Apparently the Republicans in South Carolina’s General Assembly think that Assemblywoman Nikki Randhawa Haley (see previous post) has got that whip appeal. They have just named her Majority Whip for the South Carolina House Republican Caucus. Rediff reports:
As majority whip, Haley will be responsible for lining up votes in support of caucus priorities and setting the direction of the 74-member Republican majority.“Haley was selected because of her proven leadership skills. She is always prepared when we go to the floor and she’s passionate about issues of concern to her constituents,” Republican chief whip Shirley Hinson said.
For Nikki this is the third leadership position she’s held in her first two years in the General Assembly.
“I’m honoured to be recognised again by my peers and I know this new position helps me serve my constituents.This position will help me drive legislation that will benefit Lexington County and the entire state,” Nikki said.
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p>The Whip position requires you to know everyone in the state legislature because it is your responsibility to twist their arms and get them to vote the party line. It is the sort of position that would definitely help to have under your belt should you later decide to run for U.S. Congress.
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p>In the U.S. House of Representatives, Bobby Jindal is a deputy Whip. With head whip, Roy Blunt (R-MO) vying for ousted Majority leader Tom Delay’s position, look for Jindal to seek a move up the leadership chain should Blunt win. He is exactly the type of young outsider that many disgruntled Republicans want.
My apologies to Babyface.
Abhi,
You are talking like what is happening in Israel today, the Kadima Party.
It is possible. But Abramoff’s and incumbents will not let happen. It is still plausible.
all i know is that the republican primaries are going to be a bloodbath.
but democrats shouldn’t get too excited about that, because the worse it gets the more likely jeb bush will come riding in and we’ll end up with round 3 of the dynasty.
If Jeb Bush ran he’d get slaughtered. It would be a PR persons dream. Every single ad would have him wearing a crown on his head. Americans would never go for a monarchy if you framed it that way.
I like Abhi’s scenario, for a hollywood script !!! McCain can be played by William H Macy The script will be sorrouding McCain and his actions that is going to completely alter american politics, as he is the kind of intense politicial with name recognition. A movie in the Wag the Dog genre.
“If Jeb Bush ran he’d get slaughtered.”
No, not at all. If he can get hispanic vote “really” excited, he will be the President of US even before the elections. California, Texas, Florida, New Mexico will be on his side (electoral college math)…….why even bother campaigning. Prepare for Jan.20, 2009.
Kush, trust me on this. He has zero chance. The way you can tell is that no big time strategists are trying to recruit him. Can you imagine the bumberstickers alone?
“No more Bush” “We’ve tasted enough Bush” “We’ve had enough Bush to last a lifetime”
Didn’t Whoopi Goldberg get into trouble for something like this!
Yeah, I’d have a hard time voting for Jeb. Honestly, isn’t there anyone else besides a Clinton or a Bush to run this country?
abhi, if there’s any group you can count on to make every point except that most obvious one, it’s the democrats. they won’t have the balls to portray him this way. oooh, the politics of personal destruction, whatever.
second, if his brother could get elected as the idiot son, why not him, the smarter one?
third, you say no major strategists are going for him. that proves nothing! if jeb runs in an open field with frist, pataki, giuliani, mccain, allen, j. warner, brownback, santorum, and lord knows who else, then, sure, i agree with you, he’s got no chance.
but if all of those mf’s run and it turns into a bloodbath with the potential to tear the party apart along the lines which already pull at it, and therefore hand the white house over the the dems on a silver platter, then you can bet your desi ass that the party graybeards will look for a consensus candidate who can pull everyone together. and at that point being a bush becomes and advantage: the two previous bushes won and spread the goodies around, so this one will too.
then you can count on the democrats to screw up in some ignominious fashion, and presto! bush the third.
dig it.
siddhartha,
I got to disagree. There are two things you look for when trying to determine the right horse to back. (1) Who has the most money or access to the most money (2) Who’s train are the big time strategists trying to get aboard (that actually does prove everything). People assume that a select few strategists know something everyone else doesn’t, and this causes a chain reaction. Look at how Bob Novak helped to sink the campaign of the woman running against Hillary for NY Senate. Similarly Katherine Harris is hanging on by a thread in FL.
