I agree with Matthew Continetti, on how stupid this whole "who's the leader of the Republican Party?" debate is:
It is well established that a party's leader is its presidential nomineeTo be fair, Triumph had some very intriguing ideas on energy policy. Something about harnessing the power of poop. Posted by Stephen Silver at March 5, 2009 08:36 PM
and, if that nominee wins election, the president. An exception to this rule would be when one party controls Congress but not the presidency. In that case, the provisional leader of the congressional party would be the speaker of the House. Think Newt Gingrich from 1995 to 1998 and Nancy Pelosi in 2007 and 2008. This isn't rocket science.The GOP's presidential nominee lost in 2008. It holds no power in Congress. Hence the party will have to muddle through without a "leader" until the 2012 Republican primaries. Big deal. Such has been the case with all out-parties in American history. Who was the Democratic party's "leader" during the years 2005 to 2007? Was it Howard Dean? Al Franken? Keith Olbermann? Triumph the Insult Comic Dog?