RNC Rejects Anti-Gay Resolutions

TIME Magazine reports:

The Republican National Committee’s resolutions committee quietly rejected a pair of resolutions critical of homosexuality Wednesday. The first resolution, introduced by embattled Michigan national committeeman Dave Agema, would have encouraged “schools that are teaching the homosexual lifestyle in their sexual education class also include the harmful physical aspects of the lifestyle.” The second, which would have encouraged Congress and states to pass laws in an effort to nullify June’s Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide, was introduced by Louisiana national committeeman Ross Little, Jr. The Washington Blade first reported on the proposed resolutions over the weekend.

RNC chairman Reince Priebus has repeatedly called for Agema's resignation over his inflammatory postings on social media.

RNC To Vote On Anti-Gay Resolutions

The Republican National Committee is set to vote on two anti-gay resolutions, one of which was proposed by former Michigan state Rep. Dave Agema, who now sits on the committee. Via the Washington Blade:

If the RNC were to adopt any of the non-binding resolutions next week, it would be the first official act of the Republican Party on the marriage issue following the historic U.S. Supreme Court decision last month in favor of marriage rights for same-sex couples. The initial vote could take place during the executive committee meetings on Wednesday and Thursday, where a successful vote would lead to consideration at the full committee meeting on Friday.

One resolution, titled “Resolution for Balanced Sex-Ed in Schools,” was introduced by former Michigan State House lawmaker and RNC member Dave Agema. It encourages schools “teaching the homosexual lifestyle in their sexual education class” to “also include the harmful physical aspects of the lifestyle.”

The resolution is based on the belief the Republican Party “supports the institution of traditional marriage,” which is considered code for opposition to same-sex marriage. The proposal is also based on questionable assertions that American culture “is portraying the homosexual lifestyle as an attractive option for school-aged children” and the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes says being gay take up to 21 years off a person’s life.

Another proposed resolution would call on Congress to strip federal courts of jurisdiction over marriage laws and declare that the Supreme Court's Obergefell ruling was unconstitutional.

RELATED: Agema made national headlines in 2013 after posting a virulently anti-gay piece on Facebook.  Among the claims made in the article was that gay people are responsible for half of the murders in America's largest cities.

RNC Chair Reince Priebus Pleads With Donald Trump: You're Hurting The GOP

Via the Washington Post:

The head of the Republican National Committee, responding to demands from increasingly worried party leaders, spent nearly an hour Wednesday on the phone with Donald Trump, urging the presidential candidate to tone down his inflammatory comments about immigration that have infuriated a key election constituency. The call from Chairman Reince Priebus, described by donors and consultants briefed on the conversation and confirmed by the RNC, underscores the extent to which Trump has gone from an embarrassment to a cause for serious alarm among top Republicans in Washington and nationwide. But there is little they can do about the mogul and reality-television star, who draws sustenance from controversy and attention. And some fear that, with assistance from Democrats, Trump could become the face of the GOP.

Yesterday Trump declared that he has "nothing to apologize for."

This Will Totally Work

PFAW Slams RNC Over AFA-Paid Trip To Israel For Dozens Of GOP Legislators

GOP Attacks "Lame Duck" Obama

RNC Posts Letter To Santa From Hillary

Embiggen to read the assholery.

GOP Holiday Sale

Reince Priebus Takes Victory Lap

"America is tired of Obama's failed policies."

RNC Launches 2016 Straw Poll

The Republican National Committee has launched an online 2016 presidential straw poll in which one can vote for three candidates IF contact details are also provided. Among the 32 choices in the GOP clown car: Sarah Palin, Allen West, Mike Huckabee, Ben Carson, Frothy Mix, Herman Cain, and Ron Paul.

The GOP Is Selling This Bumper Sticker

As to what Romney was right about, exactly, the National Republican Senatorial Committee does not say.

New From The GOP Squirrel

Can this squirrel thing get any more bizarre?

RNC Vs DNC On Hobby Lobby

Hillary Meets With RNC Squirrel, Gives Him A Signed Copy Of Her New Book

As I reported on Monday, the GOP is following Hillary Clinton around on her book tour with a giant squirrel sports mascot who is handing out bumper stickers that read, "Another Clinton In The White House Is Nuts." Yesterday Clinton confronted the squirrel to hand him a signed copy of her book. He thanked her on Twitter.

New RNC Ad: Stop Hillary

NEVADA: Tony Perkins Cheers After Las Vegas Withdraws Its Bid To Host The 2016 Republican Convention

One month after the Nevada GOP dropped opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion from its platform, the Republican National Committee announced this afternoon that Las Vegas has withdrawn its bid to host the 2016 convention.

