Can McCain Corral Conservatives?

Wall Street Journal ^ | 2/9/08 | NICK TIMIRAOS

[Winged Hussar]

How conservative is Mr. McCain? During his quarter century in Washington, the senator has assembled an 82% rating from the American Conservative Union, placing him 39th among senators in 2006, while drawing a 25% lifetime rating from the liberal American Civil Liberties Union. Hillary Clinton, by contrast, has a 75% ACLU lifetime rating. A scorecard by the antitax Club for Growth, a conservative political-action committee, ranked him 29th among 55 Republican senators in 2006.

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

Precinct Committee Chairs is the correct name; not a Precinct Captain and there was never the term you originally used

Again, screamingly INcorrect; now you're simply hurriedly scanning whatever online sources look choicest to you, in a panic, without even fully comprehending what it is you're reading. Allow me to humiliate you further, by all means:

Precinct Committee Chair, child, is an elected office; NOT (unlike that or precinct captain) an assigned one. "Oopsie," huh...?

I ask you, why would someone be a Precinct Committee Chair rather than a Precinct Committee Officer?

As the first leg of your silly, spavined theoretical was (demonstrably) bogus, from snout to tail: the latter portion is, sadly, rendered all but insensible.

Plainly and simply, kiddo: you're p!ssing out of your league, on this one.

[jonrick46]

If you are still trapped in liberal Seattle, you will find out that Washington State has its own terminology for “Precinct Captain.” This tells me you have not bothered to find out much about your local Republican Party.

I suggest we get busy and stop the infighting. We have better things to do.

[jonrick46]

Wrong. A Precinct Committee Chair is an appointed position. A Precinct Committee Officer can be appointed by the District Chairman and approved by the County Chairman. However, to keep this office, this person is elected from that time on. The Precinct Committee Chair is a person residing in another precinct that holds such position, but is not elected.

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

Washington State has its own terminology for “Precinct Captain.” This tells me you have not bothered to find out much about your local Republican Party.

Once you get a little bit better at speed-Googling -- and a little less ready to resort to naked dissembling -- you'll discover that we here in Washington State already know and are more than passingly familiar with the terms under discussion, thank you; which is, plainly, an assertion you cannot similarly offer, straightfaced. Too bad. For you.

I suggest we get busy and stop the infighting. We have better things to do.

Translation: "Yeah, okay, I was righteously busted, lying outright... but: let's both just agree to forget all about that, whaddya say, huh? Okay? Huh? huh?"

My Response: Not. A. Chance. Seymour.

Looks like "not hardly" was the winning bet, after all.

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

Wrong. A Precinct Committee Chair is an appointed position.

You can't possibly be this bone stupid, and still manage to locate food in the morning. Precinct Committee Chair is an E-L-E-C-T-E-D position; this is readily discernible, even to one such as you, by the fact that it has (among other defining aspects) a proscribed Term of Office (2 years) -- the sort of thing, in other words, commonly associated with positions of authority to which one is rightfully E-L-E-C-T-E-D.

I'm providing these helpful links to you for your own good, chuckles. Try making use of 'em, if you possibly can. ROTFLMAO!!!

[jonrick46]

According to the Precinct Committee Officer Manual (for the Washington State Republican Party):

"The Republican Party begins with the individual voter, who elects a precinct committee officer to serve as his/her liason with the Party organization. In order to be elected as a PCO, a registered voter living in the precinct must file as a candidate with the County Auditor during the statutory filing period. There is a $1.00 filing fee. His or her name will appear on the general electon ballot in the precinct. An elected PCO serves a two-year term. A person may be appointed to a paticular precint by the Legislative District chari or the County chair according to the by-laws of that particular committee."

If you intend to put some action into your enthusiasm for the Republican Party, I suggest you contact your District Chairman and find out how you can become a PCO. Here is some reading from the PCO Manual that will give you the information you need:

http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:PbOXL1SaS6sJ:files.meetup.com/535032/Washington%2520State%2520PCO%2520manual.pdf+washington+state+republican+precinct+committee+officer+manual&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=6&gl=us So, am I as "bone stupid" as you say?

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

His or her name will appear on the general electon ballot in the precinct. An elected PCO serves a two-year term

In other words: an E-L-E-C-T-E-D office, precisely as repeatedly stated (ad infinitum, ad nauseum) previously, throughout. If this is all you have left squirreled away in your codpiece, in place of an open, honest and manly apology: inadequate, once again, pookums.

I have no interest in running for (or serving out a term as) the elected office of PCO, thank you; nor did I ever state otherwise. Nice attempt at a final, farewell bit of "spin" on your part, however, however ineffectual. Kudos.

