WASHINGTON (CNN) - A much-anticipated special meeting between Republican National Committee members and the men seeking to lead the party will now take place behind closed doors after the members voted to prohibit non-party members from attending.
The meeting was originally scheduled to be open to reporters and other Republicans not on the committee, but after a roll call vote, it was determined there were not enough RNC members present for a quorum. Since the meeting would then only be an unofficial gathering, the members present were allowed to vote on how to proceed, and chose to bar the media from the session.
Now, the six contenders for RNC chair will present their cases and face more than an hour of tough questions from committee members without television cameras and reporters looking over their shoulders.
One candidate, former Mike Huckabee campaign manager Chip Saltsman, said he would have been fine with the media in the room, but also said he welcomed the chance to speak candidly with members without the presence of reporters.
“Every candidate has got a different idea of where they want to take the party, and I think its important for us to get together, talk about it, and obviously let the membership decide where they want to take it,” he said, “because I see the members as the board of directors of this company.”
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I think of all the RNC candidates, I like Huckabee. He seems to be someone that is willing to do the right thing.
Don't the Republicans do everything behind closed doors? It has been nearly eight years and we still don't know who Cheney met with about energy. This is just one example.
The GOP is over! They've left a nasty taste in the mouth's of the American people. They've proved to me that they are fiscally irresponsible. And they are supposed to be the smaty ones? What a joke.
If these eggheads could come up with something besides a lame duck like McCain for President then this Democrat will gladly vote Republican. I'm sick of my party's corruption.
what they meant to say is "we have to do this behind closed doors so we can try to decide what rights we will take from americans next after all the corporations that pay us are losing money and the people think they have a right to know what is going on we cannot ahve that!"
idiots
Why yes why would those Idiot want all Americans to see. Many republicans are in federal prison for doing things behind closed doors. Boy they sure love airport restrooms
They need to put their whole antiquated party behind closed doors and leave them shut!
Just like those GOP rethugs – Everything behind closed doors and in secret.
Now that's the kind of change the RNC is noted for – NONE!
Why do the Republicans have to be behind closed doors? Why don't they want reporters there? To much still like this Bush administration, doing things behind the american peoples backs.......Chip Saltsman welcomed the chance to speak candidly with out journalists in the room........WHY so he could sing "Obama the Magic Negro"? Come on GOP open your doors, when you shut your doors it only looks like you have something you want to hide........something you want to keep from the Ameirican people...........when are you going to get some smart people in your organization?
Much ado about nothing. Nobody cares what the "R' party plans to do because we already know what it has always done, enrich its fat cat friends through fraudulent government contracts, pin the blame on brown people all the problems it is clueless to solve, and of course, praise Jesus while it plans and finances death in the form of wars without end. There are only two viable political entities in the country now, Democrats and Independents - then there is the 10-15% Jesus party that used to be Republican and has no vision for the future and prays for the "end of days". Fine with us, just end it and leave the rest of us in peace.
closed doors?!
instead of having an open door policy that all inclusive, the republiklans will like to have their closed doors klan meetings to see how they can further alienate the american people!
goodluck closet rednecks, Loooosers!!!!!
if they are behind closed doors dose that mean they don't have to go by the book? i don't even trust them with the doors open.
RNC.............HERE"S A TIP...................M-O-D-E-R-A-T-E. Think Collins & Snow. THINK MAINSTREAM. THINK OF THE "NEW" SILENT MAJORITY ( 8.5 Million votes Obama won by). THINK VOTERS UNDER 50 yrs. THINK NEW AMERICANS (LATINO, ASIAN, ARAB). THINK LITERATE. JUST "THINK"!!!!
No worries, the Party is okey dokey, you betcha!
Palin/2012!
will the quiz involve knowing all the lyrics to that 'magic negro' song?
Why air the dirty linen in public.
So much for transparency. Has the RNC learned anything from the Bush/Cheney years? Apparently not.
The RNC needs to revise its platform before it can choose an appropriate leader. The RNC has an 18th century mentality, which ignores all the advances in science, technology, environmental awareness, diversity appreciation and social justice. The RNC "creed" of "Me first, you never" has no place in today's world.
The RNC is like a small fundamentalist church asking why it has so few members, when the solution is obvious...move into the current millenium!
That is the Republican way behind closed doors.
Here's what I don't get .. .there's no quorum, so this is an unofficial meeting. So why bother grilling the candidates? Won't they then have to re-grill them, when enough RNC members decide that they aren't busy enough somewhere else, to attend the RNC meeting? If they don't re-grill them, doesn't that hurt the members who weren't there, to participate in the grilling?
This is our chance...while they are behind those closed doors...let's BAR IT SHUT, and throw away the key. Keep the whole lot of those domestic terrorists locked up for life!
I can almost hear the line of questioning..."If you have five dollars and you steal a billion more from taxpayers,how much can you expect to get in a bailout from the government?"....Come on,this is easy.
Indeed the GOP needs to step back and figure out why they allowed the Bush boys to usurp the agenda of conservatives. Fiscal constraints seemed to fly out the window as fast as our rights under the constitution all in the name of National Security as defined by Cheney who shot someone in the face with a shotgun. I'm thinking the GOP really needs to get a new game plan.
