Over the Transom - Viguerie: Republican Leaders Must Resign
Posted by: Aaron Park | 05/18/2008 2:55 PM
Blogger's Note: This is timely and applicable to our current situation. This snippet came from www.newsmax.com's weekly insider report.
The Republican Party must replace its leadership or conservatives will continue to withhold support and the GOP will face "disaster" in November, leading conservative activist Richard A. Viguerie declared.
"Republican Party leaders must resign," said Viguerie, publisher of ConservativeHQ.com and the pioneer of political direct mail.
"Leaders in the White House, the Congress, and the Republican National Committee and its affiliates, along with most Republican leaders at the state level, have failed -- or outright betrayed -- the conservative voters who put them in their positions.
"The result is that the Republican Party's brand has become a negative to an extent greater than in the Watergate era, perhaps even worse than in the days of Herbert Hoover."
Viguerie made these points:
* The number of new Republican voters is flat while Democratic voter registration is soaring.
* Contributions to Republican candidates and committees are way off, while donations to Democrats are "setting records."
* In this year's primaries, votes for GOP candidates at all levels are running far behind the Democrats.
* In recent special elections, Republicans lost House seats in Illinois, Louisiana, and Mississippi that had long been in GOP hands -- all in districts carried overwhelmingly by President Bush. A single election can be a fluke, but when Republicans lose three seemingly safe seats in a row, "disaster is looming."
"The hard work of the last 50 years by millions of conservative campaign workers, donors, candidates, writers, intellectuals, and activists has been trashed," he said.
"The conservative movement has been set back 10 to 20 years -- possibly even permanently -- by politicians consumed by power."
He named a number of prominent Republicans, including President Bush, Karl Rove, party chairman Mike Duncan, House Minority Leader John Boehner, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, and House Minority Whip Roy Blunt.
"Some deserve more of the blame than others, but they are all part of an establishment that has brought the Republican Party down," added Viguerie, whose latest book is "Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big-Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause."
"For things to change, for conservatives to be justified in once again giving our contributions, our volunteer efforts, our energy, and votes to the GOP, the party must clean house. The party leadership should resign immediately.
"Republicans are doomed to wander in the political wilderness until this generation of weak-kneed, no-vision, inarticulate, afraid-of-the-liberal-media politicians are replaced with principled conservatives in the mold of Bill Buckley, Barry Goldwater, and Ronald Reagan."
Viguerie has this message for the current GOP leadership: "For the future of the Republican Party, for America, and the cause of freedom: Go!"
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4th Congressional District Race
Women's right to vote didn't exist until they fought for it. Blacks rights for equality didn't happen until...
"generation of weak-kneed, no-vision, inarticulate, afraid-of-the-liberal-media politicians"
Doug Ose in a nutshell...
Actually, some of the more grounded in reality up and coming stars of the Republican Party "get it"...Eric Cantor be one:
The message of a candidate being 'too liberal' or 'too out of sync' is not what voters want to hear…It just didn’t work. But what does work, though, is a realization that the paradigm has been shifted. This country is tired of excuses and doesn’t want to hear about 'too liberal' or 'too this' or 'too that.' What they want to hear is solutions.”
Cantor, 5-14-08
Lee,
Of course we have to be a little careful here: I am for change, big changes in Washington, but that does not mean I will vote for Obama.
When a candidate says they are for "change" or they are for "solutions" we need to ask what problem it is they want to solve and how do they want to solve it.
For example, there are a number of folks on this list who would throw out our nation's vital contract protections to help solve the problem of an underpaid or poorly managed military.
John
John
When the political debate focuses on solutions, it is in a positive iterative loop. Some "solutions" will be winnowed out for one good reason or another. You mention keeping contract protections is a good example. It will survive the iterative process and be a necessary condition to the ultimate solution. Half-baked conditions will drop out.
Dog whistle politics...too liberal...too whatever...is the lazy and ineffectual road to good governance...
While Ose is too liberal - Lee I agree with you, it is incumbent upon us to tell people why Ose and other establishment Republicans are too liberal.
Secondly, we have to tell people why our solutions are the best way - President Bush either could not, or refused to because of his "new tone" in Washington.
"Republicans are doomed to wander in the political wilderness until this generation of weak-kneed, no-vision, inarticulate, afraid-of-the-liberal-media politicians are replaced with principled conservatives in the mold of Bill Buckley, Barry Goldwater, and Ronald Reagan."
Dog Whistle Politics...