Do The Members Of The Republican National Committee Understand Their Jobs?

by John Hawkins | April 3, 2009 5:05 am

There is a reason that the GOP is called the “stupid” party. It’s always one thing or another. If Republicans in DC aren’t dumping their principles to try to appeal to liberals who are always going to hate them, they’re running people out of the party for not being pure enough.

Although the former problem has been a much bigger problem than the latter of late, we have a bunch of doofuses at the Republican National Committee who are apparently so desperate to vent that they’re willing to make jackasses of themselves on a national stage,

Conservatives on the 168-member Republican National Committee are pressing a reluctant RNC Chairman Michael S. Steele to call a party meeting that would focus criticism on President Obama’s stimulus package and its backers — including three Republican senators who voted for it.

…The demand creates an awkward situation for Mr. Steele, who already is under fire from fellow Republicans for a string of shaky media interviews. Republican national chairmen have rarely, if ever, publicly criticized GOP lawmakers over policy differences.

Mr. Steele offered instead to sign onto a joint statement that would criticize the stimulus package and the Democrats who passed it, but drop the criticism of Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter and Maine Sens. Olympia J. Snowe and Susan Collins.

…The conservatives, led by constitutional law attorney and Indiana RNC member James Bopp Jr., rejected Mr. Steele’s offer. If he doesn’t call the special meeting, they said, they have the requisite signatures of members from 16 states to force a full committee meeting May 20 at National Harbor outside Washington, where a smaller gathering of state party chairmen is already scheduled.

“If he calls the meeting, this way we’ll see if he wants to work with us,” Oklahoma RNC member Carolyn McLarty, a resolution sponsor, said before Mr. Steele nixed the request for a special meeting.

In other words, this dispute isn’t over opposition to the stimulus package, it’s all about members of the Republican National Committee wanting to publicly flog other Republicans at an official Republican Party meeting.

Now, I’m not happy at all with Snowe, Collins, & Specter. In fact, I happily anticipate working to raise money for Pat Toomey in order to help him knock off Specter in the primary next year.

However, there’s a big difference between a blogger like me, talk radio hosts, columnists, commenters, etc. — and someone who’s a member of the Republican National Committee. The job of the Republican National Committee is to elect Republicans — including squishy Republicans like Arlen Specter, Olympia Snowe, and Susan Collins.

Personally, I don’t want them trashing Specter, Snowe, and Collins at a party meeting for the same reason I don’t think that the RNC should be involved in primaries: their job is to represent all Republicans — including ones who make dumb decisions that many of us don’t agree with.

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