New GOP HQ
The this interesting article about the new State GOP headquarters that just opened up: they discuss a little about what they’re planning to do with the space, and it’s always good to keep abreast of what the opposition is up to. Healy suggests an emphasis on training, and I’d love to compare notes with someone across the aisle about what our respective parties are up to on the training front.
A couple things jumped out to me, though:
“We got through the election,” Healy said. “Now we’re going back to the voters and telling them we understand their unhappiness with too much government spending and our not sticking to the principles of the party.”
That’s some pretty intense willful ignorance there: if the Republicans “understood” what voters were unhappy about, then the GOP wouldn’t have received such a shellacking this fall. Hint: they’re unhappy with the actual principles of your party. This seems to me like a not-too-coded suggestion that last year’s loss came from John McCain’s deviation from the GOP’s core values, when the shambles of our economy and our foreign policy served as a fierce reminder of their party’s principles.
Also, this gem was picked up in the original post:
“New Britain is really the heart of the state,” Healy said. “Not just geographically. It’s emblematic of the kind of hard-working, family-oriented, community-involved city where we want to be.”
John McNamara added:
Nonetheless New Britain seems an unlikely place for the state GOP to locate an office. There are 18,072 Democrats here compared to about 3,699 Republicans — part of the surge that favored Democrats everywhere in 2008. When unaffiliateds (11,749) are counted, Republicans account for little more than 11 percent of the electorate.
Yep, New Britain – deep in the heart of hard-working, family-oriented, community-involved, Democratic Connecticut.