Richard Viguerie: Conservatives deserve credit for resignations of Blunt, Putnam
by Staff
November 14, 2008
MANASSAS, Virginia, (christiansunite.com) -- Conservatives deserve credit for the resignations of Roy Blunt and Adam Putnam from their positions as the second and third-ranking House Republicans, Richard A. Viguerie, the Chairman of ConservativeHQ.com, said.The resignations show that "Grassroots conservatives are being heard," Viguerie said. "Conservatives who make up the base of the Republican Party know that we will never get to the political Promised Land with the leaders who got us into this mess."
Said Viguerie: "The so-called 'cranky conservatives' - those who refused to fall in line behind the Republican Party, and who maintained their independence, at the price of being ridiculed as 'impossible to please' - deserve credit for forcing the Republicans to change leaders.
"And credit should also go to those Republicans in Congress who risked their careers by demanding changes at the top.
"In addition, Congressmen Blunt and Putnam deserve thanks for putting the future of their party ahead of their own ambitions. It's nothing personal. These are good men, but the Republican Party needs to go in a different direction with new leaders.
"Now it's time to finish the job. The Republican leaders in the House and Senate, at the Republican National Committee, and everyone else responsible for this debacle, must go."
Viguerie said that includes House Minority Leader John Boehner, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and the Republican Party chairman, Mike Duncan. It also includes Congressman Tom Cole, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, which is responsible for electing Republicans to the House.
Viguerie noted that conservatives have been calling for new GOP leadership for years, beginning before the disastrous 2006 election. For example, in his book Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause, (Bonus Books, August 2006), Viguerie called on conservatives to "cut off your support of the Republican National Committee and other party fundraising committees" and "demand sweeping changes in the Republican congressional leadership."
Just last week, on the morning after the election, Viguerie said that "The [Republican] congressional leadership must be replaced with principled conservatives. If the congressional leaders refuse to resign, grassroots conservatives should cut off their support - their financial support, and their volunteer support."
Viguerie was not alone in demanding new GOP leadership. Last July, the influential Lincoln Club of Orange County, California vowed to cut off fund unless the leadership changed. Columnist Robert Novak said of the declaration: "The Lincoln Club of Orange County is telling the GOP leaders of both the House and Senate . . . [t]hey must go - or else lose big money."
