Former Governor Tom Ridge is advocating the GOP create a "bigger tent" as it tries to reconstruct itself after this month's Election Day defeat.

"Forget about the finger-pointing, and start figuring out the way to a future that makes us relevant not just to our traditional constituency but to independents and independent-thinking Republicans and Democrats," Ridge, himself a moderate Republican, told The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

The former congressman and Department of Homeland Security secretary was John McCain's chief Keystone State surrogate this year, a role that made him once again a ubiquitous presence in Pennsylvania.

The Republican Party needs to stop dwelling on social issues, he said.

"Our brand has been tarnished in part because we have not consistently upheld our own set of principles," including fiscal conservatism, competence, and military issues, Ridge told the paper.

"We've become too much of a litmus test party" on social issues, he said.

Ridge's comments are sure to draw ire from some conservative Republicans, who think the party lost because it lost support from the base after straying from its principles. But he didn't mince words when talking about the need to attract different kinds of voters while tamping down partisanship.

"We need to be more attractive to more urban, minority [voters], and independent voters of either party," he said. "We need to be more practical in our approach to governing. Voters are looking for solutions and are tired of partisanship, and let's be very candid about what we had when we had the presidency and the House and the Senate. We were too partisan and not very effective in providing solutions. While government grew dramatically, we didn't mute the partisan edge -- we sharpened it."