Posted on 05/04/2009 4:28:37 PM PDT by cold666pack
What George Will missed: The decrepit state of the California GOP By Michelle Malkin ? May 4, 2009 02:21 PM
George Will?s latest column on the sagging economy of California and the upcoming slate of massive tax-hike initiatives on the ballot only scratches the surface of what?s rotten in the formerly Golden State.
The state GOP is a basket case. The party establishment epitomizes everything that is wrong with the Republican Party nationally: Cronyism, arrogance, waste, and leadership out of touch with its base.
I reported on how grass-roots conservatives greeted California GOP chairman Ron Nehring with boos and heckles of ?Go Home!? and ?Throw Them Out!? at the Sacramento Tea Party on April 15. Tea Party organizer Mark Meckler publicly called out Nehring for the party?s waffling on the tax propositions. Nehring attempted to coopt the Tea Party movement for the GOP?s purposes. The tax revolters were having none of it. Here?s the vid:
The party finally got a clue and voted to oppose the initiatives ? but only after dumping $650,000 into Gov. Arnold Schwarzengger?s coffers to crusade for the proposals, namely Prop. 1A ? the $16 billion in ?temporary tax hikes? disguised as a spending cap measure.
Yeah, you read that right. They forked over $650,000 in party money to help Schwarzengger pass $16 billion in tax hikes.
You know what that brand is? FAIL.
Grass-roots activists have watched state GOP chairman Ron Nehring drive the party into the ground ? and spend their money doing it. Nehring is a protege of open-borders, credibility-undermining Grover Norquist. It was under Nehring?s watch that the California GOP hired Norquist?s friend, Michael Kamburowski, to serve as the California Republican Party?s chief operating officer in charge of the multimillion-dollar budget of the nation?s largest state Republican Party ? despite being here illegally with no work visa or valid work permit.
The episode became the butt of late-night jokes, but neither Nehring nor Norquist suffered any consequences.
How can the state GOP call for fiscal restraint when its chairman cannot adopt it himself? GOP sources compiled the following expense reports on Nehring?s activities ? and mind you, this is just a partial record of his frequent trips to D.C., visits to fancy hotels, and extravagant phone bills and rental car expenses. If he had something to show for it all, maybe it would be worth it. But what has he done? Flushed party dues down the toilet and the state GOP?s credibility and electoral prospects along with it:
RON NEHRING EXPENSES (PARTIAL LISTING ONLY)JANUARY 2009Payee: American ExpressBox 0001Los Angeles, CA 90096Purpose of Disbursement: CC pmt see memos-Nehring A 01/09Date of Event = 01/28/2009Allocated Activity or Event:Amount Disbursed = 2471.63Federal share = 519.04Non-Federal share = 1952.59Event Year-To-Date = 122162.92
Payee: American ExpressBox 0001Los Angeles, CA 90096Purpose of Disbursement: Transaction Fees/Nehring A 01/09Date of Event = 01/28/2009Amount Disbursed = 35.90Federal share = 7.54Non-Federal share = 28.36Event Year-To-Date = 35.90This is a Memo Memo Description: Transaction Fees/Nehring A 01/09
Payee: Hertz Car Rental9000 Airport BlvdLos Angeles, CA 90045Purpose of Disbursement: Car Rental/Nehring A 01/09Date of Event = 01/28/2009Amount Disbursed = 422.52Federal share = 88.73Non-Federal share = 333.79Event Year-To-Date = 422.52This is a Memo Memo Description: Car Rental/Nehring A 01/09
Payee: Hyatt Regency Sacramento1209 L StreetSacramento, CA 95814Purpose of Disbursement: Lodging/Nehring A 01/09Date of Event = 01/28/2009Amount Disbursed = 1060.42
Rest here.....
http://michellemalkin.com/2009/05/04/what-george-will-missed-the-decrepit-st ate-of-the-california-gop/
I don’t know why every apostrophe magicly turned into a question mark. Crazy internet shenanigans I suppose. My bad.
Brand ‘FAIL’ .. heh heh.
I’ve run into a lot of people over the years, that simply will not accept that the California Republican party leadership is destroying our chances to bring back Conservatism here. Well, here’s another person telling you just like it is folks.
Don’t want you to miss this one. I know how much you love Ron Nehring, formerly of the San Diego Republicans...hehehe
*ping*
Nehring or who ever, are in a situation where the Democrats outnumber the Republicans and the WingNut
third Pary folks who want to make sure the Republicans
don’t win are the Democrats best friend.
The days of Conservatives holding state office are long over especially with highschools and univs. grinding out
little Marxists.
That white flag is most unbecoming.
Conservatives won't win as long as the GOP works against them.
This article reiterates just some of Nehring's many sins.
Winning with the likes of Schwarzenegger isn't "winning" in my book.
And having to choose between liberal(D) vs. liberal(R) is no choice at all.
