Permanent Minority?

UPDATE: below

The 19th Annual Legislative Conference of the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce will meet next week in D.C. The party that took only 173 electoral votes (as opposed to 365) last November seems relatively unconcerned, according to John Hawkins of Right Wing News:

[S]upposedly, the Democrats have 20 senators scheduled to attend various events and receptions. The Republicans? Are you ready for this? They have no senators currently scheduled to attend. Zero. Nada. Zilch.

I called Dale Crowell, who handles press inquiries for the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce's 19th Annual Legislative Conference. He confirmed for me that there are currently no Republican senators scheduled to attend the event and that Mario and Lincoln Diaz-Balart are the only two Republican Congressmen he had scheduled. He told me that they'd really love to have more Republicans attending and he also noted that there are a "considerable number" of Democrats scheduled to attend.

Now, how much sense does this make, folks? . . . This is a big part of the GOP's problem with minority outreach: the Democrats show up at events like this with bells on while the Republicans can't even be bothered to drop in and say "hello" to a friendly crowd.

That's the second strike against new GOP chair Michael Steele (who won the job thanks to the support of Puerto Rico). RWN commenter martinhale quips, "can we stick a fork in the GOP? They're done."

MORE:

The negative publicity helped: according to Right Wing News, at least five GOP Senators and three GOP House members now are attending.