J-Ro is allegedly working the phones
I had a note tonight that the word out of Sioux Falls is that, allegedly, former GOP chair Joel Rosenthal, lately of the SD Straight Talk website, is working the phones trying to drum up support for a GOP State Chairmanship. Or at least support from someone other than Dave Kranz who endorsed him earlier this week.
It's a reliable source, so I'm taking it seriously. But as I noted earlier, I've yet to see a groundswell of support for Joel making a third run as chair. It's entirely possible that I might be wrong, and the county people I haven't talked to are all lining up for him. But it's also a long time until the February chairman elections.
It's a reliable source, so I'm taking it seriously. But as I noted earlier, I've yet to see a groundswell of support for Joel making a third run as chair. It's entirely possible that I might be wrong, and the county people I haven't talked to are all lining up for him. But it's also a long time until the February chairman elections.
Comments
I'll bet even Dusty abandons the listing ocean liner "Rosenthal" as it heads for the iceberg.
We bitched about Joel when he was there, and didn't care any more for him after he left.
There's a reason that Randy Frederick's favorite phrase is "there's another thing Joel did that we have to fix."
Hardly wanting to see JoRo back at the helm.
You better dust off the jack boots, press those brownshirts, get out the red swastika armbands, and start practicing your goose step.
All together now....Sieg Heil....Sieg Heil....Sieg Heil.
Count yourself fortunate I don't track the IP addresses of commenters (although this is evidence that I should start), otherwise I would out you, and let you explain it to the group as a whole.
You want to debate? By all means, please do. But leave the xenophobia at home.
I wouldn't out anyone. You don't know who at the home address was on the computer at the time. Plus you don't know who all lives in that house. My neighbor's brother lives with he and his wife. You just don't know.
Also, what if somebody was snagging wireless from one house to the other. I used to use my neighbor's wireless then I got my own. Then my other neighbor admitted that he has used mine and his profession is such that he's supposed to be catching the bad guys, etc...
Just delete the jackass next time.
Saying that, Joel's had his time in office and deserves credit for his deeds. Yet I can't believe that there isn't someone out there who can't fill the chair's shoes competently without retreading Joel for a third era of growth.
Put a want-ad in the paper.
You definitely don't want to out people without solid proof of anti-Semitism (those pesky libel suits, ya know)....
But I don't think you should just knee-jerk delete those posts. If there is latent anti-Semitism (or other kinds of -isms), I think it's better to identify it, criticize it, and leave the posts for all to see.
Pretending it was never there passes up a chance to try to fix it.
It was an issue in Adelstein's primary races with Schwiesow.
It is an issue now that Rosenthal is putting out feelers to be state GOP chair again.
This is what has become of your party.
This is what happens when religious extremists take control.
The central committee should elect the most conservative Republican we can find to be party chairman, then turn the party's focus to the social conservative issues that donimate this blog. The state party should also work as hard as possible to replace the moderates (or RINOs as some like to call them) with conservatives and narrow the big tent to only those who truly share the GOP philosphy.
Then, in four years compare election results of 2010, voter registration numbers, fundraising, etc to similar benchmarks from the Janklow/Rosenthal era.
I think the results would be quite interesting.
Seems to me that Joel left the party in very good shape. There may be a few things Randy wanted changed - that's the case with any new chairman. But having been to many central committee and executive committee meetings during Joels tenure, there didn't appear to be many things that were "broken".
Under Joels leadership Republicans were getting elected, there were no public divisions in the party (yes, there were internal struggles, but Joel was always able to deal with them internally to keep them out of the press), there was a good working relationship between the party and the governor, and Republican legislators were focused on a wide range of issues to improve the state.
What happened?
4 things for you to digest:
First, there were no blogs like this for people to publicly comment and the world to see during Joel's riegn. So, the only difference is that those divisions, which have always been there, are now on display on the web.
And actually, this is healthy to have these types of discussions. We never had this type of influence, discussion and debate before blogging and the modern 90's internet style of politics.
Secondly, Joel aided in the defeat of a sitting Republican U.S. Senator by supporting Janklow's primary bid against Abdnor. One word, unnaceptable.
Joel and Janklow sat on their asses when Pressler needed the party's top resources against Tim Johnson. Janklow had a vendetta against Pressler that went all the way back to their time at USD, petty isn't it?
