Rum, Romanism and Rebellion

Espresso Pundit has been writing much about the possibility of former Governor J. Fife Symington III running for chairman of the District 11 Republican Committee. Seems like a bit of a step down for a guy who a little more than a decade or so ago was proclaimed as a possible presidential candidate by no less than conservative icon Arthur Laffer in an article in the New Republic.

The funniest is still this little tid bit from an interview that Greg Patterson had with Symington:

I’m a grass roots guy.

Yep, whenever I think Fife Symington, I think regular joe, out there on the hustings, get your hands dirty sort of political organizer. Symington is the Republican Katie Bolger and I just didn’t know it.

Okay, aside from me being snarky, there is a bit here that could be important. Symington would be running against current chair Rob Haney, who led that district committee’s effort to censure Sen. John McCain. Many Republican office holders consider the guy to be an embarassment. It seems to be a bit of overkill to bring in an ex-governor to take the guy out, but this may also be because Haney is a good organizer, and maybe it might take that much oomph to take him down.

Somebody somewhere may try to make this into a battle between moderates and conservatives in the Republican party. God help us if the table is now so tilted that Symington is now a “moderate.” No, it seems more like this is the Republican establishment trying to wrest control back from what they consider to be an out of control grassroots. There may be some worry that these guys may be more concerned about winning arguments than winning elections. Haney’s antics, for example, got him press, and may have even helped nominate more conservative candidates in the primary (defeating incumbent John Allen, for example), but ended up losing them a seat in the general election.

A letter went out to District 11 committee members from several Republican office holders, few of whom would be called moderate on any political spectrum (Andrew Thomas is on there for God’s sake!) asking them to support Symington. Could this sort of heavy handedness backfire?

If there is this much of a fight over their district chairs, what is it going to be like when they elect their state wide officers?

Some more stuff, because these internets are rife with posts: Haney’s response to the Symington interview is posted here. A response from RNC member and Haney supporter Randy Pullen is posted here, in which Pullen points out that the loss was expected because Napolitano won the district over Matt Salmon. Of course, this just makes the point that Haney’s politics are out of synch with even Republican voters in the district, doesn’t it? The blog Hot AZ It Gets also has a summary of the race here. Oro Valley Dad over at Sonoran Alliance even weighs in here. Wow, bringing up the Keating Five again…this is going to get bad.

NB - Oro Valley Dad also has an account of the LD 26 Republican meeting, where they re-elected the same crew that ran the district before. OVD describes one candidate for chair as “a troublemaker from the far-right,” which begs the question: how far right could the guy be that even the guys on Sonoran Alliance think he’s too far right? Anyway, check the interesting comment that spins the LD 26 general election results as good for conservatives, even though it was a victory for two Democats and a Republican they despise. They got their boys nominated, and that’s a win. This would be tantamount to the anti-war left calling the 1972 presidential election a solid victory.

Oh yeah, before anyone writes me about this: Haney’s resolution may not have directly caused the defeat of a Republican nominee in his district. But, I’m pretty sure that the powers that be are wondering if he is spending too much energy censuring Republican office holders than trying to help get more of them elected.