Posted on 12/29/2008 8:12:07 AM PST by St. Louis Conservative
For most of the past decade and a half, the Ohio Republican Party's leadership was divided into two camps. There were the tax-and-spend Republicans who built solid GOP majorities throughout the state only to fritter them away through scandal, sclerosis, and a lack of economic solutions. And then there was Ken Blackwell, the government-cutting conservative thorn in the state party establishment's side.
There was no love lost between the dominant faction and the odd man out. Blackwell was a persistent critic of Republicans in the mold of George Voinovich and Bob Taft, whom he accused of "campaigning like Ronald Reagan and governing like [1980s Democratic Gov.] Dick Celeste." The Taft-Voinovich Republicans thought Blackwell too hard-edged for Ohioans' tender Midwestern sensibilities and unready for primetime.
When Blackwell announced he was running for chairman of the Republican National Committee, many thought this history would repeat itself on the national stage. He was quickly endorsed by outside conservatives, including publisher, former presidential candidate, and flat-tax maven Steve Forbes and Club for Growth President Pat Toomey. But surely cooler heads inside the national party structure would prevail?
No one really knows what is going on inside the minds of the 168 national committee members who will elect the next party chairman. But so far, no disconnect between conservative activists and Republican leaders seems to have materialized. Since Blackwell jumped in the race, two potential candidates for RNC chairman have dropped out and endorsed him. One, Texas GOP chairwoman Tina Benkiser, is now a candidate for co-chair as Blackwell's running mate. The other, Michigan national committeeman Chuck Yob, is active in the Blackwell campaign and has brought his family along for the ride.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
What do you mean for whom? Isn’t that obvious?
What are we talking in code language on this thread?
Blackwell is for real. The problem is that he is not a strategist. His gubernatorial campaign was one self-inflicted blunder after another. The GOP needs more than just a real conservative; it needs a real conservative everyman who is a master political strategist with a rhetorical flare when speaking and no shame or conscience when it comes to beating Democrats. I don’t know who fits that profile (other than me) — a combination of Gingrich, Steele, Blackwell, and Palin — but if you find him/her, let me know ‘cuz that’s what we need.
People I trust in Ohio weren’t all that pleased with Ken in his run for Governor, but I’ve stopped discussing him on this board because it’s not worth the ridicule and scorn, as I imagine you are going to learn now.
No one has to be perfect; they just have to be for our country and willing to do what’s best for the country.
I prefer that to what we have had in the past election cycle.
Big tent Republicans which means a party chairman who hails from the Democrat wing of the Republican Party.
To me the defining moment of the Republican’s loss of identity was the passage of the Medicare Drug Bill under a Republican President and Congress.
At that point I knew that National Republican Party had lost its way.
The largest expansion of entitlement programs is 60 years and it is with the blessings of Republican elected leaders.
So much for the party of fiscal responsibility and a free market place.
We have become the Hawkish Socialist Party.
Rumors of Kasich running for Governor, wow. I hadn’t heard that. Good news if true.
This works for me!!
GO KEN GO!!
He’s the REAL DEAL—and more. A good decent man with CHRISTIAN conservative values, and he does NOT waver in the face of opposition to those values—regardless of which side of the isle they come from.
Ronald Reagan is smiling in heaven!
He better be. We are starving for good people.
I heard DeWine wanted to run for Gov. I hope not. DeWine is another Taft.
my brother in law is an attorney in Columbus and active with the R party there. He said Kasich has been putting out some feelers-I also hope it’s true. Strickland is terrible.
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