Tuesday, January 6th, 2009...12:50 pm
Where’s Bruce?
So, in the hubub around Christmas over RNC Chair candidate Chip Saltsman, I never saw any reaction at all from the RNC members here in Arizona. Bruce Ash, for example, has never been shy about his opinions. This is the guy, after all, who compared Steve Leal to Hezbollah for opposing Wal-Mart. Maybe his rhetoric has become more measured in the intervening two years.
Ash has said that he is “undecided” in the race, but he’s had kind words to say about Ken Blackwell and Michael Steele. Personally, I like the work Michael Steele did in both the Runaways and the Bangles, but I don’t know if that qualifies her to run a major party, but feh…
Anyhow, Chip Saltsman is another one of the candidates for chairman. He is the one, for those of you without scorecards, who decided it would be good fun to send a song entitled “Barack the Magic Negro” to members of the RNC. Other members of the RNC were on record condemning it, but where was Ash and his RNC partner Sharon Giese? Any reporters bother to ask them how they felt about the song?
8 Comments
January 6th, 2009 at 7:22 pm
Let’s not forget that Bruce Ash accused fellow Republican Ron Paul of being a Holocaust denier, a charge absolutely untrue, but good enough for the editors at Sonoran Alliance. Challenged by many site posters to produce even one fact to prove his scurrilous charge, Brucie (for once), shut up and disappeared.
So maybe he’s learned his lesson. More likely, none of the RNC contenders has bothered to contact this Arizona lightweight personally. I mean, who would you talk to, John Kyl and John McCain … or Gasbag Brucie Ash?
January 6th, 2009 at 8:33 pm
Bruce ASH is trying to save Randy Pullen’s ASH
January 7th, 2009 at 6:21 am
I am pleased to have an opportunity to respond to RR&R readers.
I have the CD from Mr Saltsman. I was out of town when the product was first delivered to my office over the holidays. I am very concerned about the apparent bad judgement and total lack of sensitivity shown by either Saltsman or his staff in being involved in something that shows such poor view of the world. The further issue is the release was made by a man of the south which only further amplifies un savory stereotypes of past times.
I called Mr Saltsman to meet with him in part because I want to question him on this matter. Our meeting is expected to take place in the next few days. I will have a more definitive statement to make to GOP activists once I have given him an opportunity to reply.
For the record ……… name calling and race baiting should have no future role in American politics .
And further on this issue I trust you would agree the negative racial rhetoric spewing out of the state of Illinois by Democrats IS disgusting. The blatant naming of an African American by their illigitimate governor to replace Mr Obama is a open attempt to challenge white Mormon Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid into rejecting the African American Mr Burris ( and try and distract the criminal proceedings against Governor Blago). The racially charged ramblings by former radical Bobby Rush is truly insulting to hear especially as he makes his proclamations from the halls of the US Congress challenging white America to seat the appointed Senator designate. This is how “machine politics” is still played in Illinois and that is the sewer that our new President has arose from. Let us hope that he is a truly “post racial” president and this mess will be resolved without any more racial damage being done by the Democrats from the “Land of Lincoln.”
Bruce Ash
National Committeeman
http://www.AshForArizona.com
January 7th, 2009 at 9:10 am
I doubt that Reid’s religion played any part in the rejection of Burris. Hell, even Obama said he should not be seated. I will grant you the Rush is a moron.
And the Illinois tradition of shaky politics is a cross-party thing. It seems to me that a recent drity Governor of IL was a republican.
January 7th, 2009 at 10:41 am
Mr. Ash deserves to be commended for his stand against racism. I assume that he also has similar feelings about the bigotry that drives political debate, particularly with regard to immigration, in the Republican-led legislature and that a statement condemming this is forthcoming.
This being said, Mr. Ash’s clumsy remarks regarding Illinois reflect an ignorance about the internal dynamics of the Democratic party. I have yet to hear a Democrat in a responsible position, or even a left-leaning commentator, defend what has gone down in Illinois. Furthermore, anyone aware of the history between President Obama and Congressman Rush certainly knows that not only are they not allies by any means, but that they practice politics very differently.
I think we are all aware that there are politicians who crassly exploit race. The crass behavior of Governor Blagojevich and the race baiting remarks of Congressman Rush have won them no friends in Democratic circles. On the other hand, bigoted rhetoric by small-minded cretins like Saltsman seems to actually be helpful to advancement in the Republican world.
As a leader in the Republican establishment concerned with rising above race, Mr. Ash should focus on the race problem in his own party before he casts stones at Democrats who are largely rejecting the behavior he condemns.
January 8th, 2009 at 6:15 am
[...] some recent developments in the race for Republican National Committee chair. He responded in a comment on that post, but I think it is only fair to reprint his response: I have the CD from Mr Saltsman. I was out of [...]
January 8th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Perhaps we need to look past the side issue of “race in America” and ask ourselves why this “tune” or its suggestion came to focus in the first place.
Put aside the extremely poor taste and judgement presented by the “tune” and consider the impetus behind the lyrics.
Mr. Obama’s background has little in common with the American urban African-American experience that has been a hallmark of the civil rights movement. Furthermore, when Mr Obama speaks of Selma and coming home, he only emphasizes his lack of traditional background shared by the majority of the American-African community.
Kenyan Muslim father and mid-western white mother raised in Hawaii attending a very expensive private school has as much to to with South Central LA as a Clansman has with an Iraqi.
This issue has been glossed over by the major media and ignored by the academic community who wish to continue the myth that Mr Obama shares the same unique heritage as that African American executed by a BART Transit officer on New Years Day.
January 8th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Veritas-
Yes, you are right, the real issue is that Obama isn’t the right kind of black.