Pete Sessions to Co-Chair GOP Retreat

Well, I'm disappointed--when I saw an article that Pete Sessions was leading a GOP House Retreat, I thought it meant they were leaving. No such luck. It's a marketing thing. From Real Clear Politics:

To Avoid Further Losses, Republicans Need 'Re-Branding'

The co-chairmen of the 70-member Suburban Caucus, Reps. Mark Kirk (Ill.), a moderate, and Pete Sessions (Texas), a conservative, are scheduled to present the agenda -- and polling data backing it up -- at the House GOP retreat beginning today in West Virginia.

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) has been talking for more than a year about the need for Republicans to "re-brand" themselves or remain in the minority.

Look, people, I've got a piece of advice that serves for everyone, not just those in Congress. If you want to keep your job, do your job. Showing up for work, for instance, is a good way to keep your job. That shouldn't have to be said, but some people in Congress seem to have trouble in that area. Instead of taking time off for a marketing seminar, how 'bout staying at work?

And if you are a Congressman, please meet the people you represent and find out what they want. It may be that a sizeable percentage of people in your district don't want a right-wing extremist who votes with the Republican Party 91% of the time. Pete Sessions votes as if he won a landslide victory--he didn't. To date, he has ignored the 42% of constituents who voted for his opponent.

As Peggy Noonan said, George W. Bush destroyed the Republican Party:

On the pundit civil wars, Rush Limbaugh declared on the radio this week, "I'm here to tell you, if either of these two guys [Mr. McCain or Mike Huckabee] get the nomination, it's going to destroy the Republican Party. It's going to change it forever, be the end of it!"

This is absurd. George W. Bush destroyed the Republican Party, by which I mean he sundered it, broke its constituent pieces apart and set them against each other. He did this on spending, the size of government, war, the ability to prosecute war, immigration and other issues.

Were there other causes? Yes, of course. But there was an immediate and essential cause.

And this needs saying, because if you don't know what broke the elephant you can't put it together again...

The elephant is broken, and now they're relying on Pete Sessions to help put it together with his "re-branding" effort? Good lord, they're in worse trouble than Peggy Noonan imagined!