Come on down to where the individuals actually involved in the day-to-day registration and fundraising activities hang out sometime. Avail yourself of the opportunity to actually LEARN the things you (foolishly) appear to believe you know anything about, rather than simply patching them together hurriedly, hodgepodge, from whatever you can sloppily skim off of the internet.

Plainly, from the addled nonsense you've been bibble-babbling thus far, this evening: it'll definitely be a genuine education for you, if nothing else.

Maybe then, you'll finally have managed to muster up that humble, mumbled apology you still owe... "butch."

*snort*

[farmer18th]

Obama's cabinet: Vice President: Al Sharpton Sec. State: Jesse Jackson

Sounds something like a McCAin presidency, except slightly more conservative.

Voting for the lesser of two evils is for cowards.

[jonrick46]

Why did you state in Post #80: “Precinct Committee Chair, child, is an elected office; NOT (unlike that or precinct captain) an assigned one. “Oopsie,” huh...?”

It is the Precinct Committee Officer that is an elected office. You must be forgetting what you are writing.

Is is your terminology that made me suspect that you had no workings in the party and that you were a complainer rather than a doer.

If I got it wrong, I apoligize.

I say, get plugged into the Republican Party. They will give you the tools and access to put your enthusiasm to real use.

Also, you said: “ Not only did I faithfully cast my ballot for the Republican candidate for senator in ‘06, I also served as the party precinct captain for my district.”

To me, if you worked in this effort before, why not now? That is why I offered information from the Washington State PCO handbook to acquaint you with what is happening here. There are people in your precinct that you can turn into Republican voters. There are people who you can encourage to vote Republican.

If it takes my apology to get you to plug back into the Republican Party, here it is ; )

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

You must be forgetting what you are writing.

No, no... you're simply incapable of reading for comprehension,is all. (I won't hold that against you, of course; my wife being a teacher, I know full well just how unforgivably lax public school graduation standards have become, over the last few decades.) ;)

ME (post #81): "Precinct Committee Chair, child, is an elected office."

ME (post #85): "Precinct Committee Chair is an E-L-E-C-T-E-D position; this is readily discernible, even to one such as you, by the fact that it has (among other defining aspects) a proscribed Term of Office (2 years) -- the sort of thing, in other words, commonly associated with positions of authority to which one is rightfully E-L-E-C-T-E-D."

You, evidently, appear to be constitutionally incapable of reading these statements, word for word, for what they plainly and genuinely say... or even (weirdly; inexplicably) of clicking onto the links provided, and double-checking for yourself. If such is, indeed, the case... well: I'm afraid I'm simply neither trained or licensed to help you with that sort of problem, ultimately. Sorry 'bout that.

If I got it wrong, I apoligize.

You did, and -- regardless of your taking an unconscionably long time to acknowledge the readily available facts on the ground; three long and eminently pointless hours ago -- I will accept, without even resorting to anything so petty as pointing out that "apologize," properly, only has one letter "i" in it. ;)

To me, if you worked in this effort before, why not now?

As stated explicitly and repeatedly in numerous other threads, throughout this very forum: because I cannot, in good, principled conservative conscience, do anything whatsoever to aid and/or abet the elevation to the office of the U.S. Presidency Juan "Amnesty" McCain. Period. Full stop. End of sentence. End of paragraph.

I appreciate your offer, needless as it is -- already Been There and Done That, as I've already long since conclusively demonstrated -- but: I'm a conservative, first and foremost; NOT a Republican. Not anymore.

Just lots and lots of good friends still over there, is all. ;)

[Pro-Bush]

McCain is a lib.

[Actually_in_Tokyo]

Did you guys hear that Dennis Prager said he would accept the VP position if offered?

[jonrick46]

You could help Dino get elected. Because the PCO must live in the precinct they are elected you may find there is already an elected PCO in your precinct. However, you could help him/her as a block captain.

There is another way to work in the Party again. Get to know your Legislative District Chairman. He may have a precinct that does not have a PCO. He could appoint you as a PCC (Precinct Committee Chair). Don’t let your hatred for John McCain turn you off to the entire Republican Party. I, as a Republican, did not have anything to do with the McCain success. His success is the result of a political strategy that has had worked better than all expectations. It has attracted the independent voter.

I see it as a blessing in disguise. You see it as the mark of the beast. I call it the doings of high tech political science. Whatever it was, it robbed me of my Fred Thompson and maybe you of Duncan Hunter. When Mitt Romney was left, I had a slight tendency to pinch my nose.

But please, don’t let all this high tech political strategy turn you off to the goal. Don't let ones misspellings or reading errors distract you from the conservative cause. I agree on 99.9% of what you post. And we agree on who is the true enemy: The DemonRATs as I call them.

You will find in some of my posts you will see me referring to pinching my nose in regards to McCain. We have to work with what we are given.