If that is all "Republicans" can offer, they might as well fold up shop and go home. I'll be finding a new party.
As I will.
Got another RNC begging letter last week, from the CFO. This one, like the others before it, went straight to Trash Central.
Decline
Report Date Dem Rep Other to State
Sep 3, 1993 49.0% 37.1% 3.6% 10.3%
Aug 8, 2003 44.1% 35.3% 5.0% 15.7%
Sep 9, 2005 42.8% 34.8% 4.4% 18.0%
Mar 20, 2009 44.6% 31.1% 4.4% 20.0%
Shaking my head.
It is implicit in Reply #7 that somehow, through unexplained reasoning, the author believes a CaGOP politcal victory is good for the state or will benefit conservatives.
Me thinks we’ve a shill in our midst.
I agree, we can’t raise the white flag! Acceptance is the first step towards receovery. Where is Tom McClintock? Rohrabacher? Duncan D. Hunter? Where are any of our Republicans worth their salt on this very real very far-reaching problem?
Don’t they realize their own backsides are in jeopardy if the largest state in the country has a party in name only?
That’s what I’m most frustrated about!
Under Karl Rove, the crazy fringe still had a place at the table amongst Republicans, now, they have been shut out all together and replaced with the wishy washy pro-choice, gay marriage lovin, taxes aren’t so bad contingency.
The crazies who care little about winning elections but more about their one single idealogical holy grail brought a fringe benefit with them, there are lots of them, and they vote and they rally other conservatives.
The latter, wishy washy contingency, not so much.
Allow me to list a few more of Nehring’s sins:
1. In addition to hiring Kamburowski to be the COO, he hired a Canadian, on a coveted H1 B visa to be a political director at 80K a year for the state party and allowed him to ALSO be paid as a consultant for the San Diego party at the exact same time. Some refer to that as double-dipping I think, most reasonable people just refer to it as outright fraud.
2. He never calls donors to raise money. The #1 job of a state chairman is to raise money, Duf brought in millions as did Mike Schroeder, Ron can’t even raise his arm cuz he aint so sure.
2. He has packed the board with more do-nothing losers like himself that are unable to raise a dime. Doug Boyd, Mark Pruner, Paul Bruno, Tony Krvaric, combined have raised about $1.50. Yet they are his lapdogs when it comes to voting on stupid crap and stamping every unnecessary expense he incurs and allowing party dues to be used to pay them, no questions asked.
3. He forced out a COO with 20 years of experience in politics, he ran the Governor’s re-election and McCain’s campaign (granted I too have some buyer’s remorse on that one) He had a proven track record in building winning teams and raised 20 million dollars last year. His sin? Sometimes he told Ron “No” the party should not be paying for your new GPS system you are trying to charge the party. Ron fired him and replaced him with a guy whose claim to fame is getting double shrimp salads for Bill Simon.
4. This, in my opinion is probably one of his worst sins, Everyday Ron has the opportunity to play Miss America and show up at some random Republican Women Federated meeting or, fund raiser or, tea party, he charges the party a perdium which ranges between $200 and $500 dollars. Like he is one of those legislators who charge a perdium for every day they have to work in Sacramento. No other state chairman has ever charged the party this perdium, ever. Yet this dismal excuse for a chairman now only runs to the head of the line when it comes to attending an event, afterwards he charges the party for participating.
Truly Shameless.
The only Conservative Republican who can win
and as Rush says, is the conswervative voice
is Gov. Sarah Palin.
Instead of folks going off on ego trips with the candidates
they know won’t win need to rally around Gov. Palin
now as the person who can counter Obama.
BTW Gov. Palin gave her speech at the convention with
a broken teleprompter, something Obama could never do.
Who was the COO you refer to in #3? I remember that Kamburowski had also hired an “undocumented worker” from Canada as Finance honcho:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1850114/posts?page=13#13
As I look back in the FR archives (keyword Ron Nehring), he had also been fired from his post in S.D. for being a junketeer. I had forgotten about that.
You know, I’ve spent hundreds (if not thousands) of hours researching the history of subversive (mostly Communist Party) infiltration of American organizations and the efforts to influence, takeover, or destroy them from within. The cagop is looking like a textbook case, IMO.
The COO placed by the board, much to the Chagrin of Ronald was a fellow named Bill Christiansen, a San Diego born second generation Republican activist. He was also ED at the OC GOP and for a while state ED in Arizona. Good effective guy.
And yes, the Canadian was hired under Kamburowski’s leadership but only at Ronald’s direction. He is the one who made that happen and when it came to light the guy was double dipping, Ron got outtta the way as the bus headed towards him in typical Ronald M.O.
We shouldn’t underestimate Gov. Jindal either, we need more than one person to rally behind. I’m a fan of Gov Perry too, he’s got solid conservative cred in my book.
Perry vs. Kay Baily is a Perry win
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