As mentioned yesterday, the confederate group of Republicans held a forum last night for people they find acceptable to serve as the next SDGOP chair. I didn’t watch myself, as my wife made soup, and a bowl of homemade soup was far more important – and substantive – than a three-hour complete clown show. But for those who subjected themselves to this act of electronic self-flagellation, here’s what we found out.
Starting off, imagine you asked a group of 70+ year olds to join a Zoom meeting. That was exactly what you got. One correspondent offered “So bad. Unorganized and people didn’t know how to run zoom mic or camera. I jumped ship once I realized how nutso it was being run.”
I believe it was 45 minutes – maybe an hour later before they got into the speeches of those who want to take over the party. Three candidates each given 45 minutes. What can go wrong?
From “Attempted Conversion” Lee Qualm, what did we find out?
Qualm declared – “I support no exceptions for rape and incest.” ….because the SDGOP chair has anything to do with abortion policy…? Well, this is the same ex-majority leader who was part of the House leadership team that the Governor had to take to the woodshed because they declared a dress code that women could not be sleeveless, had to wear nylons, and no skirts above the knees. So I’m not sure that we would expect anything else in a speech from Qualm running for chairman of the party.
And it got better. State Senator Erin Tobin made a couple of statements which triggered Qualm family members to attack her. She encouraged meeting participants to do better, and to lead with morals and values..
Of course, they booted her out of the meeting..
About the only other thing we found out is that he would have Marli Wiese as his vice chair. Bylaws require the vice-chair to be of the opposite gender of the chair, so there’s that. We will see if the nylons and no-sleeve rules still apply.
Ezra Hays was the next candidate to speak. And interestingly, no one really had anything noteworthy or memorable to remark. About the only report I got back was that he said “one of the most valuable things that I did during the amendment H campaign was going outside of the party (for fundraising).”
Given that his fundraising numbers were less than impressive that would not bode well. At all.
Hand County Commissioner Jim Eschenbaum tried to use the word unity, but said the divide in the party can not be fixed because “we have politicians and people who are establishment players and they want to play politics” among other random words and noises that exited his voice box.
Eschenbaum spent more time attacking Sen. Thune, Governor Noem, a majority of the legislature and others, as well as declaring that the party should be involved in primary elections because that’s our wrestling match.
We did also find out some of the standards being applied by some County Republicans participating in the meeting during his talk:
Which gives you a pretty good snapshot of what the incoming chair will be dealing with.
The three-hour zoom meeting might seem like comedy, but it’s equally tragedy that any of these three options are all that’s interested in leading the state’s largest political party right now.
I and many other people active in the Republican Party hold out hope that a leader may yet emerge who is up to the challenge and willing to take on the task.
Because so far, none of the people campaigning are it.
Soon after the snow starts in South Dakota, Thanksgiving ushers in the holiday season. I love this time of year: gathering around the Thanksgiving feast with my family, throwing the football around outside, and giving thanks to God for our many blessings.
PIERRE, S.D. – South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley praises President-elect Trump’s selection of Pam Bondi as his Nominee for Attorney General.
