IS THE ESTABLISHMENT PREPARING TO SACRIFICE CHAIRMAN LINES?

[Marianne Ferrari]

PLUS: The Absolute Necessity of Calling a RINO, a RINO

I, the person behind the effort to remove Chairman Lines, met Parralee Schneider, our 1^st vice chair, for the first time, last Friday evening, at a meeting called for state committeemen in Pima County. Damien Kennedy, whom I believe to be another friend of the establishment, also attended--after having emailed me recently to say that he is fine with removing Chairman Lines. In his email, he told me that he can understand doing that, but believes I’ve overstepped in calling for the removal of the 1^st and 2^nd vice chairs.

I wondered at his apparent willingness to let Lines be removed. Perhaps they know they are in a very weak position, I thought, so are willing to sacrifice the chairman, thinking that the two vice chairs will retain the status quo. That is exactly what I am convinced they would do, thus preventing any change to come from our great effort. Hence the absolute necessity of calling for the removal of all three.

My Conversation with Parralee and Damien

We began our conversation by pledging to remain cordial and polite, yet be frank and clear about our opinions and convictions. We all kept that pledge, so the evening ended in a friendly manner. Nevertheless, I thought the frankness on both sides revealed a great deal, not least the clear and pressing need to remove RINOs from all elected offices in our state party.

I began by asking Parralee what her duties are, as 1^st vice chair, something I don’t think she expected to be asked, because her answers seemed pretty vague, and repetitive. Parralee twice mentioned chairing committees, even though the only one she named, specifically, occurred while Robert Graham was still chair. When I asked her how often she must trek north to the 24^th St. office, she engaged in such protracted hemming and hawing that it seemed clear to me that she must go quite rarely to 24^th St., but didn’t want me to know that.

In the end, Parralee’s responsibilities as an elected officer seemed quite few. She does proudly hold her title as 1^st Vice Chair. I couldn’t help wondering, though: Is she a placeholder, just as Chairman Lines certainly seems to have been, as Treasurer under Graham? Is she a 1^st vice chair-in-name-only? If Parralee is a placeholder, it would appear that we now have a pattern of possibly multiple elected officers who do not actually do the work assigned to their offices.

Parralee actually told me, in the presence of multiple other people, that the hirelings and the interns—of which, she stated, there are many—do all the real work.

If unelected and unaccountable hirelings and interns are doing the work assigned to elected officials, it means that our state party is being run, not by the people we elected to do that job, but by people who are not known to the membership of the State Committee and who have not been elected to those positions.

That means, furthermore, that the AZGOP is paying people to do work that is supposed to be done for free by elected officials. If it were necessary to prove cause, this would be a clear case for removal of those who were elected to those offices, and who took an oath to faithfully perform the tasks associated with those offices. Fortunately, we do not need to prove cause! It is plenty good enough if State Committeemen are simply concerned—as plenty of us are--that things are not being handled as they should, by our elected AZGOP leadership.

Only a RINO:

Would Call Tea Partiers "Wackos" and the Effort to Remove Chairman Lines a "Power Grab"

As the evening wore on, it seemed obvious, to me, that Parralee was working hard to maintain her friendly, easygoing demeanor. She spoke to me pointedly, several times, turning to address me directly with a bit of an edge in her voice, to say: “This is a power grab.”

I remember thinking that Parralee didn’t realize that by saying those words, she was revealing that she is a RINO. In my experience, it’s always the RINOs who see party elections as all about power, not as the simple arrangements necessary to run the affairs of the party. It’s the people I think of as “the RINOs currently in power” who seem to me consumed by a need for power over this institution. Anyone who doesn't want them to have power over the state party, it seems, qualifies as a "wacko"--the term both Damian and Parralee used to describe both me and others, several times that evening. Anyone who tries to take that power away from them is pulling a "power grab," as Parralee claimed I am doing. 

 

All I can say to that is that what I am doing is working to UNDO a power grab! I mean, you can’t have it both ways!

 

That term, “wacko,” was used by both Damian and Parralee, starting when Damian asked me if I had been a tea partier. I said yes, I had, and he instantly uttered the single word, “wacko,” a word Parralee also repeated.

In other words, they both indicated that “tea Party” equals “wacko.” In my book, that is proof positive that both of them are RINOs. RINOs vehemently opposed the tea party, and they still do. When we succeed in removing Chairman Lines, we cannot leave in place two other officers who I feel certain are also RINOs. If they stay, everything will remain exactly the same. It will be as if nothing had happened. After all the work and strict attention to the Bylaws, we can’t end up exactly where we started!

