Quote of the Week: Vance Day
Kari Chisholm
This is easily the most (unintentionally) hilarious quote I've read in a long, long time.
From Vance Day, the chairman of the Oregon GOP, talking about potential challengers to his job:
"You get a good bit of success going and you’re bound to get people who want to challenge you for the position."
Let's recap:
* Two Democratic U.S. Senators for the first time in many decades.
* All-but-one of our Members of Congress U.S. Representatives are Democrats, and have been since 1996.
* Every single elected state executive is a Democrat.
* Supermajorities in the Oregon House and Oregon Senate.
I gotta wonder what Vance Day is smoking.
At least Dan Lavey was telling the truth.
It's almost beside the point to observe that the Republican Party in Oregon is now officially dead. ... Broke and leaderless and with more ideology than ideas, it's hard to see a reversal of fortunes anytime soon for the GOP.
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10:05 p.m.
Dec 9, '08
Not to mention...
• Seeing Republicans flee the Party in droves. Democrats had 173,520 more voters on Election Day than they did at the end of 2007. Republicans only had 10,000 more voters over the same period. They saw a decrease in voters from December, 2007 to May, 2008 (-14,373) - Democrats saw an large increase (+112,789).
• Being very behind in getting their voter file updated. This meant they wasted a lot of time and money on contacting people who weren't Republicans anymore. The worst part (for them at least)? Many of those they were contacting had left the Party because of the Party's ineptitude. Whoops. Guess they proved that to those voters once again.
• Not just losing open seats, but having incumbents who many thought had an extremely good chance of being re-elected lose by large margins (like John Lim). Even "close races" like HD 49 had wide margins between the Democrat and Republican.
• Not being able to get candidates on the ballot in many races, especially in the big ones like Attorney General.
• Having to waste time and resources to run at least one write-in campaign (SD 25 - Gresham, Wood Village, Fairview, Troutdale).
• Having a Democrat as their nominee in how many races?!? Jefferson Smith won the nomination of both the Democratic and Republican Parties in a district that had a hard fought race just two years earlier. John Kroger came out far ahead of all others for the Republican nomination. And that's just two examples.
Dec 10, '08
Why does Shakespeare seem appropriate for the GOP here?
"I pray you, in your letters, When you shall these unlucky deeds relate, Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate, Nor set down aught in malice. Then must you speak Of one that loved not wisely but too well; Of one not easily jealous, but, being wrought, Perplex'd in the extreme"
Dec 10, '08
I wonder if Vance day belongs to the "Diane Downs school of Not Getting it"?
9:13 a.m.
Dec 10, '08
Y'know, I feel kinda bad for Vance. I've met a few times and he seems like a nice enough guy. I think its gotta suck to be him right now.
Trying to make lemonade from a big pile of lemons.
Dec 10, '08
Maybe Dan Lavey should get an award for honesty. Tough having the guy you got elected to the US Senate get defeated!
"Broke and leaderless and with more ideology than ideas, it's hard to see a reversal of fortunes anytime soon for the GOP."
That's the sort of candor I have long respected from Lavey.
Dec 10, '08
I was reading Sidney Herbert the other day, on politics in Britain in the 1850s and was struck by his characterization of the Whig party. Parties do simply die, and the Republicans- not predicting- are beginning to smell rather like the mid-nineteenth century Whigs.
He said that the Whigs were, "incurable in the superstitions about ducal houses. I see no prospect of the formation of an efficient party, let alone Government, out of the chaos on the Opposition benches. No one reigns over or in it, but discord and antipathy. The aristocratic Whigs seem to be nearly used up, and the party produces no new men, but at the same time complains of the old ones. Middle-aged marchants, shrewd men of business, feel their vanity hurt that they have not the refusal of office.
Dec 10, '08
Yet, what better time to be a Republican? Over the next 10 years it will be the party of new ideas, while the Dems will harden in stasis.
The young god of revolution Orc inevitably ages into the tyrant Urizen, keeper of the status quo.
Dec 10, '08
Right on TomK
Carla,
I hate to point out the obvious but your comparison doesnt work, Unless you drink lemonade not made from Lemons?
Is that how it works in democratville?
10:42 a.m.
Dec 10, '08
"All-but-one of our Members of Congress are Democrats, and have been since 1996."
Senators are Members of Congress; perhaps you mean our Representatives (or House Members?)
11:59 a.m.
