Mel has been chair of the Republican Party for six months now, and he’s done as competent a job as the usual Republican. Bush’s approvals are still as low as they can go, and the prospects for Republican gains in 2008 are dismal at best.

It was reported in January by FauxNews that Martinez was appointed to the Republican Party Chair in order to win back the Latino vote the Republican lost badly in 2006.

A week after the November election, Republicans signaled a new emphasis on the Hispanic vote when Bush recommended that the Republican National Committee select Cuban-American Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida to lead the party in the next election cycle. RNC members vote in January on the all-but done deal.

“My job will be to make sure the Republican party’s message is heard, that it is a message that speaks to all Americans, and that it’s also an inclusive message,” Martinez told reporters on Nov. 14 after meeting with Bush in the West Wing.

Martinez, who will become the first Hispanic general chairman of the party, will serve largely as a figurehead for the organization, bringing publicity and prestige. Mike Duncan, the RNC’s current general counsel and a former party treasurer, will run day-to-day operations. The dual chairmanship will replace the role held previously by Ken Mehlman.

But far from being just a cosmetic change, Martinez is being tasked not only with the challenge of winning back Hispanic voters lost to Democrats in 2006 but also to seal a win for the White House in 2008.

So, the first task is to woo Latino voters? It seems apparent that Martinez is doing this by backing Bush’s immigration bill, which may be the last chance Bush has to have anything of a positive legacy. But the immigration bill, while it may be attracting Latino voters, is really a Democratic issue. They’re the ones supporting it. So it’s an issue that will attract even more voters to the Democratic column, and alienate the traditional xenophobic Republican base. It’s certainly harming Martinez’ numbers.

Only 37 percent of those polled by Quinnipiac University approved of the way Martinez was handling his job, while 34 percent disapproved and the rest were undecided. That’s down from a high of 48 percent approval — and 22 percent disapproval — in February, before the latest immigration bill was announced.

Martinez, in a brief interview Thursday afternoon, shrugged off the poll numbers and vowed to keep working for the reform legislation.

“I didn’t come here to take the easy way,” Martinez said.

He’s got that Bush-like stubbornness, doesn’t he? So maybe we could conclude that having Mel as the point person on attracting Latino voters, and on ushering the immigration reform bill, is a bit of a failure. Is Mel setting the stage well for Republican Presidential prospects in 2008? HArdly. Here’s his comments in the Miami Herald about two of the leading candidates:

Republican party chief Mel Martinez criticized GOP presidential contenders Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney in a televised interview Friday, saying their opposition to the Senate immigration plan he and President Bush have championed is “wrong.”

”I have to say, on this issue they are falling short,” the Florida Republican senator told Bloomberg Television. “I think it’s been too easy for too many people in the Senate and outside the Senate to simply criticize and find fault. No doubt that this is an imperfect product, but at the end of the day, what is your solution? What is your answer?”

”The status quo is not good enough,” said Martinez, the general chairman of the Republican National Committee. “And so whether a presidential candidate or a senator, they need to take the step beyond criticizing and offering a solution.”

The unusual criticism, coming just hours after legislation Martinez helped craft was derailed by a procedural vote on the Senate floor, underscores the fissure the issue has opened in the GOP as it tries to appeal to ”border security first” advocates without alienating Hispanics.

Oh, that’s funny. I certainly don’t recall any time in my adult life a Republican Party Chair slamming members of his own party, much less prospective candidates for President. Surely Mel Martinez wasn’t brought in to fragment the party, was he?

Seems as if Mel’s supporting a Democratic project, the immigration reform bill, that Bush is latching on to, and he’s failing there as Bush’s point man, just as Bush is bound to fail. I have no confidence Bush and Martinez will be able to bring more Republicans into the fold to pass that thing. Martinez is promoting Presidential candidates by slamming them. This appears to be a first six months for Mr. Martinez as Republican Party Chair marked by incompetence. Hey, that’s a hallmark for Republicans, along with corruption. . . and Martinez has that going on as well.