Despite having an approval rating of 84 percent in perhaps the reddest of all the states in the US, Utah Governor Jon Huntsman isn't "Republican enough" for a Republican party event in Michigan.
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More Republican craziness? Now Huntsman isn’t good enough for GOP
By Jimmy Orr | 04.29.09
Wow.
If an 84 percent approval rating for a Republican governor in Utah doesn’t qualify you as a “real Republican” — what does?
On the day that Arlen Specter switched his party affiliation all but giving President Obama a 60 seat filibuster-proof Senate, now some in the Republican Party want to kick more Republicans out. In fact, they’re doing it.
Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, regarded as one of the GOP’s brightest rising stars, has been kicked off the schedule at a Michigan County Republican Party event.
Why? Because he’s not Republican enough.
Big Tent
Kent County Republican Chairman Joanne Voorhees booted Huntsman because he’s too big-tent.
“The voters want and expect us to stand on principle and return to our roots. Unfortunately, by holding an event with Governor Huntsman, we would be doing the exact opposite,” announced Voorhees in an email earlier this week.
Where does Huntsman stray from these principles? Civil unions. He’s OK with them.
The Grand Rapids Press reports that after Voorhees found out “that the Mormon governor of one of the country’s reddest states supports civil unions for same-sex couples, [she] pulled the plug.”
Strong message
With a new Washington Post/ABC poll showing that only 21 percent of Americans identified themselves as Republicans, you’ve got to wonder: can the Republican Party really afford to do this?
To use an Obama’ism: Yes they can!
In fact, a political action committee called the Campaign for Michigan Families lauded the boot saying it “sends a strong message nationwide that grassroots conservatives will not embrace liberals who want to abandon the GOP platform’s commitment to traditional family values in favor of promoting homosexual activists’ incremental assault on religious freedom, marriage, and the family.”
Tin foil hats
Predictably those on the left are lampooning the news.
“The only people left in the Republican Party are crazier than an outhouse rat…” writes John Cole over at Balloon Juice. “They are the people who feverishly emailed each other stories about Obama’s birth certificate, and who are convinced that joking about Obama’s teleprompter and making impassioned speeches about earmark reform are the only route to electoral recovery.”
Uh…..well, we just occasionally mention Obama’s teleprompter. Here, here, here, here, and here. But we’re not crazy or anything.
ABC
By the way, the outspoken governor was on ABC News earlier today and offered, perhaps in the mind of Voorhees, more craziness.
“You can’t just say no. You can’t just obstruct or obfuscate,” Huntsman said discussing the lack of Republican alternatives to Obama’s agenda.
“Instead of just kind of grousing and complaining, it would do us all a whole lot of good if we actually started engaging directly in finding compromises and common ground and shared solutions,” he said. “When you are devoid of the ideas, or the content that would allow you to articulate or paint a better future, you have no choice other than to fall back on ‘no, we are not going support it, it cannot be done’.”
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2. Lifelong Democrat | 04.29.09
I agree with just about everything you say. The Republicans are in big trouble, and I couldn’t be happier.
However, quoting John Cole about “They are the people who feverishly emailed each other stories about Obama’s birth certificate” is a poor example.
I suggest you do some serious reading up on this topic. It’s not just right wing nut cases (though admittedly there are quite a few 
and it’s not just Republicans who are pointing out Obama’s birth certificate problem.
It’s many people who have done some open minded and fair evaluation of the arguments presented by both sides (ignoring the name calling ;-).
There really is a serious and compelling issue underlying this, and I doubt it will go away unitl the documents are released. If anything, the issue has been gaining strength over the past few months, and will likely continue to continue gaining momentum.
Obama’s team would be wise to release the documents to cool the rising temperature of this issue, before it starts to impact 2012.
3. Paul | 04.29.09
So how many people who otherwise support Obama and the Democrats are not going to vote for him in 2012 unless his “birth certificate problem” is cleared up? Get real.
4. Lifelong Skeptic in Utah | 04.29.09
I agree that comments #1 and #2 were written by the same person. Nice trick.
5. Dennis | 04.30.09
The Vault (Long Form) birth certificate issue is not going away. It is slowly gathering grass-root momentum in spite the efforts of the media, the Democrat Party, the leaders of the GOP and even most conservative radio-talk-show hosts to ridicule or ignore the issue.
This is a Constitutional issue and it is really relatively simple. Also, this was not started by the GOP. As you may recall, Hillary at one of her campaign speeches, declared that her opponent is not “electable” because “he does not have American roots”.
Most of us, Democrats, believe that he was born in Hawaii, but can not defend him against the Birthers with facts and logic. What is needed to stop the Birthers and all “conspiracy theories” is the original vault certificate showing the place of birth and the name of the doctor, so it is verifiable. We should ask the President to release it and put an end to this distraction and disunity that we don’t need in these hard economic times.
