Sara: I thought I made it clear in comment #15 that when the GOP holds the White House the President selects the Chair of the RNC.

You might recall that Bill Clinton selected his DNC Chairs during that period. Terry McAwful being the most prominent.

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Anyway this is my last comment on this subject. I would point you to 1994 when Haley Barbour was RNC Chair and for the first time in 40 years the Repubs took over the House and added the Senate too. It certainly wasn’t at the bidding of the President, since that was Clinton. It was Haley Barbour and Newt Ginghrich who were calling the shots.

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Yes, he loaned his campaign $35 mil. but his campaign also raised a total of over $90 mil. and more than any other Repub. candidate. You aren’t seriously suggesting Romney doesn’t know how to make money, are you? His name recognition was 3% when he started and he didn’t have the benefit of nonstop media coverage like McCain got, nor the benefit of free advertising throughout the So. Baptist church system. And most of the media he did get was negative anyway, either based on his religion or some other slam against him.

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I am not trying to be argumentative, but wrong is wrong. 3 members must nominate and then the candidate stand for election by the full committee. The president can put forth his/her choice and, granted, most times that choice is respected and gets the final votes needed, but there is no guarantee that other members won’t nominate their choices and an election fight can ensue.

Take this scenario:

President nominates his choice and that person is elected and serves as Chairman through the President’s term. Elections take place every other year, so he would have had to be relected to his chairmanship at least once during the 4 years. Elections are in January.

Now, the president’s man decides he is leaving to pursue other interests and the sitting president will be leaving office at the end of January and the incoming president is a democrat. If they did it your way, the new dem president would be appointing the RNC chairman. That wouldn’t happen. The process wouldn’t work that way. 3 Committee members would nominate their choice, 3 more might nominate another choice, etc. and then whoever got the vote would be the next RNC chair.

How in the world would a president have time for the minutia of what is going on in some district in say Hawaii. It isn’t that the White House doesn’t have a very active political staff paid to tune in to these things, but they don’t have dictatorial powers over the Party national committee’s primary job of raising money, formulating the party platform, and getting Republicans at all levels elected nationwide.

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In Comment 20 Sara said: “Mike: I’m not disagreeing with you on how or what of the usual way someone ends up at the RNC.”

I am confused then. You said in comment 16: “Mike, I’m not trying to be argumentative, but I think you are wrong.”

Not only is the RNC Chairman the President’s pick, but the man in the job is also HIS man and prime defender.

I’ll stand by my first comment that Romeny would not want to be McCain’s lap dog.

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Mike: I’m not disagreeing with you on how or what of the usual way someone ends up at the RNC. I worked with Maureen Reagan during her time as RNC co-chair, and I was working with the transition team during the Bush 41 incoming admin. and when Lee Atwater was installed as RNC Chair. The job is more often than not a reward. But the rules make it clear that the RNC Chair answers to the full committee and not to the president, which wouldn’t make sense during times when the WH is in dem. hands. The job of the RNC is not to be a president’s lackey, the job is to raise money for the party and to get party Congresscritters elected and to work to elect Republicans nationwide. They work for the full party, not one individual within the party. They can be removed by the committee though if they make it clear that they do not support the president or vice president of the party.

The beauty of Romney is that he is NOT beholden to John McCain and he is in a position to make a deal for something he might want, assuming he would even want the job. And depending on what his future ambitions might be, the RNC is a great place to keep his name in the news in a positive way and get plenty of face time on TV for the next 4 years compared to being side-lined in the VP office. Does anyone really think McCain intends to have any relationship with a Veep anywhere near on the order that Bush has with Cheney? I think it will be more like JFK and Johnson, who barely spoke as I recall. And the last think McCain wants is a tall, good-looking robust guy standing next to him in pictures.

Michael Steele can have the VP slot, which would benefit McCain and Steele.

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Who do you think brought Big Mac back to life? Independents, and Reagan Democrats!

No, the media did the job. Though I grant you independent voters in the early open primaries played a critical role as well.

Mac was re-launched mostly due to the Bhutto assassination which highlighted his foreign policy credentials. He would lose Florida anyway, but the Crist endorsement, the effect of which is underestimated, coupled with being plugged into the Crist political machine made the difference, and the rest is obvious.

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Who do you think brought Big Mac back to life? Independents, and Reagan Democrats!

No, the media did the job. Though I grant you independent voters in the early open primaries played a critical role as well.

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Sara: I have a little experience in this area as I was briefly in the White House Political Office during the Reagan Administration and a long follower of the comings and goings at the RNC.

Typically, the sitting President announces who his choice is and the entire RNC votes as a formality to confirm him. Have you ever heard of anyone campaigning for the job and winning?

Here’s President Bush announcing that he has asked Mark Racicot to be RNC Chair:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/12/20011205-5.html

In that release President Bush also thanks outgoing RNC Chair Gov. Jim Gilmore (VA) and alludes to the fact that he asked Gilmore to take the job.

You may recall that after the 2006 election many of us wanted to see defeated Maryland Senate Candidate Michael Steele named RNC Chair. President Bush picked Mel Martinez to replace his former re-election campaign manager and former WH Political Director Ken Mehlman:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/14/AR2006111400719.html

Does that help clear up any confusion?

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Mike, I’m not trying to be argumentative, but I think you are wrong. The following is from the GOP website for the RNC. It is under Party Rules:

RULE NO. 5
Officers of the Republican National Committee

(a) The officers of the Republican National Committee shall consist of:

(1) A chairman and a co-chairman of the opposite sex who shall be elected by the members of the Republican National Committee. Except as otherwise ordered by a majority of the members of the Republican National Committee present and voting on the matter, the chairman and the co-chairman shall be full-time, paid employees of the Republican National Committee. The chairman shall be the chief executive officer of the Republican National Committee. The chairman or co-chairman may be removed from office only by a two-thirds (2/3) vote of the entire Republican National Committee.

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