CHUD.com Community › Forums › POLITICS & RELIGION › Political Discourse › Who's running the GOP PR machine these days?
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Who's running the GOP PR machine these days?

post #1 of 7
12/7/03 at 3:50pm
Thread Starter 
The GOP wanted to hire a cruise ship to host their conventioneers and social functions when they bring their nominating convention to New York City next year.

Obviously this was a plan to stifle speech by not giving the people a target of protest, but it was stupid for reasons beyond that, the two most obvious being:

- the image of not-quite-populist Republican delegates whooping it up in luxurious cruise ship ballrooms

- the fact that the conventioneers would be essentially pulling the rug out from any economic benefits to be given to the city of New York - ostensibly one of the main reasons to hold the convention here!

This cynical move - shot down by NYC's own faux-Republican mayor - proves that the GOP is more interested in using this city for its Ground Zero photo ops than anything else.
Reply
post #2 of 7
12/7/03 at 3:51pm
Devin, did you have a few extra cups of coffee this morning? I can barely keep up with your posts today...
Reply
post #3 of 7
12/7/03 at 3:52pm
Thread Starter 
No coffee today. It's just that school's in session here on the CHUD boards.
Reply
post #4 of 7
12/7/03 at 3:52pm
It needs it.
Reply
post #5 of 7
12/7/03 at 3:57pm
This thread reminded me of this little stunt I read about last month on the DNC homepage:

Quote:
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) is getting around campaign finance laws by making up a charity, putting his family and cronies in charge of it, and soliciting enormous donations from his political supporters.

Mr. DeLay's charity, Celebrations for Children Inc., was set up in September and has no track record of work. Mr. DeLay is not a formal official of the charity, but its managers are Mr. DeLay's daughter, Dani DeLay Ferro; Craig Richardson, a longtime adviser; and Rob Jennings, a Republican fund-raiser. Mr. Richardson said the managers would be paid by the new charity.

He plans to funnel part of the money for "events" including luxury suites at the 2004 Republican convention.

But aides to Mr. DeLay, the House majority leader from Texas, acknowledged that part of the money would go to pay for late-night convention parties, a luxury suite during President Bush's speech at Madison Square Garden and yacht cruises.

Because it's technically a charity — a children's charity, for heaven's sake — donors can take a tax deduction and DeLay won't have to report who is giving him the money.

And Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is next.

Other lawmakers may well follow Mr. DeLay's lead. Already Senator Bill Frist, the majority leader, is planning to hold a concert and a reception in conjunction with the convention as a way of raising money for AIDS charities.
Creating charities to skirt campaign finance laws. These people have no shame.
Reply
post #6 of 7
12/7/03 at 11:47pm
Yup. Putting the convention out of the way does indeed keep the protestors away. Makes security much easier to maintain as well. Sounds like what happened during the G8 conference, except using waves instead of mountains.

I can't possibly imagine why the Republican party would want to keep protestors away or why they think they'd need more security than can be provided on land. Being so popular and all, I mean.
Reply
post #7 of 7
12/7/03 at 11:51pm
Answer might be Tom Delay. I think I remember reading an article saying he decided to nuke the cruisship idea. It's not far fetched (or out of character) to imagine he came up with it.
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Political Discourse
CHUD.com Community › Forums › POLITICS & RELIGION › Political Discourse › Who's running the GOP PR machine these days?