Meghan McCain: "Old School" Republicans Are "Scared Sh**less"

Speaking to an affectionate crowd of Log Cabin Republicans on Saturday evening, Meghan McCain ridiculed the party her father headed this past election, declaring that "old school Republicans" were "scared shitless" of the changing landscape.

The Senator's daughter, who has quickly become something of an iconic figure in the gay conservative community since the end of the election, took repeated shots at the GOP for its antiquated mores.

"I feel too many Republicans want to cling to past successes," said McCain. "There are those who think we can win the White House and Congress back by being 'more' conservative. Worse, there are those who think we can win by changing nothing at all about what our party has become. They just want to wait for the other side to be perceived as worse than us. I think we're seeing a war brewing in the Republican Party. But it is not between us and Democrats. It is not between us and liberals. It is between the future and the past."

Later, she called out those officials in the Republican tent who insist that tactical improvements, technology and brass-knuckle politicking are the path back to relevance.

"Simply embracing technology isn't going to fix our problem," she said. "Republicans using Twitter and Facebook isn't going to miraculously make people think we're cool again. Breaking free from obsolete positions and providing real solutions that don't divide our nation further will. That's why some in our party are scared. They sense the world around them is changing and they are unable to take the risk to jump free of what's keeping our party down."

The remarks, delivered at the Log Cabin Republican's national convention in Washington D.C., drew healthy applause and the occasional high-pitched whistling. McCain, at one point, declared herself a proud member of the GOP. But her pot shots at the Republican Party and its flashier figures were not thinly veiled. Describing her public tiff with Ann Coulter as non-delicate, she went on to refer to the brash conservative talker as "overly partisan and divisive." Later in the speech she insisted that "most of our nation wants our nation to succeed" - a pretty clear dig at the now-infamous remarks of talk radio host Rush Limbaugh.

As for the GOP establishment, McCain described it as a "party that was thriving at one point on a few singular issues" but could no longer "see long-term success."

"We've seen how it has contributed to some serious problems in our nation and world," McCain said, in an apparent reference to the government under GOP control. "Let me blunt, you can't assume you're electing the right leaders to handle all the problems facing our nation when you make your choice based on one issue. More and more people are finally getting that."

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Comments

[T.W. Hudgens]

02:17 PM on 04/24/2009

Now this is obvious!... Just listen to the jibberish that's being spewed on national TV and radio these days. At least Ms. McCain is honest.

[iLogos]

10:46 AM on 04/24/2009

Somebody needs to shut her up. If they start listening to her they may start being relevant again, and then we might not have a solid Democratic majority for the next decade to quarter century.

Remember Republicans, Gays, Guns, and God. Those are your main issues, you ignore that pretty little thing and stick to what has worked for you in the past. It is all about Wedge Issues! You guys don't believe in evolution anyway. She has the Devil inside her.

[pelemargo]

08:20 PM on 04/23/2009

Meghan was awesome on The View this morning. As a lifelong Dem she might be the first Rep I would consider supporting if she chose to run for national office-as I live in CA. SEH should be leading the Rep party if they ever want to make progress!!!!!-Barbara

[hunt49]

05:29 PM on 04/23/2009

Talking sense to a brick wall doesn't really make much difference, Meghan. Good for you for saying it, but its not going to accomplish much.

Case in point? Try talking sense to the post below mine, fairlymay. I can guarantee the outcome.

[fairlymay]

12:10 PM on 04/23/2009

Meghan McCain was just on the View spewing her left winged approach to the "New Republican Party". She is at best a confused Democrat and at worst, my fear, part of the left-winged hijacking of my Republican Party. My republican party that brings protection of innocent life, border protection, fiscal responsibility, energy independence, problem solving, and WHAT IS BEST FOR THE UNITED STATES to the forefront of all policies. I believe her father was our presidential candidate because the left (ACORN and other big-money entities) voted in our primaries and left the right looking like a jerked over version of the big D - party. A real republican will start the motor running again, and watch out you idiots on the left. You think you were angry with Bush and were able to mobilize your media to say whatever you wanted, just wait until the very much relevant right-winged machine starts humming again. Just wait until we start making our voices heard against the attrocities of a bend over and take it policy of Obama! He's a joke and history will show how harmful belittling the office of the president of the US has been. The tea parties are just the beginning!

[ltyler01]

03:22 PM on 04/23/2009

No my friend..the jokes on you.

You're the type that McCain was referring to. You guys don't know who you are or where you're going.

You probably couldn't define what a "real republican is.

The tea parties were a joke. With all the grandstanding and hoopla you guys gained absolutely nothing. Until you brought it up the world has forgotten all about it and moves on.

All us libs along with the straddlers like McCain are laughing at you.

You all are far out numbered, out gamed. and out maneuvered.

