John Weaver: GOP "Headed For A Blowout" In 2012 If Cheney, Limbaugh, Palin Lead

Another leading Republican strategist has voiced concerns about the direction of the GOP.

John Weaver, a top adviser to Utah Governor John Huntsman, said this week that the Republican party is headed for an electoral "blowout" if it continues to be defined by "Palin and Limbaugh and Cheney."

The Washington Examiner reported:

"If it's 2012 and our party is defined by Palin and Limbaugh and Cheney, then we're headed for a blowout," says strategist John Weaver, who advised Huntsman and was for years a close adviser to Sen. John McCain. "That's just the truth."

Until last week, Weaver was preparing for Utah Gov. John Huntsman's possible presidential run. Huntsman, who just accepted President Obama's invitation to become Ambassador to China, is a favorite of GOP moderates.

Weaver's comment is the latest in a series of calls from within the GOP for a more moderate tone. Last week, moreover, a National Journal poll of top GOP political insiders and strategists found last week that Republicans believe former Vice President Dick Cheney has hurt the party since leaving office.

Despite such warnings, top Republican leaders have continued to endorse the idea that Limbaugh and Cheney should represent the party.

John Boehner and Mitch McConnell, the House and Senate minority leaders, both expressed support for Cheney's attacks on President Obama during Sunday show appearances this weekend.

"It doesn't hurt us, it helps us," Boehner told CNN's "State of the Union." Boehner also said Cheney is a "big member in our party."

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Meanwhile, RNC Chairman Michael Steele responded to a question on NBC's "Meet the Press" about Washington Post writer Dan Balz's claim that Republicans 'wince' at Cheney by saying, "There was no wincing here; the vice president expressed his view."

For moderates like Weaver, the GOP leadership's continued support for conservative voices suggests bad things for the Republican party's future.

"I firmly believe that Huntsman and people like him are the prescription for what ails us," Weaver said. "But I have the feeling that our party maybe won't order that prescription in 2012."

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Comments

[indy girl]

WOW--John Weaver might actually be the only non-delusional member of the Republican party. Must be a lonely job.

[jswoody09]

oh Please maintain that confidence--that's the kind of clear thinking the GOP needs. More sharp minds coming to the forefront.

The GOP keeps demonstrating why they may never lead again

[conserv47]

vote LIBERTARIAN!!!!!

[research]

Vote Kucinich and his like in the democratic party.

Vote out the DLC DNIOs.

Libertarian party is just the Robber Barons party to further destroy the power of the federal governmnet, so Plutocracy can rule without interference.

[delagirl]

Is it just me, or does it seem odd that we are already discussing the 2012 election when it's still only 2009! I honestly don't remember the same sort of thing when Bush was in office.

[DragonFly]

- Boehner said Cheney is a "big member in our party." -

That's because he's the biggest Dick in your party, Mr. Boehner.

[Rickfors]

..and that's pretty small by other standards.

[missbike]

Blowout? The GOP has already imploded itself with the combination of graft and horrendous war crimes in the last administration along with Palin and Rushbo running their insane mouths. Oh- Cheney and Rove are now loose cannons and Fox news sendings it's viewers around yelling the term for a sex act at the top of it's lungs... What a joke the tatters of the party are.

Nobody anybody with any sense would want near nuclear warheads is going to run as a republican. Like Palin, it's just something to give the news comic relief. The writing's been on the wall, Jimmy Carter has been proven to have been absolutely correct, let's have new parties with new ideas. Greens and Libertarians should be covered by the news instead of being marginalized and Rushbo and Palin need to go to the attic.

Ex Republican, horrified by W and Co.'s behavior.

[Chickasaw962]

The GOP say's it wants to become the GNP They refuse to admit Americans are no longer dumping tea bags to protest our failing system they are dumping their bad mortgages in protest, If the republican base is raceist thats just gross and a sick feeling to know they survive in the y2K, the only voices I would consider listening to in the Republican party are C. Powell, Meghan McCain, and Mike Huckabee, they for sure tolerate the minority, both racial and the women and they dont promote gay bashing. I could see Powel/Huckabee as able to handle the pre election debates and interviews the likes Of Katie Couric will be giving. The debates for the next election cycle,... arent going to be for amateurs thats for sure, and its gonna be tough for even seasoned polticians to dodge answering the tough questions.

[unite4change]

Meghan McCain's only claim to fame is her name is McCain. Mike Huckabee has proven he can't be trusted. He's a go along to get along type of guy. Colin Powell allow the GOP to use him to lie us into a war.

All of them have credibility issues.

[missbike]

Meghan McCain is only a Republican bunny because of Daddy. She's not really very well educated and has led an extremely sheltered life. Nobody looks like Paris Hilton (see MM on the Colbert Report the other night? A fatter, giggling Paris) without a lot of spa time. And a good hair colorist.

