idea here–if you have a base, you only need another 25% to get to 51%. if the Ds put up someone with no charisma, you’re at 45% already.
1980-1984-1988-2000-2004. Clinton is the only break there, and that’s because he like Obama is a better politician. look at how bad things had to get in the US before Obama could be elected. the GOP has been selling pet rocks for a looong time, and done pretty damn well at it.
the one argument i see against this take is the demographic one, but i am not sure how much traction that has. if you told me in 1978 that the youth would enthusiastically embrace Reagan I would have laughed just as much as the people here are making fun of the GOP now.
in other words, as long as the political parties run on personalities rather than policies the US is going to stay screwed.
Nellcote
They all work for CNN. also.
JDM
Disdaina Vagino rawks. Whatta kewl chik.
David Hunt
It’s worse than that: 1968-1972-1980-1984-1988-2000-2004. Granted, Carter wasn’t what I’d call a great politician. There’s no way that he could have won without the blowback from Watergate and Nixon’s pardon sticking to Ford like glue…which is pretty much the point. I remember that economic times were considered pretty bad in the run-up to the 92 election. For the last forty years, the Story has been that the Republicans rule until they screw up something so badly that they let in a single Democrat to clean up the mess, then they move right back into the Whitehouse. If Colin Powell had run in ’96 like he had been hinting at instead of Bob Dole, they might have been able to kick Clinton out after one term, as well.
Xecky Gilchrist
@SpotWeld: And a mythcial vehicle for some to get back to a 1950s that never really existed in the first place?
LOL! And one that’s been struck by lightning, no less.
asiangrrlMN
@Krista: There was a Daily Show spoof on the rebranding of the GOP before they started their rebranding efforts. Sam Bee asked a marketing expert how she would sell a shit sandwich. The marketing expert said she would douse it with chocolate and say it had no calories. Then, Sam Bee got an old guy and a black guy to do the GOP rap. It was hysterical–until the GOP took it as gospel and ran with it.
TenguPhule
It’s like watching a train wreck is slow motion in HD.
Horrifying, but somehow you just can’t turn away.
Elie
– The Republicans have no message. Period. Add to that, over the last two to three decades, they systematically purged anyone who has any brains or new ideas from their ranks. They are fundamentally unable to address their current needs therefore because they do not have 1) any new ideas and 2) no people to present, communicate anything but the old time “messaging” and “marketing” bull.
They are in a world of hurt and completely without an immediate solution. Obama is going to continue to knock the stuffings out of them both in content and style. The whole landscape is changing rapidly and will be out of reach to their various spin tactics and positioning.
Most of the real substantive discussion of alternatives will come from within Democratic party and progressive ranks —
ksmiami
The GOP is not trustworthy and can’t govern for shit. No amount of re-branding can overcome their massive reverse midas touch. Not to mention that they have pretty much ostracized everyone outside the bible belt, anyone who is not a god squadder, anyone with the slightest twinge of recent immigration, scientists, rational thinkers… I mean who is left? The 21% true believers and you couldn’t pay me enough money to be in the same room as those scary fuckwit people who don’t even understand why we shouldn’t use torture in America, but stand around with dead fetus pictures claiming to be pro-life while killing doctors and sending young men and women off to die in far flung badly planned military adventures. Fuck that shit. I will vote Dem or indie for the rest of my life and I am young. Cue to Republicans, if you ever want to win another national election STOP BEING SUCH ASSHOLES
Dreggas
They should just hire baghdad bob and be done with it.