Some facts about Charlie WEBSTER

Thank you for the enlightenment Dan.

Charlie, and many others, deserve credit for putting the party in a position to take advantage of that wave

Yes, he does.

I've given some thought to the defending parties that have made the case for Mr. W and I've decided the best course of action should be a courus of "He's a Jolly Good Fellow" as he is shown the door. Mrs. Summers is already in place to take over and use some tact.

Why would anyone want the job, after seeing the manner in which Webster is being treated? It's not as if it comes with prestige, or even a large salary.

I'd like to see some of those attacking Charlie stepping up as candidates.

It comes with the territory Naran, he knows it.

Do I have to be willing to run for POTUS to be critical of President Obama now too?

I'm not getting the blow-back associated with holding the Chairman responsible for HIS actions. As Republicans, don't we believe in personal responsibility? Don't we believe in taking ownership of our decisions, be they good or bad? I don't deny the Chairman his due, but I also expect him to uphold the beliefs of the Republican Party and of the democratic voting process. EVERY VOTE COUNTS! He is the Chairman. Where does the buck stop? Good grief people. Stop blaming the messenger!

When was the last time you saw, read or heard of the Democrats beating the crap out of their own ...no matter how heinous the bast*rds are? Almost never. Charlie made some really dumb moves and deserves to be taken out to the woodshed and trounced by the faithful with abandon but, don't hand over the power to the Democrats to whip our team. "We must hang together, gentlemen...else, we shall most assuredly hang separately." ( i just coined that catchy phrase)

Watcher, that is the very thing that distinguishes us from the Dem-Socialists! We do have a higher standard and we actually believe in the Constitution.

"Moving from fact to opinion: Replacing Chairman Webster with Chairman Somebody, Anybody or Nobody is to replace a man with a history of notable victories and some defeats with a phantom with no record of victories, defeats or achievements, no record of candidate recruitment, and no history or raising money. And if this wasn’t idiotic enough, no name has even been suggested so far."

If the position of party chair becomes vacant, the vice chair takes over. That is Ruth Summers.

The party rules have been amended so that the Vice Chair no longer takes over permanently if the postion of Chair becomes vacant. The rules now call for an election to fill the position.

I call the change the Mark Ellis rule.

Lots of people made mistakes with this. I am a Paul supporter, did not hear the radio comments but I believe that the wingnut comment was not directed at Paul supporters but at a few overzealous people. Charlie has always been respectful of my support of Ron Paul. I cannot say that about others in the establishment.

I learned many cycles of the moon ago that expecting help from Augusta to win your legislative race is the stuff that fools are made of. The local legislative race, unless one is Cynthia Dill, is won by knocking on thousands of doors and assembling a team of campaign workers who will execute a campaign plan. Charlie Webster, the state committee and/or any other Maine GOP official might as well be living in Newt Gingrich's moon colony as it pertains to winning a State Senate or House seat.

The path to Augusta for a member of the Maine GOP is much different than a Maine Democrat. Consider this:

1. The GOP candidate has the local daily newspaper actively working against him/her. When I ran in 2002 against Peggy Rotundo, the local newspaper attacked me as a "right wing idealogue" as soon as I announced. I never met the editorial writer and wouldn't have known him if I had tripped over him but he knew what I was thinking at the time. Press releases were ignored. My election day ad was run the day AFTER the election. Repeated photos of my opponent appeared in the paper. All of this horse manure requires that a GOP candidate create his/her own media, cost-wise several lit drops to every house in the district. Use of local weeklies that won't play loose and fast with the truth (usually). Standing outside of gatherings, shaking a lot of hands and taking abuse from the union members who have been sufficiently indoctrinated.