Joel supported that inaction and cost the Republican party another Republican Senate seat. What did Abdnor and Pressler have in common? They both came from the vast part of the GOP that stood for family values, fiscal responsibility and grassroots development as opposed to Janklow and Joel who only stand for fiscal responsibility and are opposed to grassroots development. I.e. b/c the grassroots are too conservative to stomach them.
Third, on October 13, 2004 Joel and Janklow rose again to publicly criticize the GOP victory operation during the middle of a campaign season. see: http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2004/10/13/news/state/state02.txt for the story. The lead sentence in the story sums it up.
Their public comments were a collateral attack on Thune because Victory was set up to aid in the defeat of Daschle, A LONGTIME CLOSE FRIEND OF JANKLOW. (Have you ever Janklow and Thune working on party building together? No)
BTW, Janklow, the leader of the South Dakota GOP as Governor, said he voted for Daschle on CSPAN during a Washington Tribute dinner after the Schmidt/Daschle race.
So Joel could have aided in taking down Thune as well because of his publicly vile and angry comments against a Republican operation two weeks before election day.
In conclusion Joel was actually not as successful as you make it sound. In fact we hold more constitutional seats today than when Joel was the head of the GOP, all but one. Burg was in the PUC and the stuck on citibank auditor guy were both in during Joel. Also, Daschle and Johnson were both during Joel. We also held a 2/3 majority in both houses after Joel left the GOP chairmanship as well.
Joel should not be rewarded with leadership of the GOP for clear and blatant violations of the Reagan's 11th amendment and his not so private machinations aimed at defeating conservative republican U.S. Senators.
So under Joel we got Johnson and Daschle, less constitutional seats, no family values protections, a big fight with the state auditor over citibank, Janklow and his skidloader and shady land deals, endless litigation brought on by Janklow's propensity to sue, endless stories about Joel's failure to develop grassroots, but hey we did get some fiscal responsibility and saved some money by not plowing the roads as often during the winter snows, etc...
Hmmm...Joel...I think not.
In fact we control more constitutional seats now than under Joel.
We hold more U.S. Senate seats now than under Joel.
We hold just as many legislative seats now than under Joel.
Quit ignoring/rewriting history in order to push your GOP-lite and divisive agenda on the base.
You're sounding a bit defensive here. Kinda like a bitin' sow! Ouch!!!
Yes, we are still electing Republicans to office, but losing 5 senate seats didn't happen when Joel was in charge
Yes, Jarrod Johnson won his race. His election advisor was Joel Rosenthal. Otherwise the number is the same and the GOP lost Sahr's seat on the PUC.
Yes, we one US Senator. By the same argument, we've lost one US House seat.
We used to hold a super majority in the state senate, we don't now.
I think history plays a part, but dwelling on the past isn't going to move the party forward.
Last week the blog was all abuzz that Bill Peterson was the guy.
Actually, I think Joel should be flattered that you are even writing about him. Evidently there are people out there who think he did a very good job and also see the need for a chairman who can clean up the mess the GOP has made of itself over the last four years. Thank God the Dems are so unorganized, they can't take advantage of the currnet GOP implosion.
all things being equal then, why go with rosenthal when is so divisive?
Your flawed calculus shows your leftist leanings.
and a "hint" - Odds are that Bill has Thune, and will probably have Rounds.
While Joel might have Knudson and Jarrod, they aren't the ones who pay the bills.
Rounds and his family/political team have only shown political ineptness and dysfunctionality.
Why should the grassroots reward or even trust his judgment regarding political party operations?
From what I've heard BP IS the guy and I think he WILL do a good job much like I think Joel DID a good job. I'm just tired of all the Joel bashing.
This guy refused to implement a grassroots ground game in Sioux Falls and Rapid City.
He refused to fully support all Republican candidates because of grudges and petty bickering, i.e. the freeze list.
He refuses to reach out to the county chairs.
We could go on and on, can someone name a reason other than him being governor as a reason to trust him?
Overwhelming support of the people must mean something, doesn't it?
According to the Sec. of State's website Gov. Rounds received 61% of the vote. What crazy right wing newspaper did you get 70% from? The RC Journal?
This handsome, womanizing man simply doesn't have enough to do with his hands when he's not party chairman.