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FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:

The arrogance of South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford knows no bounds apparently. And the hypocrisy of the South Carolina Republican Party doesn't either. In the wake of his admission that he's been cheating on his wife, the state GOP voted to censure Sanford. Which amounts to looking the other way.

The reason for the censure was his secret travels to Argentina to visit his mistress, which officially translates into what the GOP is calling "Repeated failures to act in accordance with the party's core principles and beliefs."

One of those core principles is family values, except when it's inconvenient. Sanford also refuses to resign on his own, thus joining the soiled ranks of Larry Craig of Idaho and John Ensign of Nevada. Proud Republicans all.

Sanford also gets a slap on the wrist for falling below the standards expected of Republican elected officials. Deliberations reportedly went on for nearly four hours on a conference call and there were multiple rounds of balloting. This patty cake gesture on the part of the Party of family values is meaningless.

Just to be clear, Sanford's own party is saying they don't trust him and don't think he can effectively perform his duties as Governor; but it's okay with them if he continues in South Carolina's highest office. Pathetic.

Here’s my question to you: What does it say about the Republican Party in South Carolina that they won't call for Gov. Sanford's resignation?

Interested to know which ones made it on air?

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FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:

A couple of high-profile sex scandals were probably just about the last thing the Republican Party needed. This is the party of "family values," after all. First was Senator John Ensign of Nevada - who admitted to having an affair with a former staffer.

L to R: Sen. John Ensign (R-NV); Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC); Sen. David Vitter (R-LA)

Next was South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford. After going AWOL for nearly a week - with staffers saying he was hiking the Appalachian Trail - Sanford admitted to an affair with a woman from Argentina. Both Ensign and Sanford had been considered 2012 presidential hopefuls.

Also, don't forget about Louisiana Senator David Vitter... who is still in the Senate despite calls for his resignation... after his phone number showed up in the records of the D.C. madam a couple years ago.

Some wonder how much damage these incidents will have on the GOP in the 2010 elections. After all, the sex scandals come at a time when the party has been trying to rebrand itself. Although Republicans certainly aren't alone in dealing with these scandals - see Democrats John Edwards or Eliot Spitzer - they do make life more difficult for the party of traditional, family values.

But, former Vice President Dick Cheney, for one, isn't too worried... he says the Republican 2012 bench remains strong. Cheney says the party has "got some great talents out there," and that "in adversity, there's opportunity." Cheney helped create the adversity the Republican party is trying to overcome.

Here’s my question to you: How much will recent Republican sex scandals affect upcoming races?

Interested to know which ones made it on air?

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FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:

Here's something that probably keeps the leadership of the Republican Party up at night: A new Gallup poll shows 89 percent of the party's rank-and-file members are white.

Cafferty: GOP will not gain favorable support if Cheney, Limbaugh, and Gingrich continue to spew "negative, hateful rhetoric."

This leaves only 11 percent of Republicans who are Hispanics, African-Americans or members of other races. These numbers are staggering and hardly in keeping with the radically changing face of the U.S.

That's not all - by more than two-to-one, whites who call themselves Republicans claim a conservative ideology, and about half of them say they're strongly religious.

Compare that to Democrats - whose party is 64% white and 36 percent non-white. By a ratio of more than four-to-one, white Democrats call themselves moderate or liberal, and only 20 percent of them say they're highly religious.

Independents land somewhere between the two camps - with 27 percent non-whites.

These numbers pretty much say it all about the GOP's troubles; and leave little question why Democrats are in control of the White House and both houses of Congress.

The big question: Will the support of white, conservative, religious Americans be enough of a base for Republicans to start winning elections again? Probably not. The alternative is for Republicans to find a way to broaden their appeal among non-whites and whites who are more moderate.

And here's a hint: The way to accomplish that is probably not with the likes of Dick Cheney, Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich slinging around negative and hateful rhetoric.

Here’s my question to you: Why does the Republican Party have such a narrow appeal?

Interested to know which ones made it on air?

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FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:

And now for today's installment of 'The Republican Party is in deep trouble'... Among their many issues - turns out the GOP is really hurting when it comes to women voters. A new Gallup poll shows that among women, Democrats have a solid double-digit advantage in party identification over Republicans - 41 percent to 27 percent.

