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You’ve probably heard that RNC chairman Reince Preibus announced a new report today, identifying ways that the Republican Party needs to reform.

Call me a cynic, but my reading of the report reveals the same old same old: lots of angst about “messaging” and “reaching out to minorities,” and absolutely no awareness that it’s Republican policies that are the problem, not the way they’re “framing” them. Bottom line: the RNC report is a set of recommendations on how to better trick voters into supporting the GOP, even as the GOP continues to work against their interests.

What I found much more revealing was this exchange between Reince Priebus and a reporter who asked about that disgusting outbreak of white supremacism at last weekend’s CPAC: RNC Chair Asked About Chaotic CPAC Race Panel.

“Question about CPAC last week, where a panel on African American voters dissolved into a shouting match with at least one activist saying that — sorry, hard to read the question — talking about voters being systematically disenfranchised. How, given that sort of backdrop in the party, do you plan to overcome those challenges in your role at the RNC?” National Press Club President Angela Greiling Keane asked Priebus at an event on the RNC’s roadmap ahead after the 2012 elections.

Priebus responded to the question by saying the RNC plans to hire hundreds of paid staffers to reach out to minority communities across the country.

“For one thing, you have to show up, right?” he said. “I mean, if you’re going to get the order, you have to ask for the sale. I mean, that’s just sort of basic. Which is why we’re launching this unprecedented effort to bring in — I’m not talking about hiring two or three people down the hallway at the RNC — what we’re talking about is hiring hundreds of paid people across the country this year to make the case in minority communities across America.”

Priebus seems to think the only response needed is to pay people to go out and promote the GOP to “minority communities” — but he completely ignored the question. And there you have the GOP’s problem in a nutshell. They believe they can fix things by just hiring more PR shills, but can’t even be bothered to address a real incident of very real, very ugly racism, at the premier right wing conference.

ON CBS today, Priebus said, “We’ve done a really lousy job of branding and marketing who we are.”

I have to disagree. With “death panels” and “self-deportation” and forced vaginal ultrasounds and insane comments about “legitimate rape” and creationism and climate change denial, the Republican Party has done an absolutely smashing job of demonstrating exactly who they are. The best marketing in the world isn’t going to help you if your product sucks.

For reference, here’s the report they want you to believe is a sincere effort to promote reform:

The New York Times headline says the Republicans who signed a legal brief arguing in favor of same sex marriage are “prominent,” but in fact this is a very marginal group that includes no one in a real position of power.

WASHINGTON — Dozens of prominent Republicans — including top advisers to former President George W. Bush, four former governors and two members of Congress — have signed a legal brief arguing that gay people have a constitutional right to marry, a position that amounts to a direct challenge to Speaker John A. Boehner and reflects the civil war in the party since the November election.

The document will be submitted this week to the Supreme Court in support of a suit seeking to strike down Proposition 8, a California ballot initiative barring same-sex marriage, and all similar bans. The court will hear back-to-back arguments next month in that case and another pivotal gay rights case that challenges the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act.

The Proposition 8 case already has a powerful conservative supporter: Theodore B. Olson, the former solicitor general under Mr. Bush and one of the suit’s two lead lawyers. The amicus, or friend-of-the-court, brief is being filed with Mr. Olson’s blessing. It argues, as he does, that same-sex marriage promotes family values by allowing children of gay couples to grow up in two-parent homes, and that it advances conservative values of “limited government and maximizing individual freedom.”

So how do you imagine the right wing base is going to respond to this attempt at a “rebranding” scam? If you answered, “With a torrent of bigotry and hatred,” you win!

Let’s check out Hot Air, which is supposed to be a “socially centrist” right wing blog. How are the commenters responding to Allahpundit’s weak endorsement of this legal brief? Well, there are a very few people supporting this initiative, but by far the majority of the comments are like these:

Yay, now maybe NAMBLA will send some bucks toward the GOP.

[…]

The Vichy Right.

[…]

Many prminent Republicans are out of touch with their consituency in America’s Heartland.

[…]

May each and every one of them be sent packing their bags come next election.

We are not fooled. We know darn well what’s really at stake is religious liberty, not a few members of the buggery brigade with self-inflicted butthurt (in more ways than one) being unable to have their relationship sanctioned by the state.

[…]

The Republican party is dead.

[…]

Caligula’s horse apporves.

[…]

This is one area where I have to give Russia credit. They know how to deal with their perverts over there.

[…]

These people can not be considered Republicans in any sense…

The GOP is not a conservative party… it’s an imperialist party… and grassroots national security conservatives and capitalist conservatives have aided this transition… and I want nothing to do with it anymore.

[…]

The end goal of the SSM crowd isn’t SSM, it’s to force acceptance of homosexuality by those who regard it as unnatural an immoral. Government sanctioned SSM will give rise to government sanctioned bullying, suing, discrimination, etc. of religious people and organizations who refuse to give homosexual relationships the moral equivalence they demand.

This isn’t about equal rights, its about forcing people to accept something against their will or to STFU if they won’t accept.

[…]

“RINO” is too nice a word for those “Republicans”. Supporting this kind of approach to gay marriage is absolutely against what Republicans should stand for.

