Internal GOP Fight Over Next RNC Chair

UPDATE: Newt Gingrich denies reports of a fight and bows out of the race for RNC chair. Fox News reports:

Michael Steele, former lieutenant governor of Maryland, has decided to run for the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee and is in talks with Newt Gingrich to win the former House speaker's endorsement, FOX News learned Tuesday.

Steele declined to comment, but a source close to the situation said Steele would announce his candidacy as early as Thursday.

The source also contradicted a report in Tuesday's Washington Times that Steele and Gingrich were competing for the RNC post.

"There is no fight," the source said. "This tension between Michael Steele and Newt Gingrich is totally fabricated and, in fact, Gingrich and Steele are working together to create a new strategy for the direction of the GOP."

In a statement issued by the former House speaker, Gingrich said he was not interested in seeking the post of Republican Party chairman.

"A number of people have asked me to consider running for Republican National Committee chair. They have been very flattering, and I am very honored by their support," he said.

"However, my job as an American first is to develop a tri-partisan approach to developing solutions for the challenges we face. I use the word tri-partisan to designate the concept of attracting Democrats, Republicans, and independents to solutions that unify most Americans."

The Washington Times reports:

A behind-the-scenes battle to take the reins of the Republican National Committee is taking off between former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele.

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Neither man will acknowledge his interest in the post, but Republicans close to each are burning up the phone lines and firing off e-mails to fellow party members in an effort to oust RNC Chairman Mike Duncan in the wake of the second consecutive drubbing of Republican candidates at the polls.

The New York Times adds:

Mr. Duncan was installed by Mr. Bush, and the fight over his post reflects the effort by many party leaders to erase any remnant of the Bush legacy.

These struggles come as the party prepares for a broad ideological battle, in particular over how much to emphasize social issues like opposition to abortion rights and gay rights. Party leaders said the focus on those issues had constricted the party's appeal to moderate and independent voters more interested in jobs, health care, education and other issues that touch their lives in more concrete ways.

"We can't be obsessed with issues that are not the issues that are important to American voters," said Jim Greer, the Florida Republican chairman and a likely candidate for national party leader.

Across the party, Republicans described this period as one of the toughest in recent history, reflected by the scope of the losses last Tuesday but also by the recriminations that have gripped the party as it seeks to learn lessons from Mr. McCain's defeat and Mr. Bush's presidency.

...

The most important question for Republicans in both the House and the Senate -- and for the future Republican chairman -- is how forcefully to take on Mr. Obama once he becomes president. Richard N. Bond, a former Republican chairman, said he thought the Congressional Republicans would -- and should -- take on Mr. Obama aggressively. Mr. Bond suggested that Republicans should not be deterred by the enthusiasm inspired by Mr. Obama's election, which he argued would be transitory.

"When people wake up from their Bush hangovers, six months from now," Mr. Bond said, "it is my belief that they are not going to be buying into some of the things that Obama will potentially be doing. You have a real potential for these guys making a fundamental misjudgment of this election. They just didn't want George Bush anymore."

But Mr. Gingrich, a veteran of what turned out to be damaging Republican wars with President Bill Clinton in 1993 and 1994, cautioned against that, saying the party would be wiser to offer a broad idea of what it stood for and how it would lead the country, and pick its battles carefully.

Sam Stein wrote for the Huffington Post recently about the split within the Republican Party over how to work with President Obama.

Comments

[BlueStateMan]

I think it's a WONDERFUL idea for he RNC to go back to the beginnings of it's downfall.... perhaps they can disinter Terri Schiavo & start THAT all over again, too.

[JettaBostonian]

They will have to have 8 or 9 prayer breakfasts first.

Republicans can't do anything without a prayer breakfast.

[Liberal2]

You actually believe a rethug is praying when he's on his knees?

[guitrman]

Newt Gingrich: "We Need To Be Honest About The Level Of Failure For The Past Eight Years"

After what the republican party has done to the USA Newt wants to try honesty? mmmmm

Might take me awhile to believe that. I'll work on it. lol ha ha ha ah

[rebelrebel]

Clearly Newt means they need to be honest with each other. Being honest with the American people is clearly a different notion.

[BruceHNV]

And failure in their minds is not policy failure. It's messaging failure. They need better packaging for their useless ideas.

[ObamAtomic]

Who?Newt the reformer of the *Contract with America* and the benefactor of corporations and
lobbyist want to return to national politic,GOP and their leaders are not following the people's mandate.

[JettaBostonian]

Poor Republican base.

The Titanic has rammed the iceberg and is going down.

The base just realized that there are locked gates between their steerage accomodations and the life boats on the first class deck.

[rdiaz921]

whoa...

[Plank]

The GOP is, not only out of ideas, but they're also out of fresh faces.

[booboo111]

The GOP? What's that?!

[booboo111]

I think they were something like the Whigs, or Bull Moose party. One of those, cults that became obsolete.

[booboo111]

Something like the bull moose party or the whigs. One of those political parties that became obsolete.

