He did it as he stood Monday morning in Nashville flanked by Tennessee Lieutenant Gov. Ron Ramsey and former U.S. Sen. Bill Frist. He let it show in a recent letter he sent to the members of the Republican National Committee.

Former Memphian and Christian Brothers University graduate Chip Saltsman, who launched his candidacy for the chairmanship of the RNC this week, is letting it be known he wants people to see a different side to his political party in the coming years. He wants people to see a different face as its chief spokesman and he wants the public to hear a different tone in its discourse.

"I always go back to one of my favorite Democrat consultants and senators who were on a political talk show after the election and who said, ‘Our party has been fundamentally destroyed. We are going to be in the minority for a generation. We will not recover from this anytime soon,'" Saltsman said this week during the announcement of his candidacy, bouncing on his heels as he spoke.

"That senator was Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), that consultant was James Carville, and they said that about the Democrats after the 2004 election. So things change quick in this business."

Barely one month earlier, a Democrat returned to the White House after nearly eight years, and Democrats came within a hair's breadth of gaining a filibuster-proof majority in the U.S. Senate.

Trappings of leadership

Something else that will change quickly - and which Saltsman himself wants to change - is the figure responsible for leading the RNC. The chairman, who will be chosen by the party's committee members next month, is in charge of everything from setting the party agenda throughout the country to helping recruit candidates to run for office.

Past chairs of the RNC include Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, whose stint included 1994, when the party won control of the U.S. House and Senate for the first time in four decades.

Saltsman, a former chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party, announced his candidacy for the national party chairmanship Monday morning. By Monday night, a "Draft Chip Saltsman for RNC Chairman" Facebook page already had 545 members.

Auspicious beginnings

Saltsman, now 40, was the youngest state party chair in the country when he was given the job at age 30 in 1998. That, plus a myriad of milestones before and since in his political career, have helped make this latest chapter in his story something to watch.

He is a longtime confidant of Frist, the former majority leader of the U.S. Senate and possible candidate for Tennessee governor in 2010. Early in his political career, Saltsman as state party chairman bucked his former mentor - former Republican Gov. Don Sundquist - when a proposed state income tax became a major legislative initiative of the governor.

Saltsman was the state party chairman in 2000, the year Tennessee's 11 electoral votes arguably should not have been up for grabs in that year's presidential election because of the candidacy of native son Al Gore. The state eventually became competitive and as a result led to various campaign appearances in the Volunteer State, including stops in Memphis, by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

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