Posted on 04/29/2010 10:27:49 AM PDT by Maelstorm
NRSC Chairman John Cornyn said today that Florida’s GOP Senate primary has been “a learning experience” for him. If we’ll remember back to last year, Cornyn’s NRSC recruited (then Republican) Governor Charlie Crist to challenge the already announced conservative darling Marco Rubio for the open Senate seat left by the departure of Mel Martinez. Of course Rubio didn’t need a challenger, and should have been allowed to run uninterrupted from Washington.
Cornyn sees that wisdom now. “In this political environment it’s not necessarily helpful for candidates running in the states to have the national party chairman” endorse them. No joke. Washington couldn’t be more unpopular, and it’s meddling like this that helps turn off the very GOP voters that candidates seek on election day. “Cornyn said that voters don’t want to ‘have their choices made’ for them by the political elite. They want those in Washington to hear their voices.”
Cornyn wants the money back that his PAC gave to Crist, but as our friend at Red State, Erick Erickson noted yesterday, Crist won’t do that, can’t do that, because he’s already spent all that money by pre-purchasing his TV ad buys for the fall – an expensive, slimy, and reprehensible move on his part.
As Erick also pointed out, the blame shouldn’t just rest with the Senator, it should also rest with the man he putting charge of running the NRSC, Rob Jesmer. After all, it was Jesmer’s idea to recruit Crist, and other moderates to fight conservative, grassroots supported candidates in races around the country.
In Indiana, Jesmer recruited a “lobbyist who lived in North Carolina who had once been an Indiana Senator,” Dan Coats. At one time Cornyn said the NRSC was going to stay out of contested primaries, but time and again, that has proven not to be true. Here, Jesmer has put Coats in this race, instead of letting conservative Marlin Stutzman get a fair shake.
Rubio, Stutzman, DeVore, and the other shunned Republican candidates will soon get their chance to show who their state’s voters support and perhaps prove to Washington that they shouldn’t be meddling in their party primaries.
The GOP had best figure out who it is, whom it represents, and fast.
And how many millions were wasted this time by the RNC? It’s the Dede Scozzafava problem, Washington party knows best. Hey RNC — Next time let’s let the primaries and the people pick their candidates.
I doubt Steele explained this to CNN the other day. Who watches CNN anyway.
Give your money to the candidate of your choice, regardless of state, make sure it is given to someone who supports the conservative cause.
What a goatfarce in FLA.
Not to mention the GOPs support for another last-minute switcher, the hideous Scozzafava. It’s one thing for scum-bags like Specter, Scozzafava and Crist to go to war with the rank and file conservatives who support them, but they don’t even have loyalty to the party hacks who supported them. It shows that the GOP leadership is either horribly naive in their assessment of the character of these candidates (in which case they’re incompetent) or that they are themselves at war with conservatives (in which case they are contemptuous). Steele and others of his ilk are not fit to do the job and need to be replaced.
Steele consistently makes the mistake of going on hostile networks as if it doesn’t anything but encourage him to say stupid things.
Steele is useless and he knows it.
How much money was wasted on Crist this time?
The aricles compares DeVore and Rubio.
DeVore is against illegal immigration. He is the real deal.
RINO Jeb Bush can hit the bricks and get lost.
They know who, and you are not invited.
Oh please Texas needs 2 new Senators, badly.
Never give money to the party, you are right, just to candidates.
“Oh please Texas needs 2 new Senators, badly.”
God knows Texas ain’t alone in that.
Don't forget Lincoln Chafee and whats-his-name (the recent Democrat) in Kentucky. Our exaulted leaders in Washington don't have a very good batting average.
They already have and it ain't us.
“Not to mention the GOPs support for another last-minute switcher, the hideous Scozzafava.”
To be honest, that was not an RNC screwup but local nomination decision by NY state county chairs... conservatives split the vote and she got in a la McCain.
I have to agree completely.
Cornyn is an idiot after his debacle backing turncoat Specter.
he needs replacement
It was a nomination for a special election to Congress, not the county dogcather. If the RNC wasn’t on top of this and working with the local people to assist them in finding a winnable, conservative candidate, then they were not doing their job.
As for Crist, the Club for Growth predicted this immediately following Scozzafava’s last minute bailout:
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