[…]

If gay marriage was about who you love, “gay” would be synonymous with “homoLOVEuality” not “homoSEXuality”. It’s about men having sex with men. It’s unhealthy, perverted, mutual masturbation. It’s responsible for the country’s AIDS epidemic. Isn’t there some sensible person who’ll stand up and call it for what it is? I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, but, this is a major cultural shift, redefining the word “marriage”, for everyone, for all time. For our children, in our religious institutions, in every formal and informal social circle we inhabit. Let’s not gloss over what we’re talking about.

[…]

Jesus weeps.

[…]

Yes, in modern America, all prominence comes from helping obama destroy America, because, as we all know, by its very nature, America is bad, and must be transformed.

[…]

Should homosexual men be allowed to “marry” 11 year old boys? The Founders didn’t deem it necessary to put in the Constitution that men can’t marry other men or 11 year old boys. Ruth Bader Ginsburg feels the age of consent should be 11. The only basis in the future on which you prevent homosexual men from marrying 11 year old foreign orphan boys is that it shocks the conscious of the majority and the majority won’t allow it. What shocks your conscious is irrelevant to the sort of people who Democrats promote to the bench.

[…]

Come on, people. You are going to have to step it up if a comment is going to be reposted at LGF. NONE of these comments are hateful enough!

[…]

Oh how cute, the little corn-pone faggot accusing me of being a closet pervert. Maybe we talk about it because that’s what they DO, you knuckle-dragging bumpkin.

[…]

There is no such thing as gay pretend marriage. You idiots cannot just redefine anything you want and then try and claim that it was always defined like that. Of course, you leftist scum specialize in tearing language apart and leaving nothing but meaningless utterances and a disheveled syntax, reflections of your fevered minds.

Gay pretend marriage is not illegal in various states, the perversion of the language just doesn’t exist in those states any more than marriage of a man and a car exists.

[…]

No one really cares what lesbians do. Lesbianism is a big nothing-burger. Lesbianism is just pathetic but not much of an affront to sensibilities - except for bull dykes doing some ridiculous imitations of what they think is manly behavior. They are sort of offensive, though kind of funny.

[…]

There is still no such thing as gay pretend marriage. If you find a gene for homosexual attraction (and I have little doubt that there is, though much homosexuality is environmental and a matter of “fashion” among the leftist perverts) then you’ll also find one for pedophilia. Are you advocating for pedophiles to be “legalized” and marriages to 5 year olds sanctioned because some screwed-up chromosomes might support that? I’m sure you do, because you are a brain-dead leftist who is out to do nothing but tear civilization down and return the Earth to slime, your biological peers.

[…]

Does anyone other than Allahpundit give a damn what his buddy David Frum thinks (about anything)?

[…]

These people can not be considered Republicans in any sense…

The GOP is not a conservative party… it’s an imperialist party… and grassroots national security conservatives and capitalist conservatives have aided this transition… and I want nothing to do with it anymore.

[…]

Isn’t it just hilarious that sexual deviancy not only goes against any moral system worth speaking of, but even against the most basic Darwinian concepts which liberals tout as superior to creation?

If a “gay gene” existed (which is does not), it would be DE-volution, a step backward by evolutionary standards, because it went 180 degrees against continuation of the species! How crazy is that?

[…]

The headline should read.Dozens of prominent elite Rinos sign supreme court brief.

[…]

Isn’t it funny how even a straight-forward discussion of homosexuality leads to the use of terms which are totally accurate, but still trigger decency filters?

[…]

It may be ants that eat at the body of liberty, but give the ants long enough, enough methods of attack, and enough ants the body of liberty will be eaten.

Cut off the ant trails to the body of liberty and you have less ant bites.

On and on and on it goes. I guess this rebranding thing is harder than it looks.

And remember, this is at the right wing site that’s supposed to be socially centrist. I don’t have the stomach for it, but if you really want to see the right wing base freely expressing itself, check out Free Republic. Just be sure to wear your HazMat suit.

Here’s Louisiana’s creationist Governor Bobby Jindal on Meet the Press today, helpfully explaining that even though he’s been saying the GOP needs to change its ways (to help position himself for a presidential run), they don’t actually need to change anything — anything at all! — about their policies.

Starting with gay rights, which Jindal of course is utterly opposed to. When David Gregory ever-so-gently presses him on typical Republican issues, it becomes clear that Jindal’s public relations push is simply a scam — kabuki theater for the Beltway media. He might as well have ended his spiel with “nudge nudge, wink wink,” because he’s not fooling anyone.

Also see:
Bobby Jindal: Republicans Can Continue Discriminating Against Gays and Still Win Elections

The arguments of pro-gun fanatics are getting more and more absurd.

In the National Review, David French isn’t satisfied with just citing the Constitution or the founding fathers any more; he’s making the ultimate appeal to authority: The Biblical and Natural Right of Self-Defense.

His argument is that God decreed “man” should be armed to the teeth with high-powered semi-automatic weapons, because Bible. Hey, are you gonna argue with God? Get thee to a gun store, sinner!

I’m always amazed at how many wingnut writers pretend to have a direct line to the Almighty. It’s one of the biggest snow jobs conservative pundits pull on their followers.