So much for the big tent

Social conservatives want any person seeking election as a Republican to sign a pledge of support for every last sentence of the GOP state party platform, Topeka Statehouse political observer Martin Hawver wrote in an Eagle commentary. It seems that the social conservatives are trying to push out those they consider RINOs (Republican in Name Only), leaving only the “Real Republicans.” But as Hawver noted, they can’t stop someone from filing for office as a Republican, and most voters have no idea what is in the platform (and may not agree with all of it themselves). “As a result,” Hawver writes, “Republicans might actually fracture their party over something that the majority of Republican voters won’t ever see or hear about.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee

11 Comments

  1. Steven E.
    Posted December 1, 2005 at 11:14 am | Permalink

    What was Lee Atwater [Karl Rove's mentor] used to say, “Never interrupt your opponent when they are busy committing suicide.”

    I’d stick around, but I think I have other things to do!

  2. Ben Huie
    Posted December 1, 2005 at 11:23 am | Permalink

    I hope the GOP thoroughly cleanses itself of ALL RINOs and that those RINOs vote Democratic in the next election.

  3. Steven E.
    Posted December 1, 2005 at 2:51 pm | Permalink

    I was approached once by a local Republican organization that was attempting to stack the Sedgwick County precinct committeman/committewoman positions with Republicans sympathetic to their pro-choice and feminist leanings. Nancy Landon-Kassebaum-Baker was a board member for their organization.

    I recall remarking to these folks that their positions sounded like they were more closely atuned to the Democratic Party. They disagreed with me quite strongly. Can you guess the basis of their argument to the contrary?

    Yep. They weren’t Democrats “because they won elections in Kansas!”

    Maybe the radical right element of the Kansas GOP can help change that.

  4. TRACY
    Posted December 1, 2005 at 5:18 pm | Permalink

    STEVEN-

    Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.

    Napoleon Bonaparte

  5. Steven E.
    Posted December 1, 2005 at 7:50 pm | Permalink

    Tracy,Thanks. The ever so principled Lee Atwater appears to have stolen “his” famous line.

    “Plagerize, plagerize, let no one’s work evade your eyes”Tom Lehrer

  6. RD
    Posted December 1, 2005 at 7:57 pm | Permalink

    plagiarize

  7. Steven E.
    Posted December 1, 2005 at 8:07 pm | Permalink

    Thanks. Having troulbe (sic) with my spelling today.

  8. k
    Posted December 1, 2005 at 9:59 pm | Permalink

    Allow me to translate the newest GOP BS. “We will not tolerate any party member with the audacity to think for themselves.”

  9. writerdog
    Posted December 2, 2005 at 2:46 am | Permalink

    I guess I am a RINO, gee I hope they do not miss me or my vote!

  10. TRACY
    Posted December 2, 2005 at 12:38 pm | Permalink

    Pretty soon the GOP leaders will be in the same situation as Germany’s leaders in the last days of WWII?

  11. k
    Posted December 2, 2005 at 4:55 pm | Permalink

    Tracy, we can only hope.