Dec 10, '08
Yes, TJ, that's what I meant...
Dec 10, '08
While the Republicans seem pretty bloody in the population centers, they seem to be doing pretty well in others. It doesn't hurt to note that the Merkley win was pretty by a pretty narrow margin - the arguement could be made that the third party candidate cost Smith the election.
As a Democratic activist I am well aware of the faux moderate position of Smith and that it was somewhat successfully combatted, but that election was still too close. The best way I can think of to not win is to rest on laurels and not work to change the basic narrative that Republicans have used and used. Mistaking a stunned bear for a dead bear is a costly mistake.
Dec 10, '08
Republicans the party of new ideas? And those new ideas would be what exactly? And if a member of the holy righteous pro-America brigade would have an idea other than tax cuts, God, forced birth-no options, pro-White, pro-guns, anti-non-White and anti-gay, would any of the Palin-Taliban base do anything other than call for a immediate stoning of the heretic.
Your average republican it seems to me would be more happy returning to the Dark Ages when the Church ruled the world, which was flat of course, then trying to make sense of and navigate complex questions concerning the future.
The republican party is in total chaos. It is impossible to say with any certainty what in the world they stand for except the above mentioned.
And it is impossible to make lemonade out of a pile of manure.
Dec 10, '08
I'm with Chuck Butcher. Some of this "The Republican party is dead, Democrats will win forever" rhetoric scares me, because it sounds like a recipe to become complacent. Remember, on the national level, just a few years ago Republicans thought they had a "permanent majority", and this attitude allowed their party to be hurt by corruption and incompetence. It would have been funny if it only hurt the Republicans, but we are now all suffering from their incompetence today and possibly will be for years to come. As Democrats, we should never stop working hard to win over the pubic with good campaigning and--more importantly--good governance.
Dec 10, '08
I did not intend to insinuate that the republican party is dead. It is a beast however, that is highly confused as to it's personal identity. This idea that some have that 'everything will be ok if we just tweak things a little bit this way or a little bit that way' and we'll be back in the saddle in 2010 I think underestimates the damage done to the brand by 28 years of actually showing the voters how conservatism really doesn't work in the real world, culminating with the tragically horrible Preznit Dubya.
They are not going to 'get over it' in six months. Nobody is in charge and people are openly laughing at the 'potential front runner' for 2012.
Democrats can go a long way toward maintaining their majority by showing character, competence and good governance.
Dec 10, '08
The amazing thing is that those who are left in leadership at the Republican Party actually believes their only salvation as a party is to move even further to the right. It's the most amazing thing I've ever seen. Rather than taking a look back at their glory days and the sort of Republicans that Oregon was willing to elect, which were obviously more reasonable and less idealistic, they are determined to destroy themselves completely. I guess after spending the last 15 years or whatever learning at the feet of idiots like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, they've all been turned into raving wing-nuts of the likes of Ted Nugent, no longer capable of moderating or compromising in any way. It's all black and white. Funny that these extremists have utterly destroyed the party on whose backs they have made their living all these years. Karma can really bite.
3:27 p.m.
Dec 10, '08
Carla,
I hate to point out the obvious but your comparison doesnt work, Unless you drink lemonade not made from Lemons?
Is that how it works in democratville?
How it works for me (I don't speak for all Democrats or all progressives) is...I don't like to see nice folks have a difficult time of it. Day seems like a nice man. I'm sorry that he's having a struggle.
Or is it not okay for a progressive to hope for better for a Republican?
Dec 10, '08
Becky,
I couldn't agree more with your most recent comment.
I think it goes the other way, too. Most Americans are more middle-of-the-road, even if they are registered Democrat or Republican.
If the liberals who are now in control across the country go too far to the left, I wouldn't be surprised to see the pendulum swing the other way once again. It may take a few years to recover, but I wouldn't underestimate them.
Unrepentant Liberal,
"Democrats can go a long way toward maintaining their majority by showing character, competence and good governance."
We'll see if that happens and I hope it does; however, any student of political history knows that one party never stays in power forever.
I predict the Republican Party will reorganize and be in a position to at least compete for seats they've recently lost in the House and Senate. Obama will serve two terms, so I don't think Republicans have a shot at the White House again until at least 2016.
Dec 10, '08
To clarify:
"I predict the Republican Party will reorganize and be in a position to at least compete for seats they've recently lost in the House and Senate."
