Quick Thoughts on Voinovich

George Voinovich, the senior Ohio senator and patriarch of the Buckeye State GOP, is set to retire in 2010. He's the fourth Republican senator to call it quits this cycle.

Obviously, this is bad news for the GOP. They've taken a beating in Ohio for the past few cycles, with 2006 being particularly bad. Not long ago it looked as if Ohio might be another Florida: a big, urbanized state with a small but clear tilt towards the Republican Party.

Bush won it in 2000, and it cast the deciding vote for his re-election in 2004. The state had two Republican senators--Voinovich and Mike DeWine--and a Republican governor, Bob Taft. The state legislature was dominated by the Republicans, as was the congressional delegation.

But over the past four years, everything just fell apart. You can't pick any one factor in the GOP's demise. There was the flagging economy, the unpopularity of President Bush, fear of outsourcing, and corruption in the Taft administration. What it all added up to, though, was a severe case of brand toxicity.

DeWine lost in 2006, and the Democrats took over the statehouse with ease. And just last year Obama won Ohio pretty handily. The GOP needs to start rebuilding. That's why Voinovich's retirement isn't as much a disaster as it first appears.

The conservative wing of the GOP was never happy with Voinovich. "RINO" was the politest term they threw at him. And unlike some others who get stuck with the label, Voinovich really deserved it. He was more of a pragmatist than an ideologue, always aiming for the center.

With him gone, Ohio gives the Republican Party a chance to test out GOP 2.0. They have a perfect laboratory to see what works and what doesn't. Does the GOP, as some bloggers and talk-show hosts insist, need to get back to its roots? Or does it need to make itself more of a big-tent party, more accepting of dissenters?

We'll find out in the most battlin' battlefield state of all. Voinovich's retirement has made Ohio a laboratory for the Republican Party. Let's hope they learn something from this experiment.