GOP optimistic as it gathers for RNC summer conference

SAN DIEGO — National Republicans arrived for a semiannual meeting Wednesday with a new sense of optimism as President Barack Obama’s agenda runs into roadblocks and the party senses the possibility for much-needed electoral wins.

The Republican National Committee (RNC) has become the lead GOP organization, coordinating party messages on healthcare and other issues since Republicans became the minority in both houses of Congress.

{mosads}And even though it does not control a single branch of government, the Republican Party has shifted into attack mode — a technique that seems to be working.

Improbable as it may be, the GOP has been able to erect some barriers to total Democratic control.

“There will be a strong air of optimism [this week] because of the positive changes we’ve seen in public attitudes in the last few months,” said Colorado Republican Party Chairman Dick Wadhams.

Wadhams and other Republicans pointed to poll numbers that show a Democratic-led healthcare proposal in danger of losing support. After a stimulus measure and a cap-and-trade proposal, on which Republicans stayed largely unified, healthcare has become the latest rallying point as the party tries to at least slow Democratic initiatives.

“What we’re hearing from our constituents and grassroots folks is just a lot of excitement,” said Glenn McCall, South Carolina’s national committeeman.

With the help of Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Blue Dog Democrats in the House, the GOP has been effective in causing a delay.

Many RNC members have pointed to polling data that shows Republican gubernatorial candidates leading races for Democratic seats.

“Things have changed quite a bit since we met last time, and maybe the momentum is switching more in our direction,” said Gary Jones, chairman of the Oklahoma Republican Party. “People feel that there’s some opportunities in 2010.”

What’s more, the RNC itself is in better shape today, six months after electing a new chairman, than at any point since the 2008 election, and sources inside and outside the committee say the party is adapting to its new role.

RNC Chairman Michael Steele, who is hosting his first summer meeting of the national committee this week in San Diego, has largely fixed the early public-relations problems for which he was heavily criticized.

“It’s like any new organization, you know, you go through that norming and storming, and now I think we’re focused and we’re moving forward,” McCall explained.

Supporters and even critics on the committee, some of whom have moved to embarrass Steele in the past, now praise the staff he has hired, while congressional leadership has appreciated the RNC’s new drive to expose members of Congress to national press through frequent conference calls aimed at reacting to Democratic initiatives — a move the Democratic National Committee has copied.

Though he has posted strong fundraising numbers thus far, Steele will bolster his committee’s strength this week when former Ambassador Peter Terpeluk is likely to be confirmed as the chairman of the RNC finance committee. Committee observers say Terpeluk should be able to stem the loss of big donors, many of whom have begun to ally themselves with other arms of the Republican Party.

Most importantly, several prominent Steele critics told The Hill, Steele seems to have gotten the message that the job of being chairman has more to do with leading the Republican Party than with raising Michael Steele’s profile.

{mosads}But as RNC members struggle to right the ship, both at the committee and throughout the nation, following two consecutive electoral drubbings, Steele and the GOP face internal and external challenges that could prolong any comeback.

Throughout the party, a battle between ideologues and pragmatists is raging, and some party leaders worry that, by catering to the extreme base with impositions of litmus tests and doctrinal requirements, any progress toward electoral gains will be swiftly cut down.

Many ideological Republicans say the path toward winning again is ideological purity and a return to the roots of Reagan conservatism. Centrists and pragmatic conservatives argue the way to lose elections is to kick those who do not check each ideological box out of the party at a time when appealing to a wider base of independents is crucial.

That split has manifested itself in places like New Hampshire, where conservatives unwilling to trust former Attorney General Kelly Ayotte (R) seem close to attracting former gubernatorial candidate Ovide Lamontagne (R), a much more conservative candidate, into the state’s open Senate race.

In Pennsylvania, centrist Sen. Arlen Specter, a Republican for 40 years, faced a conservative challenger in his primary and decided to become a Democrat — and his new party’s 60th, filibuster-breaking vote in the Senate.

The schism exists inside the RNC as well, and Steele has at times had to broker deals so his party would not face embarrassment. At a special meeting called by RNC members in May — the first time in living memory that members have successfully forced a meeting, and an embarrassing moment on its own for Steele — the party considered a resolution to label their rivals the “Democrat Socialist Party.”

At the last minute, in an effort to avoid what was widely seen as a massive public-relations gaffe in the making, Steele allies substituted other, less harsh language that suggested Democrats were pursuing a path more traditionally taken by socialist governments.

Lately, it has been the so-called “birther” movement, which argues Obama was not born in the United States, causing Republican faces to turn red. Instead of describing their opposition to Democratic policies, Republican officeholders and party leaders are constantly asked whether they themselves believe Obama is eligible to be president.

And even as Steele consolidates his control over the national committee, if the conspiracy theorists infiltrate the RNC, his struggle to guide the 168 members — a task akin to herding cats — could only become more difficult.