[fairlymay]

12:51 PM on 04/24/2009

Just where has all this manuvering, as you put it, gotten the country? Our emperor has no clothes on and you all are running around like good little puppets proclaiming how wonderfully he and his band of puppeteers are dressed. Strap in for a ride to the land of high taxes and unbounded inflation and trade in your ability to make something of yourself by going to college and finding a good job for long lines at the hospital and long lines at the bread counter before this fool is through..... Unless me and my like minded friends who have a brain and an answer for all this can stop the train wreck you call a government. Just because your bought and paid for media say the Tea parties meant nothing (repeatedly) doesn't mean we're not organized, determined, full of purpose (of doing the right thing for our country)and yes, funded. Good luck with the puppet show and prepare to stand aside as the country's problems get solved in spite of your spite. Wake up my friend before Obama's friend Mr. Chavez comes marching in to take ALL your money and tell you he will take good care if you while programming the media to say all positive things about him..... Oh wait, why does that sound familiar?

[dontvote4him]

09:37 PM on 04/22/2009

Is her 15 minutes over yet?

[playsindirt]

08:57 PM on 04/22/2009

I think she's dead on. I know my parents (standard issue old/rich/white Repubs) seem almost hysterical that Obama was elected. I think it's really amusing.

[JnrNorman]

08:46 PM on 04/22/2009

She reminds me of Paris Hilton
Never worked a real job.
Barry Goldwater was right years ago accept gay people into the party.


http://www.willthomas.net/Chemtrails/Image_Library/index_3.htm

[jabreal00]

07:55 PM on 04/22/2009

A gay Republican that's an oxymoron. Republicans are explicitly against homosexuality on "moral.y" and religiously. That is their stated platform. Those Gay Republicans must be masochists. It's like an African American being a Dixiecrat or a supporter of United Daughters of the Confederacy, Somali pirates fans of US Navy Seals, American Pit Bull Terriers fans of Michael Vick.

I am just a square heterosexual male, maybe I don't know the real inside scoop. Can someone fill me in?

[busterbrownthefirst]

12:50 PM on 04/23/2009

You're right, but there is no inside scoop, Jacko. I am just a square heterosexual female, and in fact have a pedigree that makes me eligible for DAR membership, but even I can figure out that gay Republicans are completely bonkers.

[busterbrownthefirst]

12:51 PM on 04/23/2009

Oops, forgot to say your post is hilarious.

[MickyPost]

07:02 PM on 04/22/2009

We need a new 3rd party, be Bull Moose, Objectivist, or something else. but the old GOP can just wither and die in time. while the new GOP can move forward. I voted for Obama for these exact reasons Meghan talked about. the old GOP picked that bible thumping albatross called Palin. When the GOP did that it signaled to me that they were stuck in the mud and i had to vote for Obama. maybe in 4 years the GOP can reform itself into a better party or new platform to actually give Obama a run for his money next time. But, until then i am a man without a party of any kind.

[Guytar]

05:08 PM on 04/22/2009

Meghan McCain is at least throwing out some interesting ideas for Republicans to think about. She is young and naive in many ways, but she gets it in some important ways. Republicans have much work to do if they want to challenge the charisma of the Obama administration in years to come. Meghan knows this at a gut level. She knows how her peers think about politics today. I don't mind if Republicans can rise to become an effective opposition. We will need that in years to come. Most of us know that folks like O'Reilly, Limbaugh, and Coulter are just dead weight now. Republicans need new ideas. Democrats will have years of dominance in politics now, but there is much that true Republicans can do to help the national debate. As the daughter of John McCain, Meghan should be out of the loop now, but she manages to upset her own royal hierarchy, and that is interesting in itself. I was quite sympathetic about her concerns that Karl Rove was stalking her on Twitter. Karl denies it of course. As he would. I'm sure Meghan knows better.

[booboo111]

07:18 PM on 04/22/2009

Give her a year or two and she'll be a democrat.....she's growing up fast.

[Guytar]

08:28 PM on 04/22/2009

It doesn't matter if Meghan McCain is Republican or Democrat in a year or two. What really matters is that young people find their own voice and express themselves. Karl Rove - this does not mean you or your recent discovery of Twitter after your staff spent hours patiently explaining it to you.

[tazmopoliskepticalopsis]

04:45 PM on 04/22/2009

I have to laugh when she says that the GOP was once "cool". It was NEVER "cool"!

The GOP has, for the last 50 years or more, represented social Darwinism, religious fanaticism, corporatism, and a stodgy, backwards-looking belief that things were so much better in the "old days" before the 1960s.

Hello? The GOP is obviously for people who have no knowledge of history or sociology.

I applaud McCain for her forthrightness but the GOP will never change, because change is precisely what the GOP stands squarely against!

I she wants change, she should form a new Progressive Party ... Teddy Roosevelt did.

[BartLA]

03:40 PM on 04/22/2009

A time will come when the religious right will lose its stranglehold. It's already begun.

[PassingShot]

02:50 PM on 04/22/2009

Megan may be ridiculed, but she is a fresh young face for the Republicans and she is getting attention. I don't see the Republican Party recovering with voices like Limbaugh, Gingrich, Cheney, McConnell and Palin leading the way, and the likes of Hannity and Beck in their corner. With her Dad's help, I'm sure she'll do a lot to shake up the GOP.

[kepary]

02:43 PM on 04/22/2009

the only Republican that this girl ever voted for was her liberal father...

[jnah]

03:47 PM on 04/22/2009

mccain liberal? are you high?