If he does not release it, this will easily grow to the size of Watergate, it is already being called HUSSEINGATE.
He could do it with a one-minute phone call.
7. steve | 04.30.09
you are so funny. birth certificate issue. How many times does he have to release it. The problem is that when you believe the world is flat no matter what you are shown you will always think it is a trick. Republicans are trying to convince us that people aboard the Titanic failed in their civic duty because they didn’t take swimming lessons and their own life preservers aboard before it sailed. Crazier than an “outhouse rat” is the best way to describe the Republican party right now. Sad thing is we voted Republican for 40 years but left the party in 2004 due to its failure to represent the middle class.
8. Los | 04.30.09
Despite what one person posting as two different people might want you to believe, the Birther “movement” is actually confined to the most extreme fringe of the GOP base.
11. Lifelong Democrat | 04.30.09
No, I am not “I Live in Utah.”
I’m in Chicago actually. Democrat by birth
Dennis and I are actually much closer in alignment.
The internet chatter about the birth certificate issue seems to grow each month (just consider this article and John Cole’s article, for example). The issue seems to resonate at the tea party events.
Three years until 2012 is a long, long, long time for this issue to fester and grow.
Fortunately, so far, the issue seems to be staying at the grass roots. No media or talk show people have run with it, while the courts are doing everything they can to avoid it. (Perhaps these folks have a fear of what might happen if the birth certificate is not what we expect. Then what? Safer to let sleeping dogs lie.)
However, if any of the above events happen, watch out. It only takes one media guy or one court to latch on to it. Grass roots issues have a tendency to acquire champions after a while.
Almost every serious and rational argument I’ve seen in support of Obama not showing the documents falls into one of two categories:
1. By some indirect proof (e.g., a birth announcement in a local paper), the documents must absolutely, positively show that Obama was born in Hawaii, and therefore there is no need to actually show the documents since we know a priori what’s in them, or
2. Legally, Obama doesn’t have to show anything.
Argument 1 is ridiculously weak and actually supports the logic that Obama has nothing to hide and therefore should show the documents.
Argument 2 is politically naive — Bill Clinton tried legalistic arguments (e.g., relying on a legalistic technical definitions) and only got into deeper water.
Both arguments only fan the suspicion that something is being hidden.
Much better for Obama to go ahead and release the documents, get rid of the issue, turn the page, and let the right wingers rail about the swine flu conspiracy or whatever.
12. Grinbot | 04.30.09
What birth certificate issue? Is someone trying to claim Obama was not born in the US? A little late for such a claim, isn’t it? Still, the constitution is very clear: presidents must be native born, so if there were any truth to this allegation (which I don’t believe), then we as a nation would have a **** of a problem on our hands. One I don’t even want to contemplate. The constitution has been abused enough in recent decades.
13. Bob Dobbes | 04.30.09
Birth certificate? Really?
http://images.dailykos.com/images/user/3/BO_Birth_Certificate.jpg
14. Brad | 04.30.09
“Lifelong Democrat” is so obviously a fake it’s actually embarassing to read his/her posts.
It’s adorable watching right-wing nuts waste their lives playing make-believe on the internet, but I feel a little sorry for them.
Nobody cares about the “birth certificate issue” except raving far-right lunatics. Better find a new “controversy” to “stir the pot.” That sort of tactic worked out so well for you in 2008, after all.
Brad
15. Lifelong Democrat | 04.30.09
Grinbot, “…then we as a nation would have a **** of a problem on our hands.”
I totally agree. I think that’s why a lot of folks (courts and media) have been reluctant to address it.
The court reluctance, I understand.
Courts do tend to be very, very pragmatic about Constitutional issues — look at slavery decisions in the 1800s, race decisions from the Civil War on, Bush v. Gore, etc. They tend to avoid rocking the boat. A few exceptions (Brown v Board of Education, perhaps), but in the large they tend to do only minor steering.
I’m not sure I understand why the conservative radio folks and the Republican leadership have not (yet) been harping on this. Perhaps fear of making too large an issue, having the documents released, and then ending up with egg when the documents unambiguously show Hawaii.
However, some one will eventually begin pounding on this over the air, and so the sooner Obama quashes the issue, the better.
16. Lifelong Democrat | 04.30.09
Bob Dobbs, This is the simplest Category 1 argument. There exists an image of the short form. Therefore the long (vault) form will be the same. Therefore we don’t need to see the long form. QED.
There are arguments that the short form is not sufficient to prove birth place for Hawaii in 1961 (sufficient for citizenship, but not for natural born citizenship). Perhaps true and perhaps not. I don’t know. But certainly a sufficiently strong argument to raise doubt. I haven’t seen a strong refutation of that claim.
Of course, this just feeds the argument of why not simply show the long form since it obviously won’t have any different information. So these arguments actually tend to increase the suspicion that something is being hidden.
And so the grass roots discussions spiral.
