My Republican friend with RNC connections has surprising views about recent political issues

[zulchzulu]

I had a couple cold ones with a friend who I've mentioned in the past. He goes to Republican National Committee "batcave meetings" around the country to put his two cents in their upcoming strategies and shares with me his general disgust with the GOP direction politically.

On Glenn Beck: He saw one show once and concluded the guy is an embarrassment and an idiot.

On Sarah Palin: He met her on the 2008 campaign trail and found her "cute but scattered" and is completely convinced she will never run for President because she knows she is screwed on a few levels: she is attacking GOP players and will never be a viable candidate because of her leaving her job as governor. She has a reputation within GOP circles as very interested in engaging in sexual encounters. She is only in it for the money at this point and will possibly get a short-time gig at Fox in the future. She is cashing in now knowing that she will only play a minor role as a Republican in the future.

On Fox News: He has the channel blocked on his home remote since he knows it's pretty obvious as lacking in integrity.

On Obama: He thinks he's doing a good job despite all the press stories. He tries to watch Obama on C-SPAN when he can for an unfiltered view.

On Independents rejecting Obama: He (correctly IMHO) views those polled as saying they are "Independents" due only to the fact that they are really embarrassed Republicans who can't admit that they are Republicans. He calls the opinion trajectory that Independents are becoming Republicans a red herring. He also thinks that these so-called Independents are very mercurial and could be swayed in any political direction depending on what the Republican Party decides it wants to do.

On Teabaggers: They are a drag on the GOP and hurt the Republican Party more than the fact that they are actually shrinking the Republican Party due to their anger and love of conspiracy theories.

On 2010 elections: The Republicans can only hope the job numbers continue to climb and that the economy sours, which may improve by next fall.

On 2012 elections: They are screwed unless someone comes out of nowhere to appear to offer a more moderate set of positions, which won't happen since the GOP is at war with itself.

On Afghanistan: He feels that getting out sooner than later would be a good move. "We missed Osama bin Laden so why the hell are we there now?" was his general response.

That said, the guy is a decent fellow and would be what I would term a slightly-right/moderate Democrat who hates how the Religious Right has stifled the GOP for perhaps a generation.

[Love Bug]

1. I'm curious -- why is your friend a Republican?

What do they have to offer him that he considers himself one?

[zulchzulu]

2. He's a little stubborn and also gets paid to offer Republicans advice

He's run a few successful campaigns and worked for a couple governors doing media communications. If he said he was a Democrat, he's lose a lot of money and clients. It's that simple.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. People who start a career as advisors for party here

are like that. They know turning on the party is not good for business. So it is not stubborn, but livelihood.

[Love Bug]

9. Well, at least he's honest enough to admit he's in it for the dough.

[Harry Monroe]

36. I realize that he is your friend, but if he had any integrity at all, he'd be a Democrat!

[rwheeler31]

3. Tax cuts.

[Garam_Masala]

37. LMAO-ROFL

you stole my thoughts!:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Clio the Leo]

5. "very interested in engaging in sexual encounters"?????

Oh come on! You KNOW you have to tell us more than THAT! lol Hand over the dirt!

[Raster]

7. Two words: Mrs. Robinson

[Ikonoklast]

13. One word: Plastics.

Sorry, had to, but you started it.

Interesting to see a post about what the Republicans *used* to be like, before the drooling knuckledraggers took over.

[Raster]

25. Well played!

[zulchzulu]

8. Well...

...I'll boil it down.

My friend has heard that she is not one to not take an opportunity to um... yunno. The GOP Inner Circle like her for her "prowess".

Consider what her son-in-law Levi Johnson said in the Vanity Fair interview about her "dark secret"... I'm sure we'll have that come out (no pun intended) after the media falls out of love/lust with her.

[dkf]

10. Yikes is THAT what Levi has on her?

No wonder there is so much vitriol between them.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

17. And no wonder she doesn't mention him in her book

She is probably scared to go after him full force because he does have the dirt on her.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

24. I'm sure that there is more too

[Caretha]

19. Don't forget the inappropriate "towel incident"

Palin Once Greeted McCain Staff Wearing Only A Towel
The Huffington Post


At the GOP convention in St. Paul, Palin was completely unfazed by the boys' club fraternity she had just joined. One night, Steve Schmidt and Mark Salter went to her hotel room to brief her. After a minute, Palin sailed into the room wearing nothing but a towel, with another on her wet hair. She told them to chat with her laconic husband, Todd. "I'll be just a minute," she said.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/05/palin-once-greeted-mccain_n_141394.html

A serious intelligent woman with any self-respect running for public office would never even contemplate this sort of behavior. In fact any self-respecting woman wouldn't behave this way. What gets me are the threads on DU defending Sarah Palin and criticizing Newsweek's cover of Sarah in her running shorts and beauty pageant pose.

