Rich Anderson, taking a break from presiding over the dumpster fire known as the “Republican Party of Virginia,” went on right-wing talk radio (“The John Fredericks Show”) this morning to talk about where his party’s nominating process is at right now. Recall that the VA GOP has been struggling for *months* now to figure out how to nominate its 2021 statewide candidates. As of now, they have ruled out holding a primary or an “assembled convention,” and their plan for the parking lot at Liberty University (seriously, this is not satire!) predictably fell apart. Now, they are planning to hold yet ANOTHER State Central Committee meeting, this coming Friday at 7 pm, to yet *again* try to resolve this mess. The exchange between right-wing radio host John Fredericks (Trump’s former Virginia Chair) and Rich Anderson this morning was very revealing; check it out.
Fredericks: “When I get up on Saturday, it’s going to be the same thing. This thing is not going to get resolved again. The people that want a primary are not going to budge and the people that want a convention aren’t going to budge and you can’t get the 75 percent, so the only way to resolve this was what you guys formulated, which was go to Liberty University in the parking lot. That was it. That was the only way to solve it…They’ll never agree to number four, because they’re dug in. You’re never going to get 75 percent, and the people that want a convention there’s no way on earth after all they’ve gone through are going to cave. So you’re nowhere. I mean, great plan, [but] you’re nowhere”
Anderson: “You characterized it right; it will be a calamitous disaster if we don’t reach agreement somewhere on Friday.”
Fredericks: “Those that want a primary are going to burn the house down…and when you’re negotiating with people that have a scorched earth policy; there’s nowhere to go with that, and right now that’s what they have – they want to burn the thing down to the ground and get beat and blame the conventioneers…March 8th and the Republican Party of Virginia doesn’t have a nominating method.”
Anderson: “Out there in the Republican piece of Virginia, they don’t look at this inside baseball and go whether it’s a convention half and a primary half; they just look at it as a failure of the state central committee, the Republican Party of Virginia…actually for me because I chair the whole blasted organization!”
Fredericks: “Of course rank and file are frustrated; they think this is the most insane poppycock, namby pamby bunch of nonsense they’ve ever seen in their life…you’re going to burn this thing down to the ground you’re going to ensure McAuliffe wins are you going to feel good then about yourself are you going to get up on November 5th or what whatever the day is with another McAuliffe regime and the Republicans didn’t gain any seats in the House and caucus of the Corn is still there and you guys did this by this namby pamby nonsense that’s that’s going on…because that’s exactly what you’re doing…this has got to end on Friday night…what is going on here is an embarrassment, it’s a joke; the Democrats are mocking us. I mean they put press releases out that are just, I mean we’re a complete…laughing stock of the nation.”
P.S. For some background on this sorry situation, see BREAKING: VA GOP Chair Feeling “Fatigued” as the Laughable Liberty U. Parking Lot Convention Idea Predictably Falls Apart; Amanda Chase Says Drive-In Convention at Liberty U Is Illegal, VA GOP Now Heading Towards 72 People Choosing Nominees; VA GOP Chair Launches Dog-Whistle-Style Attacks Against Prince William County Board Member Kenny Boddye, Vows To “send him packing to Los Angeles”; Video: VA GOP Chair Says “[party] staff deserves to have a world-class facility, not the *literal ghetto* they now live and work and serve in.”; Video: As VA GOP Argues Endlessly Over Its Method of Nomination, State Central Committee Member Complains About “the VICIOUS incivility and attacks that have been coming from one side”; etc.
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