First-of-its-kind RNC meeting to be held in Washington
[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.
The GOP needs a real leader. The only thing I hear about this party is when they are attacking each other or someone else over something uncalled for. I say get rid of all of them and just erase you from existence. They are like little kids fighting over candy.
Good luck with that...
Rethugs Unite, Gird you loins.
These GOP leaders should spend some time discussing why people are leaving the Party ... why, for example, there are virtually no moderate elected officials left on the national scene. As a former Party leader, I know what drove me away: (1) the Religious Right, (2) the Necons, and (3) the Economic Royalists (the Club for Growth types) who, in concert, have made the Party an ideological mess ... and whose policies, as administered by the Bush team, have made the country ...make that the world ... a mess that the new Administration will have a hard time cleaning up. They should reflect on how far the Party has moved from its once proud core principles.
Did anyone invite Gov. Palin? I thought she was in charge. What about Karl Rove and Scooter? I hear Ann Coulter's schedule is open. Then there's Ted Stevens and Larry Craig....
Keep up the good work, GOP. You're doing a splendid job.
will they be burning a cross
Who cares they had their chance, for the past eight years America has put up with these lying stealing corrupt thieves selling our country out for the benefit of corporate companies with no reguard for the people or what their policies have done or will do. It will take decades to recover from this mess the bush white house and his bumbling good ol boys have given us. Let them gather let them plan let them try to regroup they have noone to blame but themselves for the RNC situtation. Every move they have made has led to a disaster for this country, pray America is not foolish enough to let these people control our country again.
The republican party does not need to REINVENT itself, we need leaders that actually represent us accurately. A few people at the top DOES NOT make a party.
Some of these comments are from ignorant haters. Shameful.
Talk about a party divided: Quote from Tina Benkiser: "If I ran for chairman, I decided after looking over the field, it might contribute to dividing the conservative vote and allowing a moderate to win." Benkiser has made it clear there is a Republican battleground of moderate vs. conservative. (Does the Mason Dixon line come into play any where?)
I hope that this meeting will allow the GOP to realize that it does not need to re-invent itself. In order to become more current with the times it needs only to go back to it's roots. It needs to go back to it's ideals and vision for America during REPUBLICAN President Lincoln's tenure in the White House. I am a life long Democrat, but if the GOP could find it's way back to those honorable roots it just might get a new member in me.
I bet they won't invite Ron Paul. When will the GOP learn?
Neanderthal man may be extinct. However, unfortunately, the RNC is not. Every few years the desire of "conservatives" to lead America back to the Stone Age re-emerges, and it will, no doubt, re-emerge again. Attention deficit disorder and historical illiteracy are endemic in America; Sarah Palin is proof of that.
The way the RNC elite crapped on candidate Ron Paul during the presidential race proves that they intend to continue their politics of slander and scandal mongering (as does the DNC) into the foreseeable future and have no intention of truly reforming themselves.
God help us all.
so the RepubliKLAN party has decided to hold a meeting – most hotels have white sheets, so I guess they won't be lacking in supplies, in case anyone forgets theirs. THEY ARE A DISGRACE TO THIS NATION!!!
you dems are a joke! pelosi,reed ,dodd,rangel,johnson,blago,raines
should all be in jail for corruption. nothing like hiding behind the rnc's internal problems to brush of the most corrupt party in U.S. history
You have to wonder if the RNC would feel compelled to hold this sort of ground-breaking meeting if a middle-aged white male Democrat won the presidency.
Maybe they can all hold hands and sing "GOP the Magic Racists".....
Ah...C'mon....it's only satire....you're just too "Hypersensitive".....
Get rid of Duncan! Bring in Micahel Steele!!!!!!!
We hate Republicans and so should you because its popular right now!
This sounds so much like the DNC reactions every time they lost a presidential election. EVERY TIME! Yes "Jon" every time the democrats are in power for a while the electorate gets tired of their antics and votes republican. Likewise, when the electorate gets tired of the republican antics they vote democrat. WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN IS FOR THE ELECTORATE TO GET TIRED OF BOTH PARTIES AND VOTE THIRD PARTY !!!!
That being said rememmber, the next time you say the republicans are racist and bigoted, remember the president that made The Emancipation Proclamation was a republican and the man that made the "Dream Speech" on the Lincoln Memorial (that inspired so many to the Cause) was a republican. That's right, Lincoln and Dr. King were republican as are so many (like me) that marched with Dr. King.
Yes it was the democrats in the south that ran The Confederacy and owned the slaves.
unless the GOP gets someone that can reform them forget it. the are the party of the right religious groups nobody else..so rest in peace GOP– better off dead
Bring In Mike Huckabee. He will set them straight. Enough of these establishment Mitt Romneyesque guys running the show down there.
It is sad that the Republican Party does not live in reality. This past 8 years and past election proves that. There are good , honest folks in the Party, they just do not have control. These folks should go out and form a new party, which actually deals with reality and truth. The one thing we have learned from Republican's this last few years, is that they do not recognize truth nor reality.Operating on fear tactics backfired this year, and will from now on. The" my way or the highway" approach has done so much damage at home and abroad. Not to mention the uncontrolled policies of free market which has caused business to leave the country, using the tax breaks that King George helped them get, to build and employ overseas. May they rest in peace.
Maybe they can do kareoke
It is doubtful the GOP can change it's stripes to the degree that would make it a relevent political party for the 21st century.
Too many old boys with old ideas and ideology for core of the U.S. citizenry that is coming of age. The religious right only has one concern and that is not the country but rather their personal beliefs be forced upon the country.
Ditch the extemists both religious and conservative as they represent the past 8 years and won't settle for anything less regardless of the harm that comes of it all.