Compare that to men, who are pretty evenly divided - 30 percent identify as Democrats and 28 percent as Republicans.

The news is even worse for the GOP when you take into account independent women who lean Democratic... in that case the advantage is 57 percent to 35 percent for the Democrats.

Meanwhile the Republicans may want to take some advice from Colin Powell, who says they are in big trouble and need to find a way to move back to the center. The former Secretary of State says the party is "getting smaller and smaller," which isn't good for the country.

He says Republicans need to realize the country has changed, that Americans want to pay taxes for services and are looking for more government in their life.

Also, Powell is criticizing some party leaders for bowing too much to the right; and says right wing commentators like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter don't serve their party well. He says he doesn't want Republicans to turn into Democrats, but instead to build a vibrant party.

Hint: that may be one way to get more women to support them.

Here’s my question to you: What should the Republican Party do to attract more women voters?

Interested to know which ones made it on air?

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FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:

It seems like some Republicans still haven't realized that they lost big-time last November because the American people are sick and tired of their style of politics. And here's Exhibit A: a conservative faction of the Republican National Committee wants the party to brand Democrats as Socialists.

Some RNC members argue Pres. Obama wants to restructure U.S. society upon socialist ideals.

Politico reports RNC member James Bopp, Jr. of Indiana is accusing President Obama of wanting to restructure American society along socialist ideals, saying: "Just as President Reagan's identification of the Soviet Union as the evil 'empire' galvanized opposition to Communism, we hope that the accurate depiction of the Democrats as a Socialist Party will galvanize opposition to their march to Socialism."

16 RNC members agreed to the resolution and are petitioning Chairman Michael Steele to set a special meeting to consider it. An RNC spokesman wouldn't say what Steele thinks about all this, but a memo from earlier this month suggests that while he agrees with hardliners who say the president is leading the country toward socialism, he's probably not going to make it official party policy.

And it's not just Democrats who they're after - Bopp also wanted to criticize the three Republicans who supported the stimulus package: Senators Arlen Specter, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins. But that effort was apparently watered down - the resolution instead praises those in the party who have opposed bailouts and Democratic spending plans.

Several Republicans threw around the "socialist" label during last year's campaign; and more recently Congressman Spencer Bachus of Alabama claimed there were 17 socialists in Congress. None of this seems like the best way for the party to attract voters.

Here’s my question to you: Is it a mistake for some Republicans to try and brand Democrats as 'Socialists'?

Interested to know which ones made it on air?

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FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:

As gay marriage legislation continues to pick up steam in several states, some Republicans are now calling on their party to get behind the movement. A top adviser to John McCain's presidential campaign warns that the GOP will keep losing young voters and the Northeast as long as they oppose same-sex marriages.

Steve Schmidt told a meeting of a gay rights group called the Log Cabin Republicans that it's harmful for GOP candidates to be seen as anti-gay in places like California, Washington and New York. Schmidt - who has a lesbian sister - called heterosexual marriage "a tradition, not a creed," and dismissed arguments from conservatives that allowing gay marriage would weaken the institution or that it could turn the GOP into a "sectarian party." Nonetheless, he acknowledged that he's unlikely to find support from many in his party in the near future.

One Republican who does agree is John McCain's daughter, Meghan. She addressed the same group over the weekend, saying there's "a war brewing in the Republican party" between the past and the future. Meghan McCain says that embracing new technology - like Twitter or Facebook - won't solve the party's problems; instead, the party needs to break free from "obsolete positions." Her dad must be loving this.

Earlier last week, John McCain's daughter had written an opinion piece called 'Memo to the GOP: Go Gay' urging Republicans to "get past our anti-gay rhetoric" if they want to gain significant support from younger voters. At a time when only one in four voters identifies themselves as a Republican, some are suggesting the perceived intolerance of the party on issues like gay marriage is costing them dearly.

Here’s my question to you: Why are some Republicans calling on their party to support same-sex marriage?

Interested to know which ones made it on air?

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FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin may step back into the national spotlight in June when she's been invited to headline a major Republican fund-raising dinner. The 2008 vice presidential nominee has kept a pretty low profile since John McCain lost the election last November.

Is Palin the best choice for GOP fundraiser?