Jeb Bush has two things working against him: (1) His last name. Voter fatigue makes him a no go. (see MD’s response. She is Republican) (2) The Terry Schiavo fiasco
Here is how primaries play out. If you are a Liberal democrat or a Moderate Republican you may as well go home. Don’t even bother running. As our system stands now only a Moderate Democrat or a Extremely Conservative Republican can win. Here is why. No Republican can win the Republican nomination without kissing the outstreched hand of the Religious extreme right. No liberal Democrat can win because most Democrats are worried that then they won’t be able to grab enough of the independent center vote to offset all the religious right supporters that will show up on election day.
The Democrats aren’t dumb. They are simply hamstrung. If I were a Democratic Strategist I would play up the rift between the Republican Party and their religuous base. If a right wing party forms to offset the Green Party then we are back in business. Until then we will, as a party, have to remain pretty close to the center to have a shot at running this country.
So, I probably won’t be voting in the next election.
Great! I am hoping more of your fellow Republicans feel the same way you do. We dont need you to vote for a Democrat. We just want to make sure that you stay home on election day.
And my point about Iowa, since I have to spell this out to you, is that Iowa holds an early primary, so people pay attention to the activists in the state. At least, the kind of geeks who live and die by this stuff. And my second point, because I have to spell this out for you,
Thank you. With my inferior reading comprehension skills, I need everything spelled out in great detail.
My. Previous. Comment. Did you bother to read the whole thing, recognizer of the American Taliban and see-er into the hearts of flag-waving redneck types everywhere?
What is in the hearts of flag-waving redneck types everywhere?
Some conservative Republican who caters to the lunatic right (see Allen from Virginia) will win the Republican nomination beating McCain. Maybe Hillary will win the Democratic nomination or maybe it will be Mark Warner, or someone else. What happens next (or should happen next) is that McCain wil leave the Republican party citing a culture of partisanship and corruption in Washington
I really really hope this scenario becomes a reality. An Independent McCain will destroy the Republican majority as the Republican suburbanites will all vote for him. He will never get enough votes to win the electoral college and McCain cant steal enough votes from Democrats to beat them. For example, African Americans are not going to flock to McCain and will still vote for the Democrats. I think a more likely scenario is that McCain will accept the VP position and wait for another 4/8 years to make another run for the Presidency. McCain though might not want to wait till 2012 though because hes already 69 years old.
What would be even better is if someone like Ralph Reed also starts a religious right party Delicious! However unless they become fiscally liberal, the Republicans agree with them on most social issues anyway so they wont really have a platform to run on.
Kush, trust me on this. He has zero chance. The way you can tell is that no big time strategists are trying to recruit him. Can you imagine the bumberstickers alone?
If Karl Rove does not get indicted, the Bushie PR juggernaut might just steamroll all of Jeb Bush’s primary opponents.
Last I heard Rove had never even considered backing Jeb. The two people he HAS considered backing are Frist and McCain (although it isn’t clear if the latter wanted him). This was about a year ago so things might change. I’ll bet Rove takes a lobbying job and makes some money instead.
(1) Who has the most money or access to the most money
I dont it matters that much anymore. This of course has been the convential wisdom but look at the de-railment of Dean. His money machine plus endorsements were way ahead of everybody else till the Iowa Caucus. Unless you have the resources or the clout that Bush had, once you have a decent amount of money, more money is not going to help your cause in the media age. The days of Perot, Steve Forbes are over.
Here is how primaries play out. If you are a Liberal democrat or a Moderate Republican you may as well go home. Don’t even bother running. As our system stands now only a Moderate Democrat or a Extremely Conservative Republican can win. Here is why. No Republican can win the Republican nomination without kissing the outstreched hand of the Religious extreme right. No liberal Democrat can win because most Democrats are worried that then they won’t be able to grab enough of the independent center vote to offset all the religious right supporters that will show up on election day.
Couldnt agree more. Its all about kowtowing to the religious right for the Republicans and the electability factor for the Democrats.
The only way to neutralize the Republicans is to neutralize the religious/cultural wedge issue. Mark Warner just showed us how it could be done in a red state like Virginia and Clinton did it with his Sister Souljah moment.
abhi —
remember the scenario i am talking about. i am assuming that jeb does not run. instead, all the other people i mentioned, plus or minus a few, run. and they split the vote, exposing the divisions within the party. their debate is acrimonious and it turns off voters. the center starts moving towards the democrats, who in the meantime are generating their own candidate according to the principles that you aptly described.
so there is an emergency. suddenly, all those strategists you’re talking about, and the media pundits like novak who carry their water, are facing something much worse than their favorite candidate losing: they are facing the loss of power.
