Maybe that's the way it works in the parliamentary democracies, as mentioned by Mr. Luntz, when a party loses two elections in a row, especially as badly as the Republicans lost. But, gasp! not in hierarchical, authoritarian follow-the-Big-Boss American Republican Party (which is anything but republican in its make-up). The Party threatens to fall apart into its component factions if there is no emperor/warleader at the top, unlike Democrats who seem to thrive on disagreements and differences of opinion within.

If Republicans did manage to "change the leadership" does Mr. Luntz realize they might end up with Sarah Palin as the new leader? I suspect that's what Governor Palin has in mind; she would, I imagine, really like to be the leader of a truncated, smaller but dogmatically cohesive party, s big frog in her small pond.  

Frank is also not friends with boehner - so replacing the leadership wouldn't be bad for him

Thanks for the information--- why don't they get along? The reason might be very interesting, and helpful to know.  

back when newt was taking over and they were both working on the house republicans taking over with the Contract with Ammerica thing.  i think it was either who was getting credit for what or probably just that their personalities don't get along

I can't believe that Frank Luntz would clash with anyone!

Looking at some of the Gallup polls you can see the huge divergence between Republican perceptions -- 30-32 percent of the voting population -- and pretty much everyone else.

Independent support isn't split between the two parties either these days.  Both Dems and Independents have similar views on economic policy, Iraq, and even Bush.  The GOP is off in some alternate universe -- in those three areas there is about a 35-40 percent gap between the GOP and everyone else.

How can center-right leadership arise when the base demands that the party leadership move further and further to the right?  Even in terms of philosophy -- to the extent that there is one -- it's just twice refried Bush.  The governing philosophy is a proven failure.  

At the end of the day, even in a top-down party like the GOP, the leadership is still very much a by-product of the base.  So even if you change the face of the party, substantively the GOP still has a number of the same problems.

Having said that, the Dems still need to govern effectively -- that's a double challenge when you factor in the temptations of money and power that come with majority status.  I have no doubt that the Dems will provide the GOP -- or some other political party that replaces the GOP -- with a window of opportunity.  I just hope that they can hold the line for the next decade.  Maybe that's too much wishful thinking.  We'll see.