"...the six contenders for RNC chair will present their cases and face more than an hour of tough questions..". Some examples:
1) Do you use restrooms at airports, train or bus terminals?
2) Do you allow contributors to refurbish your home with no question asked?
3) Is killing a Moose from the comfort of an elicopter a sport?
4) When someone refers to her spouse as "the first dude", do you feel your back cringing or do you act as if you suddenly lost your hearing?
Gee, I see all the out of work Democrats blogging still (not again). You guys need a life, a job and a shrink!
Will there be torture involved?
FreeNLovit, I only like Huckabee. He's too honest for the GOP. That are a dry folks, not that Democrats aren't, but GOP is dishonest, and uses racism to get the uneducated vote.
Is waterboarding involved?
For all those who like Huckabee, the guy is a religious extremist. He preaches intolerance. He is anti-science, he would try to rewrite the Constitution to turn it into a "Christian Document".
On the surface he seems like a pleasant person, and maybe he is, now. He likely would be a good neighbor and friend, but power corrupts, and no one corrupts so much as a religious extremist, particularly a fundamentalist christian one.
No Huckabee, no way.
please, it's not a Q&A session, it's a bible meeting...
I love the mentality, "I can be honest with you, but only if no one else knows what I'm saying." It can only mean you intend to lie to the listener, or you intend to lie to everyone else. Transparency is only for honest people and suckers!
I can only hope that the Republican Party will disappear soon, to be replaced by a responsible party that will actually try to solve the nation's problems, not prevent them from being solved.
I would not hire any of those guys to run a shoe store nor trust any of them with a red-hot stove.
How much damage can Conservatism do to our nation before we say, "Enough!"
CLOSED DOORS!!!! IT'S ALL ABOUT TRASH. THIS IS A RACIAL NATIONAL CONGRESS.
Pathetic. RNC haven't yet figured out where they want to take their party after their lost to the democrats. If they haven't figured it out by now, then they never will.
Behind closed doors. Kind of says a lot about the mentality of the Republican party. Transparency isnt in their vocabulary and some of the reason they lost in the 2008 elections.
When "stupidity" suffices, why search for any other reason?
FOLKS, I HAVE THE LIST OF QUALIFICATIONS FOR THE RNC LEADER.
1) IQ OF LESS THAN 90
2) LOTS & LOTS & LOTS OF HATE, HATE TO THE BONE.
3) AN EXPERT AT LOOTING THE AMERICAN TAX $$$$$$
4) KNOWS EXACTLY WHERE TO START THE NEXT WAR.
5) HIGH SCHOOL GRAD OK BUT GED PREFERRED.
6) HAS NO PROBLEM WITH INTERPRETING THE CONSTITUTION
** TO SUIT THE ABOVE.
What is with the republican party? why are they in such a state of chaos? sure they lost every election since 2006 but seriously.....
Despite the defeat in 2000 and 2004 the democrats didn't scramble like roaches in utter chaos, they stayed pretty much on message
This meeting should be private. Nothing worse than politicians mugging it up for the media, and the Republican leadership has some real image and direction problems to address without a circus to contend with. Also, they should make sure that Democrats are not voting in the state primaries for who will be the Republican candidate in the future. John McCain would not have been the presidential candidate if this rule was in place. More than likely Romney would have prevailed. Romney-Palin would have been awesome!
Saltsman, don't run. You ruined yourself by sending out that racially tainted video. I know it is tempting to lower our party to that level of the democrats, but let's keep our morality and dignity no matter what! The country will soon enough see through all the bling of "hope" "change".
Okay, after reading some of these comments, I can truly say that Democrats are totally obnoxious. If you are a corrupt Democrat, so what? If you are a corrupt Republican, they want to hang you in the town square. Hippocrites all. I will be glad when we take America back from the brink of third-world-dom. Barack the Messiah is going to crash and burn.
Working gal January 7th, 2009 12:56 pm ET
Gee, I see all the out of work Democrats blogging still (not again). You guys need a life, a job and a shrink!
Well apparently if you have time to see all of this, you aren't doing too much with your time either, perhaps you're in the same boat as them, so you obviously need a life, job, etc. also.
Contrary to other opinions, I believe that the initial meetings need to be close doors so they can be free to express their opinions.
On the other hand, the interviewing process does not seem democratic. Why only six? Are they only interviewing the former primary presidential or VP candidates?
I believe that the Republican party, unfortunately is in disarray. The capable people within its ranks are not leading, the current leaders have done a terrible job of distancing themselves from their true constituents by feing inflexible in their opinions, not fiscally conservative, unwilling to be held accountable for their mistakes, and plainly lying to the american public in many instances.
Why am I not surprised that a bigot like Saltsman wants to run the Rethuglican party? It just proves how ugly the Gross Old Party has become!
As long as they continue with the same people at the top the Republican party is lost. Need new blood now. Get ride of once and for all the religious/antiabortion/gay hating leaders.