Brulte
By Jerry Roberts and Phil Trounstine
Monday, February 11, 2013
By snagging GOP strategist Karl Rove as the featured speaker at the California Republican Party convention in March, former legislative leader Jim Brulte – who won’t take over as CRP chairman until the day after Rove speaks – has already begun trying to alter the role his party plays in statewide politics.
What better audience for Rove’s newfound anti-extremist message than the most entrenched ideological Republican activists – delegates to the state GOP convention – in the largest state in the nation?
For those who might have missed his ecdysis, the cold-blooded Rove has regenerated himself as the Conservative Victory Project, targeting unelectable candidates in Republican Senate primaries. This from the architect of George W. Bush’s rise to power who used proto-Tea Partiers as his shock troops. This from the mastermind of the monumentally unsuccessful right-wing American Crossroads super-PACs that spent about $300 million in 2012, including $30 million on behalf of Tea Party candidates.
Lock and Load Rove, who was always more at ease among the country club Republicans, is taking up his squash racket against the pitch fork brigade of the chapel Republicans – the same forces he used to catapult his client Bush in 2000 and 2004.
He’s right, of course. Republicans have no chance of creating an electoral majority by lashing itself to the “legitimate rape” wing of the GOP. But who can buy the Reptilian Mr. Rove as a voice of reason and principle?
Jim Brulte, apparently. It was Brulte – a longtime ally and pal of Rove’s — who got Bush’s Brain to agree to speak to the state GOP after an initial invitation from outgoing Chairman Tom Del Beccaro.
Brulte is a radical pragmatist. His definition of ideology is what works. Sure, he’s a conservative Republican, who was willing to bottle up the state budget in order to cripple Democratic Gov. Gray Davis in hopes of recalling and replacing him.
But he was also a deal maker, willing to horse-trade a loss for one Republican principle for the victory of another. He’s not part of the Tea Party Wing of the GOP that sees all compromise as capitulation. He actually believes government should govern.
What, Me Worry? In his bid to become chairman of the California Republican Party, however, Brulte is assiduously avoiding talking about anything having to do with policy and politics: immigration, abortion, taxes, gay marriage, legislative compromise or anything that smacks of substance.
For him, it’s all about operations, party building, fund-raising, mechanics. Right. As if backing down the ultra-conservatives who have outsized power in the CRP isn’t critical to returning the party to relevancy.
So who will deliver the message to the California Republians? The man who once called Brulte “our political brains and insightful wizard in California.”
There are plenty of chapel Republicans who don’t buy Rove’s new theology. They still like the unreconstructed Barry Goldwater: “Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice; moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue.” The Rushbo Wing of the GOP is not warming to Rove’s new persona. How he’ll go over when he speaks to the California GOP luncheon will likely depend on who buys tickets to the luncheon.
The Calbuzz Chordata Bureau will be watching to see if Brulte’s lips move when Rove is talking.
Thank you for bringing us the updates on Brulte, they are greatly appreciated.
So far, he’s making us very proud!
Rove, Brulte, Derry, there is not, nor will there ever be enough lip stick to save the GOP from it’s new and improved self.
Come on Repairman, stop being a stick in the mud, or is it more like “stuck” in the mud.
Stuck in the mud? I’d like to see the state and country move forward, but all we get from the GOP is we need to go backwards . If our founding fathers had that attitude we still be subjects of the queen.
Repairman:
What does Neil Derry have to do with this? But as long as you brought him up, what kind of job do you feel that his successor is doing?
Any idea why he is so conspicuously absent while a manhunt that is making national news takes place in his district?
“I’d like to see the state and country move forward”
Okay, wonderful, then sit back and watch… we are all on the same page!
If not these men, then who? Got any ideas? No? I thought so.
This is what we have been given at this present time, who are we to question it? Don’t be a “hyena”, as Red put it, and support them instead.
Oof
Derry said he would be fine being Brulte’s #2 ,as far as what kind of job I think he’s doing, he hasn’t had to turn himself in to the authorities , good start I think. derry make it through his probation or does he still have some time?
What is it you want Ramos to do? mount a posse and go after him himself?
#6
“who are we to question it?” Don’t be a lemming.
Repairman:
I hear you loud and clear regarding what James Ramos has not done, and it’s starting to sound like a Joe Nelson column, with the same thing being repeated over and over again. Can you point to anything he HAS done? He said he would focus on creating jobs in his district; how’s that coming?
As to what I want James Ramos to do regarding the manhunt, how about making a statement or at least acting interested. For example, explain that he understands the tough times that the students in his district are going through while their schools are locked down. In other words, do something other than remain totally invisible.
