Renewal is Overrated
Nice catch by Greg Sargent: the sort-of-ballyhooed “Center for Republican Renewal,” a think tank launched in December by ousted Republican National Committee chairman Mike Duncan, is closing its non-existent doors.
“„The decision to kill the Center leaves the RNC with “no policy office,” at least for the foreseeable future, according to the GOP official with direct knowledge of the decision. I tried to ask the RNC to respond to this claim, but RNC spokesperson Jon Thompson refused to answer repeated request for comment.
“„The Center’s original purpose was founded on the premise that the GOP had grown bereft of real ideas, was failing to “provide solutions to the kitchen table concerns” of Americans, and had grown addicted to “falling back on ideology alone,” according to an RNC memo last December announcing the Center’s creation.
Honestly, this seems like something the RNC can get away with killing. Its invention by a chairman trying to save its job was always suspicious, and after he won the chairmanship Michael Steele (who’d been attacked for his occasional cozying-up to moderates) said he didn’t want to get into ideological disputes, as these would be sorted out by elected Republicans. That’s the right policy. But coming in the midst of an all-out GOP effort to block bills because “government has never created a job,” well …
