Republicans Worry 'Crackpots' Are Becoming the Face of the GOP

2 years ago

0 Comments Say Something »

Text Size

Washington Reporter

A day after Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) yelled "You lie!" during the president's televised speech to Congress, Republican strategists are expressing dismay that "whack jobs" and "cranks" are defining the public's perception of the party. The concern has been growing throughout August, when "birthers" and "death panels" were the talk of the town, and town-hall meetings on health care were repeatedly disrupted by angry conservative protesters.

"Neither party has an exclusive on whack jobs," Republican media consultant Mark McKinnon told Politico. "Unfortunately, right now the Democrats generally get defined by President Obama, and Republicans, who have no clear leadership, get defined by crackpots -- and then they begin to define the Republican Party in the mind of the general public."

The party's message-makers, already frustrated by lawmakers giving credence to the hysteria of fringe constituents, saw the antics of some GOP congressmen at Wednesday night's speech as the ultimate confirmation of their fears. Even worse, it had racist undertones, a veteran Republican official said: "The image of a bunch of white guys booing an African-American president is about as bad as it gets."

Texas Sen. John Cornyn, however, says the damage that the cranks are doing to the party is temporary, and will be quickly forgotten once new Republican candidates emerge and begin setting the agenda. "Right now there's sort of a void because that hasn't formed yet," he said.

GOP 'Cranks' Dominating Debate [Politico]

Filed Under: Republicans, Media, Health Care

Tagged: daily guidance, DailyGuidance, media, republicans

Our New Approach to Comments

In an effort to encourage the same level of civil dialogue among Politics Daily’s readers that we expect of our writers – a “civilogue,” to use the term coined by PD’s Jeffrey Weiss – we are requiring commenters to use their AOL or AIM screen names to submit a comment, and we are reading all comments before publishing them. Personal attacks (on writers, other readers, Nancy Pelosi, George W. Bush, or anyone at all) and comments that are not productive additions to the conversation will not be published, period, to make room for a discussion among those with ideas to kick around. Please read our Help and Feedback section for more info.