Someday she may actually get to see how the other majority lives and turn more liberal in name as well as opinion. Until then she's too young and silly to be anything but a GOP mouth piece who writes what she's been told, for the most part. Reporting from Mom's private jet isn't reality.

The girl isn't stupid- she's just immature and clueless. She needs to grow out her real haircolor and spend a year in a working class neighborhood with a crappy job like the rest of us making the rent and seeing what groceries cost. A slow old computer and a Wal Mart wardrobe would get some reality brought to her blog quick.

General Powell isn't going to have much to do with the sinking ship of lunatics the GOP is- and Mike Huckabee is going to be unelectable once some of his religion and the magic underpants gets put out there. Big dead elephant.

[wakeup804]

Meghan McCain went to Columbia, same undergrad school as our President. Where did you get your facts from?

[chazmanr]

Magic Underpants - I think you are thinking of Romney, not Huckabee. That's a Mormon thing not a Baptist thing.

[SimianNation]

Yea...ok...sure thing...

[apikores]

"But I have the feeling that our party maybe won't order that prescription in 2012."

Insert Limbaugh/d­octor-shop­ping joke here

[flyers]

If you look at your republican history in the past 10 presidential elections, moderates like Bush Sr., Dole, and McCain, and Ford all lost, while conservatives like Reagan and Bush Jr all won 2 times.

In saying that, Palin to me shouldn't even be a candidate for the primary, but the party has to run on lower taxes and smaller government, but the key thing is they need someone who actually understands why this is better for the American people. It drives me crazy when I see a republican like McCain who runs on tax cuts like he did in '08, and deep down really doesn't believe it so it comes off as insincere.

[ibsteve2u]

"Palin and Limbaugh and Cheney" only voice what their fellow Republicans lack the courage to say: The Republicans exist only to accumulate wealth, and if wealth accumulation requires the utter destruction of this nation - and indeed the death of this planet - they are locked and loaded, and eager to finish the job.

[Chip W]

That's what I'm seeing too. The party of materialism.

[rpmcestmoi]

"Boehner thinks." Now that's a first. His alcohol bathed brain remains are incapable of thought. But his autonomic nervous system will still make him burst into tears after a liquid lunch. (is there any other
kind?) And as for Mitch, who may actually already been embalmed, oh, please. Let's see what the dynamic man of Steele "thinks".

[wakeup804]

Mitch looks like he is waiting to be caught for something he did in the past. He always has that look on his face, like" if X comes out, I am done". He is creepy looking, he reminds me of a person with a dark secret.

[Joseph Upton]

I love all this mock sincerity at giving the GOP "sound advice" on how to "win the next election". From Colin Powell, who GOT his ideal GOP candidate in McCain and then proceeded to endorse Obama; to these northeastern, "country club republicans" who believe in NOTHING, they all want to be "accepted at cocktail parties" by bashing those who believe in small government, individual responsibility, and just saying no to collectivism.

[smpj]

Yeah, those Dem's are here to help! But don't worry, the Party of Lincoln will be back. - just not next week. And do keep in mind, important survival skills are daily learned in the wilderness.

[CAMBEL]

Well then if the GOP doesn't like collectivism, I guess that all the republicans shouldn't have voted for Bush's first stimulus package. Only Nixon could go to China...only a republican could have turned the U.S. into a socialist country.

[smpj]

You're right. They are complicit in the direction.

[o4tuna]

Real Republican's don't believe in small government. They believe in weak government. They don't believe in individual responsibility, they believe in that they should not be held responsible for their actions. And they do believe in collectivism, as long as they are the collective and not everyone else. And you are not a real republican. You don't have that much money or power. You just buy into the crap they are selling. They are very good at selling people their junk. They don't give a flying rat's asset about you. they just want your money and vote.

[TheThoughtCriminal]

I too reject collectivism and believe in individual responsibility. However, I do not believe the republican party truly stands for these principles. The current ideological platform of the republican party constitutes a rather disturbing mix between religious zealotry, xenophobia and corporatism. Furthermore, the republicans have not proposed any reasonable solutions to the current economic crisis. I find it very hard to take these republicans seriously.

[MJinCanada]

Hey, Michael Steele, get with it. Cheney's the _former_ vice president now.

[tmo7734]

For once, a Republican strategist is saying something that makes sense. Palin, Limbaugh, and Cheney are the modern day version of the Three Stooges. (No offense to Moe, Larry, & Curly.)

[smpj]

That nomenclature will shift fully to Reid, Pelosi, and Obama if things go south for the country.

[eroy22312]

Evidently you have not been paying attention.

Thanks to the Republicans our country is no more than a paper tiger relying on foreign loans to finance our government and our wars.