| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Harry Hope" |
| Date: |
24 Jun 2005 12:57:10 PM |
| Object: |
Scandal rocks College Republicans. Why aren't they in Iraq? |
From The Seattle Times, 6/24/05:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2002346684_republicans24m.html
College Republicans meet under shadow
By Jim Brunner and David Postman
Seattle Times staff reporters
When hundreds of College Republicans gather for their national
convention this weekend in Arlington, Va., their top order of business
will be to choose the man who could be the next generation's Karl
Rove.
The race for chairman of the College Republican National Committee --
a coveted post that has been an early career stop for many of the
GOP's top political strategists -- typically has been a foregone
conclusion, with the job handed down through a series of handpicked
successors.
But the young Republicans this year are facing a bitterly contested
fight over who should lead their organization, largely because of a
scandal involving the group's fund-raising practices that raked in
millions of dollars by flooding elderly donors with aggressive and
misleading appeals for money.
Some of those letters were signed by the man who is favored to become
chairman, current treasurer Paul Gourley.
The race for chairman, a paid position in Washington, D.C., is watched
by the White House and the Republican National Committee (RNC), which
have come to rely on the young Republicans as a piece of the capital's
conservative machinery.
That the race has been hard-fought and a bit rough is no surprise
given the College Republicans' track record of turning out
practitioners of bare-knuckle politics.
They include Rove, President Bush's top political adviser, the late
Lee Atwater, anti-tax leader Grover Norquist and Jack Abramoff, the
Republican lobbyist embroiled in an ethics scandal.
This is not a group that avoids controversy.
The keynote speaker at the convention, which opens today, is embattled
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas.
Alumni stay connected, too. College Republicans mobilized in support
of Bush's Social Security plan after a conference call with Rove,
according to RNC press secretary Tracey Schmitt.
Abramoff, chairman from 1981 to 1985, was paid $10,000 by College
Republicans in 2002 for what Doug McGregor, the group's executive
director, said were "accounting and legal services."
McGregor said he did not know specifically what those services were.
A spokesman for Abramoff refused to comment.
The fund raising that fuels much of the campaign for chairman was
reported on last year by The Seattle Times, which looked at the
group's national direct-mail program, and the Durham (N.C.)
Herald-Sun, which reported the same day on North Carolina donors.
Some of the most prolific donors said they were unaware they had been
giving so much money to the group because the fund-raising letters
often came under the names of other official-sounding organizations,
such as "Republican Headquarters 2004," and led some to believe the
money was going to Bush's re-election campaign.
Most of the donations were plowed back into the fund-raising effort.
Much was paid to Response Dynamics Inc. (RDI), a Virginia-based
conservative direct-mail house, and its affiliates.
The current College Republican chairman, Eric Hoplin, initially denied
problems with the fund raising.
But Hoplin, after intense criticism from other College Republican
leaders, announced in March that the group would terminate its
contract with RDI -- something he said he had wanted to do all along.
Gourley, the insider pick to succeed Hoplin, has been ensnared in the
fund-raising imbroglio.
As treasurer, he signed some of the group's most controversial
fund-raising letters.
Vying with Gourley is California's Michael Davidson, former head of
the Berkeley College Republicans, who has been critical of the
fund-raising tactics and of the national organization's refusal to
"open the books" and explain how its contract with the direct-mail
company worked.
In months of campaigning, the two candidates have crisscrossed the
country to line up support among state delegates who will vote at the
convention.
The fund-raising controversy has threatened to upset the usual
succession of leaders.
Gourley said much of the criticism is unfair, and added that College
Republican leaders long had been uncomfortable with the content of
their fund-raising letters.
"I was asked to sign these letters because no one else would do it,"
said Gourley, 23, who will graduate this summer from the University of
South Dakota.
As treasurer, a volunteer position, he said he did not work out of the
group's headquarters or have day-to-day control of the fund raising.
Gourley said he and Hoplin deserve praise for terminating the RDI
contract.
"RDI was not a good company for us to work with for many reasons, and
we are glad to be moved away from them," he said.
Davidson, 25, applauded the decision.
He said he would ensure that any fund-raising letters are sent under
the name of the College Republican National Committee, and that the
content is made available to state College Republican leaders.
If history is a guide, Davidson's campaign is a long shot.
The group's new leader almost always is handpicked by his successor,
said Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.
Morton Blackwell, a prominent conservative organizer and a College
Republican alumni, said the election was so tightly controlled at one
point in the past decade that it was "rigged."
The group's fundamental role is to organize party activists on college
campuses, but members in recent years have played a wider role that
earned them a place among D.C.'s most prominent conservative
activists.
