RNC weighs new message strategy in '10

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele hinted his party was assembling a set of guiding principles in time for 2010 on Monday.

While Steele cautioned this morning it would not be a "Contract with America II" -- a sequel to the document Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) successfully introduced in 1994 -- he did suggest the RNC was plotting some larger message strategy that had similar goals in mind.

"The Contract with America stands on its own. It was right for that time. It helped define that moment," the chairman told CNN in an interview.

"I and Newt and others are looking at how we define this time, a time where we have an administration that's overstepping its reach on healthcare, overstepping its reach on the economy," Steele added, then asking rhetorically, "how do we principally make the argument, make the case to the American people that the direction the Obama administration, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid want to go is not good for America?"

"I think we'll have some very interesting things to say next year about that," he said.

Steele provided no additional specifics, including what policy principles that guiding document might ultimately include.

Nevertheless, it is not uncommon for party leaders to shape their candidates' campaigns around media-friendly policy messages.

Most recently, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in 2006 debuted her "100-Hour Plan" --  a set of legislative goals announced before that year's elections that Democrats promised to meet within 100 legislative hours.