You’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t. If Ramos doesn’t make a statement then he is un-interested, if he makes a statement then he is playing politics with an emergency. Let’s just be happy that Ramos didn’t run on a platform of reform and then get caught mismanaging his campaign funds. BTW,You Republicans will wonder in the wilderness as long as you have people like Brulte at the helm.
Repairman,
A lemming? I actually had to look that up in Wikipedia because I wasn’t sure whether I should be insulted or not. Here are three things they mention:
1. “In the 1530s, the geographer Zeigler of Strasbourg proposed the theory that the creatures fell out of the sky during stormy weather, and then died suddenly when the grass grew in spring.”
2. “This description was contradicted by the natural historian Ole Worm, who accepted that lemmings could fall out of the sky, but claimed they had been brought over by the wind rather than created by spontaneous gerneration.”
3. Lemmings are small rodents.
I would hate to think you were calling me a rat, so I’ll assume you were trying to say that, like a lemming, I’m some sort of creature that “fell from the sky during stormy weather”, or I was “brought over by the wind”(?) And no, I’m not trying to be “cute” here.
Red,
I agree with you, none of the BOS had any business loitering around law enforcement, Big Bear, in front of the cameras, or press; so staying away was the right thing.
But that cheap shot at Derry was wrong…keep it up and you’ll turn to an ugly purple or a pretty lavender…and I don’t think lavender suits you. Try to give Brulte a break, see what happens.
Anonymous #10:
I understand your position, but I would rather have a County Supervisor make a statement and be criticized for “playing politics” than appear totally uninterested in a major event in his district that’s receiving nation wide coverage.
Anonymous #11:
I was not suggesting that James Ramos loiter around law enforcement. As discussed above, I was suggesting that he appear interested in what is going on in his district. His invisible man impersonation suggests that he couldn’t care less.
I agree with you regarding the “cheap shot at derry.” As Mr. Derry said, the race is over. I find it interesting that when I ask James Ramos supporters if he is living up to his campaign promises, the response is either silence or an attack on Neil Derry.
#12
James Ramos was not crowned King of the Third District to rule and care for it’s people…and much less to GET INVOLVED.
To recap, it is no secret by now that the Eastside Redlands Gang (“in the land of the dollar bill” who have “called their gang to war with the forces of the law”) run the show in the Third District; again, John Mier, Dennis Hansberger, Daddy Hansberger Sr., Mike Ramos, Jerry Lewis etc., James Ramos has been ordered to make himself idle and unavailable in fear he will stick his foot in his mouth.
#11, I was comparing you with a small rodent, incapable of independent thought and susceptible to group think as shown by your statements in #6 about “who are we to question?”. That my friend, is why God gave you a brain, weather you choose to use it or not is up to you. As far as me calling you a small brainless rodent, why would you be upset? you called me a hyena I’m not upset, I kind of liked it.
That cheap shot Red made at derry happens to be true. I think he’s still on probation for it. Why would you get behind, vote, and support someone like that?
Repairman:
Regarding your comment “Why would you get behind, vote, and support someone like that?”
One reason is that a Mike Ramos selective prosecution can be considered as an endorsement. In other words, if you are the target of a Mike Ramos selective prosecution, you must be doing something positive for your constituents.
Oof
O.K. so Derry didn’t want to bother to clear his own good name from these bogus charges. But wouldn’t it have been Derry’s duty as supervisor to expose this insidious corruption and do something about it, other than than pleading guilty?
Repairman:
Actually, Neil Derry did try to do something about Mike Ramos. He pushed for him to be investigated for sexual harassment, and attempted to save the County money by limiting his investigators use of county vehicles to work related travel. Mike Ramos responded with the selective prosecution.
In my opinion, Mike Ramos has displayed a pattern of selective prosecution for political gain, such as when he held a big press conference to announce “the most appalling corruption case in decades, certainly in the history of San Bernardino County and maybe California itself.” Since then, the prosecution has been going in reverse, and his attorneys are getting trounced every time they enter a courtroom.
Or how about the Dino DeFazio prosecution, where he is now dragging his feet after learning that Mr. DeFazio was going to fight back. Mr. DeFazio was arrested nearly 3 years ago, and six days after he filed a claim that charged Mike Ramos with slander and defamation.
Or how about the prosecution of Samuel Clauder; the charges were dismissed and a Superior Court judge ordered the arrest record and criminal case file to be sealed and then destroyed. Of course, all that occurred after he destroyed the mans reputation.
The “insidious corruption” is on full display for anybody willing to pay attention to the facts, and think objectively.
BTW, the state court is going to review those charges on the colonies boys.