From some of the things I saw this morning at the Republican National Committee winter meeting in Washington, D.C., one would think Republicans were in the middle of the primary season in ’08 and not more than a year away from the Iowa caucuses.
Indeed, politicking was fast and furious among agents of the “Big Three” GOP hopefuls to succeed President Bush: Arizona Sen. John McCain, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
Under the aegis of Michigan Republican National Committeeman Chuck Yob, several RNC members were going to McCain’s Senate office for a private meeting this afternoon. One topic almost a cinch to come up was that of the major stumbling block between the Arizonan and Republicans who hold political posts: his support of restrictive campaign finance legislation that bears his name and which, party activists increasingly complain, has hamstrung party-building activities because of its limits on funding and the maw of new regulations the law entails. Possibly in anticipation of a zesty session with the RNC members, McCain announced yesterday he would support the amendment by Sen. Robert Bennett (R.-Utah) to the lobbying reform bill that would strip out the section mandating strict reporting requirements and resultant penalties for failure to comply from people who communicate with 500 people or more on activities in Congress.
Yob busily worked the crowd on behalf of McCain, whose political action committee in Michigan is headed by the RNC member’s son John. He pointed out that Rev. Keith Butler, who lost the Republican primary for U.S. senator in Michigan and is prominent in the state’s black community, is a national operative in McCain’s ’08 operation. He urged Carolyn Meadows, former RNC member from Georgia, to get on board with the Arizonan. When Meadows said she was now a board member of the National Rifle Association, the undaunted Yob replied that “I will get [former Texas Sen. And NRA member] Phil Gramm to call you” -- possibly forgetting that Gramm was an vigorous opponent in Texas of former State GOP Chairman Tom Pauken, whose nomination for national chairman Meadows vigorously worked for and seconded in 1997.
“We’re having dinner with Mitt Romney tomorrow evening,” North Dakota’s National Committeewoman Connie Nicholas told me last night. She and husband Gene, a former 32-year state representative from Candu, N.D., are neutral in the presidential sweepstakes so far. Massachusetts RNC member and close Romney ally Ron Kaufman was organizing the dinner with his man for colleagues from the party’s ruling body.
Giuliani had not arrived at the meeting this morning, but has recently announced that Mike DuHaime, former political director of the RNC, would be his top political operative.