In fact, when I asked Parralee whether she would keep Matthew Kenney in place, if she ascended to the chairmanship, after Lines was removed, she answered with something like the word, Absolutely!, then seemed to catch herself, and change that to a softer, "I don't know him well enough to" make that decision--or something like that.

Sometime during the evening, I politely stated to Parralee the fact that she is a RINO. She acted affronted and said, “I’m a conservative.”

But SAYING you are a conservative doesn’t make it so.

And how is it possible for someone who sees tea partiers as “wackos” to also be a conservative? As I said, you can’t have it both ways.

Those of us who are real constitutional conservatives have held the following opinion for a long time, and I believe it is a fact: Our state party is dominated and controlled by RINOs—Republicans in name ONLY.

I believe it’s high time we stop using the term RINO as a joking aside, as if there were no danger inherent in the lopsided influence RINOs have had on our state party, for so long. The phrase “Republicans in Name Only” has a very serious meaning. It means there are people going about calling themselves Republicans who are not really Republicans—that is, they hold political convictions that do not fit in with constitutional conservatism or with the spirit of republicanism.

There was a time that RINOs got away with calling themselves “moderates”—think George Romney and Nelson Rockefeller. (Do you see what I see? The apparent effort to hide the truth of being a RINO?) We’re way beyond that, now. RINOs call themselves conservatives, but declare the truth about themselves by their actions--actions that are pretty kinetic, such as purging some of our best conservative activists from the ranks of pcs, in recent years. I wasn’t paying attention, when that happened, but...

...many people still talk about that purge, saying it was ordered by John McCain—a person whom many call RINO--as retribution, after many LDs censured him for actions they felt were unconscionable.

Have you ever asked a person you know is a RINO where they stand on the issues of the day? Invariably, they will tell you they are a conservative, or “very conservative.” Have you ever told a RINO to his or her face that they are a RINO? No, of course not, because conservatives are polite. We consider that word an epithet, and it is one. But, when we are polite, in this way, we fail to call by name the people who are working every day, I believe, to destroy the Republican party in our state, and, with it, the strength of the conservative movement statewide.

Without delay, we conservatives must begin to openly call out, as RINOs, people whose actions prove to us that they are RINOs. They’ve been calling us names for decades. RINOs in the elite conservative media trashed Trump throughout his campaign, proving that they are RINOs and globalists, but never were called by those names. From now on, face them and call them by their name--RINO. 

[Angie Anderson]

A RINO is as a RINO does! Like Governor Ducey supporting Prop 123 and not attending the Trump rally on Tuesday.

[Mike White]

Too bad Gov. Ducey is going along with the numbskull Phoenix mayor in not supporting the President's visit.  It should be seen as an honor for Arizona.

[Angie Anderson]

Too many RINOs in Arizona. It's up to us to drain the swamp.

[Ron Harders]

The swamp denizens are infesting politics at every level and they are seeking to destroy America as it was founded. So far they have been successful. We cannot waste the election of DJT. We must stand and be counted.

[Bruce M Piepho]

WOW - “This is a power grab.”  That is so far from my intent.  The goal of the recall is to return the power to the State Committeemen and Precinct Committeemen and the GOP voters.

YES there are too many RINOS, McCain is a RINO.  Flake is a RINO. Lines is at RINO. Kenney is a RINO.

RINO = Republican In Name Only.  Maybe we need to change the moniker to Repcrats.

[Eric Barnes]

I've used both "Republicrats" and "Demopublicans" in the past. :)

[Russell Sias]

Sen. McCain is probably the best Democrat in congress!

Sen. Flake is right behind him, with his recently exposed family ties in taking advantage of illegal aliens to support their family farm.

RINO is not nearly descriptive enough of these two traitors to our constitution and our laws.

[Kay Reardon]

Very well said Marianne. I totally agree! Drain the Swamp in Arizona.

[Connie Uribe]

These people wouldn't know a true conservative if he came up and bit them in their ballot box. I like to call them DUCs - Democrats Under Cover.

Marianne's meeting brings an old saying to mind: There's no honor among thieves. These clowns will do anything they can to save themselves because, like Marianne points out, it’s a power grab. If it were for the good of the order, they’d politely step aside. After all, why would anyone volunteer all that time and effort if not to promote GOP conservative ideals?

If people are unhappy with the way you’re doing your job, then step down! Let someone else do it and have more free time to yourself. If you have an issue with that, then you’ve been listening to too much WIIFM – What’s In It For Me.