More of the same?
0 comment Tuesday, May 13, 2014 |
I had never heard of the new RNC Chairman, Reince Priebus. I found this article about him, dating back a couple of years.
Priebus joined the Republican National Committee in 2007. But last fall, he was among the first in the RNC to endorse former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele in a wide-open leadership race.
After Steele staged an upset last month to become the GOP's first African-African chairman, he asked Priebus to lead his ambitious transition effort within the party.
"I am going in an entirely different direction . . . new faces, new voices, new people," Steele said last week at RNC headquarters near the U.S. Capitol.
"This is the first time in a long time that the party can truly rebuild and reorganize itself in a way that the party leaders and the grass-roots members want it to be done," Priebus said..."
[...]
"He is a younger conservative who believes in expanding the base and making it more inclusive," said Ryan, a Janesville Republican.
Like Steele, Priebus says "we need to build bridges without compromising our principles."
They say the GOP needs to catch up to Democrats technologically and energize disillusioned conservatives while competing for young and minority voters and expanding a shrinking geographic base.''
From a more recent piece:
''Given that the individual in question is Reince Priebus, currently seeking the RNC Chairmanship and talking like a conservative, how is it that he seems to have so walked the walk of a typical liberal over the years?
This was only ten years ago, after all. Certainly, there�s nothing wrong with exposing oneself to different peoples and locations and I�m all for the Republican Party reaching out more to minority communities. But whether we do that as stock-in-trade liberals, or present a genuine conservative alternative to the liberal policies of Democrats makes a big difference. So, when one invokes stock phrases like diversity and aligns himself with the NAACP, just what kind of outreach is it Reince Priebus had in mind by attending the University of Miami? Or, just as he talks the talk of conservatism now, is he more a chameleon who says what he has to say to be popular at the time? That�s hardly the type of principled leadership needed for the RNC, especially at such a pivotal time in American history in which the Right and Left are battling to determine the future course of the nation.
In addition to reputation and placement record, Reince chose Miami because he wanted the opportunity to experience living in a diverse community � He was also a law clerk for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in Los Angeles the summer before his third year.
That would be the same NAACP, by the way, that recently tried to malign the tea party movement as racist. Going from the NAACP to the RNC is quite a leap in ten short years. And the years in between weren�t very conservative, either. As recently as 2003, Reince Priebus was using his legal skills to confiscate land from a small business through the power of eminent domain.''
The comments at RedState are mostly on the cautious-to- skeptical side about him.
It remains to be seen how conservative he will be, but probably no more conservative than the party as a whole, which is not very.

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