Thursday, 17 August 2006
Civil War Part III
At Saturday's Republican meeting to elect a member of the executive committee, Fletcher got a chance to speak to members of the party. In his address he tried to mend wounds in the party.
On Saturday, Fletcher told Republicans he planned to continue seeking re-election and called for unity in the party. "We'll have our family conflicts. We'll have our disagreements," he said. "But the values bring us together."
Unfortunately, the civil war lines have been drawn and it appears nothing Fletcher can do will stop it. Yesterday's Herald Leader provides us with some quotes from an interview with Lt. Gov Pence.
"He needs to acknowledge there's a problem between him and the party," Pence told the Lexington Herald-Leader in an interview. "And he has a very short window of opportunity to show that he can reach out, heal those wounds and rebuild the team."
Um, it sounds like Fletcher tried to do that on Saturday, but obviously Pence was too busy celebrating his chief of staff's election victory to pay much attention to Fletcher. Or maybe he doesn't care. It seems like he is pushing the "party" line.
"It was certainly a clear message that the party has concerns about Ernie Fletcher," Pence said.
Pence said Fletcher should listen to the voice of the party rather than to his own voice.
"If he takes this honest assessment and concludes he can't win next November, he needs to be a gentleman and step aside," Pence said.
Of course by party, he means the state party and not the average Republican on the street. It seems to me that the state "party" is living in an echo chamber and need to get out and talk to average Republicans who are watching their governor get slammed by the media and the "party".
This is nothing less than a power play by the "leaders" in the party. The same stuff that Democrats had been doing while they were in power. Of course the most egregious example of the will to power has to go to Trey Grayson.
Pence stopped short of saying that Fletcher shouldn't run in 2007, but Grayson said the governor would be doing the people a favor by dropping his re-election bid.
"I think the best thing for the state and the party is for him to hang it up," Grayson said. "Most Republicans I talk to don't think he can be re-elected and don't think he should be re-elected."
This quote is a little self serving since Grayson has already decided to run for Governor. He should probably change the quote to be "I think the best thing for me is for him to hang it up". I am not sure which Republicans he is talking to, but I am guessing it is the same echo chamber as Pence. I used to like Grayson, but his latest delusions of grandeur are a bit over the top.
Why should Republicans rally behind him? What does he bring to the table?
He is 34 years old which is my age. He has zero business experience. He practiced law for five years before running for Secretary of State. In the last three years he has been Secretary of State where he manages 37 people. 7 of which are part of his "executive staff". Heck the only reason he is Secretary of State is that he was able ride Fletcher's coat tails into office. He doesn't even have experience running a true statewide campaign.
Now he wants to be manage 9 cabinets and 46,000 employees. Having run a small business for the last 6 years, I can tell you that he is in way over his head. It is one thing to manage a small team, it is another thing to manage a large organization. There is a reason people move up the ladder in the business world rather than starting at the top.
It seems to me that he would be more likely to bungle managing the state than Fletcher. In fact, Fletcher has done a really good job managing the affairs of the state. He has reorganized the cabinets, overseen an improvement in education, the creation of new jobs, the overhaul of the state's tax system, and the reduction of the state's debt. That seems like a good tenure to me.
His only "blemish" is being the victim of a partisan AG and not "toeing" the line with the "party".
And so the civil war will continue...
