Posted on 03/14/2013 11:26:13 AM PDT by Olog-hai
As the GOP struggles to broaden its appeal, the head of the American Conservative Union declared Thursday that the Republican Party is not a home for everyone, as prominent voices in Republican politics gather with thousands of conservatives and tea party activists outside Washington.
The Conservative Political Action Conference offers Republican leaders—past and potential presidential contenders among them—a high-profile stage to court their party's most passionate voters. The three-day gathering also shines a spotlight on deep divisions within the Republican Party as it tries to recover from a painful 2012 election season.
“I’m a firm believer that if the Republican Party is going to have some success, it’s going to do so by being a conservative party and not a home for everybody. That’s how you grow,” Al Cardenas, chairman of the American Conservative Union, told reporters Thursday morning as the conference began at Maryland's National Harbor, just south of Washington.
He continued: “You grow your tent by convincing others, persuading others that yours is the way. And you build your tent by reaching out to the new demographics of America, not with a watered down version of who we ought to be,” he said. …
(Excerpt) Read more at bigstory.ap.org ...
Phony ‘conservative leader’ Al Cardenas ping.
Hmm, mischaracterized headline? That's exactly correct - You take conservative positions and you convince others that the conservative position is right. You don't take conservative positions and then demand that they be adapted to liberal viewpoints.
yep, and I left the GOP 20 years ago for that very reason
oh...it get worse...I know, just when you think it can’t get worse.
David Keene, who is pres of NRA used to be head of ACU, with the same leanings as Cardenas. Grover Norquist is also on the NRA board and runs CPAC. They’ve hijacked the teaparty name for their own agenda. THEY’ve TAKEN over EVERYTHING!
WASHINGTON – Is ACU jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire?
Several American Conservative Union board members have confirmed that David Keene, the chairman of the board of the ACU, is planning to resign at the group’s next meeting. The meeting has not been scheduled yet, but the board will be convened about the time of the next Conservative Political Action Conference, which is being held in Washington D.C. on Feb. 10–12.
An ACU board member lamented that Keene’s likeliest successor, ACU Treasurer Al Cardenas, may share the lack of commitment to social conservatism that has plagued ACU in the latter years of Keene’s chairmanship.
Keene has served as chairman of the ACU for more than 26 years, since Dec. 1984. A longtime Republican political strategist and adviser to several GOP presidential candidates, Keene is also the managing associate of the Carmen Group, a Washington, D.C., lobbying firm, and first vice president of the National Rifle Association.
Keene is leaving ACU in a state of turmoil. The organization alienated social conservatives by permitting a homosexual activist organization, GOProud, to participate in its signature project, the annual CPAC convention. As a result, some of the best-known conservative organizations, including the Heritage Foundation, Family Research Council, American Family Association, Concerned Women for America, Media Research Center and the National Organization for Marriage are not participating in the conference this year.
At the same time ACU has been rocked by a financial scandal in which hundreds of thousands of dollars was reported to the Internal Revenue Service as misappropriated and the group is coming under fire from national security conservatives for allowing Suhail Khan, an alleged associate of radical Muslim activists, to serve on the board.
“David has said he’s going to be leaving to pursue other opportunities,” said board member Becky Norton Dunlop. “This is going to be his last term.”
Keene is expected to become president of the NRA later this year.
“The ACU board will choose his successor,” said board member Morton Blackwell. Keene’s replacement “is yet to be determined,” according to Blackwell.
“The election [of the new chairman] will be held at the next board meeting, right around CPAC time,” Dunlop added.
The board members said only one candidate has stepped forward to replace Keene, ACU board treasurer Al Cardenas. Cardenas, a Miami attorney and Washington lobbyist, is the former chairman of the Republican Party of Florida.
Al Cardenas
A board member who asked not to be identified acknowledged that ACU needs “major structural changes,” but told WND he doubts Cardenas is the man for the job.
“From what I understand Cardenas is the insider’s choice, and he looks to be unopposed,” said the board member with disappointment. “I want to see reform. It’s frustrating to see a fig leaf rather than somebody who’s going to implement the reforms needed at ACU. Selecting Cardenas is like papering over the problems ACU has, some of which are fundamental.”
The board member pointed out that Cardenas “supported Charlie Crist even long after Rubio got into the race.” Crist, the socially liberale former governor of Florida, lost the state’s 2010 Republican Senate primary to Marco Rubio, speaker of Florida’s house. Crist then left the Republican Party and ran in the general election as an independent, but lost again to Rubio, a social conservative and tea-party favorite.
“I have a long history with Speaker Marco Rubio, personally, professionally, and politically, along with a great respect for his passion and his ability to articulate the conservative principles that we share,” said Cardenas. However, he went on to say, “As we look to the 2010 election cycle, I urge Republicans to unite the Republican Party by standing behind Governor Crist. With Governor Crist atop the ticket, I am confident that our party will achieve sweeping victories in 2010.”
