Carl Forti Quotes
Scott Brown is a superstar. Scott Brown won a race that nobody expected Republicans to even be competitive in, and he was able to do it at a time when nothing else going on, so he captured the attention of conservatives across the country.
Rucker, Philip. "Scott Brown Cashes In on GOP Superstar Status." The Washington Post, 23 Apr. 2010, p. A4.
The Evangelicals and other social conservatives had much more influence over the Republican candidate since without the social conservatives voting in large numbers for the Republican Presidential candidate, at the time, it would be hard to win the general election, but Democrats had won without them. However, at the time, the social conservatives had a virtual veto over the Republican candidate selection.
He was reacting to the Republicans in Congress passing a special law for a single right to die case in Florida. Ironically Danforth himself had always been considered a conservative and he also was an ordained Episcopalian minister.
He had invited Ted Kennedy to also give a presentation at the library, and this was part of the introduction. The President rarely “jumped” on anyone, but he was referring to the common practice of his fellow Republicans of using Kennedy as the villain in fundraising and partisan attacks.
Senator Roscoe Conkling was the Republican Leader of the Republican Party and a party boss of the old school. Hays was a reformer, especially about appointments where he generally tried to pick the most meritorious candidate instead of the party loyalists desired by Conkling. There was (and still is) a tradition in the Senate that the Senators from the state of residence of any Presidential appointment had a veto of any Federal appointments in the state. Conkling, in addition to being the party leader, was the senior senator from New York and wanted two party loyalists for the jobs. Hayes appointed the better qualified men and decided to fight for the nomination of his candidates, but expected tha Conkling was strong enough to assure that the Senate would not confirm Hayes’ New York appointments. See {622340}. However, Hayes won.
What is particularly interesting in this quotation is her use of the term “untried methods”. To most conservatives of any party “untried methods” connotes something bad and to be avoided. Yet to Mrs. Roosevelt and her husband, along with the New Dealers and many other Democrats, viewed “untried methods” as a virtue and a President willing to use untried methods and experiment was to them dangerous and inadequate for the modern world. “Tried and true” approaches are fine as long as they work and the nation is not facing a new situation. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, assuming the Presidency in the midst of the Great Depression realized that President Herbert Hoover had tried all the “tried and true” methods and was an excellent administrator. Yet the nation was in mortal crisis. So the Roosevelts and the New Dealers tried a number of solutions that had never before been attempted—Social Security, Closing aA(the)ll banks and stopping foreclosures, the CCC, WPA are just a few. Some did not work; some were declared unconstitutional and we will never know whether or not they would have been effective, and some were so effective that they are now considered “tried and true” like Social Security.
Left and right as political concepts are very subjective and relative. When Obama won the Presidency, the Republican Party and swung far to the right—so far that Rockefeller, Eisenhower and others would not be acceptable to the party. Most of the Republicans saw Obama as an extreme leftist while at the same time, most of the leftists in the Democratic Party like Reich were unhappy with Obama as he was too conservative—almost a Republican.
He opposed all government bail outs, give always, and other programs where the government gave money to individuals or companies other than fair market value for work, products or services. A large number of Americans benefit from one or more of these programs so Paul viewed his position as “attacking Santa Claus.” There are many Americans who understand that there is a cost to all programs, and that great political debate in America is when the cost is worth it and when not. Even Paul came to oppose withdrawing the social safety net unless we could create other mechanisms.
Carl Forti is an American Republican Party strategist who is the political director of Karl Rove's American Crossroads Super PAC. He was political director for Mitt Romney in 2008. Prior to joining American Crossroads, Forti has co-founded the Black Rock Group and has been instrumental in the formation of Republican 527's and Super PACs. He has been referred to as "Karl Rove's Karl Rove", "one of the smartest people in politics you've never heard of," and "the Alexander the Great of the Republican independent expenditure world."
