Riordan defends his views before tough GOP crowd in San Jose (CA GOP Convention Day 2)

San Jose Mercury News ^ | 9 February 2002

[CounterCounterCulture]

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Republican gubernatorial candidate Richard Riordan attempted Saturday to calm the doubts of party conservatives about his loyalty.

Riordan faced Secretary of State Bill Jones and businessman Bill Simon, along with an audience of the GOP's most faithful activists, during a debate at the Republican state convention less than a month before the March 5 primary.

[goldstategop]

Yeah Dickie Pooh will blame his loss this year on the infamous extreme right wing and the VRWC. I absolutely cannot wait to see it happen. LOL!!!

[Califreeper]

You live in SOUTH TEXAS? What do you REALLY know of Richard Riordan? What you've read in your paper? What you've seen on television? Clearly, you know very little about Richard Riordan!

[goldstategop]

Texans know a RINO when they see one. They chuckle at how hard CA has heaved to the Left and they haven't forgotten how y'all bashed Enron long before it became popular, not because you were right about Enron, but cause you couldn't establish a true free market in electricity. Yeah Dickie Pooh stands for more socialism and if you Californians want a second helping of it, by all means do vote for him.

[samtheman]

I am a Republican who believes in the Big Tent, that we must make room for Republicans that aren't "pure conservatives".

But Riordan is too liberal, too Democratic, too sleazy for me. His candidacy is a rent in the tent, a slashing away of all principle, an emptiness that we cannot allow.

As a Californian, I cannot, and will not vote for Riordan. At any time. In any race.

[2Fro]

Hallelujah, Brother, go, go, go!

[2Fro]

Did you, perchance, vote for Cranston over Max Rafferty? You got a piece of rotting stuff in Cranston. Anyone who voted for Cranston for anything is as foolish as those who voted for Gore or Clinton. The sunniest day of my life in California was the day Cranston retired.

[CounterCounterCulture]

Thanks for sharing. I went down tonight to the Hilton (Silicon Valley Young Republican get-together) and then down to the Fairmont and saw the Jones bash (with those great Davis/Riordan photos) and eventually found the Simon party, where I ran into a few Freepers. :)

Just getting back home now.

[CounterCounterCulture]

BUMP!

Good meeting ya, AC, and good to see you again Renobuster :)

[Theodore R.]

Wasn't Alan Cranston once a member of a Young Socialist League, or something similarly named? Or was he actually a certified "communist" at one point. At any rate, he was a total disgrace to CA and showed even then the lack of political knowledge of the CA electorate. His last opponent was a liberal Republican who ALSO lost.

[willyone]

I preffered the day he died myself.

[Theodore R.]

And one need not live in IL to know of the corruption of the Daley machine. One need not live in NY to know of the spendthriftness of the Rockefeller administration. One need not live in TN to know about the arrogant pseudointellectualism of algore. One need not live in VT to know that "Farmer Jim" is probably no farmer at all. One need not live in FL to know that Janet Reno is a joke.

So, here it goes again:

Put Simon First -- JUST SAY NO TO RIORDAN

[BlackElk]

This amounts to vote for the RINO in November because he will be a more efficient statist than Greyout Davis and will help restore the name of government in California. Meanwhile, California becomes a one-party state, the DemonRats start nominating triangulating Demonrats of the sort of the Arkansas Antichrist and control California for the rest of your life while the thoroughly castrated California GOP is left to bleat: We don't disagree but we are better managers. Pretty please, think about electing us if you would like the same policies with more efficient administration!

California owes more to itself and more to the national GOP than this despicable excuse Riordan. You are far better off to elect Davis in a Rordan-Davis race. Let disasters be perpetrated under the Demonrat brand name. Happily, since Simon can certainly be nominated and elected whatever the crepe hangers and defeatists may say, disaster need not occur.

As the primary approaches and Jones voters contemplate what they find so compelling in Jones that it is worth effectively abstaining from the contest for the soul of the party and the soul of the state, Jones's sun must set and Simon's rise.

[Ol' Sparky]

This is the ultimate example of media bia. Riordan is about as moderate as Hillary Clinton. He makes Diane Fienstein look conservative.

[BlackElk]

Well, friend, if you think that the California GOP has been attacked already, if you nominate Riordan, he will lose which will be lucky for you, but you still ain't seen nothin' yet in the way of national GOP criticism.

No one particularly cares about how liberals run the Los Angeles subsection of Lalaland into the ground even as RINOs, or cares a whit about what RINO Riordan can do in the way of saving LA or California a big symbolic couple of hundred G's in salary. (Give the sweaty taxpayers a penny!).

The one and only thing worth defending about Riordan if, as you claim, it is true, is that he will not be as much of a monkey as Planned Barrenhood Wilson on carrying on in racist fashion against Mexicans to make sure they never vote GOP.

If the California GOP merely nominates Riordan, it will become a political leper within the party. Double check your own premises as to party affiliation. Wanting lower taxes on Muffie and Skipper is not enough of a reason to be a Republican. Wanting, as the mindless down at the yacht basin do, to avoid rubbing elbows with Chicanos and African-Americans while being involved politically on behalf of social progress like Muffie's "need" for that next abortion or Skipper's "need" to have recognition and equality for his marriage to Bruce are also not sufficient reasons to be Republican.

Face the following two facts. (1) If RINO Riordan were not possessed of a very sizeable fortune, he would not even be thought of in political circles, much less in Republican circles. (2) If Californians had to actually register with a political party in advance of a primary and stay in it for a year or so afterwards, left Demoslime would not be as able to disrupt GOP primaries, a California problem going all the way back to your former RINO governor Hiram Johnson about one hundred years ago.

Favoring baby slaughter, the love lives of the lavender, higher taxes and door-to-door gun searches, what is it again about RINO Riordan that would attract a Republican's vote?

[BlackElk]

If you can't do better than Riordan as a candidate, Davis ought to win. After NYC Mayor Ed Koch was defeated by the nutty NYC Demonrats in a primary by the despicable David Dinkins, Koch received many pleas to run again. His answer was that NYC had its chance and now it would have to suffer.

Likewise, why should the RINOized GOP in California expect any sympathy? The California GOP under its last RINO Governor Wilson dug itself a fifteen story deep hole by dropping used food all over every Hispanic in the state. This thread has posters who are still demanding that somehow shutting down the borders and making people speak English will save California. The path to Golden State GOP glory will not pass through deportation lane. When Wilson was so intent on making a fool of himself and the party, conservative Chicano Republicans controlled the Orange County Board of Supervisors.

[Carry_Okie]

I appreciate your posts, but disagree with you when it comes to saying that wanting to control the border equates with racism. Not a few Chicanos understand what the rate of immigration is doing to this state. IMHO, it really isn't a racial issue, it is one of the financial and social infrastructure neccessary to assimilate such a massive influx.

[let freedom sing]

OOOOOOOOOooooooooo..... I missed it. bum*ing

[FreedomFriend]

How can any "Republican" say they regret calling abortion, "murder"? It doesn't make sense.

Any clown such as this wouldn't have a chance in the Georgia GOP. I mean, he shows massive signs of stupidity with the abortion statement, and he fails to admit to the illegal invasion.

[Torie]

I'm not THAT old. No I voted for Cranston over Paul Gann. Cheers.

[Torie]

conservative Chicano Republicans controlled the Orange County Board of Supervisors.

The Board had one Chicano "conservative," Gaddy Vasquez, who did not run again in disgrace (along with a couple of others), over the bankruptcy scandal.