Posted on 12/19/2012 4:56:58 PM PST by kristinn
The internal battle for the direction of the Republican Party has enveloped Washington’s GOP consultant class, as pragmatic party strategists hired to win campaigns ponder how to reclaim control of the primary process from powerful conservative activist groups.
This developing conflict comes in the aftermath of consecutive election cycles that saw Republicans blow as many as five Senate races because the party nominated flawed candidates over those who were better suited to compete in the general election.
Some of these losing 2010 and 2012 nominees received crucial support from Washington-based tea party groups that made their primary campaigns viable. GOP consultants who found themselves on the losing end are considering the formation of outside groups of their own to counter these organizations and boost their favored candidates in the 2014 primaries.
“The bigger the office, the brighter the spotlight, and it is difficult, if not impossible, to elect a lousy candidate over a good candidate in any [general election] Senate race, regardless of ideology,” said a Republican strategist who is frustrated with the hold that conservative groups like the Club for Growth, FreedomWorks and the Senate Conservatives Fund have had on the GOP primary process in recent elections.
Unlike these tea-party-affiliated groups, this Republican strategist and others who think similarly (prioritizing winning over ideological purity) argue that a Republican will always be more conservative than a Democrat and the party’s objective should be to control the White House and Congress so it can set the governing agenda and prevent Democrats from enacting laws like the Affordable Care Act.
In quiet postmortem sessions, these strategists are exploring ways to influence primaries and curb the power of the tea party groups.
(Excerpt) Read more at rollcall.com ...
Moderate pubbies like Romney win . . .
The “GOP consultants” can guarantee the GOP that they’ll continue to lose these popularity contests every four years if they only listen to them. Can the conservative or TEA Party do that?! Heck no.
Like the last campaign they won?
Without names your article isn’t worth a damn.
Don’t forget Juan McCain.
Look how great the GOP did in California once the “moderate” GOP consultants took over the party establishment there. Maybe they can do the same thing across the entire nation!
“pragmatic party strategists “
Translation: liars, thieves, opportunists, and commies.
“a Republican will always be more conservative than a Democrat “
Nope. The NE Republicans are scarcely more conservative than Britain’s Labour party.
Unfortunately, it appears they are winning.
Most of the new conservative house members 2010 class will join
Bonehead and Cantor in voting for taxes tomorrow.
We keep sending them, and DC keeps turning them.
It's hard to believe that Rhode Island's Lincoln Chafee was once a Republican in the Senate.
-PJ
Regain control of what, Boehner’s crying towel?
I have a solution for these morons trying to keep their social club: go away voluntarily or get fired.
0-3 since 2006 enough said right there!
Someone needs to tell these nameless wonders the jig is up.
Are they talking about candidates like Berg in ND, Rehberg in MT, Scott Brown in MA, Connie Mack in FL, and Tommy Thompson in WI, you know, outsider Tea Party radicals who lost in elections that could have been won?
We have had a bellyful of GOP consultant losers, Certainly they seek control, but it’s too late.
They have two choices, Bring the GOP together behind Conservatives and the Tea party or do what they have done in the last 2 losing campaigns, Split the party and lose.
Me? I am ready to move on. If nothing else I will go independent.
The GOP-E can go to hell and take its crooked consultants with it.
These consultants would rather have President Obama and the Democrats control Washington than have genuine conservatives in power.
It is time to SMASH the GOP and start a new political party.
So Rove has a new job? What a joke. They got their Rino
Candidates the past two Presidential Elections.
I think this is more an attempt to shield the party nobles
from the chattering class. How dare we challenge their backroom deals
That stuff their pockets with cash while selling out America.
“Moderate pubbies like Romney win...”
Don’t forget President McCain...oh wait.
Steve Schmidt and the rest of the useless RINOs blew two presidential elections in a row. It’s time to try a full-blown conservative as the GOP nominee, and to close the primaries to RAT voters.
Conservative’s who remain republican are just wasting their time and political capital! There is not one single solitary reason why any conservative should be a republican in this day and age.
TEAPARTY FOREVER!...Screw the GOP Rino’s!!!
Oh, there's one reason, for sure.
Winning.
Conservatives who abandon the Republican party are doomed to live in Loserland -- probably for the rest of their lives.
Conservatives who decide to stick it out and work to take over the Republican party from within will at least have a chance to elect conservatives two, four, six, eight, ten years from now.
These national consultants are the biggest problem in politics. Keep in mind that they get paid win or lose.
One would think they would learn from this.
But, nooooooooooooooooo.
The American people face two enemies:
1. Liberals
2. Washington Republicans
A single party system would be better than a future of minority RINO’s doing the bidding of majority Democrats.
