FOXNews.com

Saturday, May 02, 2009

 

Don't call it a comeback.

 

Republicans, who have suffered two consecutive electoral beatings in Congress and a Senate defection this week, launched on Saturday the first of a series of forums and town hall meetings to engage the American public in policy discussion.

 

The first event in the series labeled the National Council for a New America was held in northern Virginia. It is a suburban area that went for Obama in the presidential election -- helping him become the first Democratic presidential candidate since 1964 to win the state.

 

About 75 people crowded into a pizza parlor to hear former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor and former presidential candidate Mitt Romney speak

"What I've seen in the last few years is troubling," Bush told the crowd. "Politics has become a food fight."

 

Republican leaders acknowledged the success that Democrats have had with public opinion under President Obama and say they want to offer an alternative.

 

"We are going to work very hard to listen to the American people when it comes to the economy," Romney said. "We are risking doing to the economy what the government did to the housing market -- create a bubble that ultimately collapses."

 

"From the conservative side, it's time to listen and get some new ideas," Bush said.

 

"We need to stop being nostalgic about the past."