But I don't think that will happen until 2012 at the earliest, unless there's some sort of major scandal or debacle in the Democratic party before the mid-term elections in 2010.
7:12 p.m.
Dec 10, '08
If the liberals who are now in control across the country go too far to the left,
So-called conservatives have so distorted the concept of "left" and "right" that this is an almost meaningless statement. Both the one-dimensional conception of political inclinations and the distorted location of the "middle" are triumphs of authoritarian mythmaking.
Dec 10, '08
We gloat at our peril. This is the time to be reaching out to dissatisfied Republicans, not rubbing their faces in their losses. Let's focus on how we can solve problems, together, and let the political "chips" fall where they may.
Let's leave the political obituaries to the historians of the future while today we reach out and attack the ISSUES that challenge each of us of all political persuasions.
Dec 10, '08
It is not gloating to talk to the staffer of one's Republican state rep., to share the Mapes obituary of one of the true moderate giants of the legislature, and to say anyone who wants to be known as a moderate should read this http://blog.oregonlive.com/mapesonpolitics/2008/12/rip_mary_alice_ford_former_ore.html#more
and realize Dan Lavey is right when he talks about a party "Broke and leaderless and with more ideology than ideas".
Dan Lavey knows what a wild ride it was on the way up (how many years was it from when Gordon Smith was elected a state senator to when he became Sen. President, to 1996 when he was elected to the US Senate) and is being as candid as political professionals should be about the importance of discussing ideas rather than preaching ideology.
And it is not gloating to say Lavey, Kellyanne Conway, Ed Rollins have a clearer picture of what happened in this year's election than some "political professionals" and candidates/elected officals of either party.
Dec 10, '08
Rulial: Oisin? That you?
Dec 11, '08
If the current crowd running God's Oligarch Party split off, or force the non-brain dead Reps to split off, I think Tom could be right about it being a good time for those so inclined. I look forward to the split, as the left would no longer have the "any progressive vote is one away from the Dems" prob as bad, the beginning of real party politics rather than every vote being a simple, gross distinction between status quo and change.
Dec 11, '08
Republicans the party of new ideas? And those new ideas would be what exactly?
Denouncing Big Government Socialist ideas.
Denouncing regulation of business
Denouncing taxes.
Denouncing "immoral" behavior, defined as "anything different from what you'd see in a Norman Rockwell painting.
Claiming that small towns in midwestern and southern states, and in some other rural areas like Wasilla are the "real America", while coastal states, except for Georgia, South Carolina and the Gulf Coast, are not really America, but have been taken over by liberals instead. That one, especially, ought to go over well in Oregon.
The ideas of today's national Republican Party were parodied as outdated by Sinclair Lewis in his novel Babbitt in 1922. The 19th century is still considered cutting edge, to them. If they want to go ahead and scold the Democrats for being supposedly stuck in the 1960s or something, they can go right ahead.
Dec 11, '08
Thanks, Admiral. Have you noticed how few Republicans are capable of stating the affirmative?
Sure, they can call Wasilla "real America" but not any of the states that went for Obama. So Ohio ceased to be "real America" on Nov.4? That is just a snide remark, not a proposal.
http://blog.oregonlive.com/mapesonpolitics/2008/12/oregon_business_leaders_propos.html#more
is a proposal. It is easier to imagine snide Republican remarks about the Oregon business leaders than informed debate on what the Republicans propose if they don't support this idea. Did the business leaders leave the Oregon GOP "base" when they made the proposal? But then, Dan Lavey was right,
"..........with more ideology than ideas, it's hard to see a reversal of fortunes anytime soon for the GOP."
The ability to state solutions to real problems in the affirmative ("We support ----- because, and are willing to answer any questions.") will be one of the signs that the GOP is coming back.
Bashing those who agree with the majority of 2008 voters will not help them and could very well hurt.
Dec 11, '08
Vance Day may survive what is now becoming a crowd of candidates for his position.
Of particular note, Ted Piccolo AKA I Am Coyote has a post on Bob Tiernan's plan to revive the Oregon GOP. I will sum it up:
This is basically duhh! Any freshman political science major can come up with this redundant, simple ass list. This is all about the literals of organization development without any talk on "message."
It is a throwback to the mid-1990s and I do not see it working without major scandal and failure on part of Oregon Democrats.
