Gabriel Gomez said WHAT?

Ah, the Christmas season is upon us. While our Democratic brethren probably feel our party affiliation makes us hard-hearted Grinches, we beg to differ.

We are ALL about peace, harmony and family. Can you feel the love?

Wait, what? Gabriel Gomez said what? He called conservative blogger Rob Eno a WHAT? And then he went on Herald Radio today and said he meant to say it?

Oh, Massachusetts Republicans... What are we doing to ourselves? We have an election to win next year. Airing our dirty laundry and internal fighting in the press is not the way to achieve victory. The word "Klan" should not be coming up in conversations about our party. Period.

Look, there are very few times we would ever say the GOP should be like the Democrats. But here's one instance where the Dems kick our butts. When they have internal disagreements, you don't find out about it in the press. We are positive they have their share of intra-party skirmishes, but they are much, much better at keeping them behind closed doors. Instead, they focus their external efforts and messaging on rallying voters to their side.

When gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker decided to run with former state Rep. Karyn Polito at the beginning of the month, the day-two story in the Boston Globe was about conservatives in the party considering pulling support for the team. We'll leave the politics of that story alone. What's wrong with this situation is that the storyline about the Republicans is not what we'd do for the state if we were to lead, the story is that Republicans can't get it together.

This is not to say that there is no room for disagreement in the party; internal debate is important for the health of the party. But, it should be just that – internal debate. Rent a meeting room like we do for state committee meetings, and instead of polite clapping and speeches and whispered conversations in the back of the room, let's just get it out in the open, decide what we're going to run on, and go campaign.

Let's face it. There are a multitude of beliefs among members of our party. We're not going to say who is right and wrong, because none of them are "right" or "wrong." People believe what they believe, whether it's because of religious reasons, personal experiences, or just because. Candidates claiming they've "evolved" on issues doesn't help the cause. Aren't they effectively saying those who still believe what they used to believe are "unevolved?" They aren't cavemen, they just don't agree with you.

On the Democratic side, Barack Obama was allowed to lead the party even though he didn't support gay marriage. When he had his "evolution" -- his words, not ours -- his party accepted that, too.

Let's stop with the litmus tests. Let's stop trying to figure out who the "real" Republicans are. There are tons of things we all can agree on -- things like smaller, more efficient government. For now, while we're trying to win in 2014, can we just focus on those things we can all get behind and accept that for now, we're not going to find consensus on every single issue?

Why would any independent voter consider coming over to our side when they see how we treat our own family?

Guys, we are not going to win like this. Voters don't want to hear about our internal fighting, they want to know why they should entrust the Corner Office to someone with an R after their name. If we don't start articulating that right this minute, we can kiss another four years goodbye.