17. RepublicansAreNuts | 04.30.09
“Lifelong Democrat” take a pill, seek counseling, and when you feel better get educated.
18. Joe in NH | 04.30.09
How did the GOP get to this?Things were very different when I grew up in Upstate NY which was solid GOP country. outside the cities.Not any more. I think what killed the moderate branch of the GOP was Gingrich & Co.who brought us something akin to a European Parliamentary government.What I mean is that before Newt committee chairs in the House were independent centers of power and did not have to toe the party line.They could thumb their noses at the leadership and often did. The GOP took care of this by putting term limits on committee chairmanships.They also put in a rule that only bills that the majority of GOP Representatives supported would be voted on,ie, only conservative bills saw the light of day. There was no way moderate Republicans could join with some Democrats to push a bill through because it never reached the floor for a vote. Moderates were allowed to vote their conscience but only when their votes weren’t needed. Otherwise they had to toe the party line. Here in the North East people finally realized that though their local House Rep. was a nice moderate NE Republican they agreed with, supporting the local guy only resulted in the Southern religious conservatives getting their way. Also, has anyone noticed that those in GOP who are not “true” Republicans are called RINOs(Repubs in name only) while Dems in the minority are tolerated and called Blue Dogs– A Blue Dog sounds a friendlier than a Rino. Reagan’s big tent is now a pup tent and the Dems are the ones with the big tent now.
19. Paul Dirac | 04.30.09
Dear Palin,
Your argument could probably use some quantum electrodynamics. You lost, Obama is a natural born citizen, get over it.
ΟΕΔ.
20. Stewart | 04.30.09
Obama could have been born on Mars and he would still be a natural born American citizen. The child of an American citizen born between 1957 and 1986 is an American citizen unless the citizen parent did not live in the United States for ten years, five after the age of 15, and if the American citizen parent was abroad pursuant to United States government or military service of themselves or their own parents this counts as residence. Stanley Ann Dunham was born November 1942 in Fort Leavenworth KS and lived in the United States until August, 1961 when her first son, Barak Obama, was born. In Hawaii, at the time a state of the United States. So the whole argument is sheer simon-pure bulls&*(, as we all know. The original poster is right, the Republicans are deluding themselves if they think this is what is going to return them to power.
21. Jack Dubious | 04.30.09
Like the NSA, FBI and CIA havent confirmed his birth. People are such morons.
22. Albert J. Haberle | 04.30.09
Where is someone with the spirit of Eisenhower? A type of person COULD breath life into the Republican party.
He treated the troops as fellow men and women, and made the officers take the blame for bad decisions. He was both liberal and conservative it depended only on what was for the public good.
If the battle or the economy failed, Eisenhower made sure it was the officers, including himself, who took the heat, and if you didn’t have your own plan of battle, keep your mouth shut.
Eisenhower would not have tolerated the ‘chicken hawks’, the arm chair generals, who, like Haliburton, make and move their fortunes to Arab monarchies.
23. Nadine | 04.30.09
I live in Utah and am grateful that Huntsman, is a reasonable person, not just a Republican.
24. nick | 05.01.09
‘Of course, this just feeds the argument of why not simply show the long form since it obviously won’t have any different information’
What is this long form you speak of? If I go to the state to get a copy of my COB, I get something very similar to this. Which I recently had to do as I lost mine in a move. Or before that who knows that’s why it’s right.
But really what is this long form?? It wasn’t an option for me to get there was simply COB (Certificate of Birth).
25. Cartman | 05.01.09
This removal of moderates from the Republican platform will allow the creation of a viable third party. As a Democrat who would enjoy a more fiscally conservative and responsible government, and would be happy to join a third party.
26. old1 | 05.02.09
What happened to the PRSMITH post about Occidental College and the foreign student funding for Barry Soetoro?
People, Being a simple citizen DOES NOT MAKE ONE A “NATURAL BORN AMERICAN”. Natural Born is born of Blood and Soil. The Blood of two (2) parents both American citizens at the time of their child’s birth and being born on American soil. Even two of these three does not get it!
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Jimmy Orr has worked in politics for the majority of his professional career working for two U.S. Senators, two Governors and one President. Most recently, Orr served as White House Spokesman and Internet Director for President George W. Bush and Special Advisor to Governor Schwarzenegger for Internet Communications.
David Cook is Washington bureau chief of The Christian Science Monitor and host of the Monitor's newsmaker breakfasts. He was the Monitor's editor from 1994 to 2001. Cook is a graduate of Principia College, served in the U.S. Army, was a Bagehot Fellow at Columbia University, and is a member of the Gridiron Club, Washington's oldest journalistic organization.
1. I Live in Utah | 04.29.09
I agree, Huntsman shouldn’t be in favor of Gay Civil Unions and be held-up on a pedestal as a staunch “Republican”. I wish more people would recognize and “stand on principle”.