"No Labels" leader introduced LaTourette to Akron Press Club:
4/22/14, "LaTourette says GOP at crossroads, must shift from right to have shot at White House, Senate," Ohio.com, Akron Beacon Journal, Stephanie Warsmith
"Former U.S. Rep. Steve LaTourette told an Akron crowd Tuesday that the Republican Party is “at a crossroads.” He said the party must become more moderate and inclusive to have a shot at the White House or a majority in the U.S. Senate.
“If the Republican Party continues on this path to the extreme right, it will become a permanent minority party,” he told the receptive audience of about 80 people at an Akron Press Club luncheon at Quaker Square.
LaTourette served in Congress for 18 years, choosing not to seek re-election for the 14th Congressional District in 2012 after expressing frustration for the lack of cooperation and level of acrimony in Washington, D.C. He is now a lobbyist in the Capitol, where he also heads Main Street Partnership, a group that supports moderate GOP congressional members. He has gained prominence in his new role, including recent appearances on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Larry King.
Michael Shepherd, who heads a new University of Akron No Labels group, which seeks to foster civil political discussion on campus, introduced LaTourette, saying he “embodies many of the things our group believes in.”
LaTourette said he joined Congress in 1994 in a class supported by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
“People thought we were crazy,” he said in his half-hour speech. “I didn’t know crazy until recently. We were not crazy.”
LaTourette said he chose to leave Congress when he became frustrated about the inability to get anything done, including the transportation budget. He pointed to the “fiscal cliff” debate about federal tax cuts for the wealthy and the federal government shutdown as other examples of gridlock.
“That’s great for bumper stickers,” he said of the fight that led to the 16-day shutdown. “What it’s not is governing.”
LaTourette was replaced by his longtime friend Dave Joyce, who is facing competition in the May 6 primary from state Rep. Matt Lynch. Lynch is being backed by FreedomWorks, a national group that supports the tea party, while LaTourette’s Main Street Partnership is supporting Joyce, as well as other GOP congressional members who are being targeted in primaries by candidates couching themselves as more conservative and backed by tea party groups.
“That’s all we’re doing,” LaTourette said. “We are not going after sitting Republicans.”
LaTourette said tea party supporters have this view that if they “get all the angry, 57-year-old white guys” to vote for them, they will win. But, he said, the GOP can’t give up on female, African-American, Jewish, homosexual and Hispanic voters.
“The Republican Party has to make the decision if it wants to have the permanent majority in the House of Representatives, but never the presidency of the United States and never control of the Senate,” he said.
LaTourette said he doesn’t think Republicans must oppose clean air or the preservation of green space or be anti-union. He said his efforts aren’t an attack on the tea party, which helped made great gains for the Republican party in the past.
“The tea party is not the Republican Party,” he said. “The Republican Party needs to be bigger than that if it is going to represent the "whole country".”
For change to happen, LaTourette said the redistricting process, which gives the parties locks on various districts, needs to be changed. He said he’s not sure of the best answer, though he is watching with interest what is happening in California, where a primary is held and then the top two vote-getters, regardless of party, compete in the November election.
Asked his advice for students considering political careers, LaTourette said they must decide if they have the “fire in the belly” for it. “It’s not for everybody,” he said. “It’s a contact sport. You have to be willing to say, ‘I love this!’”...via Free Rep.
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P.S. LaTourette envisions one party that speaks for a "whole country" of 300 million people. The US would have to be a different country, a totalitarian country for that to happen. As others have said, it's no longer about Republicans and Democrats or even right and left. It's between massive, top down central government vs individual liberty on which the US was founded and which was for a long time the key to our survival. LaTourette's side is like royals in olden times who honestly believe they're better than we are, that we must silently hand over our earnings and let them dictate every detail of our lives, and most of all that we absolutely must shut up:
2/20/13, “As Country Club Republicans Link Up With The Democratic Ruling Class, Millions Of Voters Are Orphaned,” Angelo Codevilla, Forbes
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“Increasingly the top people in government, corporations, and the media collude and demand submission as did the royal courts of old.”…
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6/17/2012, "The Coming of the Next American Republic," Richard Fernandez, Belmont Club
"They realized it was in their common interest to cooperate in order to put themselves collectively in charge of literally everything....The catastrophe happened, DeLong says, because the Founders forgot that factions could cooperate as well as compete through log-rolling as well as a host of other mechanisms."...
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With only one political party, voters can't possibly make a difference, are rendered mute:
12/15/13, "Breaking The UniParty," Angelo M. Codevilla, LibertyLawSite.org
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Added: Eleven key 2012 US Senate races backed and lost by the GOP establishment--LaTourette's side:
1. Florida,
- Chamber of Commerce and Jeb Bush backed Connie Mack IV lost by 13 points.
Jeb Bush and Connie Mack IV
- In Montana, Romney beat Obama by 13.7 points. Establishment supported GOP Senate candidate Denny Rehberg still lost.
4. Nevada,
- Republican Dean Heller was the incumbent having been appointed to the seat after scandal-compromised Republican Senator John Ensign resigned. Heller lost by 1.2 points to a democrat under an ethics investigation.
5. New Mexico
- Heather Wilson lost an open seat to a democrat by 5.7 points.
6. North Dakota.
- In North Dakota Romney beat Obama by 19.6 points. GOP establishment supported Senate candidate Rick Berg still lost to a non-incumbent democrat.
- Establishment George Allen lost by 5.9 points. In 2006 Allen only lost by .3.
- Bush retread Tommy Thompson lost to a non-incumbent democrat by 5.5 points. The democrat winner, Tammy Baldwin “authored a provision included in the Affordable Care Act that allows young adults to stay on their parent’s insurance until age 26.”
- Independent who caucuses with democrats Angus King won by 22 points.
- The incumbent democrat won by 6 points.
11. Massachusetts
- Incumbent Republican Scott Brown lost by 7.5 points to far left democrat Elizabeth Warren.
11/16/12, "Republicans Allowed Karl Rove to Mislead Them Again," Daily Beast, Matt Latimer
“In the past two election cycles, he (Rove) and his acolytes have personally helped Barack Obama get elected and yet made millions in the process. You tell me who the dummy is—Rove or the people who keep listening to him and funding him?”…
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Added: The 2012 GOP establishment presidential candidate was guaranteed to lose since he had no desire to be president and never wanted to run in the first place (parag. 15). This may explain why Romney refused to loan any of his famous millions to his 2012 campaign when it desperately needed them. As long as the GOP-E has anything to say about it Democrats are guaranteed to win.
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P.S. We the people aren't the ones who destroyed this country. It was done entirely by corrupt politicians. None of them have even apologized to us.
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