Tag Archives: Reince Priebus

April 4, 2013 · 7:27 AM

Thursday Blog Round-up – 4-4-2013

Mingo County Sheriff Eugene Crum was fatally shot Wednesday outside the County Courthouse.

Suspect Arrested
We’ve now got an arrest in the murder of that County Sheriff in West Virginia. More ..

Obama makes new gun control push
President Obama says the majority of Americans support new gun control laws, as the s..

AP Stylebook nixes “illegal immigrant”
The AP Stylebook announced on Tuesday that it would no longer use the term “illegal ..

The Death of the Political Sex Scandal
Joshua Green : “As best I can tell, only two things are guaranteed to remove a polit..

$700M in Katrina Relief Funds Missing
A new inspector general’s report found that about $700 million awarded to help Hurric..

White House pitches brain mapping project
President Obama pitched a human brain research initiative on Tuesday that he likened ..

Facebook Is Expected to Introduce Its Phone
Facebook is expected to introduce a Facebook-centric phone on Thursday that is intend..

Obama to take pay cut to draw attention to plight of federal workers f..
President Obama plans to give up 5 percent of his salary this year to draw attention..

Why expanding background checks would, in fact, reduce gun crime
With Congress set to debate the emerging plan to expand background checks, conservati..

Reince Priebus says the problem with President Obama is that he likes ..
“Obama seems to believe billionaires built it all by themselves.” — Priebus in 2014,..

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March 6, 2013 · 12:39 AM

Republicans still conflicted on who to blame for election failures

Gopasaur

In my opinion it was a combination of Tea Party hatriots, Mitt Romney’s cluelessness and the GOP’s stupidity, combined…

Daily Kos

The Republican Party is still hard at work figuring out why people seem to hate them, or at least why they’re not voting for them. Unfortunately, they can’t agree on what the problem is,which is hampering efforts to find a solution:

There’s a split between those who believe the party’s problem is cosmetic, those who believe it’s data-based and those who think it’s ideological and policy-based. Within those camps, there’s no common ground on what a better approach would look like.  […]The constant drama, a number of Republicans say, has denied the party writ large a chance to take stock amid calm. Still, the Republican National Committee is moving ahead with what Chairman Reince Priebus has at times called an “autopsy” into 2012.

The RNC efforts are just one of many, and it’s not clear the RNC opinion will hold any more weight than any of the others. The problem is that every individual group and consultancy has obvious reasons to declare that their version of what went wrong is the true one, and everyone else should therefore shut up and keep paying them money. Technophiles are convinced that the Romney campaign just needed to post more things to Twitter. Hard-right conservatives think the answer is to be more hard-right. Karl Rove knows that Karl Rove was right and should continue to be paid the big bucks, so he thinks the answer is to stop sending him candidates who so obviously suck. And every message strategist, everywhere, thinks the answer is in tweaking the messaging.

If there are any serious, credible attempts at self-reflection, however, I haven’t seen them. Yes, various party contrarians have muttered about the necessity of policy reforms and of the demographic hurdles facing the aging, perpetually cranky party; those individuals, however, are in no position to enact such reforms. Nobody is. (Even immigration reform, the supposed easiest fix for claiming a new, more inclusive base, has been stymied by the hostility of hard-right party ideologues; regardless of the much-ballyhooed breakthrough on the Senate side, Republican efforts on the issue look to be a rigged game.) Republican social policies remain captured by the hard-right base; economic policies are tied inextricably to the needs of the big donors that the party apparatus relies so very heavily on. All of this ties into our previous suspicion that the party has devolved into nothing but an elaborate grift, or at least that the party has no particular concept of the difference between true ideology and intentionally astroturfing, well, themselves. And yes, I mean that seriously.

Continue reading here…

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January 29, 2013 · 9:46 AM

Walker starts to get cold feet on electoral scheme

The Maddow Blog

Over the weekend, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) offered cautious encouragement to Republicans hoping to rig the 2016 presidential election by changing how his state allocates electoral votes. The conservative governor didn’t explicitly endorse the idea, but Walker called it “interesting” and “worth looking at.”

