On his way out the door, former RNC chief Ken Mehlman warned the GOP that its losses weren't a fluke:

Ken Mehlman, the departing chairman of the Republican National Committee, warned on Thursday that his party would suffer even more devastating losses in 2008 than it did in 2006 if it did not reach out to minorities and address voter concerns about ethics... He said the party had to recommit itself to political reform, fiscal restraint and personal ethics.

He's right that the GOP has serious problems, but he's got the wrong ideas about the fix. The GOP's "outreach" to "minorities" consists of support for both "multiculturalism" (i.e., Gramscism) and illegal immigration. And, that support also plays a large role in their support for corporatism and political corruption. If they were smart and not corrupt, they could figure out a way to "reach out to minorities", support the rule of law, and oppose far-left ideas such as "multiculturalism". As it is, they're continually trying to fit a square peg into a round hole: acting like Democrats and playing by their rules and somehow expecting benefits to ensue.

The author of the piece, John M. Broder, illustrates what Mehlman should fight against but capitulates to instead:

[Senator Mel Martinez], who emigrated from Cuba as a child, will be the public face and voice of the party as it tries to reach out to Hispanics and other minorities who have abandoned the party in large numbers in recent years.

If Mehlman had principles, he'd oppose the hidden assumptions of statements such as that. If Hispanics supposedly only support a party that supports massive immigration of Hispanics, then where does the problem lie?

Mr. Martinez, who appeared at the meeting briefly Thursday morning before returning to the Capitol, said he believed that one of his chief jobs as general chairman would be to try to reconnect with Latino voters, whose support for the Republicans dropped to 29 percent in 2006 from 44 percent in 2004, in large part because many Republican candidates ran explicitly anti-immigrant campaigns... "The president, in naming me to this position, was saying we need to speak with a voice that speaks to all Americans," Mr. Martinez said. "My job is to make clear that our door is open and we're reaching out to all Americans, speaking to their hopes and aspirations and dreams."

I'm not aware of too many "explicitly anti-immigrant campaigns". I'm aware of Republicans who were opposed to massive illegal immigration, and some opposed to massive immigration in general. And, I'm also aware of many Democrats running on the first. And, there weren't too many Democrats running on anything similar to an open-borders platform.

Obviously, the GOP is buying the NYT's view of things, and if Mehlman and the GOP weren't completely corrupt they might realize that for the loser that it is.