The Republican Party's Lost Six Months

WASHINGTON, July 9, 2009 -- First they lost control of Congress. Then went the White House.

And then things got really bad for the Republican Party.

The first six months of 2009 have been a grand old wipeout for the Grand Old Party.

The party has no real power in Washington, and few obvious national spokespeople. An array of potential presidential candidates have created their own political messes in recent weeks.

Democrats this week took hold of their 60th Senate seat -- removing, at least in theory, the last procedural check Republicans had to guard against Democratic dominance.

All this while fewer Americans consider themselves Republicans than at any time in a generation -- and while President Obama continues to enjoy sky-high popularity ratings. Only 22 percent of respondents considered themselves Republicans in last month's ABC News/Washington Post poll; the figure hadn't been that low since 1982.

Worse than the numbers, party insiders say, is the sense that positive flickers have been extinguished by a series of tabloid-ready storylines. Work that's going on behind the scenes has been eclipsed by scandals that have virtually nothing to do with the task of building up a party from the ashes.

"It's Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown," said Ron Bonjean, a veteran Republican strategist and former Capitol Hill leadership aide.

The difficulties of the last few months reflect a larger problem for the Republican Party: Even after two straight losing elections, the party remains deeply divided about how to proceed in an era of Democratic dominance.

Gov. Sarah Palin's bombshell announcement that she's resigning from office left many Republicans mystified -- by Palin's motives, and also by the fact that the party can't seem to drag itself from the woes of its recent past.