Former NY District Attorney Arthur Branch is getting a plug for Chairman of the RNC at The Next Right. Here is the rationale:
- Fred Thompson’s record gives him credibility. He has not sacrificed his integrity over the last 8 yeas, as so many Republicans have. People believe him when he talks about limited government and federalism, and when he criticizes the social engineering and big government policies of Democrats.
- Fred Thompson has not succumbed to the Republican echo chamber that perverted the ideas, ideals and messages of the Right (now or in his Senate days).
- Fred Thompson is one of the best communicators on the Right. His 1995 Republican response to President Clinton’s State of the Union address was considered devastating and powerful, and while the years he spent living and working outside of politics had an effect on him during the ‘07-’08 campaign, Thompson ended up performing exceptionally well in the debates and at the Republican National Convention.
- Fred Thompson isn’t just good at reading the talking points. He’s a genuine intellectual - a policy wonk - who understands and talks about issues and ideas in a powerful, resonant manner.
- Fred Thompson has grasped the importance of the internet.
I don’t see it. Thompson may ideologically be in sync with the GOP’s roots and probably would have some solid policy proposals for the coming years, but he isn’t an organizer and hardly has the “fire in the belly.” It’s one thing for him to go out and be an active spokesman, its completely different for him to be the go to guy for the party as a whole. I’d hardly call him one of the best communicators on the right. Sure he can be great sometimes, but he can often ramble and appear bored and uninterested. His understanding of the internet? What evidence is there for that? He put out some web videos at the start of his ‘08 campaign and was, supposedly, going to win the White House through online outreach. That clearly failed miserably.
There have been a few other ‘08 former GOP Presidential contenders who have been suggested for Chairman such as Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee. Both of those men are interested in running again in 2012 so I’d be shocked if they tried to take over the party. Sarah Palin has even gotten a plug, but does anyone on this blog seriously want her to be the public face of the 21st century Republican Party?
Honestly, I wouldn’t be opposed to bringing Ken Mehlman back from the private sector to run the party. He was someone who understood the important of both expanding the tent (he did a ton of outreach to Hispanics and Blacks) and the need for the GOP to utilize 21st century social networking tools.
I don’t think a current or former officeholder is the way to go right now (unless there is someone I’m not thinking of). The emphasis for the party Chairman first and foremost should be to rebuild the GOP’s infrastructure (field operations, fundraising, outreach, etc.) followed by constant, daily attacks on whatever the Democrats are doing in Washington. Let others worry about policy.
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I hadn’t thought of this, but it would be a great idea from my point of view. You say he “hardly has the ‘fire in the belly’” but his RNC speech was fantastic. He is a big picture guy who is a clear communicator and has a much broader appeal (if only by virtue of his time as an actor) than any other candidate.
I don’t see a big future for Huckabee’s presidential hopes, but I really like the guy and think he could do a good job as party chairman.
If McCain loses, I expect that Romney will start jockeying for a position that can keep him in the public light as 2012 approaches. You can imagine Romney as the savior of the economy as this financial crisis stretches throughout the next few years.
And, of course, I really like Michael Steele, although I’d like to see him move towards either a Senate seat or the MD governorship in 2012 after O’Malley is done ruining the state.
Connscript, I absolutely agree with your comment on Ken Mehlman, and it’s an idea that has not received sufficient, if any, attention. Mehlman was a fantastic chairman who had the bad luck to preside over an unavoidably bad election cycle. His resignation was a noble move, but no one could fairly attribute it to shortcomings on his part. There’s no reason to waste his talent just because he ran the RNC at the wrong time.
By the way, he also had the bad fortune of having Elizabeth Dole run the Republican Senate Campaign during that election cycle. Although I’m not sure if that was something that the RNC would have a role in, selecting her that is. If he does have responsibility for that choice, that would definitely deflate my opinion of him.
Oh and as for Fred Thompson, I think he has some good strengths to offer. He’d be a recognizable and likeable leader, and, as you rightly point out, he’s a very smart and policy-oriented leader.
The problem with him is that the RNC Chair needs to be about organization, first and foremost. I have no reason to believe Thompson is particularly skilled at organizing and building infrastructure. Perhaps he is, but if his presidential campaign is any indication, he would not excel in that area. He absolutely squandered a remarkable amount of undeserved goodwill, because Republicans were projecting onto him all kinds of positive hopes unfulfilled by the existing field. That tremendous failure, combined with his well-deserved reputation for laziness (as evidenced by his poor campaign efforts), suggest Thompson is not up for the job.
Perhaps the compromise here is to repeat the Martinez-Duncan type of split chairmanship, with Thompson as the public face of the RNC and an experienced groundgame expert as the infrastructure/organizational leader. That possibility is attractive in some ways, but I wonder about the wisdom of splitting up the leadership and possible creating room for divergent leadership visions. After all, the Martinez-Duncan arrangement didn’t last. However, that could be attributable to conflicts on Martinez’s part regarding his Senate duties and his image in Florida, obviously a swing state.
Verdict: No to Thompson. Any consideration of him for RNC Chair, however, should be for a split role with a more qualified and energetic leader presiding over infrasture/organization.