More Republican craziness? Now Huntsman isn't good enough for GOP
Wow.
If an 84 percent approval rating for a Republican governor in Utah doesn't qualify you as a "real Republican" -- what does?
On the day that Arlen Specter switched his party affiliation all but giving President Obama a 60 seat filibuster-proof Senate, now some in the Republican Party want to kick more Republicans out. In fact, they're doing it.
Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, regarded as one of the GOP's brightest rising stars, has been kicked off the schedule at a Michigan County Republican Party event.
Why? Because he's not Republican enough.
Big Tent
Kent County Republican Chairman Joanne Voorhees booted Huntsman because he's too big-tent.
"The voters want and expect us to stand on principle and return to our roots. Unfortunately, by holding an event with Governor Huntsman, we would be doing the exact opposite," announced Voorhees in an email earlier this week.
Where does Huntsman stray from these principles? Civil unions. He's OK with them.
The Grand Rapids Press reports that after Voorhees found out "that the Mormon governor of one of the country's reddest states supports civil unions for same-sex couples, [she] pulled the plug."
Strong message
With a new Washington Post/ABC poll showing that only 21 percent of Americans identified themselves as Republicans, you've got to wonder: can the Republican Party really afford to do this?
To use an Obama'ism: Yes they can!
In fact, a political action committee called the Campaign for Michigan Families lauded the boot saying it "sends a strong message nationwide that grassroots conservatives will not embrace liberals who want to abandon the GOP platform's commitment to traditional family values in favor of promoting homosexual activists' incremental assault on religious freedom, marriage, and the family."
Tin foil hats
Predictably those on the left are lampooning the news.
"The only people left in the Republican Party are crazier than an outhouse rat..." writes John Cole over at Balloon Juice. "They are the people who feverishly emailed each other stories about Obama’s birth certificate, and who are convinced that joking about Obama’s teleprompter and making impassioned speeches about earmark reform are the only route to electoral recovery."
Uh.....well, we just occasionally mention Obama's teleprompter. Here, here, here, here, and here. But we're not crazy or anything.
ABC
By the way, the outspoken governor was on ABC News earlier today and offered, perhaps in the mind of Voorhees, more craziness.
“You can’t just say no. You can’t just obstruct or obfuscate,” Huntsman said discussing the lack of Republican alternatives to Obama's agenda.
"Instead of just kind of grousing and complaining, it would do us all a whole lot of good if we actually started engaging directly in finding compromises and common ground and shared solutions," he said. "When you are devoid of the ideas, or the content that would allow you to articulate or paint a better future, you have no choice other than to fall back on 'no, we are not going support it, it cannot be done'."
