Electoral “tsunami”: Ramstad says GOP is “looking at a disaster in November”

“We’re looking at a disaster in November. I’ve seen the predictions. I’ve seen the polls. I can only conclude it’s going to be a tsunami.” So says retiring GOP Rep. Jim Ramstad in the lead-off quote in a post about Election ’08 at the conservative National Review Online today.

The piece by Sean J. Miller posits that a post-Nov. 4 Republican Party will need to rebuild — and he suggests the rebirth of Canada’s Conservative party as a model. Fifteen years ago this month, Miller reports, that party lost all but two of 151 seats in the Canadian House of Commons, whereas today, the party is on the rise, with 143 seats and its own Stephen Harper as prime minister. That’s thanks in part to a decision in 2004 to focus on economic, not social, issues.

Miller acknowledges there’s resistance within the GOP to that kind of move, but references Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s “Sam’s Club Republicans” line to suggest its strength. Then, more Ramstad: “Republicans need to get back to governing from the center. We Republicans need to get away from the addiction to base politics. Karl Rove’s playbook isn’t working anymore.”

That line could almost be perceived as an endorsement of the Democratic candidate in Ramstad’s 3rd Congressional District, where DFLer Ashwin Madia, a former Republican, is facing off against Erik Paulsen, who as a 14-year Minnesota legislator has consistently earned high scores from rightwing social conservative groups like Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, the Minnesota Family Council and the Taxpayer’s League of Minnesota. (Here’s Paulsen’s voting record.)