Here is what I propose for Republicans to rejuvenate:
Kick the old guard losers like Rob Kremer, Kevin Mannix, Bill Sizemore, Ted Piccolo, and many others out of positions of influence including the annual Dorchester conference(Democrats will help with this in 2010).
With 42% of Oregon's population residing in Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties, headquarter the Oregon GOP in one of the three and focus on registering voters in the suburbs and ex-burbs of those 3 counties.
Ditch the rural vs. urban rhetoric in favor of a populist rhetoric that rails against big business, free trade, and individual rights. The rural numbers are not there to win campaigns where there is a strong undertone of "Fuck Portland." You will lose if you constantly imply that "small town" Oregon is the "real" Oregon.
Put the wingnut, single-issue interest groups in the "proverbial" closet.
Support student Republican groups across college campuses. Besides retirees, college students are an invaluable asset in the GOTV effort.
Raise money somehow and somewhere. Democrats have unions, environmental groups, etc. Find and mine your goldmine.
Build a team of candidates in every county by supporting those who run for local office.
Dec 11, '08
Correction. I did not mean to say rail against individual rights. I meant to say support individual rights.
12:44 p.m.
Dec 11, '08
Any freshman political science major can come up with this redundant, simple ass list.
Of course, in defense of Bob Tiernan (can't believe I'm saying that), this "redundant, simple ass list" seems to have been a challenge for the Oregon GOP of late.
Then again, I suspect that Vance Day has the same list. The problem is HOW do you accomplish those things, not WHETHER you should.
Dec 11, '08
This is just not the republicans time. They pretty much have run the show since Reagan was elected in 1980 and this is just the end of their run as that version of the repub party.
I was listening to an interview of a major conservative figure whose name I can't recall (sorry) on the night of Bush's re-election in 2004 and basically he forecasted that was going to be the moment the republican party started to disintegrate. The bonds holding together the various competing factions in the party were going to be obliterated by the lack of a Reagan-like cult figure to rally around.
The forced birth wing has almost nothing in common with the economic wing which has nothing really in common with the national defense/foreign policy wing which has nothing in common with the God/Guns/Gays wing.
I think you may see many little republican parties made up of many different factions of republicans fighting it out amongst themselves more than offering a coherent, cohesive republican world view for a while.
Dec 11, '08
Sue,
I would argue that liberals have distorted what being too conservative really means. It goes both ways, which is why I said a majority of Americans are fairly middle-of-the-road.
Dec 11, '08
Sue Hagmeier said, So-called conservatives have so distorted the concept of "left" and "right" that this is an almost meaningless statement. Both the one-dimensional conception of political inclinations and the distorted location of the "middle" are triumphs of authoritarian mythmaking.
The same can be said of "so-called liberals" or "so-called progressives". Think of how all these current "pragmatic" choices are moving the acceptable political spectrum further and further to the right.
Adolph Reed, Jr. was correct when he said prior to the election, "And there's no reason, other than the will to believe, to expect that Obama would be any better [than McCain], and it's entirely likely that in some ways - including those bearing on racial justice - he'll be worse, again by moving the boundaries of thinkable liberalism that much farther to the right."
Dec 11, '08
"argh", I don't know who Oisin is.
Dec 12, '08
I don't know if it's an example of the moderates getting some spine or their imminent escape from the sinking ship, but some like Collin Powell are getting positively real !
Dec 12, '08
Jason
If the conservative and liberal labels have been distorted, what does middle-of-the-road mean? Most people consider whatever they happen to believe in to be middle-of-the-road wether it is or isn't. So, it's pretty useless as a label as well.
Dec 12, '08
Kari,
Tiernan's list is just the obvious without the "beef" that is the "message" that your party (if it can be called that nowadays) will run on. I apologize if what I wrote was "whether" as opposed to "how". Let me put a little bit more gristle on that bone.
First and foremost, Republicans need to get back to their Lincoln roots with a message of populism that rails against the massive tax breaks that is given to the likes of Nike and Intel, rails against Free Trade as the "selling out" of America, and unwaveringly supports the individual through governmental policies that calls for responsible government (as opposed to small government).
Second, I agree wholeheartedly that Republicans need to support each and every Republican running for local office. Doing so will build up a pool of individuals that can run for office.
Third, Republicans as a consequence of shifting demographics, need to shift from a political party that is rural-centered to one whose heart and values comes from and resides in rural areas, but whose head and power brokers are concentrated on winning in the suburbs, exburbs and the urban core.
