Before Red County’s Tomahwak gets taken to the re-education camps, I wanted to commend him on his post in Red County.com today. (calm down conservatives; it was a joke).
The California Republican Party is in a state of financial disarray. Here’s what Tomahawk said:
Aside from losing nearly 170,000 registered Republicans from the state’s voters roll last year, the CRP just cannot seem to get itself out of the financial mess that is hurting the party’s operation. The state party has about $3.2 million cash-on-hand, but that number is also saddled by $3.4 million of unpaid bills. Furthermore, in its federal account, the CRP listed a $34,000 balance with nearly $460,000 in debts.
On top of this, a major party donor who may have been a financial white knight to the CA GOP might withhold the dough. In a letter to party chair Ron Nehring, Larry Dodge, the CEO of American Sterling, outlined compliants about a lack of accountability by the party’s management, and strategic mistakes in not allowing DTS/independents to vote in the Republican Primary last week.
You know its bad when Hillary Clinton kicks John McCain’s butt in OC, and crushes OC GOP Party Favorite Mitt Romney by an even wider margin. So another claim debunked. This Party can’t keep its own fiscal house in order and we’re supposed to trust them as the party of fiscal responsibility?
I agree, the CA and OC GOP are a mess. But the OC Dems are not much better. The Democrats on the Santa Ana City Council, with the notable exception of MIchele Martinez, are the WORST local elected officials in our county, by far. And many OC Dems endorsed Mike Carona in his last race. So too did many of them help defeat the OC Measure D, which had to do with funding the OC Fire Authority. And many OC Dems endorsed Chriss Street too.
If the OC Dems want to point fingers at the OC GOP, they need to clean house first. They can start by helping to remove Pulido and his hacks from office in Santa Ana. But of course the main problem there will be your party chair, Frank Barbaro, who is Pulido’s lawyer. Frank always makes sure that Pulido gets endorsed.
And stop endorsing GOP candidates like Carona and Street! That is just plain inexcusable! If you don’t have a horse in the race, either stay out or back a moderate Reep, but don’t back the Reeps Mike Schroeder and his machine are trying to elect.
Lastly, it is just damn embarrassing that the OC Dems could not field a Latino candidate in the First Supervisorial District, last year or this year. I expect the Reeps to be lame in that regard, but not the Dems. If you guys would stop electing hacks like Pulido and company, your shelf would not be so bare.
Art, what does your rant have to do with the Democratic Party being the party of fiscal responsibility?
Dan:
You’ve traveled far beyond the borders of the Land of Logic and Reason.
The financial troubles of a single state Republican Party have exactly zippo relationship to GOP fiscal policies and principles.
Keep stretching logic beyond the breaking point, Dan. It’s fun to watch.
Matt —
Its not a stretch at all; your state party can’t manage its own finances well, but wants to convince the rest of us its the party of fiscal responsibility.
Its even more fun to watch you paint yourself into a corner.
Your state party lost more than 100,000 registered voters; voter turnout was down significantly in the primary and Hillary Clinton kicked tail of both Republican canddiates. GOP principles are not followed and your party can only sell fear as a way to hold onto power.
Its not a stretch at all;
Dan:
You can say the sky is purple over and over. That doesn’t make it so.
But you’re right: it isn’t stretched logic. It is non-existent logic.
I or an other Republican can find a state Democratic Party that is in financial trouble and make the equally ludicrous claim that it is evidence the Democratic party has no business touting itself as the party of fiscally responsibility.
It would be refreshing if you could present something remotely resembling evidence to back up this absurd claim, instead of the usual resort to bromides and left-wing cliches.
Read your own blog Matt. The story was posted there and its on Total Buzz too…I just took it a step further.
Please make some sense!
Did I say the state GOP is NOT having financial difficulties?
YOU took that fact and spun into a completely illogical conclusion.
Jubal,
Dan did not just “pick some state”! This is California!
Your state! The state of Carona, Schroeder, Fleishman, Haidel, Matt and Jubal. If Orange County is the Reddist in the nation shouldn’t it pull its financial and political weight? Shouldn’t California be delivering reep voters and not loosing them?
Your grandstanding Matt.
“Did I say the state GOP is NOT having financial difficulties?”
NO, Tomahwak did on your blog. There’s an AP story out there that says the same thing.
Facts are: The California State GOP is in realy financial trouble. And the California conservatives are always claiming the mantel as the party of fiscal responsibility.
Let me put it this way: would you get a mortgage from New Century now?
Do you ever notice how often Jubal and the other Republican appartchiks accuse people of being crazy in one way or another? They claim to be the party of responsibility, and if you every question them on their failure to do more than pay lip service to their core values, you’re “off your meds” or “beyond the borders of the Land of Logic and Reason”.
Truth be told the Republicans borrow and spend, borrow and spend, engage in extraordinarily wasteful crony capitalism, and then claim to be the party of fiscal responsibility.
And when their icons turn out to be crooks, and their economic plans double the national debt so our children and grandchildren can fund their greed, we’re the ones who are crazy.
And they never answer questions about what kind of sense it makes to pay for an endless war in the mideast with tax cuts from the rich and borrowing from China.
Art– You’re off topic and message…again. Your points are old and have been responded to previously.
But just curious, you mention Frank Barbaro is Miguel Pulido’s lawyer.
