So in the middle of tough economic times the RNC in Hawaii?

[Bourbon Cowboy]

What the fuck?

HONOLULU — Republicans delight in depicting President Barack Obama as hopelessly out of touch with average Americans, but the decision by the Republican National Committee to hold its winter meeting at a tropical resort is turning the accusation on its head.

As the president gave his first State of the Union address Wednesday against the backdrop of the nation’s wheezing economy, the opposition party marked the event by convening a conference here — on an “island paradise.”

“Imagine lush tropical gardens, waterfalls, exotic wildlife and priceless artwork,” boasts the website of the Hilton Hawaiian Village Beach Resort & Spa. “This one-of-a-kind Honolulu Hawaii hotel resort is the only true resort property in Waikiki.”

Which is to say that it’s a long way from Baltimore, where the House GOP will have its retreat later this month in a pointed effort to demonstrate its sensitivity to the tough economic times.

Yet at a moment when millions are out of work and millions more struggling to get by, the party’s governing board will plot its comeback on the island of Oahu, sipping drinks poolside, catching rays on the beach that abuts the villa and raising questions about whether they’re as politically tone-deaf as they accuse the president of being.

The decision to meet here, where temperatures stayed steadily in the 70s all day Wednesday, is causing some prominent Republicans to cringe.

“Do I want voters to think that Republicans do nothing but go to beach resorts in January? No,” House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) told reporters last week.

For some in the party, the decision to convene in Hawaii represents just one more unnecessary headache inflicted on the GOP by Chairman Michael Steele — at a time when about everything else seems to be moving in the party’s direction.

Asked about the meeting location, one veteran party strategist expressed a mix of bemusement and annoyance by simply replying with a YouTube link to a Don Ho video.

Steele defended the decision to hold the party confab here, arguing that party officials were not just burying their feet in the sand and hunting for the best mai tai.

“We’re working hard out here; this is not a vacation. This is a working meeting,” he told a local TV station.

The party is tending to its regular business. State chairmen spent much of Wednesday morning reviewing the party’s strategy in winning governorships in Virginia and New Jersey last fall, as well as in last week’s special Senate election in Massachusetts. They also unanimously voted for a resolution rejecting a proposed “purity test” on GOP candidates.

But veteran Republican committee members note that the schedule for the week is light — a luau and a Pearl Harbor tour are planned — and many brought along spouses to enjoy the resort.



It’s also not an accident that, aside from Hawaii GOP Gov. Linda Lingle and other local officials, no actual elected Republicans are here for the meeting. Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a potential 2012 presidential candidate, spoke at the party’s summer meeting last year in San Diego, and if this session had been held in Washington or another big city, there would likely be other White House hopefuls there to glad-hand the influential activists. But the last thing a mainland pol, especially those from cold weather or high-unemployment states, wants is images of him or her bedecked with a lei and schmoozing with party insiders.

Committee members here, most of them sans jacket and tie, acknowledged the criticism but said there was some symbolic value to having the session in America’s 50th state.

David Norcross, a longtime committee member from New Jersey, said he was initially concerned about the appearance.

“But we’ve never been here before, they’ve got a successful governor who used to be a party chair, and they have a contested governor’s race and special House race,” Norcross said, alluding to the race to succeed Lingle and the coming congressional contest brought about by the anticipated resignation of Rep. Neil Abercrombie, a Democrat who is running for governor.

Other committee members and party officials, however, indicated privately that it would have been less of a political hassle, as well as cheaper, to have just held the meeting in Washington and have saved the money being spent to fly and lodge staffers.

Because of the distance, some committee members didn’t even make the trip.

“I didn’t have a vote on this,” noted one GOP official.

“Would I have chosen Hawaii?” asked a committee member rhetorically. “Likely not, but we’re here and have business to take care of, and that’s what we’re doing.”

And, this member argued, “the optics are mitigated to some degree by the fact that our president just finished spending considerable time here himself.”

Officially, Democrats are withholding their fire, in part because Obama vacationed here over the holidays.

“We have no problem whatsoever with the RNC spending time in our 50th state and the birthplace of the president,” said Democratic National Committee spokesman Hari Sevugan.

But Democrats aren’t missing the opportunity to remind their counterparts that it was the GOP and Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign that relished tweaking then-candidate Obama for coming here.

The RNC even devised a “Barack Obama Hawaii Travel Guide” for the occasion in an effort to portray him as out of touch.

And Sevugan couldn’t help urging Steele and company to visit the set of the TV show “Lost.”

“After all, with no new leadership, direction or ideas, their party is very much like a plane wreck, and they’re constantly dealing with the threat of a radical faction that keeps them further away from being saved,” he quipped.

Given the president’s falling poll numbers and Democrats' own internecine battles after the loss in Massachusetts, though, some senior Republicans argue that the decision to meet here pales by comparison.

“It’s dumb, but it’s a sidebar,” said longtime GOP consultant Mike Murphy. “I’ll take a dumb meeting in Hawaii over a disastrous health care plan and bad economic management anytime.”

