These Republicans certainly are divided and angry
“It’s disappointing to see infighting in the party,” said Ryan Williams, a Republican operative and former Romney aide. “It doesn’t make us look like we’re in a position to challenge the president and hold him accountable to the promises he made.”
What’s largely causing the dissension? A lack of a clear GOP leader with a single vision for the party.
Republicans haven’t had a consistent standard-bearer since President George W. Bush left office in 2008 with the nation on the edge of a financial collapse. His departure, along with widespread economic concerns, gave rise to a tea party movement that infused the GOP’s conservative base with energy. The tea party is credited with broad Republican gains in the 2010 congressional elections, but it’s also blamed for the rising tension between the pragmatic and ideological wings of the party — discord that festers still.
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The Ass Press is a subversive organization…
d1carter on January 6, 2013 at 1:52 PM
Angry? Ever been to the HuffPo comments section? We got nothin’ on them.
Dongemaharu on January 6, 2013 at 1:54 PM
You mean 77% of Americans. Get it right AP.
topdawg on January 6, 2013 at 1:55 PM
Sounds like a great platform for a presidential candiidate. Too bad you didn’t try it.
Wethal on January 6, 2013 at 1:55 PM
Angry? Like the DU-ers who just got their first 2013 paychecks with higher SS taxes taken out?
Wethal on January 6, 2013 at 1:57 PM
Sure we’re angry though not necessarily for the reason the AP thinks as they and so many other MSM outlet can’t/wont differentiate between conservatives and Republicans.
Us conservatives are mad because we’re actually paying attention and we have every right and expectation to be mad.
Yakko77 on January 6, 2013 at 1:58 PM
“Pragmatic wing of the party” = people who can’t weigh evidence
They are those who think 2010 didn’t happen and that we can out Democrat the Democrats and buy votes too, despite the fact moderates cannot win. They’re the people who don’t realize we’ve only won one popular vote since 1988, when GHWB got in on Reagan’s coattails.
They’re the smart ones, though!
rdbrewer on January 6, 2013 at 1:59 PM
And here I thought right wingers were simpletons who marched lockstep.
CW on January 6, 2013 at 2:00 PM
Establishment.
Bmore on January 6, 2013 at 2:01 PM
More Romney acolytes sewing the seeds of dissension among our ranks. Will these guys never give it a rest?
steebo77 on January 6, 2013 at 2:04 PM
Uh, it’s pretty clear 2010 was an aberration. The people have spoken: free stuff rules, paying bills drools. But sure, go on imagining that this is still a majority conservative country.
That elected Barrack effing Obama.
Twice.
pauljc on January 6, 2013 at 2:06 PM
NOW it’s correct.
tencole on January 6, 2013 at 2:12 PM
The country could have had a proven leader and experienced businessman with an admirable work ethic, who would not have spent weeks in Hawaii on the taxpayer dime or played golf at every opportunity. An honorable and decent man who would have done his level best to get the country back on track, as daunting a task as that now is thanks to Obama and the Dems.
Conservatives didn’t want him. And the TruCons here at HA (some of whom have shown themselves to be anti-Mormon bigots) are indeed very angry people, bitter that the majority won’t recognize their moral superiority, determined to destroy the Republican Party–which they are thus far accomplishing in a spectacular, albeit counterproductive, manner.
There are none so blind as those who will not see.
Meredith on January 6, 2013 at 2:13 PM
Not true.
A good chunk are not Rs any more. They are Ds now.
Schadenfreude on January 6, 2013 at 2:13 PM
An honorable man doesn’t change their position depending on who their audience is. An honorable man doesn’t let political allies change the rules of petition processes and delegate allocation during or after the game. An honorable man doesn’t dismiss 47% of the American people as irresponsible.
Mitt Romney was not an honorable man. And proven leader? The only thing the guy was was a proven disaster. From abortion to gay marriage to Romneycare to gun control, he was a despicable man who thankfully never seized control of the reins of power.
The TruCons as you call them aren’t interested in their moral standing versus those of others. All they want are leaders who are moral, not lying, opportunistic weasels like Willard.