What do you or your pajarito base that on?
Dan–I’m not sure we want to go down this road. I would submit that based on the vice grip the GOP had on spending up and down Pennsylvania Avenue that the Democrats under Clinton and even pay as you go Pelosi can better claim the party of fiscal responsibility.
I am sure there have been state Democratic party organizations(and county ones too) who have either gone into the red or were flat broke. And that would not mean the Democrats were not the party of fiscal responsibility.
It’s good to raise the issue based on congressional and executive branch performance or lack thereof by the GOP but Party organizations in California have historically been weak. Its a down cycle for the GOP and investors know it, hence the budget problems for the Party who really has limited juice.
You’re getting deeper into this than you should. The state GOP has major financial problems; its a fact. The state GOP claims to be better than Democrats at fiscal responsibility. I’m just illustrating a line from point A to point B and suggesting fact differs from rhetoric.
I would submit that Democrats have different spending priorities than Republicans do but that doesn’t make them fiscally irresponsible.
And Storm, I haven’t exactly heard the GOP plan for cutting a number of corporate welfare programs from the state budget.
northcountystorm,
I cannot name the pajaritos, but I have heard that about Barbaro and Pulido from numerous sources, on many occasions.
My point by the way was that the OC Dems are no better than the OC GOP. Statewide, the GOP is becoming an endangered species (perhaps we will have to start breeding the Republicans like we did the Condors). But the statewide Dems have been a Godawful joke, for the most part. Have you already forgotten Gray Davis and Cruz Bustamante? Or Don Perata and Fabian Nunez?
Your party really needs to clean house. In Sacramento and in the OC. Stop electing unethical Dems who aren’t public servants! Then maybe you will have the right to poke at the Reeps. They might be bankrupt and socially retarded, but most of them are preferable to the Dems I named above. Moreover, you would have to look real hard to find locally elected Reeps who are even close to being as bad as Pulido and his cabal. Well, maybe the Trannies…
Art, Davis, Bustamante are out of office; Nunez and Perata are lame ducks and out by January. I’m a little confused about what else Dems are supposed to do?
Then again, I live in Irvine where Democratic leaders are doing a great job.
Art— You really should have a higher standard than a gossip column. If you can’t document the relationship why not ask either Pulido or Barbaro? Or is fact checking too much to ask?
As for the Democrats, they are doing pretty good thank you –registration is up, new leadership is coming to power, nationally Dems are expected to piuck up between 10-15 House seats and 2-5 Senate seats and the White House. I don’t expect losses in California.
You can take the cheap shots but ultimately a Party is rewarded or punished for their record on election day. I’m comfortable with the voters judgement, which at times has been harsh for the Democrats but I suspect not in 2008.
northcountystorm,
Your attitude is pretty arrogant. The Dems in California, and particularly in Santa Ana, have much to answer for. Just because some of the awful politicians have been termed out, by the voters, doesn’t mean you guys don’t have blood on your hands.
I will say however that Perata’s replacement appears to be a decent guy, and a step in the right direction. At last.
Dan, just…asking, Aunt Millie:
Is the use of logical thinking too much to ask?
Dan is claiming that since a particular state Republican Party organization is having financial difficulties, therefore the Republican philosophy of government is invalid.
The problem is one simply does not follow from the other, no matter how much Dan, just…asking or Aunt Millie want it to.
All political party organizations, whether at the federal, state or local level, encounter financial problems from time time, stemming from a variety of reasons. But it has little bearing either parties’ fitness to govern.
But it has little bearing either parties’ fitness to govern.
Given the actions of GOP electeds at the local and federal level their fitness to govern is no longer in question.
and not just from a financial point of view; Flash Report took Abel Maldonado to task for voting for the budget last year eventhough he represents a district that’s not hard core conservative. The message Jon sent is its more important for Republicans to stick together on issues than it is to represent the wishes of the people who elected you. Its thinking like this that makes the GOP unfit to govern in CA
Matt/Jubal,
The Green, or Peace and Freedom parties may in fact be the most fit to govern. They don’t because…
They don’t have enough winning candidates,
not enough state financial resources,
not enough new registered voters,
they don’t have positions that are supported by a majority of voters.
Sounds a lot like CA GOP!
Matt Cunningham, writing as a Heinlein fan says,
Dan is claiming that since a particular state Republican Party organization is having financial difficulties, therefore the Republican philosophy of government is invalid.
What would that Republican philosophy of government be, and where and when is it exercised at the federal level? Cronyism, incompetence, massive debts, taxes passed onto future generations so our kids and grandkids can pay them. War without ends with a constantly shifting justification? A million Iraqi civilian casualties, millions more displaced in the name of democracy.
That is the Republican philosophy of government as demonstrated by Bush and his defenders.
The state party is reaping what Bush has sown.
Just so you guys know,
No one atthe OC GOP has taken up my challenge yet to match the DPOC donations to wounded warriors witht eir flag day event proceeds.
Aunt Millie:
Again, I ask: is the use of logic to much to ask?
Or is is just easier to keep changing the subject?
Matt,
Will you ever answer one question?
What is this Republican philosophy of government you espouse, and where is it demonstrated in the Bush administration?
Bonus question for movement conservatives.
What does that commandment that includes the words “Thou shalt not kill” mean to you?