"I think that was also largely true for the Republican majority they replaced." Zach, could you say a bit more as to what you have in mind here? So many of the signature policy priorities of the last congress strike me as very much ideological -- the bankrputcy bill; refusing to negotiate drug prices; social security privatization; opposition to stem cell research. It does seem appropriate to count Tancredo-style know-nothingism as a form of populism about immigration policy, so that's one count in that direction. Are there others?

I'm thinking of Republican populism as simplistic, crowd-pleasing policies (note: the crowd need not be the entire electorate). So among these would be the stem cell research ban, the Terry Schiavo bill, immigration (as you noted), tax cuts, and foreign affairs. On these last two points, the Republicans have cloaked ideological underpinnings in populist slogans. Ultimately, those slogans wore too thin to sustain their majority.

I can see that.

Considering the heading of this post, thought the authors of this website might like to know about this little tidbit from a year and a half ago:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32554-2005Apr6.html

whoops, meant to post a different link. anyway, man who orchestrated the memo is taking over the rnc chair.