NOT!

Michael Steele, to his credit, has paused just long enough in his bows and apologies to Rush Limbaugh to call for the Republicans to drop this effort and address more serious matters.

GOP struggles with renaming Dems 'Socialist'
Party chairman pushes to drop resolution, focus on more serious problems
NBC News

WASHINGTON - Republican Party leaders are trying to avoid airing a family feud over an effort to refer to the Democratic Party as the "Socialist Democrat" party.

The fight reflects a divide between Republicans who want a more centrist message and party hard-liners who think the party must define itself aggressively with a more conservative voice.

Jeff Kent, a Washington state Republican, has spearheaded the effort to rebrand the Democratic Party as "Socialist Democrat," combining "socialist," a label associated with governments of U.S. rivals such as Venezuela, with "Democrat,' which some Republicans say instead of "Democratic" to ridicule Democrats.

Some party leaders described the resolution as "stupid" and "absurd" and have pushed to avoid a public flap by compromising with milder language that would simply criticize Democrats for what they call socialist tendencies.

Party Chairman Michael Steele also says the party should drop the resolution and focus on more serious problems.

The Democratic National Committee said the proposal reflected a party so void of ideas that it was resorting to "name calling" and "petty politics."

The resolution is among several that the Republican National Committee was to vote on late Wednesday. Leaders already have softened another resolution that would have pointedly criticized moderate Republicans who supported recent billion-dollar Democratic-sponsored bailouts.

Henry Barbour, a committeeman from Mississippi who chairs the panel that will decide which resolutions go to the full caucus, said he did not want to comment until after the committee votes.

Kent also would not comment on a potential compromise, saying he still was working to pass the measure.

Republicans are trying to chart a new course after election losses in 2006 and 2008 that left them out of power in the White House, Congress and in statehouses across the United States. Without a natural successor to former President George W. Bush, the party is in the midst of an intense debate over its identity while facing an emboldened Democratic Party that has grown larger under President Barack Obama's leadership.