and officers who vote for RNC chair…/and he’ll be back in in a walk by all indications!

I swear if there were a real Conservative alternative to the Republican Party that didn’t include the crazys and tin foil hat crowd I’d be gone in a New York minute!

I’m so sick of these jerks it’s maddening!!!!

GRRRR!!!!!

The “Big Tent” analogy isn’t the correct one…the correct one is a MAGNET…we need to be a MAGNET that draws these independents in who are sick and tired of what’s going on in Washington—Fred Thompson

he appealed to, set the rules of engagement. That is one reason why we haven’t built the conservative majority the people deserve over the years. We get to DC and then get paranoid about the msm. This reminds me of Bush when he didn’t defend Lott’s innocuous joke at Thurmond’s birthday party.

If the 168 think for a moment that continuing with Mike Duncan in that position is smart than we are in bigger trouble then I think we are now!

isn’t as much that he’s attacking another Republican…which is infuriating…or that he’s feeding the Democrat/Media lie machine credibility by agreeing with them as the RNC Chair which is despicable and inexcusable….but the ultimate outrage is this illustrates the absolute incompetence and lack of any tactical understanding what so ever where Duncan is concerned…

The most basic rule of politics and warfare is to leave your enemy alone when he’s in the process of destroying himself…it’s so basic it ranks as childish to not understand why he should have kept his mouth shut…Saltsman shot himself in the foot and Duncan joined him by running his yap…now the both have holes in their feet!

This more than anything illustrates why Duncan shouldn’t have been within 200 miles of the RNC chair and why he shouldn’t be in consideration now…but the establishment, (those shadowy characters who will vote to decide who the next RNC chair will be an you love to ridicule me for believing in… ), have him slated to win the vote for another term as exactly that!

Doesn’t it just mak ya feel warm all ove knowing we have such people leading us?

The “Big Tent” analogy isn’t the correct one…the correct one is a MAGNET…we need to be a MAGNET that draws these independents in who are sick and tired of what’s going on in Washington—Fred Thompson

see above devine comment

My problem with Duncan isn’t fundraising so much as that 1) when he headed the RNC, no one knew who he was. Heck, I didn’t know until last month, and I consider myself pretty attuned to politics. 2) He didn’t give us an overarching strategy for how to win, or try to establish any sort of a cohesive agenda for Republicans to follow. 3) He really didn’t invest any time in recruitment, as far as I see. From what I can tell, the conservative “stars” on the scene today were, by and large, either established by the time Duncan was in charge, or were discovered and supported by their State GOP or other groups, and not the RNC. I agree with you that it’s unfair to judge whether he’s an idiot or not without getting to know the guy, but the fact that he’s proven himself incompetent at every task other than fundraising and some organization/turn-out, and that’s not going to be enough to beat Obama come 2012.

Secondly, in the media environment we’re in right now, I happen to think Duncan is right about Saltsman even though Ken Blackwell doesn’t seem care much (see Politico, I can’t find the link right now).

We’ve got a Party to restructure and we don’t need side issues like this crap (which frankly I could care less about other than it costs time and focus, and that I care a lot about).

Saltsman, and Dawson for the same reason, should drop out of the race. Neither of them are so much better than Blackwell/Steele/Anuzis that we should have to even think twice about tolerating the level of stupidity that gets us into this conversation in the first place.

As far as Duncan is concerned, him taking credit for Chambliss based on his programs at RNC while ducking any responsibility for the disasters in ’06 and ’08 is beyond the pale. The guy has to be flat stupid to think he’d get away with that. I agree that the problem in both elections was Bush. McCain didn’t help matters one bit either, but back to my point, Duncan was claiming that the reason for the win was him. Specifically,

At the RNC, we have spent the past two years investing in programs, technology, and training staff and volunteers on the basic fundamentals of winning elections. Chambliss’ victory yesterday demonstrates the value of those investments and proves that Republicans still know to win elections.

Duncan doesn’t get a pass on a statement that is that blatantly stupid and frankly anybody who would say something like that deserves to never work in politics again.

As far as killing the brand and resurrecting it, Saltsman, Dawson and Duncan have put themselves out of the running.

and Duncan is a good fundraiser…but that’s just part of his job…the RNC should decide how best to spend the funds raised…and crafting a unified message about who and what Republicans are, and stand for…he did not do thin in 2006 or 2008 and doesn’t show any indication thathe will going forward…the reeducation of the lessons of Carter and Reagan has to start with the leadership of the Republican Party, Mike Duncan being the chief incompetent, Mike Duncan…they don’t understand the lessons of Carter and Reagan so how can they educate anyone else about them?