[xrepublican]

This is like fighting over who gets to serve on the Titanic AFTER it hit the iceberg and is sinking....

Newt is just being smart........ let those remaining on deck fight over lifeboats... you're better off remaining on shore

[mincepies]

Kind of hilarious that Newt, the architect of the totally divisive, take no prisoners, do anything it takes to undermine the position of the opposition, GOP is now seen as a credible candidate to take over the RNC. The GOP needs to clean house - completely and utterly. The people leading the party have demonstrated such a level of corruption, dishonesty and incompetence in the course of pursuing the Gingrich philosophy at the expense of the people they are supposed to serve, that this is what its going to take to get back to being a credible political force.

The Republican rank and file should be trying to get him as far away from the party as possible! Churchill once said "America will always do the right thing once its exhausted all other alternatives". The signs are that quote will apply to the GOP for the next few years.

[IntelligentDesign]

Elephant in the room: Iraq war crime

Either we face this problem head on or we die.

[319]

Newt you should have just stopped at "We need to be honest", period.

[Icantbelieveher]

"When people wake up from their Bush hangovers, six months from now," Mr. Bond said, "it is my belief that they are not going to be buying into some of the things that Obama will potentially be doing. You have a real potential for these guys making a fundamental misjudgment of this election. They just didn't want George Bush anymore."

Denial ain't just a river in Egypt!

Are you finally admitting that any republican would have been another 4 years of Bush?

[ENOS]

"When people wake up from their Bush hangovers, six months from now," Mr. Bond said, "it is my belief that they are not going to be buying into some of the things that Obama will potentially be doing. You have a real potential for these guys making a fundamental misjudgment of this election. They just didn't want George Bush anymore."

---Typical Republican statement, ignoring the intellence of Obama supporters. Most O supporters I know agree full-heartedly with his stated agenda. We'll just have to wait to see how effective he is in implementing them.

[KQuarksSuperKollider]

Welcome to the true America a Center - Left country.

72MM Registered Democrats.
55MM Registered Republicans.
42MM Registered Independents.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party_(United_States)

ENOUGH SAID!

The pendulum needs to swing back to where the country stands from the far right to the center left.

[ContraEgoiste]

Yup, yup,

Their ideology has been weighed, has been measured, and has been found wanting.



http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/11/one.party.poll/index.html

Americans OK with Democrats in charge, poll suggests

In a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Tuesday, 59 percent of those questioned think that Democratic control of both the executive and legislative branches will be good for the country, with 38 percent saying that such one-party control will be bad.

The poll also suggests that the public has a positive view of the Democratic Party, with 62 percent having a favorable opinion and 31 percent an unfavorable opinion.

That is not the case for the Republicans, with a majority, 54 percent, having an unfavorable view of the GOP and 38 percent holding a positive view.

"Same thing happens when you ask them about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Good-bad, 50-50, among voters who even know who they are," Schneider said.

It's a different story for the GOP, with just 24 percent approving of how Republican leaders are handling their jobs with nearly three in four disapproving.

[jdfast]

And Newt was the leader of the pack that started all this s--t with his Contract with America BS. That when the nasty stuff started. I sincerely hope they put in in charge of the party. He will pander the the far right bigots, rednecks and other assorted idiots that call the Republican party home. The deserve each other.

[Indubio]

You're right about Gingrich but his vicious attacks began a full 10 years earlier when he was first elected to Congress. The Contract on America was a culmination of work not the start of it.

[urnumbersix]

Introducing, the next Sarah Palin....Michael Steele!

Hey GOPs - picking a person solely because of his/her phenotype worked so well in the Presidential election - Let's Do It Again!

African-American Michael Steele is SURE to win over all the African-Americans that voted this November!
Yeah - that'll work. Yeah!

BWAAH! I need some entertainment. I hope the GOP names Steele head of the party. (SNL get a Steele impersonator lined up quick.) This will be Fun.

[WowJones]

Michael Steele, man on the Repub. Sunrise C:Users\De­sktop157_e­merge.jpg

[Plus15]

Michael Steele, you probably have to wonder about the only African American Right Winger who didn't get a paying job on Cable News during the election campaign. The cable news networks left no stone unturned in finding these remarkably silly shills.

[Indubio]

Steele and the other dozen of so blacks in high standing within the GOP are little more than tokens. I haven't been impressed with any black REpublican and they come off as being little more than ambitious people who figure they can be more influential in a party dominated by rich white men.

[macohmz]

I'm 56. I've been tracking politics since I was 16. Drawing political cartoons for my high school newspaper got me interested in politics. That and the terrible Vietnam years which took my older brother for a year. I know what war does to a family. That's why I've grown to despise warmongers like the human bile that compose the republican party and much of the democrat party. These people seem to think that war is the ultimate character builder. Their own personal moral character is in the toilet but by God let's send all these kids to war and when they come back they'll be much better people. It only works that way in the venal minds of those who have been given the authority to exploit common, ordinary Americans for the sake of personal gain. I have nothing but the deepest contempt for the republican party and my feelings about the democrats isn't much better.