When I saw McCain in Seattle Friday night, I saw a sincere man. You will not believe it, but he is coming around to our thinking. It was amazing. Fred Thompson talked to him. Mitt Romney talked to him. He has love for both of these men. And these men are returning the love with their support. I could read it in his voice.

However, until you get over your bitterness, you could still work as a Republican but not for John McCain.

I have talked to many fellow Republicans in my district who will not work for John McCain. The voters in my caucus were split between McCain and Huckabee and Romney. Even though they may not like McCain, they will support the good people running for state office. I know, because when I read a letter from Dino Rossi, all the people in my caucus dwelt on every word in that I read.

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

Get to know your Legislative District Chairman.

Already do, thanks. (My wife, until just recently, maintained the online voter registration data base for the district.)

Don’t let your hatred for John McCain turn you off to the entire Republican Party.

Don't believe I ever stated that it had. Again: I'm a conservative. I automatically cast my ballot whichever listed candidate is the most conservative, in turn. In the vast majority of instances -- although, sadly, steadily fewer ones, these past several decades -- this generally is, de facto, the Republican.

His success is the result of a political strategy that has had worked better than all expectations. It has attracted the independent voter.

I fear you're in for a harsh and jarring awakening, come this November. Those "independents" you're so contentedly counting as locked in for the duration, tonight, will happily skip 'cross the electoral aisle and pledge their collective allegiance for the charismatic (but distressingly empty and banal) B. Obamessiah, nine months from now. In great, thundering, chowderheaded droves.

You will not believe it, but he is coming around to our thinking.

As I've stated repeatedly (and with all honest sincerity) throughout the past several days, hereabouts: all McCain has to do, in order to actually convince me of the genuine nature of his alleged conversion back towards conservative principle is, quite simply, affix his signature to Jeff Sessions' Pledge to Safeguard America's Borders.

The fact that he continues, to date, to adamantly refuse to do so, however, tells me (I fear) all I ultimately need to know, on that score. Ah, well.

However, until you get over your bitterness

So long as party apparatchiks continue to mislabel principled conservative resolve as merest snit or pique: that day, sadly, is doubtless many, many days yet long and away. Hint, hint. ;)

I have talked to many fellow Republicans in my district who will not work for John McCain.

That dratted "bitterness" making the rounds, again. Must be catching. ;)

[Man50D]

Prove it. Specifically.

Are you serious? He has supported or does support many Socialist bills Obama and Clinton support. They are: Dream Act, McCain/Kennedy Bill, supported The Law Of the Sea Treaty, McCain-Feingold bill, Lieberman/McCain(global warming legislation also supported by Obama).

[TommyDale]

"Didn’t stop you from supporting Bush..."

Had I known that Bush was going to spend like a drunken sailor and open the borders and try to force another amnesty program for illegal immigrants, I would not have voted for him. In fact, I regret voting for Bush. If he were running now, I would not support him.

[E. Cartman]

It is high tech politics. The independent vote is needed if we are to take out the DemonRATs.

Sure, we'll get someone with an R behind his name, but what's the point when he's trying to sell us out every other way at every other turn? I know everyone says he's good on national defense, but maintaining the military, while leaving the borders wide open, actively trying to shut down GITMO and opposing waterboarding is not solidly supporting national defense. (And, GOP reps and Senators are more likely to actively oppose leftist policies if they're put forward by a dem president than a nominally conservative republican.)

The White House is lost no matter who wins. More important now to elect conservatives, (not republicans but CONSERVATIVES) to the House, Senate and various state offices.

[Eyes Unclouded]

But now we know that any of the 3 left Obama Hillary of McCain will do all of that. It’s really damned if we do damned if we don’t. Personally I’m gonna vote for whoever isn’t Hillary whenever I get the chance.

[Winged Hussar]

Re: “ Voting for the lesser of two evils is for cowards.”

Then for whom are you going to vote?

RINO is better than RAT.

Also, even the RINO does NOT agree with Clinton or Obama on gun control. Clinton was the power behind the Million Mom March, which I destroyed personally in 2000 by exposing its use of tax-exempt money to support political campaigns.

[Winged Hussar]

“The White House is lost no matter who wins. More important now to elect conservatives, (not republicans but CONSERVATIVES) to the House, Senate and various state offices.”

You realize that the LibDems don’t want us to turn out to vote for McCain if he is our nominee because then we won’t vote for Senators or Representatives either.

I am encouraging Democrats in Florida and Michigan to punish Donna Brazile and the DNC for taking their delegates away. This is something we can work on. Don’t let them do the same thing to our side by persuading us to stay home. Normally Rush Limbaugh, and to a lesser degree Ann Coulter, agree with me but here they are way off base.