The GOP Responds And Responds And Responds

Alex Altman previews tonight’s GOP responses. The main event:

The official Republican response will be delivered by Washington Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the fourth-ranking Republican in the House. A married mom of three, she is “proof that with humility, hard work and dedication, you can overcome any obstacle,” House Speaker John Boehner said. More important, she offers a visual and biographical counterpoint to Democrats’ charges that the party is inhospitable to women. McMorris Rodgers is a dull speaker, but she sticks to the script. For a party struggling with message discipline, that may be enough.

Nora Caplan-Bricker calls McMorris Rodgers the “the quintessential Republican counterpoint to the contraceptive-popping, In-Leaning feminist Democratic voter”:

Like her male colleagues, she has dismissed charges of a Republican war on women as a “myth” and a “war on reality.” But like the most popular women on the left, she has embraced gender as a defining part of her identity.

Colleagues expect her family to anchor her speech. “What better type of person than a mom, and the parent of a disabled child, to talk about what we as Americans want and need right now,” Congressman Pete Sessions, who co-founded the Congressional Down Syndrome Caucus with McMorris Rodgers, told me. “Whether it be the Affordable Care Act, or our ability to create jobs for our children, all these things are immediately on parents’, and especially moms’ wish lists. She’s personally impacted by the decisions that are made in Washington, D.C.”

Jonathan Riehl wonders whether shutdown crusader Mike Lee, who will deliver the Tea Party response, will be able to “rebrand the Tea Party image”:

Few Americans may actually watch Lee’s entire speech on Tuesday, which will be broadcast just after Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) delivers the official GOP State of the Union response. But the Tea Party faithful are likely to tune in, and that will drive activism from the moment Lee’s address ends until its sound bites show up in TV spots and fundraising letters. Rather than a hectoring Joe McCarthy-stand-in, viewers are likely to see an amiable Utahan, an average man who speaks with a heartfelt and moderate tone.

Pareene notes that Rand Paul will also be giving a response:

Rand Paul’s response won’t be on the networks, because Rand Paul’s audience isn’t everyone, and his intention isn’t necessarily to persuade the median voter. He will sit for cable news interviews after the speech, and hit up the Sunday show circuit a few days later, because he’s still campaigning for 2016 and needs as much free media as possible, but a YouTube response sent directly to people who already support Paul is mainly about energizing and expanding his list.

And that’s sort of the problem the Republican Party faces right now: For Paul, there’s not really any reason not to distract from the “official” party response with a nakedly self-serving bit of early campaigning.