Diary of a Mad Voter: Joan McCarter
Republican Woes Stretch to the Rockies
The national Republican party is floundering, and the problems are evident even in reliably red states in the Mountain WestBy Joan McCarter, 6-20-08
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The national Republican party is staggering under the weight of a president as unpopular as Nixon at the height of Watergate, fundraising woes, a near-record number of members of Congress under some kind of ethical or legal shadow, and a presidential candidate that might not win his home state. The stress fractures are even showing in some reliably red mountain states.
Last weekend’s Republican convention in Sandpoint, Idaho provided no small amount of drama, with Gov. Butch Otter and Norm Semanko having a rather public and apparently heated disagreement, and that was even before Semanko ousted Otter’s man Kirk Sullivan as party chair. Semanko’s ascension signals a new fault line in the fissure that’s been pulling the party apart. Otter and the more establishment side of the party stuck with their guy Sullivan, but Semanko’s big tent of party outsiders, some of the more fringe insiders, like U.S. Rep. Bill Sali and Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna, as well as party activists newly invigorated by the presidential run of Ron Paul.
It made for some interesting debate, apparently.
Under the retina-piercing bare light bulbs of the Bonner County Fairgrounds, the Paulites scored their first victory of the convention, easily passing in committee a change to the party platform calling for the abolishment of the Federal Reserve System, a key component of Paul’s message.
Another proposal backed by Paul supporters failed but exposed a deep rift between Republicans. The proposal was to denounce the use of military force without a declaration of war and it sparked a bruising debate.
The more establishment crowd fired back with a resolution stating the party’s opposition to legalizing marijuana - an apparent shot at Davidson, who has passed several pro-marijuana initiatives in Hailey. The resolution passed in committee and, as with all proposals passed in committee, needs a vote of the full convention to be enacted.
“It’s going to take a little time for the dust to settle because there’s some very tender passions at play here,” Otter said.
While Idaho is hardly likelier than Utah to have a big Democratic wave sweeping through the state in November, the troubles within the party have even made it into the venerable Wall Street Journal, in an article focusing on the blood feud former Republican and current Independent candidate for Senate Rex Rammel is waging against the Republican nominee, Jim Risch.
Sen. Craig spent about an hour meeting with Dr. Rammell while the newcomer still was in the eight-way Republican primary, a race he abandoned after the party leadership lined up behind Mr. Risch, who won that contest last month with 65% of the vote.
“As an independent, it’s yet to be determined if he can gain traction,” Sen. Craig said of Dr. Rammell, who he thinks may become a spoiler for Mr. Risch. “A lot of Republicans are worried about that, as am I.”
Idaho is Idaho, and it would take a true blue tsunami for the state’s Democrats to take back the reins of leadership there. But these fissures are going to erode support for both Bill Sali in the first district, and Jim Risch, the heir apparent to Craig. Democrats are united, enthusiastic and reinvigorated, not to mention raising some serious money. Any betting person would be a fool to completely write off either Larry LaRocco or Walt Minnick in this volatile year.
There are, however, other Western states that have been “purpling,” where the same kind of intercine sniping within the state Republican parties is spreading and where it can definitely aid the Democrats. For instance, in Colorado the state’s Right to Life committee is picking a major fight with their state party chair Dick Wadhams. Wadhams also happens to be directing the campaign of Bob Schaffer, candidate for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Republican Wayne Allard. Schaffer has some serious problems beyond the fact his campaign manager is alienating the far religious right--a significant component of Colorado’s Republican party. He’s got a bit of a Jack Abramoff problem. (My favorite Schaffer story, though, is his really bad grasp of geography.
Meanwhile, in Nevada, the Ron Paul supporters who succeeded in derailing the Republican state convention back in April have refused to accept their candidate’s withdrawal from the presidential race, and are going to have an alternative convention. The party’s executive committee was forced to reschedule their convention when it became apparent that there was more support for Paul than for McCain. What, precisely, the Paul convention hopes to achieve since it can’t select delegates is unclear. But it’s going to make for some fun watching when the “official” convention resumes on July 26.
McCain’s Western problems are hardly limited to Nevada. Consider this article in the Christian Science Monitor which asks, ”Can McCain deliver his home state?”
Some in-state analysts say chances are fair, in fact, that Arizona will end up in the Democratic column.