Yesterday, the Wisconsin Republican was far more circumspect.

Gov. Scott Walker says he has a “real concern” about a Republican idea to change the way the state awards its electoral votes, conceding the move could make Wisconsin irrelevant in presidential campaigns. [...]

“One of our advantages is, as a swing state, candidates come here. We get to hear from the candidates,” said Walker in an interview Saturday at a conservative conference in Washington, D.C. “That’s good for voters. If we change that, that would take that away, it would largely make us irrelevant.”

That’s a far cry from what Walker was saying over the weekend, and it’s a welcome change. What’s more, it’s worth noting that the governor happens to be correct — if Wisconsin changed to a system in which electoral votes are dictated by gerrymandered district lines, the state would immediately go from key, contested battleground to campaign afterthought.

Indeed, that applies to any of the other states (Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, and Florida) where the election-rigging scheme has been discussed — candidates and their campaign teams wouldn’t have any incentive to invest time and energy in states where the outcome is predetermined.

So, does this mean Walker is against the idea?

It remains unclear — he told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he’s “qualified” his comments from the weekend, and he’s “not embracing” the scheme, at least not yet.

Walker added, “The most important thing to me long-term as governor on that is what makes your voters be in play.” And if that’s true, this plan is a non-starter, since it would do the exact opposite.

This would, incidentally, put Walker at odds with RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, a long-time ally of the governor who’s also from Wisconsin and who’s endorsed the scheme.

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December 11, 2012 · 1:15 AM

Poll Truthers Now In Charge Of Figuring Out What Went Wrong For Republicans

Good luck with that, GOP…

BuzzFeed Politics

According to a report in Politico the RNC has launched an official review committee to figure out what went wrong and what worked in 2012. But during the election, two of its members — former Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer and Republican committeeman Henry Barbour — pushed the narrative that the polls were skewed, and Mitt Romney would ultimately prevail.

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November 16, 2012 · 7:02 AM

Allen West Rejects Offer To Restart Political Career In Georgia: ‘I’m Not An NFL Free Agent’

Allen West Georgia

What an arrogant piece of work.  I, for one am glad he didn’t take the offer.  We have enough arrogant politicians in Georgia and we surely don’t need this one.

The Huffington Post

Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) on Wednesday turned down an offer from Georgia’s Republican Party chairwoman, Sue Everhart, who earlier this week urged the congressman to run for office in her state at some point in the future, in the face of his apparent electoral loss.

“No,” West told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution when asked if he’d consider Everhart’s offer. “Look, let me tell you something. I have moved my wife around for 20-some-odd years, being in the military, and she was also the daughter of a career military guy. When I retired, she chose Florida. That’s where my daughter’s in school, in college, my youngest daughter’s in high school. That’s our home. It’s a very nice thing, but I’m not an NFL free agent.”

West is currently still clinging to the hope that his loss to Democrat Patrick Murphy earlier this month is not concrete, despite the fact that Florida officials have certified the result.

While he and other top Republicans continue to explore possibilities for recounting votes, in hopes of somehow producing a victory, Everhart suggested on Monday thatWest should move back to his home state of Georgia if the final outcome doesn’t go his way.

“I would be glad to have him come back to Georgia and at some point run here,” Everhart told the Journal-Constitution. “I would certainly try to help him because he has done his job. The way he ran his race didn’t in any way interfere with the job he did. He ran as a Republican, a conservative Republican.”

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus and Florida GOP Chairman Lenny Curry have both called for a full recount of the West-Murphy contest. Murphy is meanwhile attending freshman orientation events on Capitol Hill, a move that West’s campaign has criticized as “premature.”

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August 27, 2012 · 7:48 PM

Chris Matthews Confronts RNC Chairman: ‘Obama Being A Foreigner Is The Thing Your Party Has Been Pushing’

A few people emailed me to ask had I seen the Matthews and Priebus altercation.  I actually saw the video for the first time about an hour ago.

