I attempted to talk to party leaders about reform in the days leading up to the election without much success. But I did get a chance to talk to Chairman Mehlman the morning of the election and his appetite for reform seemed pretty strong. That was early in the day. With defeat sinking in his appetite seems to be growing. Salena Zito spoke to him after the election:
Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman thinks his party didn’t push conservative issues and too often ignored unethical behavior. The party was bruised by indictments of congressmen, such as Bob Ney of Ohio and Randy “Duke” Cunningham of California, and the sordid allegations surrounding Mark Foley of Florida.
“This was not a rejection of our ideology. It was, in my opinion, a statement by the American people that we were not doing enough to advance our principles,” Mehlman said. “We are not building a common ground with the members of the other side on those principles, and we make a mistake and look the other way if people in our cause and members of our ranks aren’t following ethical standards.”
As proof, he said most of the congressional seats captured by Democrats “were not won by far-left candidates. It was almost, across the board, conservative Democrats.”
One example might be Bob Casey, a pro-life, pro-gun Democrat who trounced U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Penn Hills. Santorum, the Senate’s third-ranking Republican, developed a national reputation on those issues.
“Look,” said Mehlman, “the American people sent us a message … we have got to do a better job as Republicans and as conservatives. We have to recommit ourselves to our core principles, our core mission and our core values” and to “work on a bipartisan basis” when principles allow.
He also called on Republicans “to work, in a way like the Truman Doctrine, that builds a bipartisan strategy for what is going to be a generational struggle” while remaining “the party that is committed to conservative reform.”
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