A big part of the uncertainty may be that the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee has not distanced himself enough from the Bush administration to satisfy the one-third of state voters who are independents. But Senator McCain has also seen his support erode among Arizona’s avid Bush supporters and social conservatives, for not backing the president on issues dear to their hearts. Toss in the resources and clout of Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano, who will be pulling hard for her party’s nominee, and anything can happen.
The slate of Democratic candidates running in the West, from Brian Schweitzer renewing his bid to be Montana’s governor all the way south to Tom Udall in New Mexico (not to mention LaRocco and Minnick in Idaho, Gary Trauner in Wyoming, and Mark Udall in Colorado) are strong running on their own rights. When you add in a candidate at the top of the ticket that is as appealing to Western voters as Barack Obama has proven to be and add in a dash of in-fighting Republicans, you begin to think all that talk about the Democrats’ resurgence in the Mountain West isn’t really just talk.
Editor’s note: Joan McCarter’s weekly blogs are part of NewWest.Net/Politics’ “Diary of a Mad Voter” feature, a group blog, published in partnership with the Denver Post’s Politics West intended give a glimpse into the hearts and minds of several independent-minded voters and thinkers in the Rocky Mountain West in the ‘08 election cycle. For more columns check in with www.newwest.net/madvoter. And for more information on each of the bloggers, click here.
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Comments
Lummis is smarter than Cubin, but just as extreme.
The avuncular Mike Enzi might even be vulnerable. Writer Jeffrey Sharlet has written about "The Family", a secretive religious group that cultivates senators like Enzi and Brownback, as well as ruthless dictators.
NBC even did a spot about the Family and Doug Coe, the leader of the group, who has made some rather startling comments about Jesus and Hitler. See http://deepbackground.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/04/03/857959.aspx
Yeah, the GOP is hurting, with today's AP-Ipos survey that 80 percent of the country believe we're headed in the wrong direction.
Well, duh!
Here's an article that rather nicely addresses the kleptocracy of the Reagan/Bush I & II eras (but really should have addressed how Clinton sold out the working class with NAFTA and his infernal triangulation: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/20/9758/
>>>>>>>>>
Confidence in Congress at record low
By DAVID PAUL KUHN | 6/20/08 11:49 AM EST
Only 12 percent of Americans now have confidence in Congress, the lowest percentage in the 35 years that the Gallup Poll has tracked the number.
Americans now view Congress less favorably any of the 14 other American institutions tracked by Gallup, including big business, newspapers and health maintenance organizations.
Even as President Bush’s approval rating languishes at a record low, more than twice as many Americans have confidence in the presidency — 26 percent — than have confidence in Congress.
The Democrats have controlled both houses of the Congress since January 2007. It remains to be seen whether the Democratic Party brand will find itself chained to the poor public view of the legislative branch. A recent analysis of ABC News-Washington Post polls found that in April the Democrats held a 24-point lead over President Bush as "the stronger leadership force in Washington." Today, it's a tie.
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How do you square that people hold Bush in higher confidence regard than the congressional Dems?
and
factcheck.org/elections-2008/obamas_lame_claim_about_mccains_money.html
Barack aint gonna change chit fools.
The Dems didn't do themselves any favors in the last week or so, funding the war and caving to the White House on FISA immunity. Combined with the Supreme Court ruling that Gitmo prisoners can have their day in court, it was a two steps back, one step forward kind of deal.
There's certainly no guarantee that Obama is really going to change politics, but the fact that the majority of his donors average $91 is a glimmer of hope that he won't be doing the bidding of the fat cats. After all, what are the odds that McCain will do anything but the bidding of his lobbyist handlers?
The list totals OVER $85,000,000.
[W]e were curious as to what this “Republican brand” looked like before it got itself so gloriously flushed through Karl Rove’s embattled lower intestine and then unceremoniously dumped into the Big Golden Toilet of Political History, where the unsinkable turds of Faith-Based Initiatives, “Mission Accomplished,” and Social Security Reform still float, waiting for the merciful Courtesy Flush that is the 2008 election. Assuming that anything with a brand has to support itself through advertising, we dusted off our Crack Research Team — which consists entirely of an irritable Rhesus Monkey named Mr. Syllabus that we’ve taught to use Google between angry bouts of throwing his own feces at episodes of The Glenn Beck Show — and found some truly memorable Republican branding campaigns of yesteryear.
Get the full story on the Decline & Fall of the GOP Brand at http://www.clusterdouche.com/blog/2008/05/19/the-gop-brandwagon-part-i-the-early-years-1929-1959/