The “Big Tent” analogy isn’t the correct one…the correct one is a MAGNET…we need to be a MAGNET that draws these independents in who are sick and tired of what’s going on in Washington—Fred Thompson

gets away with because of the media’s covering their butts, that will never happen for us on the Right. So we have to be smarter about what we say and who we say it to so it won’t come back to bite our unprotected butts.

Personally, I think it’s a good idea to only say or write what you don’t mind getting out there in the public venue. Making it as impervious to misinterpretation as possible just means you will speak more plainly and won’t be spending time trying to defend some unfettered stupid remarks. And if something strikes you as not being a good idea to say out loud–then don’t.

in any reproduceable form that you don’t want on the front page of the newspaper that hates you most. It is such a simple lesson, yet Republican “politicians” never seem to learn it.

Why feed the MSMDNCHOLLYWOOD monster by stepping up as the RNC Chair and presumed leader for that position again going forward and giving it credibility by attacking your opponent who shot himself in the foot and feeding into the enemy propaganda?

Duncan and Saltsman should both be disqualified from consideration for their judgment in this situation…they both have shown a total; lack of common sense as far as I’m concerned!

The “Big Tent” analogy isn’t the correct one…the correct one is a MAGNET…we need to be a MAGNET that draws these independents in who are sick and tired of what’s going on in Washington—Fred Thompson

Saltsman didn’t put out a racist CD. Kerry *did* vote against body armor for the troops.

that the point of the parody is to show that it is the left, not the right, that is obsessed with skin color and that is what Saltsman’s response should be. Still time left for more examples of liberal race-based laws and policies in a commercial.

Duncan sould be ostracized for using a lying lib msm meme that republicans are racists against a fellow republican.

It doesn’t have to be bad, it just needs to look bad.

Some of the comments I’ve read here remind me of the just ended 2008 POTUS election. There were weeks and weeks of polling data showing an Obama win, yet there were many explanations for why it all had to be wrong; we had our own numbers which showed a McCain win. And come the night of Nov. 4th many expressed shock and surprise that McCain lost.

My point is that when you look at an issue and only see it from your perspective, you will half the battle to win the argument. Mike Duncan may be the incompetent under whose watch the GOP lost very important elections, but at least he is savvy enough to see the pitfalls in having a racially-tinged issue that is tied to the prospective head of the GOP. Again, when we fall on our own swords and blame the MSM for it, along with everything else they actually ARE biased about then we diminish our credibility; it called Crying Wolf.

-nt-

It’s free to members, and you can download or listen here.

He’s also got about a dozen other CDs you can buy. By the way, it isn’t a “magic negro” CD, even though you could never tell that from the commentary here and elsewhere. This parody is a single track out of over forty tracks on the CD.

This is his site:

http://www.paulshanklin.com/

I just perused your history and checked your web site and I’m sure you consider yourself conservative but your rhetoric says something entirely different…

Your writings seem to be centered on the lack of black participation in our party which is true but you insist on saying it’s because of racism on our part…I would say the facts say something entirely different…the prominence of conservative blacks such as JC Watts, Michael Steele, Condelisa Rice, Ken Blackwell, Clarence Thomas and even Collin Powell etc. tell a different story entirely . We celebrate these individuals not as Black individuals but as successful people who have achieved their positions of prominence based on their own merits and not because of affirmative action or quotas or threats and intimidation from race hustlers like Alo Sharpton or Jesse Jackson…

Saltsman is a moron for playing into the stereotype and Duncan is an idiot for perpetuating the stereotype by trying to capitalize on Saltsman’s missteps..We lose with either one of them because they are unmittigated asses. and we lose as a party not because we are all racists but because we are lead by such unmitigated asses!

The “Big Tent” analogy isn’t the correct one…the correct one is a MAGNET…we need to be a MAGNET that draws these independents in who are sick and tired of what’s going on in Washington—Fred Thompson

… largely because that’s what they’re supposed to say. They see it on the news day in and day out from the talking heads that partisanship is bad and “Bipartisanship” is good. They’re sold this impression that “Bipartisan” is synonymous with “good.”

Bush’s “New Tone” and McCain’s “Bipartisanship” were based on this flawed premise … that Americans know, or care enough about politics to actually know when a politician is being restrained, that the average American follows politics and current events close enough to know whose fault it is that this or that happened.

Most have no idea what is going on, and what partisanship has to do with it. A huge percentage cannot tell you who is control of Congress, the name of their Senators, Governors, Congressman, etc. Heck, a lot can’t even tell you who the Vice President is.

