Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The GOP establishment's National Council for a New America held its first "listening session" last Saturday in a pizza parlor in Alexandria, Virginia. (See earlier post GOP Launches Second Rebranding In a Year) A wealthy D.C. suburb? Not venturing beyond the Beltway bubble? Baby steps, I guess.
Former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Rep. Eric Cantor (Va.) explained their visions for reviving the GOP.
The leaders received positive feedback from the crowd, which included reporters, Republican aides and their friends, but not many new ideas.
Ed McKee, the owner of Pie-Tanza, invited many of his regular customers, who sat in chairs around Romney, Cantor and Bush. Romney, Cantor, Jeb stump for GOP revival
[W]hile the leaders said they're willing to embrace the thoughts of the concerned voters, a group of conservative activists who were protesting in the parking lot complained that they were not allowed through the doors.
“We’re demonstrating against the fact that this organization set up by RINOs [Republicans in Name Only] have taken immigration off the agenda,” said Michael McLaughlin, a member of the American Council for Immigration Reform, a group seeking to stem the flow of immigrants into the country.
The activists grumbled that Republican organizers did not widely advertise the event. Several wearing shirts declaring themselves “Republicans Against Maverick McCain” craned their necks for a glimpse of the senior lawmaker, who did not show up.
The GOP establishment says the "purity police" of Club for Growth conservatives are killing the Republican Party and they sorta proved their point by protesting the GOP establishment's first National Council for a New America listening session.
Bush, Romney and Cantor all downplayed their future political ambitions.
“None of us are here saying we’re the answers, leadership comes from the people,” said Cantor. Romney joked that he and Bush are “two has-beens.”
Well, you at least got that right, Mitt.
On the subject of education, one attendee declared that “people learn more from listening to Rush Limbaugh than they do in high school or college.”
Oh really? De facto RNC Chairman Rush Limbaugh is the inspirational leader of the "New" GOP? Let's take a look at some "lowlights" of what ol' Rushbo had to say about the Supreme Court vacancy created by the retirement of Justice David Souter. Limbaugh Mocks Obama: "We Gotta Get An Illegal Alien On The Supreme Court"
"We gotta get an illegal alien on the Supreme Court."
"We need an illegal immigrant on the Supreme Court."
"We need a teenage single mother, who's gay, is a lesbian, who's dirt poor, African-American, and disabled."
2nd Circuit Appellate Court Judge Sonia "Sotomayor is Puerto Rican, this is going to make the Mexicans and the Cubans angry."
That pretty much sounds like the same ignorant racist and misogynist Rushbo I have heard for the past twenty years. Putting old wine in a new bottle: it's still The same "Old" GOP.
Jeb Bush added insult to injury to the group of conservative protestors in an interview he gave after the event to the Moonie Times Jeb Bush, GOP: Time to leave Reagan behind – Washington Times:
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said Saturday that it's time for the Republican Party to give up its "nostalgia" for the heyday of the Reagan era and look forward, even if it means stealing the winning strategy deployed by Democrats in the 2008 election.
"You can't beat something with nothing, and the other side has something. I don't like it, but they have it, and we have to be respectful and mindful of that," Mr. Bush said.
* * *
"So our ideas need to be forward looking and relevant. I felt like there was a lot of nostalgia and the good old days in the [Republican] messaging. I mean, its great, but it doesn't draw people toward your cause," Mr. Bush said.
Ruh-Roh, Shaggy. Good thing Jebby Bush didn't say that at the pizza parlor or the conservative protestors would have been apoplectic and clutching their pearls.
NB: Laugh line from Mitt Romney: "We are the party of the revolutionaries, they [Democrats] are the party of the monarchists."