Right now would be the perfect time for the Arizona Republican Party’s new chairman, Randy Pullen, to bring in former NASA astronaut and mission director Gene Cernan as a consultant for the rebuilding of the GOP. To start with, Cernan could ask, as he did during the troubled Apollo 13 space mission: What do we have left that we can work with?

For quite some time, AZ GOP has been hardwired to self destruct, and rebellion has come home to roost. There are two parties within the party, and as Abraham Lincoln said "a house divided cannot stand."

At the recent state party convention, two candidates vied for the chairmanship: Lisa James and Randy Pullen. Lisa James was a clear shill to clear the way for a McCain presidential run. Pullen, whose border and immigration stance was labeled by the national Republican leadership as "divisive," was the clear favorite of the party rank and file.

A poll of those who voted for James would most likely put McCain a run-away favorite for president in 2008.

To the “James gang,” it would be great to have an Arizonan in the White House no matter what damage he's done to the party platform and the U.S. Constitution. McCain favors a very liberal open border policy and he would most likely continue the Bush legacy. These people need only to see an “R” next to a presidential candidate’s name and an Arizona home address and their vote is in the bank.

Among those who voted for Pullen, support for a McCain run is probably at or near zero. They disdain the man referred to by Ann Coulter as “the left-leaning, snowy-haired senator” who is not the Republican bellwether he used to be. Since bitterly losing to Bush in the 2000 GOP “presidential playoffs,” McCain has abandoned the pro-life movement, referred to the liberal media as his "base,” consorted with Democrats, trampled on gun rights and the U.S. Constitution and done everything he can to stifle free speech while tying campaign law in knots.

In further describing the house divided, it is leadership (aka the state’s GOP congressional delegation) vs. grassroots Republicans. It is moderates and liberals vs. rock-ribbed, principled conservatives. It is Cong. John Shadegg and McCain vs. Pullen, Rob Haney, chairman of Legislative District 11, and the legions who will never vote for John McCain under any circumstances.

The contrasts could not have been clearer, and it demonstrated for all to see what the neo-con Bush administration and Karl Rove have done to the Republican Party.

Pullen won the chairmanship by just four votes, but as they say, a win is a win. Shadegg responded by saying the jury is still out on Pullen, who will have to appeal to those who voted against him. That is classic liberalspeak. When libs lose elections, they demand that the winner bend to their demands. Should those Republicans whose values won in the chairman election have to bend over and meet those who lost? Or should it be the other way around? As Rush Limbaugh has been saying for years, the winners of elections get to put their people and their programs in place. They don’t have to appease the losers. 

Dragging Down the Party

The moderates and liberals have been dragging the party down for several years – to the low point it has reached today. Let’s look at some of their handiwork.

In the past two years, Shadegg has wasted time telling the GOPUSA website how to word its online survey polls and tried to strong-arm Haney into retracting resolutions citing McCain’s sins. The state congressional delegation for the most part thumbed its nose at the border invasion. State party leadership warned that if Republicans criticized McCain then Sen. Jon Kyl’s re-election chances would be hurt. That proved to be a hollow claim because criticism from within the party has not waned and Kyl won without great difficulty.

The moderates also demand unity from the conservatives who disagree with leadership’s acquiescence to the border invasion. Some of these same moderates are the ones shilling for Planned Parenthood and voting for Janet Napolitano. Sen. Kyl and McCain supported some of these people over conservatives in the primary.

It has been the leadership from on high that promoted AZ GOP executive directors who are either pro-abortion, who worked on the campaign of liberal Arnold Schwarzenegger and who could not prevent Republican campaign flyers from ending up in Napolitano’s camp. The party turned its back on conservative congressional candidates Randy Graf, J.D. Hayworth and Ron Drake and in so doing lost its 6-2 advantage in the state’s congressional delegation. Democrats now own half of the states’s eight seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

There is more rebellion to go around:

• Many senior members of Arizona GOP women's clubs have been tossing money at the pro-choice WISH List and bragged about voting for Napolitano over Republicans Matt Salmon and Len Munsil. We have seen newspaper photographs of some leadership members of the Arizona Federation of Republican Woman celebrating the grand opening of Democrat Gabby Gifford's new congressional office. The Republican Party obviously cannot always overcome the votes of Democrats and liberal “Republicans” at election time.
• The Republican-controlled legislature allowed Napolitano to grossly expand the size of state government. Taxpayers are forking over $834 per second to run this leviathan.
• By filling up its “big tent” with warm bodies, the AZ GOP abandoned party principle. Do the RINOs really get conservatives fired up about voting Republican?

Loyal platform Republicans are extremely discouraged and confused right now. They’ve seen party leadership compromise and now they’ve seen leadership throw political capital down the drain. Big time. These are principled people looking for principled leaders who are worthy of their support. And they don’t see a whole lot that looks appealing to them right now.

Rebellions always present a bill. And someone or some thing comes along to collect. Rebellion has come home to roost.

Cleaning up the Mess

Now it’s Pullen’s job to clean up the mess and re-build the party. The crux of the matter is this: will the power brokers among the party’s congressional elite set their wounded egos aside after the James loss, swallow their pride, listen to the party’s base for a change and work for the betterment of the party? Are they capable of getting back to the party’s principles?

If not, they will write the AZ GOP’s epitaph and Arizona will become another California.

The state office emptied out this week. That is a very encouraging thing to see. Pullen can get his people in there now.

Another good move would be to name Graf as the replacement for Pullen on the Republican National Committee. Like Pullen, Graf is a conservative Republican, pro-life, small government, traditional values, defender of marriage and family and a tough border hawk.

Another good move would be to duplicate former Chairman Matt Salmon’s demand that Napolitano supporters resign as precinct committeemen.

Yet another stratagem for the future would be to encourage party leadership to spend more time shoring up the party’s loyal base and re-directing combativeness toward Democrats and educating the public on the folly of liberal policy. GOP gubernatorial and attorney general candidates have not won in this millennium and are underperforming, according to the number of registered Republicans in the state. The party needs to seriously address the problem of why Republicans are either not voting “at home” for GOP candidates or why they are not voting at all.

Some of the wealthy moderates and liberals may choose to take their checkbooks and go home. If that happens, then Pullen should opt for Gene Hackman’s strategy from the movie “Hoosiers” and focus on those who are actually on the team and with him in spirit and action, rather than allowing squishy “Republicans” to stay around and cause dissension. Shadegg’s remarks exemplified that kind of negative attitude after the chairman election when he undermined Pullen and the entire party. It’s time for Shadegg and the party elite to shape up.

The GOP must admit that the “big tent” has been a colossal failure. We all saw the Democrats’ “woodshed” dismantle that “big tent” in November. To continue the “big tent” approach would be a form of insanity and guarantee future defeats.

Will Pullen be able to unify the party factions? Yes, just as soon as Planned Parenthood and the National Right to Life Committee unite. Will he be able to build a better and stronger party? One that is more faithful to the Constitution and Republican platform? With his administrative and fund raising talents, there is no doubt about it.      

If the party truly unites behind Pullen and the party’s principles, it will then be hardwired to re-build and re-connect with its base.

Dennis Durband is publisher and editor of The Arizona Conservative, is also a freelance writer and webmaster and a longtime journalist.