2. The GOP candidate will be wrapped in a message of fiscal sanity. The Democrat will be promising to give money away. Automatic advantage to the money dispensing candidate in Maine. "Folks, we are broke" is not the preferred answer. Mainers live a tough life. We like to be entertained to take our minds off things. Free money is entertaining. Did you ever see the kiddies at the 4th of July parade scrambling to pick up the penny candy thrown at them from the happy, smiling people on the parade floats? Free candy is like free money from Augusta. This Democrat tactic is very difficult to counter.

3. Mainers vote their wallets. The following groups of voters can be counted on to vote Democrat: State employee union members who are getting royally boned by the taxpayers. Teachers, underpaid while they are working and are getting hosed by the evil GOP. Welfare recipients who are poor by no fault of their own and want more. OWS types because the GOP makes up a large percentage of the 1% because the Democrats are for the little guy. Left wingers because the GOP hates homosexuals, people of color, poor people who are victims of social injustice, people who went to the Kennedy School of Government, the Kennedys, the Irish, the Francos, the Italians and the New Mainers. The GOP questions the economic feasibility of wind power, loves dirty water, champion smokestacks, throws used batteries out in the trash, isn't careful while refilling their lawnmowers and all other sordid behaviors. This is very difficult to counter.

The deck is stacked in Maine against the GOP. I sometimes wonder if it wouldn't a good idea to disband the party and blend the GOP right into Maine's largest group of voters, the independents. Then the media wouldn't have the GOP to kick around anymore.

You don't have to search very far on the internet to find out what I think about Charlie Webster.

He might be a hard worker, he might be a good fundraiser, heck he might even be a nice guy, but the problem is that he, as the chairman of the Maine GOP, is the face of the Party.

Over the last couple of weeks we have seen that Charlie Webster lacks integrity when it comes to the business of the party, he is not willing to accept corrections when he is proven wrong and he is willing to dismiss the voting members of the Party in Washington, Hancock and Waldo County when the votes don't go the way he wants them to go.

If he is allowed to stay on as Chairman of the Party he will be a major reason why the GOP will lose the majority in the House and Senate in our State.

He is a PR nightmare.

#GoodbyeCharlie

I agree with Dan Billings, and would add that even when CW knew the 2010 election of a wave of republicans that gave control of the legislature to the republicans, and gave the republicans the BH, CW took the credit, and this action disheartened many who stepped up from the TP to help. And the latest elections, and calls for people to come to the statehouse to defend the legislators votes and bills, clearly shows this.
CW now has called people in the party nut jobs and another descriptive adjective, has not shown the leadership needed to deal with the situation that could have been easily avoided knowing what he knew the day before(count wrong in one county, a county and half another not counted) and he has now passed the buck to his staff and others, and this is not the actions of a leader, quite the opposite actually, and if he does not step down the party will be fractured, to say the very least.
It is time for CW to step down, and for the republicans to find a new leader now before any more damage is done, and before many people step away from the party due to lack of trust, and fear of embarrassment for being involved in the internal structure of the party...

Some of this is just too funny; some bewildering; some stupid. For example, how many who are now exorciating Charlie for his lack of tact are big supporters of Paul LePage? I mean.........

Somebody in the GOP office made mistakes counting, it seems. i don't buy the conspiracy theory thing. Matt M. says: "Over the last couple of weeks we have seen that Charlie Webster lacks integrity when it comes to the business of the party, he is not willing to accept corrections when he is proven wrong and he is willing to dismiss the voting members of the Party in Washington, Hancock and Waldo County when the votes don't go the way he wants them to go.". Were the votes recounted or not?? I mean.........

The history of the Maine GOP office over the last 20 years has hardly been..........stellar, let's just say. Charlie's one of the less dysfunctional folks who have been in there. He's not the reason for every success, nor for every failure.

People's responses and emotions over this seem to have definitely gotten the better of them. There's alot of sniping going on here with this issue. Wild-eyed accusations are a quick way to lose one's credibility. (If you don't have cold, hard proof that when he said the "wingnut" thing he had in mind the people leaving threats and curses, then let it go.)
Just saying.

