Quote Of The Day: Some Republicans Are Trying To Rewrite Election 2008 History

The political quote of the day comes from centrist Republican Louis Zickar , editor of the Ripon Forum, from an op-ed piece he wrote for the Des Moines Register:

As Republicans debate the future of the party, it’s worth noting that some in the party are already trying to rewrite the past.

In recent weeks, several members of the more conservative wing of the GOP have stated that the reason the party failed so miserably in November is that it turned its back on fiscal discipline by turning toward the political center. Perhaps conservative stalwart L. Brent Bozell put it most succinctly when he said, “The liberal wing of the GOP has caused the collapse of the Republican Party.”

Make no mistake: Republicans did fail to rein in spending over the past eight years. But the GOP did not lose this election because it abandoned its small-government philosophy. Rather, the party lost the election because its small-government philosophy was incomplete.

And further down he writes:

In this election, both Republicans and Democrats ran on a platform of lower taxes for a majority of the American people. But when it came time for people to decide which party offered better value, eight years of incompetence left Republicans with a much harder sell. A majority of voters took their business somewhere else, deciding to shop at Wal-Mart instead of K-Mart. And in this election, Wal-Mart equaled the Democratic brand.

The challenge now facing the GOP is that smart government is not in the party’s rhetorical toolbox. It also runs counter to everything that conservatives such as Bozell represent. Yet it is going to be one of the defining issues of the next few years as taxpayers begin to demand greater accountability and transparency in how their federal tax dollars are being spent.

So how should Republicans proceed?

Read it in full to find out his suggested solution.