Infighting has broken out in the Republican Party after its defeat in the presidential election, with Sarah Palin coming under intense fire.
Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress are divided over whether to move further to the right or become more bipartisan.
House Minority Leader John Boehner said it was “time for the losing to stop”.
Mr Boehner, who is to seek two more years as the Republican leader in the House, added: “My commitment to you is that it will.”
His comments come against a backdrop of backstabbing within the defeated McCain campaign.
Senator Jim DeMint, of South Carolina, was quoted by the Associated Press this week calling for party leaders to “embrace a bold new direction” or step aside.
The party’s image had been tainted by “scandals and broken promises”, he said, adding: “We have got to clean up, reform and rebuild the Republican party before we can ask Americans to trust us again.”
Nonetheless, RNC chairman Mike Duncan said the party had plenty of rising stars and that it was wrong to see Tuesday’s election results as “the death rattle of American conservatism”.
Meanwhile, a number of prominent Republicans are already making moves to position themselves for a fight for the party’s presidential candidacy in 2012.
Mitt Romney, who lost out to Mr McCain in this year’s primaries, has restarted his political action committee.
Mrs Palin, meanwhile, has indicated that she intends to stay on the national political scene, saying “I’m not doing this for naught.”
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal may also be laying the groundwork for a run in 2012.
My personal opinion is that the GOP has done this before and will survive. But will it survive as a far right party or a more center party is the question that needs to be answered. As it stands today, the GOP is a regional party of white rural voters….if it cannot do any better than that it is a doomed party.
Yes, the GOP needs some serious restructuring, or it’ll fall apart and die. It probably just needs to separate itself between its factions–the moderates/fiscal conservatives, and the ultra-religious social conservatives. Perhaps the neo-cons need to go off and start some other party.
right now the GOP is not much more than a white rural regional party-=-it will take an Obama-esque type to bring it back–or it will disappear. Everybody keeps mentioning Gov. Jindal but he is from my neck of the woods and I do not think he can do it.