Jim Martin

In a story on a postelection “war stories” panel conducted Thursday at Harvard University among top strategists from the Obama and McCain campaigns, the National Journal’s Nicholas Tabor reports — among plenty of behind-the-scenes insights into the 2008 presidential campaign — that the McCain campaign gets it when it comes to the GOP’s failed relationship to Hispanic voters in key states, including Colorado.

Speaking after the event, [John McCain manager Rick] Davis said the Republican Party has “got to change its attitude versus Hispanics” in order to win in the future. Given the “really crazy things said on talk radio” in the name of the GOP, Davis said, “I don’t blame Hispanics for not voting for us.

Marilyn Musgrave

Outgoing U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-Fort Morgan) is finally speaking out about her re-election loss -- in a robocall to Georgia residents on behalf of U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Georgia).

In the call, sent to 275,000 Georgia voters Monday and Tuesday, Musgrave blamed her loss on "leftist special interests" who "smothered the truth with vicious attacks and lies," the Fort Collins Coloradoan reported.

Amid talk of where the Republican Party should be headed following a generally poor performance in the 2008 general election, former University of Colorado regent Jim Martin wrote the Grand Junction Sentinel proposing that a new moderate political party be formed in Colorado.

"Today's Republican Party is history," Martin wrote in the letter. "The times call for a new political party, one that looks forward and appeals to a new majority of Americans, ones who find themselves between the Democrats and the Republicans. The best place to launch this party-let's call it the Progressive Party-is right here in Colorado."