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View Full Version : Nice article about SLRC/Ron Paul in NOLA Times Picayune




Anti Federalist
04-11-2010, 07:09 PM
Don't know if this has been posted yet, but it was front page in the Sunday edition of the Times/Picayune in New Orleans.

Republicans wrap up four-day conference in New Orleans

By Jan Moller, The Times-Picayune
April 10, 2010, 8:49PM

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2010/04/republicans_wrap_up_four-day_c.html

National Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele exhorted conservative activists Saturday to "tune out all of the background noise and go on offense" as the GOP seeks to regain the congressional majorities the party lost four years ago.

But Steele, under fire for various missteps including reports that his Republican National Committee spent almost $2,000 to entertain donors at a bondage-themed Los Angeles strip club, acknowledged that some of the noise is of his own making.

Democrats in Washington "are looking for those distractions, and Lord knows I've provided a few," Steele told the Southern Republican Leadership Conference on the final day of speechmaking at the four-day gathering in New Orleans.

"I am the first here to admit that I've made mistakes," Steele said, but he urged Republicans to "move on" and focus on the November congressional elections.

The conference, which attracted 3,500 party activists, served as both a pep rally for the fall elections and an early test for some of the Republicans expected to vie for the GOP's presidential nomination in 2012.

While Steele's message was warmly received by those in attendance, the hotel ballroom that was packed a day earlier for speeches by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal was half-empty by the time Steele spoke.

Many of those who left early on Saturday were supporters of Texas Congressman Ron Paul, who won some of the day's largest applause, but also a smattering of boos, with a speech that blamed both Republicans and Democrats for running up large deficits while engaging in military adventurism abroad.

Paul's libertarian message won him passionate followers in the 2008 Republican primaries despite his break with party orthodoxy on a wide range of issues, from the war on drugs to the military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"We have won more in peace than we ever have in war," Paul said Saturday in a speech that called for abolishing the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Department of Education.

He also rejected allegations, popular among Republicans and tea party activists, that President Obama is a socialist. "What he is is a corporatist," Paul said. "You take care of corporations, and corporations take over and run the country."

Paul ended in a virtual tie with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in a presidential-preference straw poll of 1,806 delegates. Romney, who did not attend the conference but had plenty of supporters on hand, and Paul each got 24 percent of the vote. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Palin finished third and fourth with about 18 percent each.

Whether the unscientific poll means anything besides temporary bragging rights for the winner is questionable. At the last such meeting four years ago, the presidential straw poll was won by then-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, who didn't even run for president in 2008.

Among those who came to New Orleans primarily to support Paul was Chris Kuta, 21, of Austin, Texas, who said he became a fan in 2007 after running across Paul while looking for information online to rebut his high-school economics teacher.

(This a RPFer? - AF)

Kuta, now a community-college student who traveled to the conference with two fellow Paul fans he met via Facebook, said he came "to spread the liberty message." He complained that rank-and-file Republicans don't do enough to engage Paul's supporters.

The only one of Saturday's speakers considered a top-tier presidential candidate was Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who gave a short address by video from his home state. But Pawlenty, who unlike Romney did not appear to have an organized presence at the event, finished with just 3 percent support in the straw poll.

All but one of the Republican members of the Louisiana congressional delegation got a chance to speak Saturday, with the biggest applause coming for U.S. Sen. David Vitter.

Vitter urged the crowd to "keep reaching out to our friends, our brothers and sisters in the tea party movement." In fact, after his speech, "I'm going directly to the north shore to a tea party rally because I believe this is so important."

Although the conference is widely seen as an early presidential showcase, speaker after speaker urged the audience to focus on the 2010 congressional contests, when Republicans are considered virtually certain to gain seats in both the House and Senate.

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, who was chairman of the Republican Party in 1994, the last time Republicans wrested control of Congress from the Democrats, said the political environment this year is more favorable for the GOP than it was that year.

"That has been primarily driven by policy -- bad policy," Barbour said, attacking the Obama administration.

But in comments that appeared to draw a mixed response from the crowd, he said the party's high hopes can be derailed if Republicans insist on political "purity" from all their candidates or allow the tea party activists who are providing grass-roots energy for conservative ideas to split from the party.

"Barack Obama has worn out three sets of knee pads ... praying for the conservative vote to be split in 2010," Barbour said. "We can't let that happen. We've got to stay unified."

Barbour said that means being accepting of Republican candidates who don't agree with the party on every issue. "We cannot let ourselves be torn apart by the idea of purity. In a two-party system, both parties are necessarily coalitions," he said.

(Boo this man!! - AF)

Several speakers won enthusiastic applause by attacking the health-care overhaul bill recently approved by Congress and rising federal spending during the Obama administration that has contributed to record deficits.

But none of the speakers talked about the changes -- large cuts to popular entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security -- that would be needed to balance the federal budget without tax increases.

Another possible presidential contender, Indiana Congressman Mike Pence, won a standing ovation, along with scattered boos, when he lashed out at the Obama administration for criticizing construction of new Israeli housing in east Jerusalem.

"Let the world know this if it knows nothing else: America stands with Israel," Pence said. The comments were followed by chants of "USA, USA."

(Boo this man too - AF)

Staff writer Stephanie Grace contributed to this report.

Jan Moller can be reached at jmoller@timespicayune.com or 225.342.5207.

wgadget
04-11-2010, 07:39 PM
Barbour said that means being accepting of Republican candidates who don't agree with the party on every issue. "We cannot let ourselves be torn apart by the idea of purity. In a two-party system, both parties are necessarily coalitions," he said.

(Boo this man!! - AF)

I read somewhere that Barbour was giving props to Ron Paul, so MAYBE, just maybe he meant that the neocons should come over to OUR side.

Anti Federalist
04-11-2010, 07:42 PM
Barbour said that means being accepting of Republican candidates who don't agree with the party on every issue. "We cannot let ourselves be torn apart by the idea of purity. In a two-party system, both parties are necessarily coalitions," he said.

(Boo this man!! - AF)

I read somewhere that Barbour was giving props to Ron Paul, so MAYBE, just maybe he meant that the neocons should come over to OUR side.

Really?

I doubt it myself, however, I withdraw my boo and await confirmation.

Juan McCain
04-11-2010, 08:22 PM
Barbour said that means being accepting of Republican candidates who don't agree with the party on every issue. "We cannot let ourselves be torn apart by the idea of purity. In a two-party system, both parties are necessarily coalitions," he said.

(Boo this man!! - AF)

I read somewhere that Barbour was giving props to Ron Paul, so MAYBE, just maybe he meant that the neocons should come over to OUR side.

"being accepting of Republican candidates who don't agree with the party on every issue"

sounded like he meant accepting of the libertarian constitutionalists by the neo-cons . . . offering an olive branch to RP ?

And if Barbour hadn't tossed his name off the Straw poll ballot, then the EFM may have bought off about 50 less votes for Mutt Willard Romney?

Captain Bryan
04-11-2010, 08:43 PM
"being accepting of Republican candidates who don't agree with the party on every issue"

sounded like he meant accepting of the libertarian constitutionalists by the neo-cons . . . offering an olive branch to RP ?

And if Barbour hadn't tossed his name off the Straw poll ballot, then the EFM may have bought off about 50 less votes for Mutt Willard Romney?

Yes, that's what it sounded like to me too.