Mehlman's Valedictory To The RNC

Coverage of the RNC Winter Meeting

The Republican Party faces a bleak future unless it recaptures the mantle of reform and holds itself to high ethical standards, outgoing RNC chairman Ken Mehlman is set to warn his party today.

"We cannot write this election off as pre-ordained, as the natural order of things, to be automatically rectified in two years," a draft of Mehlman's remarks says. "If we shrug our shoulders and say “it was just a fluke, a perfect storm of factors out of our control” … then we will lose again in 2008." The GOP "should never, never be the Party of government … of Washington, DC … of earmarks … of bureaucracy."

On ethics, Mehlman will say that the GOP "must – must – hold its elected officials … its candidates … its staff … everyone … to the absolute highest ethical standards." Mehlman: "If there are Republicans for whom influence or power or money have become more important than serving the public and the nation, then let me make it perfectly clear: we don’t want you."

He ends by urging Republicans to unite with Democrats to fight a common enemy: "against a new totalitarian enemy," which is Islamic fascism.

"This struggle affects all Americans," Mehlman plans to say. "Some of the most offensive features of Islamic fascist ideology are its religious intolerance … its gender apartheid … and its homophobia. He continues: "Authors and thinkers of the left like Christopher Hitchens and Bruce Bawer, and politicians like Joe Lieberman and Ed Koch, have recognized this. So must we."

Mehlman does not spend much time discussing the war in Iraq, arguably the major albatross around Republican necks right now.