Posted on 08/21/2009 5:07:37 AM PDT by Jabrown
To sum up the state of the Republican Party in Illinois, just hours before the kickoff of "Republican Day" festivities at the Illinois State Fair, Andy Mckenna, the head to the state party resigned...
Just 8 short years ago, the Republican Party in Illinois remained a force to be reckoned with. The party maintained control of a majority of municipality and county governments within the state, along with control of the Governor's office, several State Officers positions and the State Senate. But today, despite a golden opportunity to retake control of key State Offices due the Impeachment of Rod Blagojevich, the party still can't manage to get it's act together. After nearly a decade of diminishing leadership, the party now appears in a perpetual state in which they have not provided a clear platform, have failed to build any name recognition or develop new talent and have failed to stand up against a government that failed to balance a budget in 7 years.
Only 11 years ago...
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
Jim Edgar was the last republican governor who had anything at all going on, but his wife won’t let him run again.
Andy Mckenna being gone is a good thing. The problem is, we’re still left with too many RINOs running the state party. GOP politics in this state disgusts me.
Just the Illinois ones? Seems like the whole damn party is in some sort of la la land.
A neutered party is the fruit of RINO-ism. In Illinois, the GOP is merely a subsidiary of the Democratic Party, which is itself a subsidiary of the mafia.
I have something to say to the contrary.
I think people should actually think about what happens if ANYONE campaigns against the thuggery that is the Democrats in Ill. Especially in light of current events.
1)Politics of personal destruction would know no bounds
2)msm in Ill would mock and ridicule Rep or Indie as fanatical-hater of poor,sick,old.
3) Oprah would hold massive rallies supporting the Dems.
4) Candidates children, Grandchildren, wife and siblings would be subjected to invasions of pricacy. With media help ofcourse.
5) If the candidate loses, he/she will have absolutely no career or business opportunities—blacklist
6) Republican Party frightened to stand up against the Fascist Dums. Rather hide in the shadows.
Mc Kenna has already been replaced with the worst possible choice. Pat Brady, from the George Ryan administration who stated to Chris Lauzen:
http://www.championnews.net/article.php?sid=1876
Meanwhile, another bully in the form of Republican National Committeeman Pat Brady was sent out to personally attack State Senator Chris Lauzen.
It’s the same old thing. Bullies are sent out to try and decapitate and discredit the reform leaders. It’s about the only thing our decrepit Illinois GOP excels at anymore. It’s been that way for years.
Pat Brady’s attack on Chris Lauzen came in the form of an interview Brady did recently with Rick Pearson of the Chicago Tribune. Lee Hoffer, a fine Republican and a retired Air Force Colonel, has already done an excellent job setting the record straight. But I wanted to add some additional observations.
In that Tribune article from April 26th, Brady actually has the nerve to suggest that Lauzen should “take a deep look” at whether he wants to remain in the GOP. Why?
Because Lauzen wants to give every Republican a voice again in their own Illinois Republican Party via SB600?
“Just the Illinois ones? Seems like the whole damn party is in some sort of la la land.”
You hit the nail on the head. I suggest conservatives change parties like I did and become democrats. Sometimes you just can’t fix “stupid” and the GOP (IMHO) has been infiltrated by libertarians and anarcho-capitalists to such a degree they can never recover.
Right now, it is the blue-dog democrats that have held the line, and if enough conservatives defect, that wing of the democrat party can be strengthened.
parsy, who was a realist back in 2001
“We have met the enemy and they is us.”
The GOP needs to go back to the Robert Taft platform, but they don’t have the recent track record to back it up so very few believe them. We live in a nation where the majority are self identified conservatives but the socialist party has near total control. It’s like a nation of dogs being run by cats.
Yes, they do have a straglehold and are operating under the assumption that somehow acting like liberals will win them power. Sounds just like the national party that hasn’t realized that the best days of this nation and Illinois were produced by sound conservative values, not by politicians who felt the need to adopt liberal spending programs to build a concensus.
What can we expect from a state that spawned Bob Michel who as Minority Leader in the House was happy, even honored, to play Washington Generals to the 'Rats Globetrotters.
Brady, appearing on Don Wade & Roma this am compared Kirk’s run for the US senate as the greatest thing since sliced bread. Kirk, who voted for Cap and Trade is in no way a conservative. By the way I think Kirk is the Wade’s congressman which may explain Kirk’s many appearances on their show. On a personal note, now that you got your feet wet how about trying again, your needed...
http://www.theusmat.com/
So friggin true, my friend. And also note that Ray LaHood was an Illinois Republican whom Obama’s people knew they could count on.
Our 5-year state party chairman, Andy McKombine, er, I mean, McKenna, announced his immediately resignation out of the blue yesterday morning (hmmm?), and within hours the state party had named a replacement, Illinois’ RNC committeeman Pat Brady. They didn't even miss a beat in updating their website to reflect this ( http://www.weareillinois.org/learn/chairman.aspx ) Does anyone else find it strange that it takes these guys weeks to find a replacement candidate for U.S. Senate but they can find a replacement chairman for their party within hours?
Chicagolady is right, of course, that Pat Brady is the LAST person rank-and-file conservatives would want as state party chairman. Brady is a total combiner and close buddies with our previous RNC committeeman, Bob Kjellander, who is knee deep in corruption and has the feds on him. Brady wants to purge the party of Chris Lauzen, Steve Rauschenberger, Pat O’Malley, Dan Proft, and any other reformers. Brady's even more of a Kirk cheerleader than McKenna was. And no, Pat Brady is NOT related to governor hopeful/State Senator Bill Brady (Bill Brady, thankfully, has stayed away from endorsing Kirk so far), but he IS a first cousin of State Rep. Dan Brady, a combine RINO and a rival of Bill Brady's.
Pat Brady has only been RNC committeeman for 8 months, and now he's chairman as well? I had assumed that this would be impossible due to RNC rules. I guess not. The way it works is that each state gets 3 votes on the RNC — 1) The state party chairman, 2) the national committeeman, 3) the national committeewoman. As of Jan. 2009, for Illinois that was Andy McKenna, Pat Brady, and Demetra DeMonte. Does our state get only two votes now? Is Pat Brady's vote double weighted? Is Pat Brady stepping down as RNC committeeman so a replacement can named for him on the RNC? Someone explain to me how all this works.
I'd like to say I voted for Steve Raunschenberger for RNC committeeman during last year's state party convention, but the IL GOP made sure the “election” of RNC committeeman was done behind closed doors by the state central committee, so on the final floor vote our only “choice” was Pat Brady or nobody. I did loudly call out “NAY!” on the floor but McKenna, as chair, ruled the AYES had it by voice vote...though it seemed to just about everyone there that the “NAY” vote was louder.
It's rather depressing in Illinois. I've always believed the GOP can be fixed from within but in our state that seems like an impossible task to achieve. The combine makes sure the fix is in before anyone even realizes there's a vote.
In related news, it does look like we finally have a credible Republican opponent for senile incumbent Jesse White next year — Robert Enriquez, a Honduras-born Hispanic Republican who's a decorated marine vet. But there's rumors on Illinois Review that this guy is part of the combine as well and in bed with Blago and State Rep. Linda Chapa-Lavia (D-Aurora). I hope not.
I find it very odd that in this case that they'd anoint RNC Committeeman Pat Brady immediately.
That's why you can't trust any members of the combine in Illinois, even if they vote "conservative" on paper, i.e. Kirk Dillard saying he's pro-life and pro-gun.
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