[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/12/29/art.duncan29.gi.jpg caption="RNC chair Mike Duncan faces a tough race to keep the top spot."](CNN) - Members of the Republican National Committee are planning to hold a Washington forum for candidates to lead the party – the first time they have held an official meeting not arranged by the national party.
The meeting, first reported by The Hill, was the brainchild of North Dakota Republican Party chairman Gary Emineth and nearly two dozen RNC members from 18 states, according to the RNC counsel’s office.
Most of those are supporters of one of the challengers to current RNC chair Mike Duncan. The newly-scheduled forum – which was not arranged by national leadership, headed by Duncan - may give a boost to these candidates, who will get an opportunity to make their pitch to the members of the national committee.
Under RNC rules, a minimum of 16 members from 16 different states is required to hold an official meeting – but CNN has not been able to find any prior instance when this rule has been invoked.
The meeting comes in a week of faceoffs and public grillings for RNC chair hopefuls - some open to the public, others private events for conservatives and party members.
Be very afraid America... evil is stirring.
The RNC is dead, may it rest in peace. This party lost its way, when it decided that the party needed to be more like the Democrats.
Time for all former RNC party members to join Ron Paul, and the Libertarian party in bringing Freedom and Liberty back to the USA.
Is it being held in the Watergate Hotel? That's awesome.
Please let Chip "Puff-Dog" Saltzman become chairman of the RNC. That would be gold for Obama and the democrats. When Reid and Pelosi are the rational centrists relative to the RNC chair, that is change.
This meeting disturbs me on three levels.
1. The RNC may actually be trying to wrestle control of the party from the rabid right fascists.
2. This means days and days of incessant coverage of what's her name.
3. Russia may use this as an opportunity to invade, since the half-wit will be out of town and unable to see "Putin's head pop up".
Will the "Puff the Magic Dragon" guy be there? And, they wonder why people like don't vote Republican. I agree with their stance on so many issues but you get the idea through so many ways that non-white people are not welcome in their party. Hopefully, Jindal can change all that. I voted for O.. Give me a reason to vote Republican next time around.
Someone should tell David Axelrod that if Isreal as right to defend it's citizens from rocket attacks then the palistinians have a right to free it's people from the prison camps (gaza and the west bank) run by the so called democracy of Isreal.
Are they flying the bars and stars?They have now lost the second civil war and they are madder than a hornet.
When any party,(no matter who's),is so badly splittered,that a person who wishes to run for the chairman ,can in public ,state such a "racist" statement,they need a first of it's kind of meeting.
I hope they work out their problems.
Saltsman need not show up.They can send him a letter.
Yeah....thats going to help.....
Why don't they go out and talk to THE PEOPLE!?!?!?
They are so backwards...... They will probably do a think tank on what's wrong with their think tanks.....
I revel in the fact that the Republicans are scrambling around like lost children trying to find their way home.
I also look forward to seeing how many of Obama's campaign strategies the Republicans hijacked and claimed as their own.
Just like Woolworth...Republicans are out of style!
The GOP : GET OBAMA PARTY. The republicans no longer have a platform or relevant agenda. They sole purpose has now boiled down to finding a way to take down Obama. That is a sad state for American politics.
Maybe at this meeting they can find another way and purpose.
Meeting held to decide a course of action. Do we hide racism or let it hang out in the open?
By Big Meeting they mean a Poker Game
Free Palestine!
Will Rush Limbaugh get an open invitation to perform?
Well, one thing is for certain, the comedians will still be making fun of the GOP while Obama is president!
Good for them. That is the change this country truly needs.
When the democrats go off course, they just redefine their objectives. This radical shift to the left is a perfect example. They have alienated many of their party who held their nose and voted for the incompetent Obama as a last resort.
When does the postpartisan era begin?
Oh,dear,dear, whatever became of the Whig party? Methinks that the Republican party is just as feckless and oriented for dissolution! The party of Lincoln dead, oh,dear,dear!
The RNC needs a revamp. The old must go and let the new enter. I am republican but with the recent attitudes in power I'm thinking its time for a change. My personal opinion is to vote out all the republicans and get some fresh new republicans in place and lets reform the party, the old fuddy duds need to go and a new idea must take over. The existing group has run this country into the ground, its time, out with the old in with the new, new ideas, new people a new attitude..........
Should be some high-powered brain work going on there!
good luck to them. they really need to wipe the slate clean, eliminate any dead waste and re-group, make new decisions, bring back the ideas of the forefathers. People need to be accountable for their actions, limited government, etc. Time to go back to the old ways of thinking, but on a modern scale.
Charles L. Shaw @ 1:10:
Yeah Libertarians, that's the ticket. Less goverment regulation of banks, insurance companies and big corporations. Isn't that the Libertarian creed?
i think their party is over, too much hate and racism, it will take a long time for people to forget their ugly campaign.
Ah–may the best man win this race. I am a Tennessean, but am guessing Michael Steele would make the best chairman.
By the way, most Tennesseans are not at all like Chip Saltsman. We're hard-working, honest, and do not make fun of people. Instead, we're the victim of cuckoo (yes, cuckoo!) Northerners making fun us. (For totally untrue things!)
At least we have candidates that have actually voted running in our races, unlike Caroline Kennedy.
Please people like the democratic party is an better. They are both self serving parties looking out for themselves not the people.