REBUILDING

See, I am from Miami (the one in Florida).

Therefore, I am a Dolphins fan.

I can't help it, I am.

Part of the reason is that I personally knew so many of the members of that 1972 team...the one with the perfect season.

I knew Earl Morril, Tim Foley, Nick Buonticonti, and Norm Evans.

And I still think Bob Griese was the best tactician to ever play the game.

The year 2007, however, was a very different story.

The Dolphins found a way to lose a game, even in the rare instances when they were in the lead with only moments to go on the clock.

They were just plain awful.

This year they are rebuilding and are doing an admirable job of it.

Conservative Republicans find themselves in a similar situation.

We conservatives look back on the Reagan years with great nostalgia.

After Reagan we had George H.W. Bush.

Remember, "Read my lips...no new taxes?"

Then it was George W.

Most fondly remembered for, "Mission Accomplished!"

And now we are like the 2007 Dolphins.

We must rebuild...but how?

Let's start with the basics.

We did not lose this election because we did not embrace enough people who were "moderates" (read: stand for nothing), or because we did not "reach across the aisle."

We lost this election precisely because we DID embrace the wrong folks.

And because we stood for nothing.

Until Governor Sarah Palin entered the race as VP candidate.

Then, nine weeks (out of over two years of campaigning) before the election she comes in and shows John "reach across the aisle" McCain what he should have been doing all along.

He tried to get the idea, but it just never jelled with him.

He was obviously uncomfortable when he tried to be on the attack against Barack Obama (BO), and looked stilted, almost robotic, war injuries notwithstanding.

If conservative Republicans want to make any headway in the next elections (two years away), they must re-find themselves, totally DUMP the so-called moderates and left-wingers among them and focus on, and only on, those Palinesque leaders who will champion the real conservative cause.

If you are a "moderate" Republican, why don't you just get out of the Party and join the Democrats. At least then we'll know who you are and where you stand.

If you are a "lefty," what on earth are you doing in the Republican Party to begin with?

We don't need you.

We don't want you.

Go away and let us get on with being who we are.

"But Joe!" I hear you whining, "Won't that lessen our numbers and give us less of a chance to win?"

Absolutely NOT.

It will come as a surprise to you who think this way, but there are MORE conservative Republicans than there are of you.

Many conservative Republicans stayed away from the polls, or even went so far as to vote Democrat, to show their disgust with the state of the Republican Party.

So I'm telling you, dearly beloved Republicans, if you want to win next time, and the time after that and so on, you had better heed my advice.

Get back to your roots.

Once again be the anti-slavery party; the Party of Abraham Lincoln; the Party that passed the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the U.S. Constitution; the party that passed the Civil Rights Acts of 1866 and 1875; the Party that founded the NAACP; the Party that sent troops to Arkansas to desegregate schools; the Party that established the Civil Rights Commission in 1958; the Party of Earl Warren, who drew up the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision ending school segregation; the Party who cast the most votes for the Civil Rights Acts of the 1960s; the Party of the FIRST Affirmative Action program in 1969 and the Party that approved the spending of over $200 billion to fight AIDS in Africa.

We need to become the Party of Judeo-Christian values; the Party of Economic initiative (so that no Democrats can ever again reject suggested regulations on entities like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac); the Party of trust and integrity; the Party of smaller centralized power and the Party of Constitutionalism.

The question now is, DO YOU, MY FELLOW REPUBLICANS, HAVE THE GUTS TO BECOME WHAT YOU MUST BECOME TO WIN?

We'll see.