Thursday, April 09, 2009

Legislative Republicans - finally realizing that they have lost the PR battle

...And while they are finally taking steps to make up ground, even those belated attempts are making things worse.

For weeks now, the Democratic caucus of the Arizona Legislature has been travelling across the state, talking about the state's budget crisis with literally thousands of Arizonans.

On Thursday, April 16, the Maricopa County Republican Party will playing catch-up. Well, trying to, anyway.

They'll be holding a "Town-hall" regarding the state budget. It will be held in the auditorium in the Civic Center Branch of the Scottsdale Library. The panel will feature well-known Kool-Aid drinkers legislative Republicans such as Rep. John Kavanagh, Sen. Russell Pearce, Sen. Thayer Verschoor, and Sen. Chuck Gray.

The notice for the town hall promises discussion on how illegal immigrants and Democrats are responsible for the state's revenue shortfall. (What did you expect? They're on the receiving end of some serious heat over the devastation they are wreaking upon the state's education and human service infrastructures. They will be pointing fingers at everybody but themselves until November 2010. And after.)

Anyway, the meeting looks to be aimed at shoring up their support among the GOP's true believers.

As mentioned earlier, literally thousands of people attended the Democratic budget events, and the Reps know this. They know that people are seriously pissed, and are looking for ways to make their elected officials aware of their unhappiness.

This apparently presented a dilemma for the organizers of the event - how to encourage the participation of those who already support them while discouraging the "riff-raff" (you know, like those laid-off teachers) from getting in the way of their little blame train.

So some bright-eyed and bushy-tailed type** came up with the following line (emphasis mine) -
"A $5 donation will be taken at the door. "

Yep, when faced with an epic budget crisis, brought on in significant part by their own caucus' slavish devotion to tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy, and when faced with a population that is livid over the reckless and heartless "cut, and cut until the patient stops bleeding...and breathing" approach promulagated by the Reps, the Reps want to *charge* Arizonans extra for the privilege of speaking to the people who are supposed to represent them in the lege.

AZ Republicans - people who, when they find themselves in a hole, immediately start digging. Down.

**In this context "Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed type" = "crack-smoking nimrod"

4 comments:

eric kurland said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Eli Blake said...

Yeah, people are seriously pissed alright.

I doubt if the ordinary run of the mill Republicans I know in my own small ***red*** town will bother going to the legislative 'town hall' (the didn't go to the legislative town hall either.)

But they are PARENTS, and as far as their kids are suffering from the budget cuts, they will vote next year. And they are paying a lot of attention to what is going on right now down at the legislature.

IMI said...

Sometimes all you have to do is just watch and Republicans will hang themselves by themselves.

Craig said...

I hope so.

The announcement for this meeting looks like that they intend to preach to the faithful (the blame illegal immigrants and Democrats theme) which could lead to some interesting quotes.