Posted on 11/10/2008 2:46:59 PM PST by BAW
A battle to take the reins of the Republican National Committee is taking off between former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Maryland Lieutenant Gov. Michael Steele.
Republicans close to each man say they are intent on ousting Mike Duncan when his tenure ends in January and to insert themselves to articulate a counter-agenda to President-elect Barack Obama´s administration.
A bevy of backers for each man, neither of whom is an RNC member, have been burning up the phone lines and firing off e-mails as they try to sway the 168 RNC members in the wake of the second consecutive drubbing of Republicans at the polls.
"The Republican National Committee has to ask itself if it wants someone who has successfully led a revolution," Randy Evans, Gingrich confidante and personal attorney based in Atlanta, told The Washington Times on Monday.
Neither man seems inclined to give way to the other.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
I thought it was newt.
LLS
We need someone that’s tought and NOT afraid of the liberals in the media. I like Steele and the media couldn’t critisize hiim because he’s black don’t ya know.
I will take either.
Ahhh, not true. He’s a conservative, and they will attack a conservative no matter what color. I don’t know if he’s tough and aggressive-—I just don’t know him. If he is, great!
Gingrich Warns of GOP Catastrophe
NewsMax.com ^ | 11 Feb 08 | Newsmax staff
Posted on 02/12/2008 12:22:25 PM EST by seanmerc
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1969143/posts
In a rousing speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Sunday, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called for a conservative “declaration of independence” from the Republican Party.
He also warned that Republicans face a “catastrophic” election this year unless the GOP changes course.
Gingrich pointed out that on Super Tuesday, 14.6 million voters took part in the Democratic races, compared to 8.3 million Republicans.
“There were 14.6 million Democrats who thought the presidential nomination was worth voting for, and there were 8.3 million Republicans on Super Tuesday,” Gingrich said.
“That is a warning of a catastrophic election. I was in Idaho this last week, and Barack Obama on last Saturday had 16,000 people in Boise. The idea [of] the most liberal Democratic Senator getting 16,000 people in Boise was inconceivable.
“And every person who cares about the conservative movement and every person who cares about the Republican Party had better stop and say to themselves, ‘There is something big happening in this country. We don’t understand it. We’re not responding to it. And we’re currently not competitive. And if we want to get to be competitive, we had better change and we had better change now.”
Gingrich stressed that he was not commenting on any of the current candidates for president.
Rather, he said, “this is a comment about the conservative movement, and it’s a comment about the Republican Party, and all the candidates currently running fit within those two phrases. But it is about all of us. It is about our Congressman, our Senator, our governors, our county commissioners, our school board members.
“And let me make this very clear, I believe we have to change or expect defeat.
“And I believe that this is a time for the conservative movement to issue a declaration of independence…
“First of all, I think we need to get independent from a Washington fixation. There are 513,000 elected officials in the United States and the conservative movement should believe in a decentralized United States, where every elected official has real responsibility, and we should be developing a conservative action plan, at every level of this country, and not simply focused over and over again on arguments about the White House…
“I also think that we need to declare our independence from trying to protect and defend failed bureaucracies that magically become ours as soon as we are in charge of them. We appoint solid conservatives to a department and within three weeks they are defending and protecting the very department that they would have been attacking before they got appointed.”
Gingrich drew considerable applause when he continued with his “independence” theme:
“There is one other declaration of independence we need and this will startle some of you. And remember I say this from a background of having been active in the Georgia Republican Party since 1960. In a fundamental way, the conservative movement has to declare itself independent from the Republican Party.
“Let me make very clear what I’m saying here. I am not saying there should be a third party – I think a third party is a dumb idea, will not get anywhere, and in the end will achieve nothing.
“I actually believe that any reasonable conservative will, in the end, find that they have an absolute requirement to support the Republican nominee for president this fall…
“As a citizen, I would rather have a President McCain that we fight with 20 percent of the time, than a President Clinton or a President Obama that we fight with 90 percent of the time.”
But he warned: “If we run a traditional consultant-dominated tactical Republican campaign, like we’ve seen in the last eight years, we will be defeated this fall, and we will be having a CPAC meeting next year talking about how we rebuild for the future with either President Obama or President Clinton in charge.”
bttt
Newt needs to be the one leading this, not Steele. Newt is a proven soldier and the only one who can articulate the ideas and beliefs that need to be conveyed to the public.
LLS
The man has never run for office on his own and won. He strongly supported Wayne Gilchrist in the 08 primary- a lying RINO who supported Obama- over a solid conservative.
Steele is a nice guy, but he's way too green.
LLS
If Ann is in then I am there!
LLS
We cannot let you have Haley just yet.
LLS
The RNC Chairman needs to know how to plant the knife in the enemy and have political managerial experience. Steele has neither, Coulter has one, Newt has both.
I like them both. We are in such deep pooh maybe they could co-chair ~LOL~ Each has their own strengths, I was rooting for Michael Steele when Bush wanted Mel Martinez.
Good point. Actually he isn’t as conservative as Newt, so that is a very important point... Steele is a moderate Republican, at least he was when he was running for office in Maryland.
Newt is the person that started the K ST. project which as Jeff Flake has said, “Pork with new faces.” Newt is a cheater if he cheats on his wives and on his political action committies then what else? Throw him out. He and all the rest of the pork loving Republicans are why we had a bigger government every year they controlled the congress.
Back in the 1990’s the DNC had two chairmen, a general chairman who was the oversaw the DNC as a whole, and then a national chairman who ran the day-to-day operations. Mr. Newt and Michael Steele could have one or the other take these positions as RNC heads. Just a thought.
Well, if that is what you want Newt would be preferable to Steele... the stories about Newt when he was leader are pretty interesting, he could be a very tough taskmaster. Steele, OTOH, when Schumers people broke into his personal credit files to try and find dirt on him when he was running the last time didn’t fight fire with fire, he was pretty laid back about it considering how egregious this really was, especially the guy that came here on FR and tried to take him out... I forget the whole story, but he should have been much more fire in the belly over the whole thing.
Both of these men are great and we should ALL be happy with either one.
Please guys, let’s not bash either one and let’s not let this get nasty.
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