Fourth, the money issue is the hardest for Republicans as they do not have the spigot that is the union. The tried and true way is to get $$$ from the single-issue interest groups, but as we have seen getting money from them means that the party is defined by them. Honestly, I have no answer to on how Republicans can secure a funding source that is on par with the Union machine for the Democrats.
Republicans can try canvassing, building the netroots as fundraisers, and using their lawyers to lobby, but I don't know if the cost/benefit ratio makes all of that worthwile.
Just my 2 cents on how the Party of Lincoln can get it act to together.
Dec 12, '08
Rulial - thanks. There is an Oisin I know whose name includes yours. Was hoping.
Dec 12, '08
"Fourth, the money issue is the hardest for Republicans as they do not have the spigot that is the union. The tried and true way is to get $$$ from the single-issue interest groups, but as we have seen getting money from them means that the party is defined by them. Honestly, I have no answer to on how Republicans can secure a funding source that is on par with the Union machine for the Democrats. "
Money is also hard for Democratic legislative candidates who are not Future Pac or or Senate caucus targets. Find an inspiring candidate who connects with the folks in the district and runs to represent them instead of running to be a caucus member, and you might have a chance.
I'd remind YOB that unions are not the only part of the Democratic party. Regardless of rhetoric, there have been internal squabbles pitting union Democrats vs. non-union Democrats.
Some Democrats win primaries although someone else got the union endorsement. Sometimes a union endorses a candidate but puts all their resources against another union-endorsed candidate. Some union endorsements have been just plain stupid party politics. For instance, because of internal political games, the OEA endorsed 2 state senate candidates who were Republicans---and those were the 2 sponsors for the bill to end teacher tenure. Some Democrats never trusted OEA endorsements after that.
If voters decide they like Jim or Joe or Betty or Jean, that may not be a party decision. They may just be voting for the person they like best regardless of party. Measure 65 didn't win, but that doesn't mean there aren't voters who like the idea.
Republicans need to remember there was a GOP before Reagan. Read FIRE AT EDEN'S GATE by Brent Walth, or WRITE IT WHEN I'M GONE which is the remarks Pres. Ford made to a political reporter over the decades on the condition the book not be published while he was alive.
There are those of us who respected Vic Atiyeh and don't believe there will be another Republican Governor until the nominee is of that quality (hint: Saxton, Mannix, Sizemore, Denny Smith don't qualify, Paulus or Frohnmayer might have won had they run better campaigns). Some people think Frank Morse fills the bill--hard working, solution oriented, civil, friendly to ordinary folks, considerable common sense.
Dec 13, '08
This place is still rife with Reagan Democrats. Lest we forget that Gore beat Junior by only 7K votes in '00 and although we believe ourselves the color of our flag; Karen Minnis continues to enjoy substantial support in liberal Multnomah County. Gordon Smith lost because of an inept McCain campaign; not necessarily because Jeffy beat him. As more CA professionals flee the dissolution of the 6th largest economy (simply because they have the means to relocate), Oregon stands to become less libertine, more tax adverse, culturally xenophobic and geriatric, all of which bode well for a reactionary future state. Ted's plan to greet hard economic times with centrist policy positions will continue to erode the progressive agenda. In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king until he pokes himself in the eye. The OR GOP has nowhere to go but up...
Dec 18, '08
http://www.cctvsalem.org/ has the video of today's opening of the new public private partnership. It produced a building with downtown condos for sale, a new studio for the local CCTV, a contribution presented at the ceremony to Habitat for Humanity in support of affordable housing, quality office space for the city's IT division, all on a non-partisan, results oriented basis.
The city, county, Pence Construction, Comcast and others worked together to produce a building that came in on time, under budget, and with an award for a successful public private partnership. The mayor and many of the other folks involved have tended toward the Republican side of the spectrum but you wouldn't know it from the ceremony. THAT is the way to earn respect!
Are Republicans willing to try such public-private partnerships to solve problems elsewhere? Or are they more concerned with the ideology over ideas and problem solving which Dan Lavey has spoken about?
What have YOB's "old guard" actually accomplished---or hasn't that mattered as long as they were ideologically pure?
That is the decision Republicans have to make--are they problem solvers or ideologues? If the first, they shouldn't have trouble raising money and recruiting candidates if they can ditch the ideologues who scream RINO!
<h2>If the second, they may be in for a shock if voters actually like the solutions the Democrats put forth in the next year.</h2>