“I’ll be honest here. In the past two years, we’ve done a pretty lousy job of connecting in the Latino community," Priebus said, speaking at an event in Chicago for the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, the Chicago Tribune reports. "We’ve missed out on opportunities to build better relationships. But that’s going to change."

“I didn’t come here to convert you,” he added. “I hope that it’s clear that we want to earn your trust and your vote.”

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It's because Obama is black, and "the American people are not going to tolerate the first black president being removed from office," according to Limbaugh.

h/t Media Matters

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“We have to be persistent but patient,” Priebus told Politico. “I think where there’s smoke, there’s fire. If we present ourselves to the American people as intelligent, we’re going to be in a great place as far as showing that this administration is not transparent, is obsessed with power and hates dissent. But you don’t call for impeachment until you have evidence.”

Republicans like Sen. Jim Inhofe, Okla., and Rep. Jason Chaffetz, Utah, have argued that the President could be impeached over the State Department's handling of the attacks on the U.S. consulate in Libya — not to mention the slew of Republicans who have invoked Watergate when discussing the IRS scandal.

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The Hill reports that the RNC is challenging how much an individual can donate in the course of a two-year election cycle:

Individual donors cannot donate more than $74,600 to political committees, such as the RNC, in a two-year period. Contributions to individual candidates are capped at $48,600, meaning one donor could only give the maximum donation to nine candidates per cycle.

The RNC said in its brief that the court should strike down aggregate limits because they infringe on donors' First Amendment rights but don't serve an appropriate and “narrowly tailored” government interest.

The Court is scheduled to take up campaign finance limits in its next term, which starts in October.

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And yet, despite its dubious origins, the party's new approach is a striking statement regarding the political power — and numbers — of lower-income people in this country: Rather than dismiss, slur or divide poorer Americans (as in prior elections), Republicans have now made the political calculation that they've no choice but to talk directly to them and win their votes.

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The answer to that question might go a long way in determining whether the GOP has any luck rebranding itself in the coming years. Early indications are Ailes and Fox News have no interest in moderating their form of attack programming, the bare-knuckle brand celebrated in Zev Chafets' new bio of the Fox News president,  Roger Ailes: Off Camera.

Dubbed the "Growth & Opportunity Project," the RNC's laundry list of campaign failures urges the party to become more inclusive, tolerant and able to engage and persuade non-believers. Or to at least be able to not turn them off entirely with angry, absolutist rhetoric. "On messaging, we must change our tone," the report concluded.

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Not so fast. Priebus is now reassuring religious conservatives that he doesn’t think the party should change its policies or principles to attract gay voters. “I know what our principles are, I know our party believes marriage is between one man and one woman,” Priebus told MSNBC’s Luke Russert on Wednesday. “But I also know our party’s going to be inclusive, and it’s going to listen to people and it’s going to allow for differences in our party.”

Priebus got into hot water with the religious right not so much for the report’s language about gay voters – it merely recommended “outreach,” while fretting that the party’s anti-gay stance was alienating young voters. It was his decision, in his press conference, to praise Sen. Rob Portman for coming out for gay marriage (while revealing that his son is gay) that caused him trouble.

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From the National Review Online:

“I think [the RNC] should pretty much ignore him,” says Phyllis Schlafly, a longtime conservative activist, in an interview with National Review Online. “I think he has made a mistake, and he probably won’t get reelected.”

Ralph Reed, the founder of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, says the party has to be careful. “If the Republican party tries to retreat from being a pro-marriage, pro-family party, the big tent is going to become a pup tent very fast,” he says. “I am concerned that some in the party are going wobbly on this issue.”

Brian Brown, of the National Organization for Marriage, told NRO that Portman will now likely get a challenger in the primary. “This is a critical issue, and to act like it’s just no big deal is just wrong."

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Priebus’s thorough-going investigation and its 200 pages of recommendations leave the modern GOP dismembered, its diseased vital organs cut out, their toxicity examined, and the patient lying dead on the table. Some of the recommendations are surprisingly substantive, urging the party to rethink its harsh stands on gay rights and to back comprehensive immigration reform, for instance. It admits many voters see the party as “scary” and “out of touch.” But with the far-right crackpot CPAC convening as its backdrop – Exhibit A in scary and out of touch -- it’s hard to see any organized GOP constituency for such changes, while there’s plenty of party opposition.

