FOX News this afternoon reported on Republicans’ efforts at re-branding themselves on the primary and general election ballots. Dino Rossi is one of “scores” of Republicans that correspondent Dan Springer says are “leaving the Republican moniker behind.” Anchor Britt Hume said the Republicans were "shying away from the Republican Label." And that may be a bigger crime on that network than failing to wear a flag pin.

When Rossi filed to run, he listed his party preference as GOP Party.

Curtis Fackler, a Republican candidate for insurance commissioner and the chairman of the Spokane County Republican Party, will be listed with no party preference. He told Springer that there are 30 percent of voters in the state who will vote against a Republican “no matter what.”

And we want to get around that. We want them to read our statements and see where we’re coming from.

Rossi says in the piece that Democrats are insulting the intelligence of state voters by suggesting they don’t know what GOP means. But, as it has been pointed out, even some people who should know better have been ignorant of that Republican shorthand. And Fackler's comments certainly make it clear that at least some Republicans are using their new freedom on the ballot to distance themselves from the battered party brand.