GOP Chairman Says Party Has Strayed

The sting of Republican electoral defeats still fresh, the GOP chairman suggested yesterday that the party has strayed and challenged it to refocus on core principles and reform.

"We work for the people," the outgoing chairman of the Republican National Committee, Ken Mehlman, said in a speech to a meeting of GOP governors. He reminded the crowd that "good policy makes good politics — and, for Republicans, this must be a time for self-examination when it comes to our policy."

In a disastrous midterm election year for the GOP, Republican candidates lost races across the country and at all levels of government, prompting party leaders to do some soul searching as they seek a winning strategy for 2008 and beyond.

Democrats captured control of the House and Senate, took a majority of governors' posts, and gained a decisive edge in state legislatures as Republicans failed to withstand fallout from a sour national mood created by the war in Iraq and scandals in Washington.

"Our nation is stronger and better when Republicans are the party running the government. But, ladies and gentleman, our party should never be the party of government, of Washington, of earmarks, of bureaucracy," Mr. Mehlman said, implying that's what the GOP had become at times — or at least what voters perceived on November 7.