Another Divide: GOP Strategists (Unlike GOP Leaders) Start Publicly Criticizing Cheney

[babylonsister]

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/president-obama/gop-strategists-unlike-elected-officials-start-publicly-criticizing-cheney/

Another Divide: GOP Strategists (Unlike GOP Leaders) Start Publicly Criticizing Cheney


Worth watching: Little by little, more Republican strategists are going public with the observation that Dick Cheney’s high profile attacks on Obama risk doing real long-term damage to the GOP and play into the Dem argument that the GOP is trapped in the past.

The observation puts these strategists at odds with Republican elected officials and party leaders such as Mitch McConnell, Michael Steele, and John Boehner, who have largely refused to condemn Cheney and even have cheered him on.

The latest: GOP strategist Ed Rollins, who smacked Cheney on Friday night in a little noticed comment on CNN. “Well, he’s giving {the GOP} a voice, defending what he has done and I think to a certain extent that’s his right,” Rollins said, according to Nexis. But he added:

“He’s not helping the Republican Party long-term because we need to look forward, we don’t need to look back…the bottom line is, we need to move forward.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Rollins appeared to show frustration about this problem during a heated exchange with Dem strategist Robert Zimmerman, exhorting that “you got to forget George Bush. George Bush is gone.”

Meanwhile, John Weaver, a former top strategist to John McCain, has now gone on record against Cheney. “If it’s 2012 and our party is defined by Palin and Limbaugh and Cheney, then we’re headed for a blowout,” he said.

There’s another deepening GOP divide here. One one side: GOP elected officials and party leaders who are wary of alienating the Cheney-Limbaugh-Palin-loving base. On the other: The unelected GOP establishment of strategists and lobbyists who tend towards pragmatism, are not beholden to Republican voters, have little to lose in speaking out about Cheney, and are frustrated with the GOP’s inability to shake off the past and move forward.

[Gman]

1. If the Reagan coalition falls apart and it is falling apart at the seams

there is no Republican party.

[peacetalksforall]

2. Talk about upsetting your religious right crowd - "Meanwhile, John Weaver, a former top strategist

to John McCain, has now goneon record against Cheney. “If it’s 2012 and our party is defined by Palin and Limbaugh and Cheney, then we’re headed for a blowout,” he said."


Ideal 2012 ticket: Palin-Bachmann with Dick for guidance in all things corporate and military and Limbaugh and Bennett as co-Secretary's for the new Cabinet for establishing Morals and Joining Church and State.