From the Rhode Island General Assembly to the White House, the party is out of power. For the first time since the founding of the gop in the 1850s, the party holds not one U.S. House Seat from New England.

We know that politics in our state and region is both serious business and a grand spectator sport.

Last week Rhode Island wags were wagging and pundits parsing the meaning of Steven Laffey's withdrawal as candidate for the Republican nomination for Governor. Laffey left a contest he never formally entered. Rhode Islanders, he asserted, really don't want to fix what ails the state.

Thankfully there is much time for candidates who think more of the voters to get into the race. The 2010 primary elections are 18 months away, which may as well be a century in politics.

It should be time for some deep thinking by local Republicans. The 2008 election cycle was especially cruel to their party; the gop has just 10 of 113 seats in the state general assembly. Republicans hold just one statewide office - that of Governor Donald Carcieri, who is barred by term limits from running for reelection. None of the state's U.S. Senators or House Members is a Republican.

On the national level, Republicans are mired in the kind of internecine spitting match that would be ludicrous were it not true. The party's new national chairman, Michael Steele, the first African-American to lead republicans, got into a joust with conservative talk-show host, Rush Limbaugh.

In a televised rant, Limbaugh said he hopes President Barack Obama fails. Steele called Limbaugh's rhetoric "ugly" and "incendiary." But Steele quickly backed off, apologizing to Limbaugh and giving Democrats something to gloat about as Obama struggles with the foundering economy.

New England Republicans have long been more moderate than those from the south. The GOP may be at a low point here now, but it wasn't so long ago that some of the party's storied senators hailed from the region - Margaret Chase Smith of Maine, John Chafee of Rhode Island, Edward Brooke and Leverett Saltonstall of Massachusetts, and George Aiken of Vermont.

Republicans need to do more than hope the Democratic President fails or the general assembly makes a mess of things. One-party Rhode Island could use a rejuvenated Republican party, one whose leaders would recruit new candidates and bring new blood and ideas to the political landscape.

The Rhode Island GOP could use leaders who get out of the right-wing echo chamber of talk radio and discuss solutions to the deep economic and political problems of the state. Perhaps it is time to go back to the future and focus on a reawakening of the private sector entrepreneurship that fueled the state's growth a generation or two ago.

There is no time like now to work on new economic ideas, or even graft some new proposals on to the Republican perennials of individual initiative, small government and low taxes.

Rhode Islander voters could use a full debate on the issues facing our beleaguered little state. There must be Republicans out there who care about our state and believe we can bounce back. The field is wide open.