Jim, you're sucking the wind out of the room!

Oh let's see he also slighted the TP folk who voted for a gov. that denied he was one of them!!!!

Should that be a second bus?

Not many new facts. A lot of familiar opinions. None of the facts I set forth have been seriously disputed.

Charlie's projected replacement is still either Chairman Somebody, Chairman Nobody or Chairman Anybody, all of whom share the supreme qualification of never having made a single mistake or ever suffering a defeat. So far no positive qualifications have been advanced. No, Ruth Summers will not step up to take Charlie's place. If he goes, she goes. That is one additional fact to consider.

Saying that the past doesn't matter, only future performance matters is simply to say what we know is irrelevant, only what we don't know. So far no useful information has been provided about the anticipated successes of Messers Somebody, Anybody or Nobody.

As JFK once observed victory has many parents, defeat is always an orphan. There's a lot of credit to go around. The legislators who succeeded are the final authority on who helped them most, who helped them a little and who cheered on the side-lines. No amount of figure-fiddling replaces their experience and judgement.

Charlie would not be a one-man show if he had as many helpers and he has critics. Not a lot of people have stepped up. He had help raising money (Snow, Collins, LePage, Dale Crafts, among others). There seems to be a horde of people who did little or nothing to raise that money who have definite idea of how it should be spent.

It seems a little contradictory to criticize Charlie for being a one-man show while demanding that he organize the whole party from top down. I remember during the primary that Dan BIllings criticized Paul LePage's failure to build up the Waterville GOP. I didn't put much credence in that complaint then, and I don't put much faith in his criticism of Charlie now.

BobS has a point worth considering in that connection and his own work at that level qualifies him to make it.

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I can't figure out why. No money, endless criticism with endless screaming on here too. From supposed party supporters and members. Old saying - with friends like these.. hey?

Everybody on here raging at Charlie needs to run for his job. We can't wait for the same opportunity in return for what he's been treated like on here.

Does Webster actually answer to the state committee members? Do state committee members make the rules?

Bob - it appears you need to read the Maine GOP rules and bylaws.

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Downeast - thank you. I look forward to hearing about the flood of applications that will surely overwhelm the State Committee in-boxes, in short order.

It may appear so. Maybe you could point me to them, if you are unable to give a simple answer to my questions.

Why change your original post accusing me of being "snide" and snarking at you?

Maybe instead of acting entitled, you could Google two words, and find the GOP rules yourself.

I wish that Naran and Flammen would stop speaking in generalizations, it is really starting to drive me nuts. If you have something to say to someone here to the effect of "wish those calling out Charlie would step up", then be specific. Who are you talking to?

Why change your original post accusing me of being "snide" and snarking at you?

Because I would like to think that I am above that Naran. I will try my hardest to not lower myself to the level that you promote.

I did find the rules. It appears that the Maine Republican State Committee members actually make the rules. Was Webster just following the rules? So is Webster really to blame, or are we just looking for a head? Change needs to start from the bottom up, not the other way around.

Well that is the point isn't it Ryan? I started this thread with a list concrete facts and invite contradiction or amendment. I have added some opinions and a hard fact about the prospect of Ruth stepping up. You provide neither contradiction or amendment, but accuse me (and Naran) of generalizing. Have you thought this through at all?

The state committee treasury was nearly empty when Charlie took charge, so he worked the first ten months for free. He now gets paid $2,000 per month. He pays his own workman's compensation and social security taxes. He pays his own motel bills as he travels around the state looking for candidates.

Are these facts relevant to anyone?

They're relevant to me, Flammen. Thank you for the details.

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Ryan - I don't owe you any specifics. If that makes you "nuts," you're welcome to stop reading what I write.

Easy! Simple! Amazing!

It is also a fact that the party continues to be operated without a budget, contrary to party by-laws. Recently new staff was hired when the by-laws require that compensation for staff be consistent with a budget.