So how anyone can expect them to know what the latest bone of contention is on the floors of Congress? Or what this or that controversy is really about unless the media actually takes the time to explain the issue thoroughly enough for the non-Beltway denizen to understand – which hardly ever happens?

Americans are not sick of the partisanship. Heck, they’re not even aware of it.

Only a fool would look at the rejection of the maverick McCain in favor of the party hack Obama as a rejection of partisanship.

Anyone who berates us for being tone-deaf to the sensibilities of racists, I don’t necessarily want voting with me. Maybe I want them voting for the party of “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.”

PoliticalSeason is absolutely correct when he says that the GOP is tone deaf. It is amazing to me that anyone could send out a CD, parody or not, entitled “We Hate America,” containing a song called “Barack the Magic Negro,” even if originally written as a commentary on liberal racial hangups, is either tone deaf or just out-and-out stupid.

And this time, the guy who did it is someone running for RNC Chairman. And the really sad thing is is that some people here — dare I say, Republicans — even while they may agree that it was dumber for Saltsman to send out the CD, are madder at the MSM for reporting it. Quite frankly, the MSM should have reported it: it is news!

It might not have been racist, but it certainly was STUPID!

And to the second issue that PoliticalSeason attempts to bring up — and this somewhat follows up with what others on this page have brought up regarding reaching out — the Republican Party is insensitive to Black voters. And quite frankly, the Republican Party insults are intelligence. But the interesting thing about that is, Republicans do it by not sticking to their (supposedly conservative) principles.

In response that something Eric recently wrote, I was going to write a diary on RedState called:

“How Thad McCotter proves that Republicans are racists!”

Now let me first say that I do not think Thad McCotter is a racist. Nor, for that matter, do I think that most Republicans and/or conservatives are racists. (Although there are some, a very few, racists within the Republican ranks, they truly are extremely rare but to deny that they exist is foolish on are part: but regardless, that is another issue.)

But why I think Thad McCotter “proves” that the Republican are racists is because he was willing to abandon his conservative principles in support of an auto package that in the short-term would benefit his mostly White constituency. (In the long-term I would argue that the auto bailout would be to the detriment of the auto industry but that is also another issue.) Just using McCotter as an example, it seems to many Black people — and a few non-Blacks that I know — that conservatives and/or Republicans are not for less government; they are for less government for Blacks and other non-Whites. Pay people in urban areas not to work (whose “beneficiaries are thought of as “Black” or at least not White) and we have “welfare” that we must reformed, if not completely done away with. But pay people in rural areas not to work (whose “beneficiaries” are thought of as “White” or at least not Black) and we have a “legitimate government program designed to preserve the family farm.”

Do you really think Blacks (and others) don’t notice that type of hypocrisy?

And while I do not think the motivation is racist, Republican politicians are simply taking care of/bribing their constituencies who just happen to be mostly White, it sure does look that way.

Indeed, the interesting thing about Thad McCotter’s misguided support for the auto bailout was that he could argue that he largess (at taxpayers’ expense) would benefit Blacks, too. However, while true, it still does not change from the basic fact of how “constituency services” work and how, when Republicans use them in support of their mostly White constituencies while simultaneously arguing for “less government” makes them look like hypocrites and racists.

And, yes, Republicans seem to be totally insensitive to that.

And for those who asked how can the GOP reach out to Blacks and other Minorities, my answer is simple: be more principled. Decry both “welfare” and “agricultural subsidies” as well as “auto bailouts” and whatnot; and when the opportunities present themselves, vote against them.

(I also argue that conservatives and Republicans don’t realize and/or want to admit who generally-speaking are the most conservative elements within the Black community: “Black nationalists” such as myself. But that is an argument that I have had hear before and I really don’t want to get into again at the moment. Maybe later. Happy New Year!)

So you’re going to quit and give up on the party Reagan fought so hard for conservatives to have a say in?

Have it your way, but some of us want conservatives to have more of a say, not less. Independents count for zilch.

the only thing I can think of he was trying for some bad press like Paris Hilton or Brittany Spears – no press is bad press theory – may fly in Hollywood but not the GOP. I still think Chip Saltsman is a good guy but that was not a good move

In all fairness, Huckabee would never have gotten as far as he did without Saltsman.

The “Big Tent” analogy isn’t the correct one…the correct one is a MAGNET…we need to be a MAGNET that draws these independents in who are sick and tired of what’s going on in Washington—Fred Thompson