“This is not the sort of judgment I would want at the head of ACU,” s
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2011/01/255765/#AiMEP5GSoHRK4drY.99
I’ve read at least four different headlines for the same article across different websites; this is the one that was on AP’s own website at the time of posting. AP seems to like the internet’s quick-edit capabilities; maybe all the headlines will be printed.
Yep, everyone here scoffs at the statement, but is apparently A-OK with losing all major elections from here until the end of time.
The only solutions given in FR are to ridicule and stay on a sinking ship.
Sad.
““I’m a firm believer that if the Republican Party is going to have some success, it’s going to do so by being a conservative party and not a home for everybody. That’s how you grow,” Al Cardenas, chairman of the American Conservative Union, told reporters Thursday morning as the conference began at Maryland’s National Harbor, just south of Washington.”
Cardenas said that for the crowd. It is not reflective of anything in his history. This is Cardenas.
Cuban born Al Cardenas (endorses gang of 8 amnesty), head of ACU, along with Grover Norquist run CPAC and are using the tea party label under teaparty.net & TPNN to further THEIR GOALS. THIS is the enemy within!
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/american-conservative-union-chairman-legalize-illegal-aliens
and http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2995908/posts
Do you think Cardenas & Norquist don’t know that aliens will vote democrat???
Here’s whats going on at CPAC today...softening the words to appeal to the crowd, the offer to ‘legalize’ aliens, not offer them citizenship.. It won’t matter, because they’ll vote anyway AND in many cities, they are already allowed to vote for local elections. Most of us don’t know that, but they do!
And Rubio...he’s just ignoring the subject!
[snip] Instead, panelists converged around a path to “earned legal status” for illegal immigrants that would legalize their standing without giving them the full rights of U.S. citizens.
What illegal immigrants really want above all is “permanencia — the certainty that you won’t be deported tomorrow,” said Graza. “At least let’s get legality, get the authority to work and to provide for our children. I think that’s where the compromise is going to be.”
It’s precisely the path that former Florida governor Jeb Bush laid out in his recent book (though he quickly backpedaled after being accused of flip-flopping) and the one that Labrador supports in the House, calling it a way to give illegal immigrants “a fair chance to redeem themselves.”
But the position puts these conservatives at odds with Senate Republicans like Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) who’ve committed to an overhaul that includes a path to citizenship — not to mention the Democrats who are even more adamant about the idea. Interestingly, Rubio spoke shortly afterward at CPAC, but made no mention of immigration during his speech, avoiding a showdown among conservatives on the issue — for now.
also see: CPAC’s idea of a worthwhile discussion of immigration reform
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2996604/posts
So what happens when you grow your tent, and everyone who used to be in the old tent leaves because they don’t like the new, bigger tent, and no one new comes to your big tent because they never liked you or your tent to start?
The answer is you’re done.
Yes I do think Cardenas & Norquist know perfectly well that aliens will vote democrat? They are hideous representatives that and there is nothing conservative about them just like all the perverts that inhabit the stupid CPAC froth.
Cardenas is correct.
He doesn’t say we should destroy our message—we should widen HOW we communicate that story.
I’m a firm believer that if the Republican Party is going to have some success, it’s going to do so by being a conservative party and not a home for everybody. That’s how you grow,” Al Cardenas, chairman of the American Conservative Union, told reporters Thursday morning as the conference began at Maryland's National Harbor, just south of Washington.
He continued: “You grow your tent by convincing others, persuading others that yours is the way. And you build your tent by reaching out to the new demographics of America, not with a watered down version of who we ought to be...
Sounds pretty darn good to me.
Many conservatives hold Grover Norquist as an icon because he uses all the right words with his Americans for Tax reform...but the same question...WHAT in all these years has he accomplished...show me anything other than fund raising and laundering money from one non profit to the other.
Meanwhile, he is active at corrupting and destroying the conservative message himself. Being nominally “right” on one or two points does not build up conservatism, especially when he himself is that message’s enemy.
Indeed. It’s called pandering, and taking the solicited contributions for the purpose of advancing the opposite cause.
Advancing islam and sharia law.
CPAC Chief Al Cardenas Hits Bottom, Keeps Digging: WaPo: "CPAC missteps again"
CPAC'S AL CARDENAS LIES: MEETING? WHAT MEETING? I WANT THAT MEETING!
In the News/Activism forum, on a thread titled Conservative leader says GOP must broaden appeal, Olog-hai wrote:
“I’ve read at least four different headlines for the same article across different websites; this is the one that was on AP’s own website at the time of posting. AP seems to like the internet’s quick-edit capabilities; maybe all the headlines will be printed.”
The AP style/ format book used to require the lead paragraph do a condensed version of the story, known as the 3W’s and H, who, what, where, and how, then go into details. That would have had the Cardenas name part of the lead and ID’d as the source for the headline attribution . That was long ago when it was a reliable reporting source.BTW the Chicago Tribune dropped AP.
Now the agenda driven AP leads the cursory reader to conclude what ever is beneficial to the Demo-Coms and are simply instruments of political oppression. Any thing that comes out of AP today, or for that matter all of MSM should be taken apart and held for examination. Identifying their writers and particularly their regional and national editors when doing so.
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