Here’s a progressive blog’s take on the story:

Think Progress

Chris Matthews tore into RNC Chairman Reince Priebus during an appearance on Morning Joe on Monday, accusing the Romney campaign of “playing that little ethnic card” in its false attacks against welfare reform and jokes about birtherism. “You can play your games and giggle about it….[but] Obama being a foreigner is the thing your party has been pushing. [Campaign co-chair John] Sununu pushed it, everyone is pushing it in your party,” Matthews declared.

The MSNBC host criticized Mitt Romney’s birther joke, his consistent claims that Obama imported his domestic policies, and argued that the campaign has sought to foreignize the president.  Priebus defended the party by claiming that Obama’s health and economic policies are European, but Matthews quickly dismissed the claim:

PRIEBUS: But I think Obama’s policies have created a sense that for whatever reason, he’s looking to guidance [from Europe] as far as health care is concerned, as far as our spending is concerned …

MATTHEWS: What? Where do you get this from? This is insane! You mean the Keynesian fiscal policy — you mean the fact that every president we’ve had has tried to offset the economic cycle with stimulus going the other direction is somehow European? … What’s this got to do with Europe and this foreignization of the guy? You’re doing it now! Saying he’s influenced by foreign influences? You’re playing that card again. What’s this European thing of yours? What are you up to with this constant that he’s not really domestic?

PRIEBUS: You don’t think the take-over of our health care system called Obamacare is a problem for most Americans?

MATTHEWS: Let me tell you some history, sir. Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt pushed for that, Truman pushed for that, were they all under the influence of Europe? Where do you get this from?

PRIEBUS: I’m not going to get into a shouting match with Chris, so you guys can just move on.

MATTHEWS: Because you’re losing, that’s why.

PRIEBUS: No, I’m not losing.

The Romney campaign promoted the “foreigner” angle in July, when Sununu claimed that Obama “has no idea how the American system functions…because he spent his early years in Hawaii smoking something, spent the next set of years in Indonesia.” He later claimed, “I wish this president would learn how to be an American,” before apologizing for the remarks.

During a rally in Pennsylvania, however, Romney doubled down, calling Obama’s policies “extraordinarily foreign.”

 

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August 5, 2012 · 1:03 PM

RNC Chairman Calls Harry Reid A “Dirty Liar”

RNC Chairman Reince PriebusWay to stay classy Reince Priebus…

Think Progress

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus today deflected Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-NV) calls for Mitt Romney to release more tax returns by resorting to outright name-calling.

On ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Priebus first said he would not respond to the comments and seconds later launched into a personal attack on Reid:

PRIEBUS: As far as Harry Reid is concerned, listen, I know you might want to go down that road, I’m not going to respond to a dirty liar, who hasn’t filed a single page of tax returns himself, complains about people with money, but lives in the Ritz-Carlton here down the street. So if that’s on the agenda, I’m not going to go there. This is just a made-up issue. The fact that we’re going to spend any time talking about it is just ridiculous.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You say you’re not gonna respond, but you just called him “a dirty liar.” You stand by that? You think Harry Reid is a “dirty liar?”

PRIEBUS: I just said it.

Watch the video:

Assuming Priebus meant to say that Reid has not publicly released his tax returns, it is worth noting that given the level of the office, most successful presidential nominees have released their tax returns since the 1970s. The same tradition does not apply to those in Congress and Reid has never been a presidential candidate.

Reid, citing an anonymous source, claimed this week that Romney may not have paid any taxes for 10 years.

On Friday, Romney himself dismissed Reid’s attacks, lamenting the tone of the campaign. Hesaid “I had hoped it would be a debate about the direction of the country. What we’re seeing instead is one attack after the other — misleading, false attacks.”