[iceman66]

26. Who exactly is in this "GOP Inner Circle"?

Inquiring minds want to know!

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

27. I don't know. But I thought thought of Rove dressed like The Gimp. I'll go shoot myself now. nt

[zulchzulu]

31. The Batcave folks who head to golf resorts and drink/golf/plan evil shit

My friend goes to those "events"... usually warm spots in the cooler months and places like DC/NYC/CHI when it's warmer.

Lots of lobbyists, politicians, "advisors" and all that makes them amused while they go through their mid-life crisis...

[iceman66]

34. That's pretty vague.

Is there any evidence, even circumstantial, that Palin is actually hooking up with anonymous GOP insiders at golf resorts?

[agentS]

41. Besides Satan, Mosselini, Reptoid aliens from V, Doctor Light, Apokalips?

The GOP Inner circle;

[HipChick]

16. Considering the reported incident about her greeting McCain staff in nothing but a towel..

I am not surprized at all...if she did that around staff, I can only imagine what she did around or to Levi

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/05/palin-once-greeted-mccain_n_141394.html

[YOY]

6. Kind of sad.

He's what they should be and what the DLC fricking is.

[notesdev]

11. Don't believe everything you hear

If he's RNC, he's about as out of touch as you can possibly be. Some of that is right, but he's leaving you an impression that is horribly wrong. I'm willing to bet that, absent a major change of policy from Congress, 2010 will be a total wipeout. The tea party people splitting the GOP vote is the best bet for holding onto a majority, but I wouldn't count on that.

Why do I say this? It's pretty simple. The complete unfairness of how this country is run (crushing burdens on the middle class, free money from the government to the elites) has put us on the brink of revolution; the social compact has been shattered. This is so pervasive that nonpolitical Joe Sixpack is up in arms about the situation.

So there are going to be two types of politicians going into 2010. There are the ones who understand today that the banking system is full of financial terrorists who are at war with the people of this country, and pick the side of the people. Then there are the rest. It's not brain surgery to figure out which type of politician is going to win in 2010. This crosses party lines like no issue I have seen in my lifetime.

All these old political hand types really don't get it; what is happening in this country is totally alien to their experience, and the assumptions they built up over the years of routine elections are going to be proven false all over the place.

We have three data points from this year's elections and all three contradict the impression that your RNC friend would like to leave you. Virginia swung 30 points in one year. Solidly Democratic New Jersey tossed out an incumbent governor. In NY-23, the tea party crowd knocked the GOP establishment's candidate right out of the race in the space of about two weeks.

These are not normal times and your friend and anyone who believes what he says are going to be in complete shock after the 2010 elections, if not before (in the primaries).

Democrats have, effectively, about 14 more months of unified control and then we're right back to gridlock. Let us exhort our elected officials to act appropriately.

[zbdent]

12. on Independents (I agree with you, they're embarrassed Repugs)

I find it amazing that Obama can be vilified for being in a church where a minister might say something inflammatory and tarred forever for it, but die-hard Republican fanatics who were screaming "Our President, right or wrong!" are allowed to sit there and say "Oh, I'm an Independent, I'm disgusted with Bush ..."

[vaberella]

14. Why do people always say Indepdents are Repubs? I have never been a Repub, but I'm an Indie...

Otherwise interesting points of view. He should just be a Dem, Liberal, or Progressive---it's up to the name...but he's no Repub by the sounds of it.

[conscious evolution]

21. Because most of them are.

The vast majority of the people I know who call themselves independents at one time called themselves repukes and voted for the shrub.
I think they do this because they are embarrassed to admit they were played for suckers by the puke party.
I also know a few indies who aren't former pukes.Very few.And most of them have political leanings that would almost be classified as none Randian libertarians.The others all seem to be middle of the roaders that vote according to which way the wind blows.

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

22. Absolutely !

After calling them during phonebanking its very clear that most listed as Ind. are raelly repukes

[ieoeja]

30. Because everybody I know who votes Republican claims to be Indpendant. (nt)

[jefferson_dem]

15. My colleague is a long-time Republican.

He was in DC for the "Reagan revolution" and has much experience with "gop insiders". I was talking to him about the state of American politics the other day. Bottom line: he thinks the Palin/Beck movement in the party is scary as fuck....calls it the "the resurrection of the John Bircher wing of the party."

[ellie]

18. Very interesting!

Thanks for posting.

[rasputin1952]

20. My Mom, a lifelong Republican echoes this in every aspect...

for the second time in her voting life, she refused to vote for the R candidate for president, (bush, then McCain). She found both of them exceptionally shallow and detrimental to the country in general.. She called bush an "idiot", and McCain a psychopath; highly unusual for her. She could not bring herself to vote D, but instead, just left the presidential aspect blank.