That is what they keep expecting us to believe election after election.
Form the paragraph at the top of page two in the article comes this gem: “ - - - Since 2008, the national party seal of approval has served only to taint candidates as Washington insiders. - - - - “
If this is a valid observation, then the following may also be truee:
1.) the problem is with what is going on inside Washington;
2.) winning elections has had a history of turning well-meaning winners into the same old Washington insiders.
Old Abby is DC lib and peddles lies and Dem party faxes as a story.
Since she lives in DC and works for. Dem party front group she has never actually seen or met a republican but she was hired to
Split out Dem party pr releases about them .
There is no way to splinter off and still be able to defeat RATS.
This is why we have primaries. Fight it out there but after that is over, the goal is to defeat every RAT possible.
We need majorities and that may mean accepting RINOS we'd rather not have but a RINO is better than a RAT--any day.
Forget this "third party" talk--it's destructive. We have to live in reality and I'm talking reality.
There aren't enough of any one faction to defeat both Republicans and Democrats.
{Conservatives who abandon the Republican party are doomed to live in Loserland — probably for the rest of their lives.}
As opposed to the loser land we now live in. Got it.
From early on, Communism has always strived to control the opposition.
In that light, RINO consultants are easier to understand.
Don’t forget those ‘consultants’ got the Father of Socialized Medicine (RomneyCare) passed.
Question: Who was the Father of Gay Marriage, legally speaking?
Answer Gov. Romney.
Correction to previous posted version:
From early on, Communism has always worked to control the opposition.
In that light, RINO consultants are easier to understand. Think commie, but disguised.
Don’t forget those ‘consultants’ got the Father of Socialized Medicine (RomneyCare) nominated for POTUS.
Question: Who was the Father of Gay Marriage, legally speaking?
Answer: Gov. Romney.
Got ‘consultant’?
I love the way this beautiful man THINKS and SPEAKS!!!
With fearless PASSION and CONVICTION and HONESTY!!!
Savage screams invectives, but Levin screams the battle cry for FREEDOM and LIBERTY!!!
As if they ever lost it.
There’s so much wrong with this piece I hardly know where to start. So I’m not going to try to deal with it point by point. It’s too late at night and I’m tired.
Suffice it to say that it’s all theater. These people never lost control of anything, and the relationships between the “consultants” and what they call “powerful conservative activist groups” are as incestuous as it gets, so the whole premise of the piece is inherently flawed.
Both groups, which are really the same old group, will continue to garner all the power to themselves, and conservatives and conservatism will continue to be the losers.
As long as conservatives are willing to play their game, that is.
Fixed.
It’s over. Turn out the lights at the RNC, lock the doors, and throw away the keys.
Yeah, right! That's worked out quite well for ya over the past two Presidential elections!
Dumbasses-R-US
Here's your problem. conservatives are NOT going to ever take it over because there are way too many rinos. The moderates will destroy whatever gains conservative make. It ALWAYS been this way. Conservatives need to start their own party and move on! republicans can GFT!
FGS, abandon that Titanic!
Exactly! The republican party NEEDS to be "destroyed" because it's so flawed now! Dumbass republicans who insist on going down the same road are just complete numbskulls at this point!
This is a very real problem I have with FR, I see a whole bunch of people who are eager to "follow the leader" right off the cliff. That, too, is human nature.
Do you understand math? This is a matter of the math must add up to over 50% and it will not happen with another watered-down party.
May I ask a question?
If, as you suggest, it is impossible for conservatives to defeat the rinos in the GOP-e, how would it then be possible for a conservative 3rd party to defeat both the rinos and Democrats?
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm?
Telling the Republicans to GFT punishes the Republicans and may be gratifying...to a degree. But does it improve the odds of electing a conservative?
I don't care about a new party all I know and everyone else knows but you and some straggler conservatives, is the republican party is useless. If you don't see it by now you never will. So, support the losers and end up in the next four years with the same exact results as you have now!
Who cares whether republicans win?! Do you understand insanity? How long are you going to follow power hungry rino's getting the SAME results year after year, decade after decade?
I've concluded republicans SUCK and I have a feeling I'm in the majority with many other conservatives with these same feelings!
Are you watching FOX now? The Republicans HAVE stood on principle and it's time to thank them rather than condemning them.
The Republicans have pushed this right back where it belongs--in the lap of Obama and the RATS.
The Republicans also trying to get to the bottom of Benghazi.
I am extremely disappointed at what I see here on FR. This is the perfect example of a herd mentality. I feel sorry for you, and others like you here on FR who are so blinded you can't see there is a team on your side who is trying to do the very things you want done.
FR is far more anti-Republican than anti-Democrat. That is wrong.
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