It’s Time To Clean House In The Republican Establishment

by John Hawkins | November 7, 2012 11:21 pm

 

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The Republican Party lost to one of the worst Presidents in American history with its handpicked, establishment-approved candidate despite the fact that the economy is terrible, there’s a foreign policy scandal making headlines, and Obama ran a poor campaign. Despite the fact that we were perfectly primed to take over the Senate, we blew our opportunity because of mediocre candidate recruitment. Meanwhile, the RNC has done nothing to fix our broken primary system, the Republican National Convention that it helped put together was underwhelming, it’s fallen technologically behind the Democrats, and the RNC is so hidebound it may as well not even have a new media department.

Mitt Romney’s loss will clear him off the board. Good riddance.

NRSC Chairman John Cornyn is a mediocrity who has never shown any aptitude for the job. He should have been gone after the 2008 cycle when he went to war with the conservative base and endorsed Charlie Crist over Marco Rubio, but he held on through the great year the GOP had in 2010 and received credit he didn’t deserve for the gains the party made in the Senate. After failing again, it should be a no-brainer to replace Cornyn at the NRSC.

At the RNC, Reince Priebus should be congratulated for getting fund raising back on track and then given his walking papers. Raising money is important, but there are a number of potential RNC Chairmen who can walk and chew gum at the same time. It’s not as if we have to choose between someone who can raise money and someone who can do everything else. We can have a RNC Chairman who can do it all.

It’s kind of hard to convince the American people that the Republican Party has changed since the Bush years when the same people are in charge in the House and Senate.

In his defense, John Boehner’s heart seems to be in the right place and he makes generally good, but not spectacular decisions. In other words, he’s a “C” pick and he will always be a “C” pick. Unfortunately for us, “average” doesn’t seem to be getting it done. For the GOP to truly take advantage of the majority we have in the House, it’s time to face the fact that we need a leader better than Boehner. That doesn’t mean he’s a RINO, a terrible person, or a bad leader; he just hasn’t shown that he has what it takes.

Mitch McConnell is even worse. He’s a pork-loving, charisma-free good old boy who has been getting outmaneuvered by Harry Reid since the Bush years. It’s not that Harry Reid is all that smart; it’s that Mitch McConnell is about as strategic, bold, and conservative as a stick of margarine. Maybe it’s time for Republicans in the Senate to pick someone who’s best able to lead instead of the guy who slaps them on the back when they tell the same boring joke for the 15th time.

There’s a reason people say, “If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting what you’ve always gotten.” At some point, inertia and complacency start to become suicide for a political party and it’s time to start asking if the GOP has its neck in the noose.