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"Question about CPAC last week, where a panel on African-American voters dissolved into a shouting match with at least one activist saying that -- talking about voters being systematically disenfranchised. How, given that sort of backdrop in the party, do you plan to overcome those challenges in your role at the RNC?" said National Press Club president Angela Greiling Keane, reading from a written question, during a press conference with Priebus at the National Press Club.

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But Republicans have one very big problem when it comes to recruiting the talent needed to modernize the party's digital infrastructure: its hostility towards gay people.

That's according to Liz Mair, who was the RNC's online communications director in 2008 before leaving to start her own political consulting firm. Since then, she's worked with Carly Fiorina on her 2010 California Senate bid, with Rick Perry’s 2012 presidential campaign, and with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s successful reelection effort after a recall attempt last year.

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The report, which analyzed the GOP's losses in the 2012 elections, said that many of those surveyed described the party as "narrow minded" and a party of "stuff old men."

"Young voters are increasingly rolling their eyes at what the Party represents, and many minorities wrongly think that Republicans do not like them or want them in the country," the report says. "When someone rolls their eyes at us, they are not likely to open their ears to us."

The report recommends that the GOP "stop talking to itself" and that "If we want ethnic minority voters to support Republicans, we have to engage them, and show our sincerity." On social issues, the RNC concludes that Republicans need to be more "inclusive and welcoming."

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"We must embrace and champion comprehensive immigration reform," says one recommendation in the 100-page report obtained by The Associated Press before its official release. "If we do not, our party's appeal will continue to shrink."

The endorsement is among dozens of recommendations crafted by party leaders following a months-long self-examination prompted by last year's painful election losses. The report also calls on Republicans to take a harder line with corporate America, loosen political fundraising laws in Washington and in state capitals, and cut in half the number of candidate debates in a shortened 2016 presidential primary calendar.

"When Republicans lost in November, it was a wakeup call," Priebus says in prepared remarks to be delivered Monday at the National Press Club.

The Republican National Committee's shift on minority outreach may be the most visible change in the coming months.

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The Republican Party makeover is breathtaking. Now, suddenly, instead of accusing Democrats of being “redistributionists,” the GOP is posing as defender of the middle class against corporate America — and it’s doing so by proposing to do away with the most progressive piece of legislation in well over a decade.

Paul Ryan’s new budget purportedly gets about 40 percent of its $4.6 trillion in spending cuts over ten years by repealing Obamacare, but Ryan’s budget document doesn’t mention that such a repeal would also lower taxes on corporations and the wealthy that foot Obamacare’s bill.

According to an analysis by the non-partisan Tax Foundation, Obamacare redistributes income from the wealthy to the middle class. This is mainly because it hikes Medicare taxes on the top 2 percent (singles earning more than $200,000 and couples earning more than $250,000, including their investment income).

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From earlier:

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said that Karl Rove's plan to target far-right conservatives in the primaries, like potential Iowa Senate candidate Rep. Steve King, is "a fool's game because you can’t actually predict some of the things that go on.”

“Listen, I don’t think our platform is the issue,” Priebus said, Radio Iowa reports. “I think a lot of times it’s some of these biologically stupid things that people say, you know, that I believe caused a lot of the problems.”

He continued: "Personally, as an RNC [Chair], I don’t believe in that. I don’t believe the party should pick winners and losers in primaries and I think it’s, historically, if you look at it, it’s a bit of a fool’s game because you can’t actually predict some of the things that go on.”

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The RNC raised $6.9 million in January and ended the month with $7.1 million in cash — along with no debt.

The Democratic National Committee brought in $4.3 million in January and ended the month with $4.7 million in cash.

But the DNC is carrying a large debt of $20.7 million, down slightly from the end of the year. Democrats racked up the debt while helping President Barack Obama hold onto the White House.

Party committees filed monthly financial reports Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission.

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