The GOP is in complete meltdown, they haven't a prayer, basically because they have nothing to offer except disastrous plans that will actually kill Americans, (and others), at a higher rate than is currently happening.

When my Mom goes against the GOP...it is a sure sign to me that there is nothing left for them...:D

[zulchzulu]

29. I always think of some guy who claimed he was a Republican...

...because he said he'd "rather eat Brie than Velveeta"... as if there was some "upstanding" status to being a Republican or that it's like they joined a club where you can never leave.

I have Republicans parents who fit more in the level as your mother, although they vote Republican as a general habit... my father is disgusted with how the Republican Party in his town is overrun by the Religious Right folks and they play into the typical checklist of "no taxes/anti-abortion/prayer in schools/anti-gay/pro-war" schtick.

Hopefully your mother just leaves the GOP and votes for her convictions. It's just going to get worse for the GOP for the next dozen or more years, if they last that long.

[rasputin1952]

32. While Ma always considered herself a Moderate...

she saw the shift years ago. Being NY R is tough anyway, especially in the City; thing is, she saw it coming and no one would listen to her.

She was brought up a "Lincoln Republican" in MD...I think the last R she could really stomach was Eisenhower, (maybe Ford). She voted for Nixon, and regretted it; she voted for Reagan, and while there was money to be made, she realized Reagan was little more than a Goomer w/a script. (She thought Reagan was a lousy actor, and a terrible president). bush did her in; she saw a remarkably stupid man running for the most powerful nation the earth had ever seen, she was actually believing that bush would blow up the world...thinking somehow, that would bring about the 2nd Coming of Christ...:scared:

In her 80's now, she has seen it all, even talked to FDR many years ago when he went through Smithsburg MD where she lived. Those ties are hard to break, but she finally realized that she had voted against her best interests for the last time...:)

[dschis]

35. Off topic but I like the Old Abe (the eagle) avatar

I did a couple of tours with those guys

[rasputin1952]

39. I don't know what it is about me and eagles...

I've always had a certain affinity for them. When up in AK, I saw a LOT of them, WA had them as well. Here in NE, when I was living in Norfolk, there were two nesting pair in the city, (the rabbit population in the city limits dropped dramatically!).

Just something about Bald Eagles that just gets my attention, beautiful, (but remarkably sloppy when they eat/leave carrion around) birds.

I wish i could find the transcript of a guy who called a RW talk show about the ban on shooting eagles and how it should be lifted. The gist of it was that the talk show host was grateful of the ban being lifted, and the caller had a fantastic rant about how he was too, now he could get back to eating eagle stew, eagle soup, use the talons for decorations, sell feathers to Native Americans, use the skulls for nefarious purposes...and save sheep from being taken away by eagles...(that was a :wtf: moment...:D ). THe RW'er lost it, calling the guy all kinds of names and how "un-American" he was. The caller, taking his spoof to a new level, reminded the RW'er that he was the one touting the lifting of the ban...and what was he to do, just leave eagle carcasses strewn all over the country w/o using then for something beneficial.

This has happened on several occasions in various situations, but the RW'ers get the worst of it every time...:rofl:

[Arugula Latte]

23. He's too sane to be a modern day Republican.

[Phx_Dem]

28. Good thing more Republicans aren't like your friend, or we might

actually have a serious opposition party. As it is the party is filled with brainless, ideological idiots.

Interesting to hear his opinion. I'd love to hear more about Palin's desire for sexual encounters. Yikes. The thought of having sex with anyone in the Republican party makes me never want to have sex again! :puke:

[DU GrovelBot]

33. ## PLEASE DONATE TO DEMOCRATIC UNDERGROUND! ##

This week is our fourth quarter 2009 fund drive. Democratic Underground is
a completely independent website. We depend on donations from our members
to cover our costs. Please take a moment to donate! Thank you!

[depakid]

38. "He has the channel blocked on his home remote"

The mark of a sensible human being- though it begs the question as to how he manages to remain in Republican circles.

[iceman66]

40. FYI

A little tidbit from craigslist. May be BS but reminded me of this thread:

http://buffalo.craigslist.org/rnr/1478538395.html

"When Sarah Palin was in Auburn, NY recently she met with some of the dignitaries there and I have a friend who was one of them. While visiting him after that, I saw a photo of the two of them together. I asked was she nice? did you talk with her? and he said ( ok guy who wants to cum on her tits, you'll love this one) he told me SHE PINCHED HIS ASS RIGHT BEFORE THE PICTURE WAS TAKEN ! I was like WhaaaaaAAtt !!??? He thought it was funny, but I do NOT. There you go people, this is the caliber of person she is. Unprofessional when cameras aren't rolling and although she is polished, pretty and rich, I still think she is like white trash. Im just saying. "