If demands that those who lead the GOP ought to…
1.) maintain good character and
2.) have an ideology that conforms to the platform of the party
…are too “extreme”, then the party deserves to die.
Stoic Patriot on January 6, 2013 at 2:40 PM
Too bad you missed it. Stoned?
Basilsbest on January 6, 2013 at 2:49 PM
This article is out of Boston. Off AP. How strange. There are no republicans in Boston, no one worrying too much about the republican party here in Boston, and we barely have any talk radio to enlighten us here.
If you want to know what is going on in Boston, for normal people, there is The Herald to read. Sometimes they put AP stories in the Herald “As Filler” and the readers are catching on to that, because usually there is some insult to free and thinking people’s intelligence in the first paragraph.
The news in Boston is This: Duval Patrick is an absentee Governor, Hands Off, Governor. It is probably best that way, we have mostly liberals in the legislature and they have a political machine that processes all the spare government jobs, and hands them out to hacks, their relatives and their wives in secret, and they hire their friends too and no one does their job. It is the opposite of a merit system, you have to hire the worst workers and pay them the most, and they can’t ever be let go.
Why does this BOSTON news matter to you? Because out there in Fly Over country 50 people have been sickened/died from a contaminated cortisone prepared here in a lab which was supposed to be monitored by Highly Paid Massachusetts GOVERNMENT workers.
The supervisor of all this Safety, was let go. Her name was Mary Beth Heffernan. She was suspended from her job…pending the investigation. You may have head the NEWS from Boston was that new safety precautions are a TOP PRIORITY of Duval Patrick.
And that was in the news. But you did not see that the lady in charge is being rewarded in his Culture of Corruption, with a judgeship. THAT IS THE NEWS, not that some republicans somewhere are featured in the news quibbling.
The real news:
http://howiecarr.us/2012/12/18/the-states-next-hack-judge/
Fleuries on January 6, 2013 at 3:15 PM
Reagan was pro choice when Governor of CA. Romney pretended to be pro choice whole running for the Senate against Kennedy in 1994. Romney position on gay marriage has not changed. Romney supported a ban on assault weapons but was otherwise not in support of gun control. Romney is as honorable, decent and accomplished a leader as the GOP will ever have. Anyone who would describe him as despicable is both despicable and unhinged.
The problem with the GOP is too many extremists like Stoic Patriot, though one would be too many. They are a small but noisy and angry minority who are totally out of touch with the mainstream of society.
Basilsbest on January 6, 2013 at 3:16 PM
F*** honor. This is the future of the Republic we’re talking about, not a baseball game.
And it’s way more than 47% of Americans who are irresponsible.
pauljc on January 6, 2013 at 3:25 PM
Pretended to be pro-choice? Puh-leeze.
First, that speaks to the flip-flopping nature of Romney — which is that he’ll tell anyone what they want to hear. That is dishonorable to begin with. Next, Romney made passionate defenses of abortion in both his senatorial as well as his gubernatorial run. So this is all pretend? And what, am I supposed to believe that when he told the Des Moines Register he’d do nothing about abortion that he was pretending again? Yeah, right!
His gay marriage position hasn’t changed? So, when he ran to the left of Ted Kennedy on gay rights, he was a solid pro-marriage conservative? You know, the same one who was the first governor to ever implement gay marriage in the country?
George W. Bush was far more honorable than that sleazy hack ever was.
Sure, so the pro-life plurality/majority that shows up in polls is completely out of touch with the mainstream. And so too are the 50% of Americans who oppose gay marriage. And so are the majority who support the second amendment. Riiiiiiiiiight.
Stoic Patriot on January 6, 2013 at 3:38 PM
Wethal: Ryan is from NH, anyone involved in the NH GOP knows him, and he is very effective at what he does. Maybe if HotGasers who did jack squat but sit around here and bitch and moan to each other actually got up and did actual work on the campaign, we might have a chance.
SuperBunny on January 6, 2013 at 3:45 PM
Yeah. Romney wouldn’t be any different than Obama.
davidk on January 6, 2013 at 3:52 PM