RNC Chair Ken Mehlman To Step Down

(AP)  Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman, whose party lost both chambers of Congress in this week's elections, will step down from his post when his two-year term ends in January, Republican officials said.

The officials spoke Thursday on the condition of anonymity because Mehlman had not yet made his intentions public.

Brian Jones, an RNC spokesman, declined to comment beyond saying that an announcement about Mehlman's future with the party would be made in the days ahead.

Democrats won control of the House and Senate on Tuesday by capitalizing on voter frustration with President George W. Bush, the war in Iraq and the scandal-scarred Congress. Democrats also took a majority of governors' posts and gained a decisive edge in state legislatures.

During his tenure, Mehlman, 40, traveled extensively to promote the Republican agenda. When he became chairman in January 2005, he said he hoped to tighten the Republicans' grip on power in Washington.

"Nothing is permanent in politics," he said then. "The goal is how do you — both in the short term and the long term — do things to make it sustainable?"

Mehlman also said then that he hoped to expand the Republican base and help Bush enact his agenda.

Last year, Mehlman told members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People that the Republican Party was wrong for ignoring the black vote for decades and said he hoped the groups could restore their historic bond.

"Some Republicans gave up on winning the African-American vote, looking the other way or trying to benefit politically from racial polarization," Mehlman said at the NAACP convention. "I come here as Republican chairman to tell you we were wrong."

A protégé of Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, Mehlman became RNC chairman after managing Bush's re-election campaign in 2004, when the president won re-election and Republicans expanded their majorities in the House and the Senate.

Before that campaign, he served as White House political director under Rove. In 2000, he served as national field director for Bush's first presidential campaign, charged with coordinating the efforts of Republican leaders in every state.

Previous to that, he worked on Capitol Hill and practiced environmental law in Washington.

[sim828524s]

Republians stinks with a foul smell.

[diamtool]

Too Bad! I will miss this guy. I loved watching him lie out of the side of his mouth, but I am sure there is room for one more loser at some neo-con think tank. Or AM radio, as there are never enough motormouths in the right wing echo chamber.
Dems off to a good start with Rummy and this guy walking the plank. Time to impeach CHENEY!!!
God Bless our Troops
God forgive George Bush

[macusweil]

"That's what Republicans do.....they lose, they concede.." Got that right, yup so true for Rummy as well .. now that we've pretty much been handed our own a** in Iraq,, the fighting Dems will have to recount all the wasted money $$ and then start cleaning up the Republican lead mess.

[processor2]

So, George Allen of Virginia and Conrad Burns of Montana both conceded their Senate race. But that's what Republicans do.....they lose, they concede.

If Allen & Burns had been Democrats, here's what would have happened:

They would have demanded recounts, gotten lawyers, claimed the electronic voting machines were rigged, and CBS posters would have claimed the elections were stolen.

I guess that's the difference between Republicans and Democrats.

[grumpas]

If we are lucky maybe Bush and Cheney will fire themselves! Making Nancy Pelosi President! Wouldn't that be a kick in the head to the rabid conservative's? They would all go out and commit hari-kari with a dull kitchen knife!

[afmca]

Hallelujah! Hallelujah!! Ken Mehlman the evil offspring of Karl Rove has been judged by public opinion and is being sent to political Hades. How appropriate, but way too long in coming. Between his ideological father, Karl Rove, and himself they single handedly demeaned the American political process. Their legacy will be a brief hold on power but, eventually, their mantra based upon ignorance, intolerance, and greed was rejected by Americans. That soon to be deposed King George the Younger embraced them and their gutter campaign tactics shows how lacking his true %u201CChristian%u201D values are.

[jeffk1623]

At this rate this time next week Bush and Chaney will be the only 2 left. Not that that is a good thing. Who is the next to haul tail....Rice? We can only hope.

[alphaa10-2009]

Talk about the "bum's rush"-- Mehlman hadn't even stated his intentions, and the RNC has posted his obituary.

1. True, Mehlman gave it the traditional GOP treatment, distancing himself from the same Rove-like attack ads he paid for, and carefully washing his hands of the mudpies he helped throw-- ie. Dems are soft on Commmunism (sorry, that was the one from 1964)-- Dems are soft on Iraq, or soft on something (when we decide what, we'll let you know).

2. Mehlman had an impossible task of fielding a winning team out of Bush2 and the squad of deadheads and graduates from the latest congressional corruption scandals.

3. Ever the optimist, at least, in the fashion of PT Barnum ("There's a sucker born every minute."), Mehlman was prepared to serve hot, steaming helpings of the same deception, blarney and outright lies which had sickened the American public since 2001.

4. Mehlman could not sell the idea Bush had made anybody better off (except the top one percent of taxpayers, the *only* people who got a net gain in income under Bush). Most people awakened to conlude Bush was the same lessez faire dolt throughout his term that he had been at Katrina.

5. More tellingly, neither Mehlman nor Bush could jumpstart the American economy while simultaneously draining the battery in Iraq. The punchline is it never occurred to either what the problem was. And now, we are so head-over-heels in debt to Communist China over GOP folly, our grandchildren will refuse our calls.

[pendragon679]

Looks like the good ship Republican is sinking...all the rats are leaving.