Hope your tans come out even you fucking hypocritical douchebags.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/01 ... z0f6UHG3tx

[SmokeyRamone]

as long as they're not using tax money to fund it, I don't give a shit, though if I were a contributor to the RNC, I'd probably be pretty pissed off

but it's not like Pelosi, and the $200,000 bill she rang up on booze on flights over a two year period, or the fact that the Census Bureau was running multi million dollar ads during the Superbowl, or the fact that they were given a $120 million dollar advertising budget

if the repubs, or the dems for that matter what to live high on the hog using using DNC or RNC contributions, more power to them, I'm sure they see all the people who contribute to them as suckers anyway

[vlad]

I've got no problem with them meeting in HI..it is a state afterall....

It does give me a chuckle though....weren't these the same guys that gave Obama a hard time for vacationing there (the state he was born in), because it was so foreign and exotic or something.

"I know Hawaii is a state but it has the look of being foreign and exotic place. He should be in Myrtle Beach," (Cokie) Roberts said.

And then lastly, you have to also remember the fact that the president being on vacation in Hawaii, it’s much different than being in Texas. Hawaii to many Americans seems like a foreign place. And I think those images, the optics, hurt President Obama very badly. (Romney spokesman Kevin Madden )

"For somebody who has been called 'elitist,' going to Hawaii is not exactly going against type. I would rather have him going to national parks." (some GOP pollster)

"If Obama's being smeared as a highfalutin celebrity who is somehow 'other' and distant from the American heartland, is Hawaii really the ideal vacation destination?"

etc,. etc....oh! And this: The RNC sent out "“Barack Obama’s Hawaii Trade Guide,” a roadmap to key sites on the island, including Punahou, his prestigious prep school, and a local filling station with especially expensive gasoline." Which was in the article posted, but it bears repeating.

I hope they spend a bunch of money there... But really, shouldn't they be in the "heartland "somewhere? Or Wasilla?

[absolutely fabulous]

at least, it's not las vegas!

[bane]

Or Wasilla?

THAT was funny.

[vanitybinge]

as long as they're not using tax money to fund it, I don't give a shit, though if I were a contributor to the RNC, I'd probably be pretty pissed off

but it's not like Pelosi, and the $200,000 bill she rang up on booze on flights over a two year period, or the fact that the Census Bureau was running multi million dollar ads during the Superbowl, or the fact that they were given a $120 million dollar advertising budget

if the repubs, or the dems for that matter what to live high on the hog using using DNC or RNC contributions, more power to them, I'm sure they see all the people who contribute to them as suckers anyway

Of COURSE they're using tax money! You think these assholes have real jobs?
The only light I can make of it is the money they're putting into the local economy of Hawaii. It's our money yes, thousands could be saved from the first class flight tickets yes, but at least I know my taxes are going to small business owners around the islands.

[SmokeyRamone]

maybe I'm wrong, but the article said this was an RNC retreat, the RNC (or the DNC) isn't funded by tax money, it's funded by donations, (aka charity)

[VinnieKulick]

What does it matter where they held a meeting? It's WINTER, snowed in on the east coast, and I am sure they got a nice multi room discount.

[WhiteHouseSubsAC]

I'd definitely have to question the intelligence of a group that DIDN'T go someplace warm in the middle of fucking February. I'm sure Fargo or Cheyenne could use the extra dollars, but let's get real here.

[vlad]

I'd definitely have to question the intelligence of a group that DIDN'T go someplace warm in the middle of fucking February. I'm sure Fargo or Cheyenne could use the extra dollars, but let's get real here.

Aren't we in the middle of a "heat wave" here in the liberal cesspool of the PNW? Looks bad for the Olympic events on Whistler. I swear it's warmer now than it was last summer...though quite wet.

They should man up and hold the retreat in Portland, in the heart of enemy territory! Or Coos Bay, the "jewel" of the Oregon Coast...

Though Florida is pleasant, right? And not nearly as "foreign and exotic"....

Really i could give a shit and no one would even blink if they hadn't made a minor stink about Obama going there...even though it is his home state...(yeah, I know, it was part and parcel with the "Obama is foreign and exotic" meme...).

[Bourbon Cowboy]

I wonder if the RNC realizes that all the workers in the $179 a night Hilton Hawaiian Village Beach Resort & Spa they are staying at have generous health care benefits?
Since Hawaii requires all employers to provide relatively generous health care benefits to any employee who works 20 hours a week or more, Hawaii’s health insurance premiums are nearly tied with North Dakota for the lowest in the country and Medicare costs per beneficiary are the nation’s lowest.

Of course it's only worked 36 years, but it's sure to fail sooner or later.

[VinnieKulick]

Maybe Hawaii can take over california. Maybe their expertise with 1.3 million people can come in handy in a state with 37 times the population.

[tin00can]

Maybe Hawaii can take over california. Maybe their expertise with 1.3 million people can come in handy in a state with 37 times the population.

Actually, it's about 28 times.

[VinnieKulick]

36,961,664 (2009 total population in California) So, I rounded up.

28.5 percent. Yeah, that makes them almost identical in population.

[NickasInSaltLick]

I wonder if the RNC realizes that all the workers in the $179 a night Hilton Hawaiian Village Beach Resort & Spa they are staying at have generous health care benefits?
Since Hawaii requires all employers to provide relatively generous health care benefits to any employee who works 20 hours a week or more, Hawaii’s health insurance premiums are nearly tied with North Dakota for the lowest in the country and Medicare costs per beneficiary are the nation’s lowest.

Of course it's only worked 36 years, but it's sure to fail sooner or later.

And of course, it takes John Oliver to clown them with that very fact.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-f ... arent-trap