A representative attends "The Wednesday Meeting," a group of nearly
100 activists who gather at Norquist's office each week.
The group includes officials from political groups, think tanks, the
House, Senate and the White House.
College Republican leaders recently were included in separate
conference calls with Rove and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist,
R-Tenn., to help organize support for Bush's efforts to alter Social
Security and push through judicial nominees, the RNC's Schmitt said.
The group plans to rally on Capitol Hill after this weekend's election
in a public show of support for the president's Social Security plan.
__________________________________________________________
Just in case the college Republicans were not aware of the following,
I am graciously supplying it to them;
US Marine Corps
USMC Career Information Page
http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/ind.nsf/career
Recruiting Information Page
http://www.marines.com/
Marine Forces Reserve Information Page
http://www.marforres.usmc.mil/
US Army
Army Recruiting Page
http://www.goarmy.com/
Army Special Operations Recruiting Page
http://www.goarmy.com/job/branch/sorc/index.htm
Army Reserve Recruiting Page
http://www.goarmyreserve.com/
Army Recruiting Offices (Locator)
http://www.goarmy.com/contact/recrloca.htm
Army National Guard (ARNG)
Army National Guard
http://www.arng.army.mil/
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| User: "Chance Hopkins" |
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| Title: Re: Scandal rocks College Republicans. Why aren't they in Iraq? |
25 Jun 2005 02:32:30 AM |
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"Harry Hope" <rivrvu@ix.netcom.com> wrote in message
news:cbiob15ku4lgbk8at0lp4be03mnutds7gc@4ax.com...
From The Seattle Times, 6/24/05:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2002346684_republicans24m.html
College Republicans meet under shadow
By Jim Brunner and David Postman
Seattle Times staff reporters
The race for chairman, a paid position in Washington, D.C., is watched
by the White House and the Republican National Committee (RNC), which
have come to rely on the young Republicans as a piece of the capital's
conservative machinery.
A "piece"...LOL, a piece of ***** maybe.
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| User: "cLIeNUX user" |
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| Title: Re: Scandal rocks College Republicans. Why aren't they in Iraq? |
24 Jun 2005 01:26:59 PM |
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From The Seattle Times, 6/24/05:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2002346684_republicans24m.html
College Republicans meet under shadow
By Jim Brunner and David Postman
Seattle Times staff reporters
When hundreds of College Republicans gather for their national
convention this weekend in Arlington, Va., their top order of business
will be to choose the man who could be the next generation's Karl
Rove.
Check for a waxed rump.
This will be a nice event for a mass enlistment, waxed rumps and all.
--
Rick (Richard Allen) Hohensee
write-in candidate, President of the United States of America
platform ftp://linux01.gwdg.de/pub/cLIeNUX/interim/platform2
personal webpage http://linux01.gwdg.de/~rhohen
active in Usenet alt.politics colorg on IRC
Maryland, USA
Ground troops out of Iraq Put the CIA under INS Save Darfur
Semi-legalize drugs Prosecute Bush Tighten the borders
Isolate Israel Tax churches halve military aquisitions
government jobs for Iraq-wounded soldiers and 9-11 survivors
please email my platform to friends, blogs and countrymen
-------------------------------------------------------------
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| User: "OptionARMpopeye" |
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| Title: Re: Scandal rocks College Republicans. Why aren't they in Iraq? |
24 Jun 2005 01:08:58 PM |
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Wow all that yapping when it is quite simple. Ah, because they are in
College.
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: Scandal rocks College Republicans. Why aren't they in Iraq? |
24 Jun 2005 01:22:02 PM |
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"Wow all that yapping when it is quite simple. Ah, because they are in
College."
And they probably have other priorities. I mean if the nation were in
such peril as is described to us by the gov't. wouldn't able bodied
young people, particlularly of the Republican flavor, be eager to do
their part?
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| User: "OptionARMpopeye" |
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| Title: Re: Scandal rocks College Republicans. Why aren't they in Iraq? |
24 Jun 2005 01:34:17 PM |
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Oh yea, using words like PERIL changes the fact that the kids are in
school. What a moron.
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: Scandal rocks College Republicans. Why aren't they in Iraq? |
24 Jun 2005 01:41:40 PM |
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Hey. It's war. Life & death struggle.
Isn't it?
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: Scandal rocks College Republicans. Why aren't they in Iraq? |
24 Jun 2005 03:09:43 PM |
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OptionARMpopeye wrote:
Oh yea, using words like PERIL changes the fact that the
kids are in school.
My father was in school, did stop him.
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