Sunday, June 25, 2006

Utah's GOP, The Party of Open Doors?

The following is from a post titled, Could you repeat that again? Deseret Morning News: GOP attendee ejected, from Mike Ridgway's blog. Although the post is not about the legislature, it made me ask...

BE IT RESOLVED, That the Republican Party is the party of the open door. Ours is the party of liberty, the party of equality of opportunity for all and favoritism for none.

It is the intent and purpose of these rules to encourage and allow the broadest possible participation of all voters in Republican Party activities at all levels and to assure that the Republican Party is open and accessible to all Americans." Emphasis added.


did someone forgot to tell the Utah Republican Legislature that the Republican Party is the party of the open door? When I visit Capitol Hill, the only open doors I see belong to the House and Senate Democratic Caucuses.

More than ever, our State needs a two-party system. The best way to put our house in order is by electing several quality, ethical Democrats this fall. Want to get your elected officials attention? VOTE DEMOCRAT!

14 comments:

Mike Ridgway said...

Rob, thanks for helping to spread the word. I note, however, that your link to my article is just a tad broken.

Mike Ridgway said...

So tell me Rob, if I came to a Utah Democratic State Central Committee meeting with a George W. Bush button and a video camera, if you, the vice-chair of the state Democractic Party, were chairing the meeting, would you have me thrown out?

Anonymous said...

Nice photo of GWB.

Anonymous said...

The open door? The only door that they have open is the one to the bathroom. Open door? Not when they are doing the publics business. The best open door would be the one that opens when they are booted out of power. Their door is open as long as you don't think for yourself or the public interest. Note to Mr Mike. I read that bit of information and before I read it again I had to put my hip waders on and clean the BullSh** out of my room. The door is only open if you have enough money to buy your way in. Mike if you wanted to show up at a meeting dressed that way and make an ass out of yourself there is no law against it. I do believe that you would probably have access to the meeting and if you remembered that it is better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool rather than open it and remove all doubt you may be OK. OOPS you already forgot about that rule!

Anonymous said...

Ridgway where did you get that open door load of crap? The Republicans are about as open door as the Berlin Wall in the 60's. The Republicans in this state are all about closed doors especially when it comes to making laws and passing bills in the legislature. You have no idea how much distain I have for the republican legislatures in this state. The whole lot of you are in politics to benefit your personal lives rather that make things better for everyone. That is my take on the open door republican way.

Rob said...

No Mike, I would call the anti-me to do it, Enid Greene!

Rob said...

I sure like it better when Jesus comes by.

Anonymous said...

Rob--Check your facts. The House Republican caucus is an open caucus and has been for years.

It is worth noting that during the Legacy Highway debate last year when the Democrats votes mattered they closed their caucus meeting. Only open when it doesn't matter.

Anonymous said...

So it doesn't matter 99.999% of the time?

Anon, I'm embarrassed to be your sister.

Anonymous said...

Sister Anon--

I'm not "saying" that the Democrats votes don't matter -- that's something for you to decide.

What I am saying is the Democrats always tout that they have an open caucus but then they decided to close it when they really had to buckle down and determine their strategy.

They are perfectly willing to keep it open when they are promising everything to everyone but when they need to discuss real strategy and work some people over on votes they aren't as psyched to let people in.

Mike Ridgway said...

Sounds like you're chewing on the wrong set of buttocks, John Marlor. I can appreciate that you feel as frustrated as you do. But sniping the people who are actually working to fix the problem is guaranteed to delay, not accelerate, a resolution to the problems you enumerate.

Mike Ridgway said...

Give "anonymous" credit for being smart enough to keep his name separate from his posts. Good to see that some in this discussion haven't forgotten "that rule."

Anonymous said...

I've been there, they do not promise everything to everyone. You can only come up with one example of when they closed the doors.

How many times have the Republican Legislature done so?

Anon, you're a partisan, and thats the problem with Utah politics.

Anonymous said...

Sister Anon--

Somehow I'm partisan and you're not. And why is partisanship bad in your book? These are important issues and people have different opinions, if that is bad, then so what?

Also, I'm not saying that anyone should have an open caucus. Rob said that Republicans don't open their caucuses and I was merely correcting him (the House caucus is open 99% of the time).

However, I don't think discussing issues behind closed doors is necessairly a bad thing. Politicians should be allowed to discuss their opinions and feelings without having to be quoted on everything - open and free discussion makes good policy and sometimes that discussion would not make sense when quoted by a reporter.