The air and the ideas in the House and Senate Republican cloakrooms are a bit stale these days. So the GOP is taking its show on the road.

After consecutive catastrophic electoral losses left them with no lever of power in Washington and only a few new faces who had wrested seats from Democrats in the House, Republican leaders are turning their attention outside the Capital Beltway — and outside their severely diminished party ranks — to gather ideas from the public that they hope will help them rebound.

Republicans are calling the effort, coordinated by House Republican Whip Eric Cantor , R-Va., the National Council for a New America. But it might be thought of as a national listening tour.

“It’s time for us to get out across this country and connect with working people and small business owners,” Cantor said Thursday afternoon.

He and other top Republican congressional leaders from the House and Senate distributed an open letter announcing the nascent initiative Wednesday night.

“The NCNA will be a dynamic, forward-looking organization that will amplify the common-sense and wisdom of our fellow citizens through a grass-roots dialogue with Republican leaders,” they wrote. “However, this is not a Republican-only forum. While we will be guided by our principles of freedom and security, we will seek more than just our ideas.”

Republicans privately acknowledge what is obvious from recent election results: Their solutions have not been resonating with voters.

In addition, they say, they are having trouble breaking through to Americans with a popular Democratic president, Barack Obama , in the White House and the binary choice of yes-or-no votes on Democratic-written legislation.

“Just because we’re in a situation now where we vote no doesn’t mean we are the ‘party of no’ or have no ideas,” said former House Republican Whip Roy Blunt , who is running for Senate in Missouri and signed the letter. “This adds another way of getting those ideas out there.”

The idea is to address the needs of Republicans, independents and Democrats with policy solutions that reflect Republican principles.

To do that, they need to take in information from outside what has been a shrinking base both politically and demographically. There are no black Republicans in Congress. There are four Hispanic Republicans, one of whom is retiring, and two Asian American Republicans, one of whom will have difficulty holding his New Orleans-based seat.

And, with the defection of Sen. Arlen Specter to the Democratic Party earlier this week, Cantor is the only Jewish Republican in Congress.

“Diversity of input is critical,” said a Cantor aide.