bobbyw24
11-30-2009, 07:11 AM
Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, a leader among conservatives vying to set the direction of the Republican party, said a 10-point checklist being proposed to determine whether a candidate merits GOP support is "not a litmus test" but an effort to ensure the party's ability to win future elections by presenting a true alternative.
"If the Republican Party is going to win any future elections, it has to be presented as an alternative to the Democrat Party's fiscal spending," Armey said on CBS' Face the Nation. "And in fact, it's a very reasonable thing to say, if you want the support of the Republican Party, demonstrate some allegiance to the primary positions taken by the party."
The checklist was proposed by conservative Indiana Republican James Bopp Jr. Under Bopp's resolution, which will be presented at the Republican National Committee winter meeting early next year, candidates would have to agree with at least seven of the ten points to get RNC funding or support.
Armey said "if you read the list, at least five of the 10 are right at the center stage -- center post of the big 10 of American politics today, fiscal conservatism."
Former RNC chairman Ed Gillespie acknowledged that "if you look at those 10 things that a Republican running in a primary for Congress against another Republican, the Republican who agrees with nine out of, you know, those 10 will beat the Republican who agrees with seven out of those 10."
But Gillespie expressed concern that use of the checklist to determine who merited support "would be in the best interest of the party at the end of the day."
"The question for me is...as a former chairman ... what if you have a Republican who agrees with seven out of those ten things running against a Democrat who agrees with zero out of those ten things and you want to put some money into a race to try to win back the House and you're constrained from doing that?" Gillespie said, also on CBS.
New York Republican Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava, who dropped out of an upstate New York congressional race after Armey and other activists lined up behind Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman, said on the show that "I would have been at seven out of 10 on the list."
"I think you've got to look at (my) predecessor," Scozzafava said. "John McHugh served this district very well. He was a moderate. Some of the positions that I got criticized for taking were positions that John already had. I think it's important that sometimes there are regional differences even as Mr. Armey represented Texas. There are certain things that he voted against that are right on the litmus test, the 10 steps."
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/11/29/armey-defends-checklist-of-principles-for-gop-candidates/
"If the Republican Party is going to win any future elections, it has to be presented as an alternative to the Democrat Party's fiscal spending," Armey said on CBS' Face the Nation. "And in fact, it's a very reasonable thing to say, if you want the support of the Republican Party, demonstrate some allegiance to the primary positions taken by the party."
The checklist was proposed by conservative Indiana Republican James Bopp Jr. Under Bopp's resolution, which will be presented at the Republican National Committee winter meeting early next year, candidates would have to agree with at least seven of the ten points to get RNC funding or support.
Armey said "if you read the list, at least five of the 10 are right at the center stage -- center post of the big 10 of American politics today, fiscal conservatism."
Former RNC chairman Ed Gillespie acknowledged that "if you look at those 10 things that a Republican running in a primary for Congress against another Republican, the Republican who agrees with nine out of, you know, those 10 will beat the Republican who agrees with seven out of those 10."
But Gillespie expressed concern that use of the checklist to determine who merited support "would be in the best interest of the party at the end of the day."
"The question for me is...as a former chairman ... what if you have a Republican who agrees with seven out of those ten things running against a Democrat who agrees with zero out of those ten things and you want to put some money into a race to try to win back the House and you're constrained from doing that?" Gillespie said, also on CBS.
New York Republican Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava, who dropped out of an upstate New York congressional race after Armey and other activists lined up behind Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman, said on the show that "I would have been at seven out of 10 on the list."
"I think you've got to look at (my) predecessor," Scozzafava said. "John McHugh served this district very well. He was a moderate. Some of the positions that I got criticized for taking were positions that John already had. I think it's important that sometimes there are regional differences even as Mr. Armey represented Texas. There are certain things that he voted against that are right on the litmus test, the 10 steps."
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/11/29/armey-defends-checklist-of-principles-for-gop-candidates/