Republican Tom Cole's Message The Day After Mississippi

We don't have anything personally against Representative Cole. And he wouldn't know us if he fell over us in the street.

That said, Mark Halperin reports that Cole, who is a top campaign organizer for the Republican Party, is telling other Republicans and the press the day after the GOP lost a special election in Mississippi that:

candidates can’t just run on the fact that their district is historically Republican, party is suffering from a “deficiency in our message and loss of confidence by the American people.” Says Republican ideals aren’t being rejected. Thinks the party will do better once the presidential general election heats up and the Democrats have to be “forthright with their positions.”

"Republican ideals aren't being rejected."

We have no idea if that is true or not. Neither does Cole.

Because what Republican ideals have been embraced by Bush/Hastert/DeLay/Lott/McConnell over the last 7.5 years?

On their watch we've seen an explosion of government debt, explosion of entitlement spending, nation building, corruption, outrageous discretionary spending increases, zero planning for the future, an unwillingness to tackle any tough problem and just all around piss poor management of just about everything else.

But that's just what we think. Of course, judging by the recent 3 special elections and just about every poll we've seen, we're in the majority opinion.

It's long past time to dump the old guard, build a 21st message and start looking towards 2010.

It ain't rocket science.