RNC Insanity

Yesterday I made passing reference to some remarks made this week by RNC Chair candidate Curly Haugland. I think that these remarks need greater scrutiny because it show exactly WHY the RNC is in big trouble.

Republicans, reeling from another election defeat, have taken to arguing over whether their national leader should come from the elected ranks of the Republican National Committee or be a political celebrity such as former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele.

"For this association of members to choose to outsource its leadership would, I believe, be an abdication of our responsibility," Curly Haugland, an RNC member from North Dakota and the former North Dakota Republican Party chairman, wrote in an e-mail to Mr. Steele.

Mr. Haugland called on Mr. Steele to quit the contest for Republican national chairman because he is not an RNC member.

"In my estimation, 168 committed members of the Republican National Committee are a
powerful army of qualified advocates for Republican principles; certainly much more threatening to the Democrats than one celebrity spokesman," Mr. Haugland said.

The utter arrogance of Mr. Haugland's remarks are exactly why the RNC is in the dire straits it is in today. Right now the RNC is totally devoid of new ideas. It is firmly entrenched in the "consultancy class" mentality.

But the quote that says it all is...

"Your chosen path to leadership of the Republican National Committee exemplifies the problem we should immediately seek to resolve, that being the practice of allowing nonmembers to exert undue influence in the process of selecting our leaders" Mr. Haugland wrote Mr. Steele. "Getting the Republican Party back on the right 'track' is a job rightfully left to the Republicans who have been elected to run this railroad."

Excuse me Mr. Haugland - but YOU and the rest of the 168 elected National Committeemen and women are part of the problem. The same National Committee that you claim is the best answer for the ills of the RNC is the same one that elected the last two Chairmen - the ones that have worked their hardest to get DEMOCRATS elected. This is the same National Committee that only wants the grass roots voluteers time and money - but leave the ideas at home because we all know better than you. This is the same National Committee that

IF the Republican National Committee (of which Mr. Haugland is a member) is really concerned about the fate of the Republican Party and really wanted to make a few changes they really need to talk to the few Republicans who did manage to win this year....Republicans like Jason Chaffetz who beat out RNC endorsed candidate - incumbent Chris Cannon - in the primary this year. They might want to ask Rep. elect Chaffetz what he did that managed to win over voters in his district. They might want to ask Chaffetz volunteers what Rep-elect Chaffetz did to win their vote and their money and their time.

IF the RNC really cared about moving forward (as opposed to just stagnating in the present) they would actively COURT conservative elected officials and activists like former Lt. Gov. Steele and Governor Mark Stanford. They will come to those donors who have closed their wallets in the last two electoral cycles and ask "Why". They might come to the grass roots activists who stayed home this year and ask "Why?".

Right now, the "Republicans who have been elected to run this railroad" are the ones who have run us off of the rails. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result so WHY should we continue to entrust the direction of the Republican Party to people who are hell bent on pushing the Party toward political obscurity. THAT is the question of the year.