She's made a handful of trips outside of Alaska, but has skipped big gatherings, like the Conservative Political Action Conference last month. But the upcoming spring gala is the main fund-raising event of the year for congressional Republicans, and the committee chairmen are confident Palin will bring the necessary star power to raise the big bucks.

They call her "one of the brightest rising stars" and "one of the most popular and recognizable faces" in the GOP. She's certainly recognizable, but for many of the wrong reasons. Of course it will probably be a challenge for anyone to raise money in this climate for the Republican Party, which is at all time low approval ratings.

So far, Governor Palin hasn't officially accepted the invitation. Polls suggest Palin remains a favorite of social conservatives; a February survey showed she is the candidate that Republicans said they will most likely support in 2012 - beating out both Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney.

However, Palin remains pretty controversial among the national electorate. A Newsweek poll taken early this month found she had a 44 percent favorable rating - and 42 percent unfavorable. And if she runs in 2012, count on the Democrats to make a whole series of commercials out of those disastrous interviews she did with Katie Couric.

Here’s my question to you: When it comes to fundraising, is Gov. Sarah Palin the best the Republicans can do?

Interested to know which ones made it on air?

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The Republican Party is becoming a cartoon.

Where to start?

Cafferty: Republicans are missing a golden opportunity to redeem themselves.

Bobby Jindal: "I'm certainly not nearly as good of a speaker as Obama." Good OF a speaker? How about not as good at eighth-grade grammar either. It's embarrassing.

Sarah Palin? Billing the taxpayers for her kids to travel to official events the children weren't even invited to? She finally agreed to pay back the state for that money she took.

Her per diem charges to the state in the amount of $17,000 while she was living at home instead of in the governor's mansion? She has now agreed to pay the taxes owed on that money. Another tawdry grab at a few dollars that didn't belong to her.

Michael Steele, the newly elected chairman of the Republican National Committee, down on his knees apologizing to the helium-filled poster boy of the conservative right? Pathetic.

If the Republicans are ever to emerge from the long dark night they have created for themselves it will have to be without pandering to the right wing nuts that comprise Rush Limbaugh's radio audience. Didn't they learn anything in the last election?

Click here for the full CNN.com column.

Click the play button to see what Jack and our viewers had to say. (PHOTO CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES)

FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:

It may feel like a long ways away, but Republicans are already looking ahead to the 2012 presidential election.

According to a new Gallup Poll, Republicans and Republican-leaning Independents most would like to see Sarah Palin run for president in 2012. That's right…Sarah "I read all the newspapers," Palin. Former mayor of Wasilla, first-term governor of Alaska and hockey mom. Her interviews with Katie Couric are the stuff of legend. After she and McCain got their clocks cleaned, Governor Palin couldn't get enough of the TV cameras. They were in her kitchen, her office, virtually every corner of her life. She is now reportedly being wooed to write a book-that would be interesting-or maybe do a TV show.

Watch: Cafferty: Palin in 2012?

Republicans also like Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee as possible candidates for 2012. Palin, Romney and Huckabee- in that order– got the highest scores among 10 possible Republican candidates for president.

Other possibilities like Rudy Giuliani, Newt Gingrich, Bobby Jindal and Charlie Crist didn't even get the support of half the Republicans polled.

Here’s my question to you: What are the Republicans’ chances in 2012 if Sarah Palin is their first choice for president?

Interested to know which ones made it on air?

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Only 34 percent of Americans have a favorable view of the Republican Party.

FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:

It's no secret the Republican Party has an image problem. The last eight years of the Bush Administration have been enough to take the shine off just about anything.

But a new Gallup Poll shows just how bad things have gotten. Only 34 percent of Americans have a favorable view of the Republican Party. At the same time, 61 percent have an unfavorable view. That's the highest number since Gallup started tracking this back in 1992. What's more: Only 78 percent of registered Republicans like what they see from the GOP. In other words, almost a quarter of Republicans aren't happy with their own party.

And no one seems quite sure what to do about it. About 37 percent of Americans want the Republican party to become more conservative, but another 37 percent think the party should be less conservative. About 20 percent say it should stay the same.

Here’s my question to you: What does it mean that only 34% of Americans have a favorable view of the Republican Party?

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