Posted on 09/27/2002 6:49:03 AM PDT by Bella_Bru
Politics: State leader Shawn Steel speaks his mind, even when Bush team advises against it.
Shawn Steel threw himself into politics on the streets of the San Fernando Valley in 1964 by ripping down Lyndon Johnson posters at construction sites. In the Youth for Goldwater brigades, it was known as "sniping."
"You peel off their stuff and trash it, and you put up your stuff. I loved it," Steel recalled. "I learned to be confrontational pretty early."
Decades later, Steel, now the state Republican Party chairman, still has a knack for confrontation, even when others—important others—would like him to back off.
The others include White House advisors who thought Steel went a step too far in May when he wrote an article saying that President Bush's system for naming judges in California was "half-baked."
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
This is something of the preview of the brewing fight which may erupt at the convention this weekend. Former Freeper StoneColdGOP is proposing the changes the article talks about.
Destruction of private property-- truly a conservative ideal. [/sarcasm]
This crap is a cheap substitute for actual grassroots organization, which Goldwater had little of. Tearing down signs has never been shown to help a candidate. It just redoubles the intensity of the person that owned the sign. They'd have been better off meeting with voters and sharing the "good news" of conservatism. So much of conservatism was hurt by that 1964 landslide. We lost 36 House seats that year.
It's possible (though I know she means reforms to the hierarchy of the state GOP) since it's an act of useless desperation and the CA-GOP feels useless and desperate.
Parsky also was listeing to Rove too much, who backed Riordan.
Ummm... no. It needs to elect Republicans. Dealing with voters like they are children only encourages the Democrats to brainwash them with pablum and there's no evidence that it makes people vote Republican.
The only way you get voters to support conservatism (which in many ways is working counter to apparent self-interest-- "Why not tax the rich so I get their money? I'm not rich. Why should I care?") is to get them to understand deeper concepts of liberty. Democrats rely on things like envy and lust. We can't hope to compete on that level. They'll outbid us every time.
Riordan or Jones would be kicking Davis' ass right now. Simon is a rookie and is making rookie mistakes. It's hard for a rookie Republican to beat an incumbent Democrat in California. Parsky and Rove knew this. I know it. All the CA-GOP had to do was nominate a warm body-- "do no harm" as the Hippocratic Oath says-- to beat Davis.
And if we don't all get into step and back Simon, we're going to go another four years with Davis.
Riordan really is bad - we had him for Mayor of Los Angeles, and he's as much a RINO as anyone can get.
And it is more personal than political for Parsky.
*******
Subj: Parsky Watch 25: Guess Who's Not Coming To Dinner
Date: 9/27/02 12:37:56 AM Pacific Daylight Time
From: the_parsky_watch@hotmail.com
Sent from the Internet (Details)
Parsky Watch 25
September 26, 2002
It’s convention time again. Let’s see what’s in store.
GUESS WHO’S NOT COMING TO DINNER?
For the February convention, Gerry Parsky hand-picked Lorelei Kinder to run the show. Lorelei, whose adeptness at sniffing out and chasing money and power is equaled only by a bloodhound chasing down a fugitive, is allegedly an individual of some competence in the matter of running conventions.
Not that it showed, since she managed to turn the evening dinners – which had routinely generated tens of thousands of dollars under past, “unprofessional” party regimes – actually lost money because the ticket price was less than the cost of the dinner.
While we trust that particular screw-up won’t be repeated this weekend, we fear it is being replaced by another. The traditional Friday night fundraising dinner features Secretary of State Bill Jones as guest speaker. Taking place concurrently in the same hotel is a secret dinner with Gerry Parsky. Leaving aside the question why Parsky isn’t leading by example by attending the Friday night dinner and encouraging fellow donors to emulate his example – we have to say that setting up a secret dinner with the most powerful man in the California Republican Party that directly competes with and undermines a CRP fundraising dinner is a bone-headed thing to do.
We imagine that is a key reason attendance at the Friday dinner is expected to be abysmal.
But what should we expect? Parsky has blocked all efforts to secure a Bush Administration official to headline the dinner. No disrespect to our fine Secretary of State, but party regulars aren’t going to rush to buy tickets to listen to Bill Jones, when they can obsequiously bask in the power-charged aura of Gerry Parsky.
But, Gerry and Lorelei know best, we suppose. They’re the professionals, after all.
NOT PUTTING HIS MONEY WHERE HIS MOUTH IS
Tom Stephenson is a wealthy GOP donor. He’s a stalwart of that citadel of moneyed Fabian Republicanism, the Lincoln Club of Northern California. He’s first mate to the captain of California Republicanism, Gerry Parsky – sort of Sancho Panza to Parsky’s Don Quixote (minus the noble idealism).
He’s also the CRP Finance Chairman, and an enthusiastic cheerleader for the Parsky-ization… excuse us, professionalization…of the state party. He even gave $10,000 of his own money to fund the successful rules change effort that put he and Gerry Parsky in charge of the CRP.
Now, since the whole purpose of the Parsky restructuring was to raise tons of money for the cause, it stands to reason Mr. Stephenson would at least as generous in that regard.
Alas, you’d be wrong. Apparently, Tom Stephenson has not contributed a red cent – not even a Canadian nickel – to the party of which he is finance chair.
POTEMKIN VILLAGE FOR CZAR GERRY
We understand plans are being laid for a “We Love Gerry” rally by in order to reassure the Maximum Leader that we are happy peasants content with our fortunes under the Great Restructuring.
But is everything OK?
It is the doom of men that they forget, so let’s revisit the recent past once again.
The Parsky “professionalization” of the party was agreed to because it promised to bring huge resources into the party, as well as the presidential clout that supposedly would come with enthroning Parsky.
Instead, we got a clumsy power grab. Even that isn’t of paramount important – the husking of the CRP in the guise of professionalizing it is the true scandal.
Last October, Parsky promised to raise $10 million for CalPlan. Even that amount is only about 60% of the $17 million raised to fund the Lungren political plan under the old, “unprofessional” way of operating.
That was the promise. The Parskyites are fond of murmuring about the bottom line, so what has Gerry Parsky delivered? To date, he has raised just $1.5 million. He’s also snatched $500,000 from the RNC and $3.75 million from the Simon campaign – and calls that “fundraising.”
Earth to Gerry: We’re talking about funding Republican operations throughout the most populous state in the Union, not bankrolling a really expensive congressional race.]
And the alluring promise of leveraging visits by Bush Cabinet officers to assist CRP fundraising? A pleasant mirage. There have been more than 100 Cabinet visits to California since March 1, 2001 – not a single one has involved a CRP fundraiser.
This is failure on a colossal scale.
But don’t let us rain on Gerry’s Potemkin parade this weekend.
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