LOL. There was another article this weekend about big donor GOP liberals worried that the party was too right wing and demanding changes in the structure etc….
This story comes around every so often, usually because someone is trying to benefit financially or politically from the effort. Sometimes both.
These articles always make me laugh. Why? Because it is all fantasy. The State GOP central Committee is not controlled by conservatives and hasn’t been for the over 15 years I’ve been an actual member.
I should point out I’ve been a member of the Executive Committee of the CRP for almost 15 years and served on the Board of Directors from 1993-1999. I have chaired committees including initiatives and been a member of the Rules committee and I am dead on positive Conservatives have never really controlled the party. I think I would have known if they (we) did.
So who really controls the party? Let me explain.
Back in the late 1980’s at a conference Paul Weyrich, founder of the Heritage Foundation and Free Congress Foundation gave a speech. I don’t remember what was said except this idea. The Republican Party is the Monarchy Party. We always rally around the King no matter how bad he is.
The King controls power and more importantly the purse. That is his strength.
Who controls the Party? Who is the King?
**There is more – click the link**
February 14th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Boo Hoo. So it is liberals who burned Pete Wilson in effigy and blocked him from speaking at the convention? I didn’t know that. And moderates who run straw candidates in order to defeat candidates who won’t bow and genuflect to a radical right religious agenda. I wonder who the precinct walkers who carry only the Republican candidate collaterals they support are? And I suppose it’s the man who isn’t there that always puts all the anti-woman, anti-abortion, anti-gay and anti-immigrant planks in the state party platform. My, I never realized how powerless the radical right wing nut conservatives are in the California Republican Party.
February 14th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Mike, thoughtful post. What say you about the Cardinals..and I don’t just mean your arch enemy Bill Thomas and Jerry Lewis…you know…the conservatives who we supported who lost their way and gave us a black eye we live with today? To be sure, there’s not a CRP connection, but to say that the Pigs at the Trough on K street in DC were hypocrits and a tad santicmonious to just butresses Weyrich’s point about Kings….we tolerated their arrogance, overspending, and hubris for a long time just so we could say Republicans control congress. We hit bottom, recovery takes time (if you work your program) and hopefully we won’t be fooled again by the new boss….should we be fortunate enough to every have one again.
February 14th, 2008 at 12:00 am
no idea about the Rudy thing…missed that gravy train…and the first class seats…but it’s pathetic how some look the other way when it’s “our” people doing the wrongs. Hypocricy seems to be ideologically neutral.
I’m going to coin a new phrase “post partisan integrity”…catchy huh?
February 14th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Mike,
Get real. The proposed 9 page (or 7 page) platform at the upcoming convention in SF is pure right wing conservative. Anyone who can read knows it. And there is no chance that a platform that doesn’t hamstring our candidates and tar them as far out right wing nuts who want to impose a radical religious agenda on the state has no chance of passing the convention. Some will think no one reads these platforms so who cares what is in them. But the media cares and the Sacramento Bee and the Los Angeles Times and the San Diego Union/Tribune writers will comb the platform and highlight only the far out right wing planks and guess what – all our candidates will have to hug the tar baby that you and your conservative cohorts push through the convention. And who loses? We all do because if we lose the few votes we have in the legislature that blocks the Democrats from overriding the Governor’s vetoes, we will have more taxes, more regulation, and more far out left legislation. So go ahead and push your right wing agenda, but don’t weep and moan that the conservative cabal within the Republican Party doesn’t have any power and can’t do anything because nobody believes your crocodile tears.
February 14th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Bob,
The effigy PR stunt kept Pete Wilson from what? He spoke, his consultants were hired and ran the campaign of 94. BTW way what was his message on immigration? Did you embrace it?
Sound like you are boohooing to me. I just state it as see it.
February 14th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Joe, You are right about the Cardinals, Dukes and Earls that once knighted become part of the problem. How many “conservatives” endorsed Rudy???
I do have to defend Bill Thomas and Jerry Lewis. They were never labeled conservatives.
February 14th, 2008 at 12:00 am
No idea about the Rudy conservatives, but I know a bunch of conservatives were way out front with Romney.
But to the point, we do everyone a disservice when conservatives turn a blind eye when “one of our own” betrays us.
I’d say hypocricsy is ideologically neutral….
February 15th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Mike – excellent post!
It is good to see that the CRA is still the Republican wing of the Republican Party!
February 15th, 2008 at 12:00 am
The best chance we conservatives have for an “occasional” victory at the upcoming convention, other than adopting a conservative platform, is to pass the Fleischman amendment to return the power to select Republican nominees in statewide races to Republicans. Hopefully, the new King, who is known for his opposition to such a rule, won’t succeed in blocking this one.