Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The Arizona Republic(an)'s columnist Laurie Roberts is still spinning that her Operation Dekookification of the Arizona GOP in the legislature was a success (it was not) and is now promoting Operation Dekookification 2.0. Dekookification lives on!:
I am getting reports from several legislative districts that some of the kookier Republicans were dismissed as state committeemen this week, meaning they won’t have a role in selecting new party leadership in January.
These are folks who call Jon Kyl – and just about anybody else who disagrees with them – a RINO, folks who seem determined to collapse whatever remains of the big tent into a pup tent. They are the birthers, the conspiracy theorists who this week began mounting an effort to overturn Barack Obama's election, claiming massive voter fraud.
Among those ousted at this week's GOP district meetings were a pair of the tea party faithful, Maricopa County Republican Party Chairman Rob Haney and former state Chairman Randy Pullen.
Next up: getting Lisa Gray elected as Haney's successor.
I am glad to hear that Tea-Publicans are being weeded out at the district level, at least in Maricopa County. But what about the other 14 counties? I see a flaw in your plan.
And I hate to break it to you, but there are reportedly only two people running for Arizona Republican Party Chair, neither one of whom is a good choice. The Yellow Sheet Report (subscription required) reported under the caption "There's a First Time For Everything" (11/28/12):
Despite the unknowns surrounding Robert Graham for Republican Party Chairman, he is winning support of many in the “establishment” wing of the party, which is resulting in many strange bedfellows. “I’d like to see him succeed, but only because there’s no alternative,” said one veteran PC, expressing a sentiment shared by many Republicans who spoke with our reporter.
One Republican with experience running a state party told our reporter the race exemplifies how irrelevant the parties – and their leaders – have become in the post-Citizens United world.
“It really does show you how the state party chairman role has been devalued. It’s a race between a guy no one knows and the guy who may be the single most incompetent chairman the party has ever seen."
Graham’s strength is two-fold: He’s not Morrissey and he’s a blank slate,” the source said. The result of the two-person field is that establishment activists are lining up behind a candidate who is also supported by grassroots general Rob Haney and tea party leader Ron Ludders, something that would have been unthinkable in the past.
Graham is not really a "blank slate." Graham owns RG Capital, a Scottsdale-based investment advisory firm. His name was recently connected to the controversy over the non-profit organization Americans for Responsible Leadership, accused of illegal "political money laundering" in California. Papers filed with the Arizona Corporation Commission list Robert Graham and Eric Wnuck as incorporators. Americans for Responsible Leadership – a Koch brothers 'dark front group.
So the choice is really between a guy who incorporated a Koch brothers front group for the purpose of illegal "political money laundering," and "the guy who may be the single most incompetent chairman the party has ever seen." is this really the best the GOP has to offer?