Republicans seek road back from ruins

By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent - Analysis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Demoralized Republicans face a long and possibly painful bout of soul-searching as they try to rise from the rubble of devastating losses in Congress and the White House.

Four years after political guru Karl Rove proclaimed the onset of a permanent Republican majority, a chastened party has lost two consecutive elections and seen a liberal Democrat, Barack Obama, ushered into the White House on a wave of voter revulsion at President George W. Bush's leadership.

A lively debate over whether the Republican Party needs a major overhaul or a little fine-tuning is already under way, with conservatives clamoring for a swing to the right and peacemakers urging a new era of pragmatism and bipartisanship.

"The battle for the heart and soul of the Republican Party begins now," said Richard Viguerie, a longtime leader of the conservative movement, who called for a clean sweep of party and congressional leadership.

His wish already is coming partially true in the House of Representatives, where the second and third-ranking Republicans -- Reps. Roy Blunt of Missouri and Adam Putnam of Florida -- are stepping aside.

The Republican National Committee will elect a new chairman in January, just days after Obama is inaugurated as the 44th U.S. president, and the maneuvering for a wide-open battle for the 2012 presidential nomination to challenge Obama will begin before you can say "Iowa."

"This is the regular ritual that Republicans go through when we lose," said Republican consultant Todd Harris, an aide to John McCain during his unsuccessful 2000 presidential campaign who sat out McCain's race against Obama this year.

"There are more questions than answers right now. What ideological faction is going to win? Who will be the face of the party? Does that person reside in Washington or outside of Washington?" he said.

For Republicans, Tuesday's results were rife with danger signs. The party suffered more heavy losses in the Northeast and have no remaining House members in New England after the defeat of veteran Rep. Chris Shays in Connecticut.

Democrats also made more inroads in the Mountain West and huge gains with Hispanics, the nation's fastest-growing minority and a group alienated by the Republican party's hard-line on immigration.

SWING STATES TURN TO DEMOCRATS

Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway noted that before the 2004 elections, Republicans held all 10 Senate seats in five crucial swing states -- Colorado, Virginia, Missouri, Ohio and Pennsylvania. They now hold just three of those seats.

McCain lost all of the states except Missouri, where he barely leads Obama with the outcome still undecided.

"The demographic changes happening within these states is explosive and must be better understood," Conway said. "The conservative movement cannot afford to ignore the increases in the Hispanic and unmarried populations in these key battlegrounds."

Obama's grass-roots organizing, use of Internet technology and fundraising swamped McCain, who also had little success with some of the tried-and-true Republican campaign messages of past presidential races.