Contact: Bob Sturm, 703-396-6974; after 6 PM Eastern, Vi Shields or Bob Sturm, 703-906-6542, 703-307-8176

MANASSAS, Va., May 14 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Republican Party must have new leadership, or conservatives will continue to withhold support, and the Party will crash in flames in November, Richard A. Viguerie, publisher of ConservativeHQ.com, said. "Accordingly, Republican Party leaders must resign."

"Leaders in the White House, the Congress, and the Republican National Committee and its affiliates, along with most Republican leaders at the state level, have failed – or outright betrayed – the conservative voters who put them in their positions," Viguerie said.

"The result is that the Republican Party's brand has become a negative to an extent greater than in the Watergate era, perhaps even worse than in the days of Herbert Hoover."

Viguerie noted that:
 

• The number of new Republican voters is flat while Democratic voter registration is skyrocketing.
• Contributions to GOP candidates and Republican committees are way off, while donations to Democrats are setting records.
• In primaries, votes for Republican candidates at all levels are running far behind the Democrats.
• And in recent special elections, the GOP lost long held Congressional seats in Illinois, Louisiana, and Mississippi – all in districts carried overwhelmingly by President Bush. A single election can be a fluke, but when Republicans lose three seemingly safe seats in a row, disaster is looming.

 
"The hard work of the last 50 years by millions of conservative campaign workers, donors, candidates, writers, intellectuals, and activists has been trashed," Viguerie said. "The conservative movement has been set back 10-20 years – possibly even permanently – by politicians consumed by power, including, but certainly not limited to, Denny Hastert, Tom DeLay, John Boehner, Roy Blunt, Mitch McConnell, Trent Lott, George W. Bush, Karl Rove, party chairman Mike Duncan, and their friends.

"Some deserve more of the blame than others, but they are all part of an Establishment that has brought the Republican Party down.

"For things to change, for conservatives to be justified in once again giving our contributions, our volunteer efforts, our energy, and votes to the GOP, the Party must clean house. The Party leadership should resign immediately.

"Republicans are doomed to wander in the political wilderness until this generation of weak-kneed, no-vision, inarticulate, afraid-of-the-liberal-media politicians are replaced with principled conservatives in the mold of Bill Buckley, Barry Goldwater, and Ronald Reagan.

"The Party's leaders turned against the principles you once espoused – conservative principles – and, in turn, conservatives and the American people have turned against you. Things will not get better until you accept responsibility, and resign.
 

"You have stayed too long. For the future of the Republican Party, for America, and the cause of freedom: GO!"
 
NOTE TO EDITORS: Richard A. Viguerie pioneered political direct mail and has been called "one of the creators of the modern conservative movement" (The Nation magazine) and one of the "conservatives of the century" (The Washington Times). His latest book is Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big-Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause (Bonus Books), which, Jerome Corsi wrote in WorldNetDaily, is "destined to become a classic of conservative thinking" and "may be the most important conservative book written in the last quarter century."