what’s held the republican party together since reagan despite all the internal differences that we know, is simply access to power. i hate you and you hate me, but we’re both feeding at the same trough and getting our fill, so it’s all good. (attention republicans: this porcine metaphor is not directed solely at your party. it is directed at whoever is in power anywhere in the world, which at the united states federal level happens to be your party at this time.)
take away the trough, and we both lose. so our principal interest is keeping hold of the trough.
who do we look to? there’s been way too much mutual destruction among the many candidates. we need to draft someone. guess what? someone is ready. he hasn’t run, for the reasons properly evinced on this thread. but now he is drafted to the great relief of everyone, because he’ll bring together the base, as his brother did, and snooker enough centrists and the democrats will find a way to implode.
don’t put too much importance on where the strategists place their bets. them mofos ALWAYS have contingency plans, and are ALWAYS keeping their options open. how do you think they lasted in the game this long?
anyway, i don’t think our disagreement here is that great. i’m saying, there’s a perfectly plausible scenario that leads to jeb being the nominee. whether the conditions that trigger the scenario come about, i don’t know.
but i’m just sayin’.
peace
I’ll bet you $20 you’re wrong. If McCain runs then the Green Party will come roaring out of the woodwork and strip the Dems left flank of votes.
Last I heard Rove had never even considered backing Jeb.
I dont believe Jeb Bush will run in 2008. If he did run, Rove will either be with Jeb Bush or not participate at all. He is not going to go against the Bushies. Rove did try to prop up Frist, but Frist is a done deal now. I actually agree with you on both counts, (1) Jeb Bush will not run (2) Rove will go private. I think he will probably get indicted though.
Man, we need more political discussions on SM 🙂 Right now I only have West Wing to keep me satisfied.
Abhi,
I started it (Comment #.1). They have been some very interesting ideas.
But why, except MD and samba, no card-carrying member from GOP is talking. Keeping cards close to their chest.
Most of the comments are mostly from leftish (not entlrely left) or centrists – I am guessing from their tone. We have not heard from Ben Afleck-types either. Why?
Because I’ve banned them all 🙂
If McCain runs then the Green Party will come roaring out of the woodwork and strip the Dems left flank of votes
I disagree. For that to happen, the Left flank will have to be unafraid of McCain getting elected. The left flank votes for the Greens in such low numbers because they are mortally afraid of electing the republicans. McCain has already become the cave man on Iran and his sabre rattling on Iran will only increase as he moves into the Republican primary season. The Left flank will be scared shitless of McCain and they will again chose the lesser evil i.e. the democrats. War with Iran will be the number one issue foreign policy issue in 2008. The Left flank would be desperately trying to stop the war and they will again sacrifice the greens to make sure that the Dems get back in power. Also we can always count on the egomania of Nader to destroy the Greens again in 2008.
Man, we need more political discussions on SM 🙂
Yes and more sports too.
See I think that a McCain run would allow the Greens to feel that it was okay to be Green. The utter chaos that would follow a McCain announcement would inspire other people to vote their conscience instead of worrying about electoral math.
that cracked me up.
but i have a better theory. it’s because this is a difficult topic for them. in fact, a mccain supporter did speak up on this thread. and we’ve talked about condi. but i’d like to hear an argument enthusiastically supporting any one of the others i mentioned. are there any frist, pataki, giuliani, brownback, john warner, allen, santorum, supporters out there who’d like to make the case for their man?
i didn’t think so.
or prove me wrong! mccain, i can fully understand, has supporters who are not ashamed to show their face. but the rest of this gang… ???
which brings me back to my jeb scenario.
and kush,
my political views, when projected onto the surface of this lonely planet, usually land on the left. however i prefer outer space, where i can work out my opinions free from the strictures of two-dimensional spectra. don’t you?
peace
See I think that a McCain run would allow the Greens to feel that it was okay to be Green. The utter chaos that would follow a McCain announcement would inspire other people to vote their conscience instead of worrying about electoral math.
I agree. In normal circumstances where the debate is over tax cuts, prescription drugs and other national issues, a McCain run will galvenize 3rd parties including the the Constitutional Party, the America First Party (Reform Party) with Buchannan (maybe with Tancredo as a running mate with the immigration issue what it is now) and the Green Party. I think Iran will be a major crisis in 2008 and US will be very close to launching a major military action against Iran in 2008. I just dont think it will be policits as usual in 2008 with a major war lurking on the horizon.
We need more debauchery in general on SM, but I suspect Abhi’s dad might then get his son married off to some sidhi-sadhi chokri from Ahmedabad and permanently lock him up in their basement to keep him out of trouble…..