Republican Rebranding Effort 'Suspended'

You wouldn't know it to look at the homepage for the Republican rebranding effort National Council for a New America, spearheaded by House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.), but CQ reports that the GOP's 2009 effort to stave off minority-party status has been "suspended" indefinitely.

Intended to be a series of traveling town halls by prominent Republicans including Cantor, Sarah Palin, John McCain, Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush, the much-ballyhooed effort to reach beyond the party's base never really made it out of the Beltway. Cantor's office told CQ the "relentless attacks from the left" were to blame, but most high-profile criticisms of the effort to make Republicans seem more moderate came from figures within the party itself -- Rush Limbaugh, Michael Steele and Mike Huckabee, among others -- and the Republican base.

Instead of inclusion, HuffPost's Tom Edsall wrote last fall, Republicans doubled down on "intolerance." A year later, with Democrats expecting to suffer heavy losses in the midterm elections, the GOP doesn't seem likely to pursue a strategy of moderation or inclusiveness in the near future. They may, however, head back to Arlington for more pizza.