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January 30, 2012 · 2:26 AM

RNC CHAIRMAN COMPARES OBAMA TO ITALIAN CRUISE SHIP CAPTAIN ACCUSED OF MANSLAUGHTER

These folks have totally gone off the deep end with their Obama Derangement Syndrome:

The acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal people in reaction to the policies, the statements — nay — the very existence of Barack Obama.  Urban Dictionary…

Think Progress

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus compared President Obama to  Francesco Schettino, the Italian cruise ship captain who took off in a lifeboat after his ship ran aground at Isola del Giglio, Tuscany and is suspected of multiple counts of manslaughter.

“In a few months, this is all going to be ancient history,” Priebus said in response to a question about the brutal GOP primary, “and we are going to talk about our own little Captain Schettino, which is President Obama who is abandoning the ship here in the United States and is more interested in campaigning than doing his job as president.”

At least 17 people died in the cruise ship disaster.

Watch it:

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January 28, 2012 · 5:29 AM

The week in one-liners: Brewer, Newt, Palin

The week’s top quotes in politics …

“We could see an October surprise a day from Newt Gingrich.” — Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney taking aim at Newt Gingrich

“It used to be pious baloney, now it’s desperate baloney.” — GOP White House hopeful Newt Gingrich‘s new nickname for Romney’s rhetoric.

“…well, you kind of get your panties in a wad, and you may say things that you regret later.” — Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin advising Chris Christie.

“He didn’t feel that I had treated him cordially.” — Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer talking about a tense encounter with President Obama.

“Seems a little bit like I was being detained.” — Sen. Rand Paul discussing his run-in with airport security. (TSA disputed that Paul was “detained.”)

“It reminded me a little of Saturday Night Live, I guess.” — RNC chairman Reince Priebus reacting to Obama’s State of the Union address.

“Eagles… next year. Love Brady, think @Giants.” — Vice President Joe Biden tweeting about who will win the Super Bowl.

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July 18, 2011 · 9:12 PM

RNC Goes After Obama For Using White House In Campaign Ad Like Everybody Else

This is getting so old…

Think Progress

Presidents have engaged in the perhaps unseemly but legal practice of using the White House as a backdrop for their campaign ads pretty much since campaign ads became a thing. But now the head of the RNC is calling President Barack Obama’s decision to do the same thing an “apparent crime.”

“As Chairman of the Republican National Committee, I have the responsibility to hold the President accountable for his reckless spending, for the unsustainable growth of government and the crushing debt he is leaving for future generations of Americans, and now, sadly, for his apparent criminal behavior,” RNC Chair Reince Priebus wrote in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder.

“I never expected I would be in this regrettable position, but the President’s conduct and the White House staff’s stonewalling leave me no choice,” Priebus wrote.

It all started when the Obama presidential campaign released a video of Obama asking supporters to get involved in his reelection campaign and enter a contest to win dinner with him and the Vice President. Some Republicans raised questions about the ad being filmed in the White House.

Priebus writes that it is a “crime for the President of the United States to solicit political contributions in a place of official government business.” True enough. But ads filmed in the White House residence are perfectly legal, according to a 1979 opinion by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. Since that’s where the White House counsel says the ad was filmed, we’re square, right?

Not quite, says Priebus. “According to multiple individuals with knowledge of the White House’s rooms and layout, the video appears to have been recorded in the Map Room,” he writes. “According to news reports, however, the White House Counsel has indicated that the video was filmed somewhere in the residential portion of the White House.”

Only one problem: the Map Room is part of the residence. The White House is pushing back on Priebus’ criticism.

“As we have said in the past, this was wholly appropriate and routinely done in past administrations, as evidenced by an abundance of examples spanning the past three decades,” White House spokesman Eric Schultz said in a statement to TPM and other news outlets. “In fact, experts and lawyers have said publicly that all of what this administration is doing is above board.”

Several previous presidents have used the White House in their campaign ads. President George W. Bushfilmed an ad with his wife in the White House residence back in 2004 and a number of President Bill Clinton’s advertisements featured the White House.

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