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Liberals are attacking the platform adopted by the WA GOP Convention in Spokane over the weekend. Some of their attack is based on misrepresentations and some is based on values that differ greatly from the people who actually adopted the platform, the WA GOP grassroots voters.

The WA GOP Convention

I’ve been trying to get a better feel for all that went on over the weekend. I wasn’t there since I didn’t even submit my name for consideration as a delegate in the Pierce County convention. I figured I wouldn’t be able to accomplish anything there so it would be a waste of my time and money. From all reports, as I expected, it was politics as usual, something that usually turns the grassroots off and drives them away from the party (like it’s doing to me).
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It was frustration with the Washington State Republican Party (WSRP) that first prompted me to refer to myself as a ‘Republican by default’ several years ago. It stemmed from all the trips to the voting booth where I couldn’t find a candidate that I could vote for so I ended up voting against the other candidate. I still voted Republican, but only because the other guy was worse.

That same feeling returned when I showed up at the caucuses in February of this year. Fred Thompson had already withdrawn and Mitt Romney withdrew shortly before we the event. The base of the party wasn’t having a party. We were stuck with a candidate who had kicked us to the curb several times in the last six years as he journeyed leftward, probably the result of his previous defeat in the battle for the party’s presidential nomination.
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Recently a commenter on this site asked me how I defined ‘a conservative’. I didn’t respond because it’s not up to me to define it.

Something liberals seldom understand is that words have meaning. If we try to change the meaning of a word we end up misrepresenting something or someone, which is usually tantamount to a lie.

That being said, I guess a definition of ‘a conservative’ is in order. Simply put, and pardon me for pulling a Webster and using another form of a word to define that word, a conservative is someone who holds to conservative principles.

An easy mistake that is made is to confuse conservative principles with the issues of the day. Another is to refer to someone as a conservative who only holds some of those principles while rejecting others.

What are those conservative principles? America has a somewhat unique set of principles that make up the ideals that we want to conserve. The individual principles are not unique, but together they are uniquely American.
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Frank Rogers, a long-time Pierce County Republican and active member, has written an open letter to the state party chair, Luke Esser, regarding the handling of a vote at the convention last week.

I’ve been mulling over some concerns about that vote for the last week and couldn’t settle on how (or whether) to blog about it. Since this post is available, I guess I have a way to talk about it. What held me back from commenting was that I’m not well versed on parliamentary procedures at this point, so I wasn’t sure what to focus on. This open letter helped me find a way to address it.

After reading the letter I spoke with the convention parliamentarian (Alex Hays, see our discussion about another matter at the convention in the comments here.) His points about the County Executive endorsement vote were basically:
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Terry Bergeson, WA State Superintendent of Public Instruction, spoke at the Pierce County GOP Convention on Saturday. Now we find out that she approved an effort to bring children from public schools in 25 counties to see the Dalai Lama. When asked whether she would do the same for the Pope, her response was:

[Essex] PORTER: Would the Superintendent of Public Instruction urge schools to bring kids to the Pope?

[Terry] BERGESON: Well, I probably couldn’t get away with that as the Pope, Essex. But the Dalai Lama is a man of the whole world.

Radio talk show host Dori Monson talked with Bergeson about the issue. Give it a listen. She tries to make a distinction between the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Buddhists, and the Pope, spiritual leader of Roman Catholics. But as she does she describes Dalai Lama’s efforts as religious in nature, bringing our hearts, minds and spirits together to bring more compassion.
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There’s something brewing over at TheReaganWing.com. Doug Parris, an outspoken critic of the Washington State Republican Party’s (WSRP’s) methods in the recent past, has assembled a list of articles that he wrote over the years about the former WSRP state chair, Chris Vance.

I don’t know what it means or where Parris is going withan announcement about an announcement that he has announce, but I’m guessing it’s going to be interesting since former WSRP state chair Chris Vance showed up to argue against it in the comments. I’m gathering that it has something to do with an organizer for the McCain campaign in Washington state showing up at King County caucuses and chaired a caucus. While it’s not illegal or a violation of party rules, it is somewhat unethical to have someone with such a clear agenda influencing the process of selecting candidates.

Also, if I could draw your attention to one of the articles in the list of articles that Parris wrote against Vance, there’s one that is particularly telling, in my opinion.
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It turns out that in addition to the now public disagreements between state Senate Republicans, they’re also having trouble raising money and finding candidates for the this year’s election. Big surprise there.

I guess it confirms what Sen. Roach said about Sen. Hewitt’s leadership.

Roach, always outspoken, is calling Republican leadership a disaster. She says they have no new people donating money and Hewitt has done a horrible job recruiting candidates.

So if you’re keeping score, that’s Roach 2, Hewitt 0. It makes the timing of the reprimand against Roach look a little suspect.

I’m starting to think that it might actually be Roach who’s telling the truth and the leadership team is looking for something to cover their behinds.

There’s an ongoing feud between state senator Pam Roach and the WSRP leadership. I don’t know the senator and I don’t have the inside information on this issue, but I don’t trust the GOP leadership in this state.

Here’s what I don’t get. If Sen. Roach did something wrong, why is it the GOP reprimanding her, not the senate or the ethics committee. They said it was official conduct not a personal issue, but they won’t say what it is.
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I have some complaints about the way the Republican Party is run in Washington state. I think there is a climate of failure and fatalism that has squelched all attempts to revive the party at all levels.

There are a number of things, in my opinion, that need to change before the party will see successes in this state and be able to advance a more conservative agenda. Foremost among them is grassroots activism in the party.

Based on the February caucuses that seems to have begun. Crosscut.com has more.

In disaster are sown the seeds of re-birth and renewal, and the 2006 election was a disaster for Republicans. . .

The cause was three-fold: an unpopular president and war; an incorrect perception that all Republicans are like disgraced Ohio Rep.BobNey, who resigned after being implicated in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal; and profligate spending by GOP Senate and House members. Faced with a choice between wasteful Democrats and Republicans who spent like wasteful Democrats, voters opted for the real deal and elected wasteful Democrats.

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