I do not understand why there would be, but....
"GOP considers limiting the clout of right wing" by JEREMY W. PETERS and JONATHAN MARTIN, New York Times, Nov 07, 2013
Leaders of the Republican establishment, alarmed by the emergence of far-right and often unpredictable Tea Party candidates, are pushing their party to rethink how it chooses nominees and advocating changes that they say would result in the selection of less extreme contenders.
Maybe they should be going the other way given the dismal performances of their moderate candidates in the last two presidential elections.
The push comes as the national Republican Party is grappling with vexing divisions over its identity and image, and mainstream leaders complain that more ideologically driven conservatives are damaging the party with tactics like the government shutdown.
The debate intensified Wednesday after Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, the deeply conservative Republican candidate for governor of Virginia, lost a close race in which Democrats highlighted his opposition to abortion in almost all circumstances, his views on contraception and comments in which he seemed to compare immigration policy to pest control.
He was supposed to lose by double digits, showing you that the health care fracas is already taken its toll. Shutdown is out of the American rear-view mirror now.
The party leaders pushing for changes want to replace state caucuses and conventions, like the one that nominated Cuccinelli, with a primary system that they believe will draw a broader cross-section of Republicans and produce more moderate candidates.
Similar pushes are underway in other states, including Montana and Utah, and last week Mitt Romney said Republicans should re-examine how to overhaul their presidential nominating process to attract a wider range of voters. He suggested that states holding open primaries be rewarded with more delegates to the national convention.
You lost because you pooped on people like me for supporting Ron Paul.
While the discussion may appear arcane, it reflects a fierce struggle for power between the activist, often Tea Party-dominated wing of the Republican Party — whose members tend to be devoted to showing up and organizing at events like party conventions — and the more mainstream wing, which is frustrated by its inability to rein in the extremist elements and by the fact that its message is not resonating with more voters.
Doesn't that tell you something? Message not resonating while the people who are doing what we were always told to do when it comes to American democracy are demonized.
With control of the Senate expected to turn on a handful of races around the country next year, Republican leaders are worried about the outcome in Iowa, where a crowded field of GOP candidates has taken shape, including several untested ones. If no one receives 35 percent of the primary vote, the nominee will be selected by a convention.
Democrats are worried, Republicans are worried, who gives a f***?
"Conventions have a flimsy track record of selecting the most electable candidates," David Kochel, an Iowa-based Republican strategist said in an interview Wednesday.
Nowhere is the debate over how to limit the influence of the party's most hard-line activists more intense than in Utah, where in 2010 conservatives cheered as the Tea Party toppled one of the veteran Republican centrists in the Senate, Bob Bennett. The state party's caucus and convention system helped elevate Mike Lee, a little-known lawyer who replaced Bennett.
Now Lee is a patriarch of sorts to Tea Party conservatives in Congress. Although Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas was the public face of government shutdown fight, it was Lee who largely conceived the strategy in an effort to block funding for President Barack Obama's health care law.
Back home, Lee is now at odds with Republican stalwarts like former Gov. Mike Leavitt, who are leading a campaign for a ballot initiative that would shift the state to a primary system.
In Virginia last year, state Republican leaders switched their system for selecting a nominee for governor from a primary to a convention, a decision that all but guaranteed that Cuccinelli would be the party's choice. It was a sudden turn of events that doomed the more moderate candidate, Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling.
Bolling and his allies in the party had persuaded their state board to hold a primary that would be open to all voters. Outraged conservatives, many of them loyal to the former presidential candidate Ron Paul, captured slots on the board and reversed the decision.
Their maneuver resulted in a slate of far-right candidates at the top of the ticket, including the lieutenant governor nominee, a minister named E.W. Jackson who has a history of inflammatory remarks, such as when he compared Planned Parenthood to the Ku Klux Klan and associated homosexuality with pedophilia.
That's where my printed Globe left it, and you can sort of see who is behind the white supremacists and gay hate groups.
For the record, I'm off the Ron Paul controlled bus ride, too, and the feeling of betrayal is fathomable beyond description.
Republican leaders in Montana, struggling with how to manage their state's far-right elements, have put an initiative on the ballot that would replace their current primary process with a system that would allow only the top two candidates to move on to the general election, regardless of party.
Last year Republicans narrowly lost a hard-fought Senate race after a former Republican local committeeman ran on the Libertarian ticket and, many believe, drew votes away from the GOP, tipping the race to Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat.
Not that it really matters. One War Party, two factions. Which one do you like?
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Speaking of nominees:
"GOP blocks Obama picks for US court, housing agency; Democrats threaten to shift Senate rules" by Alan Fram | Associated Press, November 01, 2013
WASHINGTON — The defeats immediately subjected Democratic leaders to pressure from liberal groups and newer Democratic senators to change Senate rules that let the minority party — currently Republicans — force the majority to muster 60 votes on controversial nominations, instead of a simple majority.
Within minutes, a coalition of Democratic-leaning groups including the Alliance for Justice, the Communications Workers of America, Common Cause, and the Sierra Club issued a statement saying ‘‘Democrats must be prepared to change the Senate rules.’’
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No. 2 Senate GOP leader John Cornyn of Texas said he doubted Democrats would act on their threats, which they had been hinting at for days. He said if Democrats change the rules and Republicans win the White House and Senate, ‘‘Then we could confirm another Scalia, another Thomas with 51 votes,’’ a reference to conservative Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. ‘‘So I think they need to think twice, and I think they understand that.’’
It's all political s***-show fooleys like the shutdown and everything else.
Some senior Democrats have opposed limiting minority party power in the Senate, saying they would regret it whenever the GOP gains control.
The Millett defeat was particularly stinging for Democrats. Patricia Millett, now a prominent private attorney, was an assistant solicitor general under both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
The D.C. circuit court issues decisions on White House and federal agency actions and is considered second in power only to the Supreme Court....
Related:
Justices show skepticism to affirmative action arguments
Justices take case on mental disability
High court asked to review Conn. union layoff case
‘Boobies’ bracelet fight could go to Supreme Court
Lawyers in custody case seek to recoup fees
Court dubious in poisoning case that cites treaty
Supreme Court declines Okla. abortion case
Abortion ruling leaves few options in Texas
US judge blocks portion of Texas abortion law
Justices hear case on N.Y. town’s prayer practices
That is what is doing down in D.C.
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Related:
GOP senator vows to block nominees
Republicans Relent on Obama Nominations
Also see: Obama praises, installs new FBI head
Related: Comey Confirmed
No problem.
