HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - A generation ago the Republican Party was the dominant political force in New England, populating the region’s congressional delegations with moderates like Connecticut’s Lowell P. Weicker Jr. and Rhode Island’s John Chafee.

But today’s GOP, led by a more socially conservative wing of the party, is finding votes harder to come by.

Voters on Tuesday cast out Connecticut’s veteran Rep. Chris Shays, the last New England Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives. Sen. John Sununu was voted out in New Hampshire, leaving that state’s Judd Gregg and Maine’s Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe as the only Republicans among the region’s 12 senators.

Shays’ loss to former Goldman Sachs executive Jim Himes marks the first time since 1969 that southwestern Connecticut will be represented by a Democrat in the House.

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GOP a dying breed in New England

It’s NOT just in New England, the Republican party is self destructing, and doing so in HUGE chunks. Straight PARTY politics are destroying the Republican party. The GOP is killing itself by moving, in a not so subtle manner, to the left and by allowing themselves to be taken over by RINOs, Republicans In Name Only!

The Republicans have lost nearly all concept of conservatism and what it means. The RNC has become nothing more than a shadow of it’s former self, they are what I often refer to as *Dem Lite*, and a while back I was very pointed in expressing my opinion of John McCain and his LACK of ANY conservative traits, and I also pointed out that without a solid voting block of true conservatives, a Republican could NOT win the run for the White House, and I was correct.

We have got to start right now, begin preparing for 2010 and 2012, and by preparing I am saying that WE, as a group of bloggers must encourage, must DEMAND that the RNC to return to the conservative roots that made them so great during the Reagan years. We have got to find and promote NEW faces, real CONSERVATIVES, not RNC party hacks, America is NOT going to fall for that any more I think, at least I HOPE they won’t.

I am thinking that Obama is going to turn out to be such a horrendous disappointment, even to the left, the Libs, the Dems, all but the most hardcore moonbats, that it should be rather easy to get a conservative candidate on the ticket and to the White House in 2012.

Lets face it, the 20% approval that Bush currently has was one of the primary causes for Obama being elected by such a wide margin, many, myself included, believed that McCain was going to be nothing more than a continuation of the Bush administration, and I personally believe McCain was a bald-faced pandering liar when he visited the NRA and made his declarations of being a *gun person*, McCain has made his career by being an anti-gun person, and I am still seriously convinced that had he been elected, we would have all seen *more of same* in the world of finance and a hell of change on his gun stance once he was in a position of power!

The RNC knew McCain wasn’t the one, many of us, political and gun bloggers, pointed out from the start that McCain, Giuliani and the like were NOT the conservative candidates that we could or WOULD support, now perhaps, the RNC will listen.

When lame-assed old bastards like McCain are the very best that the RNC has to offer, it’s time for the RNC to take a long, hard look in the mirror and ask themselves, WHY did so many people turn their backs on the Republicans? Why did so many Conservatives vote for a 3rd party candidate?

The reasons boil down to nothing more than honesty and integrity in one’s beliefs and actions, and I personally had NO belief or confidence that the RNC possessed any more honor or integrity than the DNC, and now the ball, as they say, is in the RNCs court. If the RNC continues along the same lines as they have for the last 8 years, and if Obama is NOT a total disaster, the elections of 2010 will garner even MORE support for the Dems and 2012 could mark the end of freedom in this nation.

The RNC has a lot of work to do in the days ahead, and rebuilding the Republican party of old should be *Job 1*, if it’s not, and if the RNC doesn’t fall back on the conservative platform that made them so great, they have no one to blame for their continued failures other than themselves.