Heidi Hayes, spokeswoman for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, said timing played a big role in the decision to withdraw the bid. "After analyzing the requirements and needs of the RNC, particularly the timing of the event, it was determined our existing convention calendar filled with previously booked business made it difficult to host the event at the Las Vegas Convention Center," Hayes said in a statement to FOX5. "We understand the decision and wish the RNC well in their endeavors." The Republican National Committee said the field of cities to host the convention had been narrowed to Cleveland, Dallas, Denver and Kansas City. A vote on a final choice could be made by late summer or early fall.

KKK-affiliated hate group leader Tony Perkins is exulting in the news and implies that Las Vegas withdrew after pressure from RNC chairman Reince Priebus.

"We are pleased to learn today that Las Vegas has withdrawn its bid to become a host city - a decision that comes only weeks after the state party ignited a party-wide firestorm by stripping pro-life and pro-natural marriage language from its state platform. We commend RNC Chairman Reince Priebus for his work to ensure the party upholds the core principles found in the party's platform. Those Republicans who want to rip up the planks of life and marriage in their party's platform will only succeed in building a boardwalk to a permanent GOP minority. The reality is that after two failed presidential cycles, the GOP can't afford to jettison the planks of life and marriage, which would only alienate a segment of voters which is the difference between victory and defeat."

RELATED: After the 2012 GOP convention, Perkins crowed that he had personally written the anti-gay marriage portion of the national party platform.

UPDATE: In tonight's daily message to FRC supporters, Perkins doesn't mention that Las Vegas withdrew voluntarily from consideration.

The reality is that these issues are non-negotiable to the base of the party. The Nevada Republican Party found this out the hard way after its party leaders removed the life and marriage planks from their platform. The plank stripping stunned Republicans around the country and caused many within the party to pull back from giving consideration to Las Vegas as the host site for the 2016 Republican National Convention. Today, the RNC announced that Las Vegas is no longer on the short list of possible host cities. Republicans like Governor Tom Corbett can continue to rip up these planks but they will only succeed in building the GOP a boardwalk to a permanent minority.

RNC: Stop Obama, Fire Reid

SCOTUS Rules That Limits On Total Campaign Donations Are Unconstitutional

The US Supreme Court today ruled that limits on total individual campaign donations are unconstitutional, effectively giving the nation's mega-wealthy even more power over election results. The ruling comes in the long-festering McCutcheon Vs Federal Elections Commission case.

The justices ruled 5-4, in a decision written by Chief Justice John Roberts, that limits on the total amount of money donors can give to all candidates, committees and political parties are unconstitutional. The decision frees the nation's wealthiest donors to have greater influence in federal elections. "The government has a strong interest, no less critical to our democratic system, in combatting corruption and its appearance," Roberts wrote. "We have, however, held that this interest must be limited to a specific kind of corruption — quid pro quo corruption — in order to ensure that the government's efforts do not have the effect of restricting the First Amendment right of citizens to choose who shall govern them."

The ruling is a victory for the Republican National Committee and Alabama coal tycoon Shawn McCutcheon (above), who challenged the $123,000 limit on total donations that an individual can give in any two-year federal election cycle.

McCutcheon's challenge did not extend to the $2,600 limit a donor can give to a federal candidate in each primary and general election or the $32,400 limit that can go to a national party committee, because of concerns about corruption that are at the root of the federal law. Under the court's ruling, donors will have to stick to that $2,600 limit but can give to as many campaigns as they want without worrying about the previous $123,200 ceiling. The decision also could jeopardize separate contribution caps in at least a dozen states, from Arizona to Wyoming.

Common Cause has denounced the ruling.

“Today’s decision in McCutcheon v FEC is Citizens United round two, further opening the floodgates for the nation’s wealthiest few to drown out the voices of the rest of us,” said Miles Rapoport, president of Common Cause. "The Court has reversed nearly 40 years of its own precedents, laid out a welcome mat for corruption, and turned its back on the lessons learned from the Watergate scandal,” said Rapoport. “This decision once again demonstrates the Court majority’s ignorance of the real world of American politics, the one in which big money buys big returns.”

Thanks to today’s decision, a politician will be able to solicit a $3.6 million check for party committees and federal candidates from a single donor, consigning to background noise the hundreds of millions of Americans who can’t afford to give more than $5, $10 or even $100 to parties or the candidates of their choice. “This is a return to the ‘soft money’ era, in which donors could hide six- and seven-figure gifts to individual candidates by donating the money to joint committees or party committees that simply passed it to the intended recipient, Rapoport said. “It’s naïve to think that such vast sums of political money do not buy special access and favors.”

Our new national motto: E Pluribus Billionaires.

RNC Launches Millennial Outreach

Alex Pareene rips into it at Salon:

It’s easy to laugh at Republican millennial outreach efforts, because all millennial outreach efforts by institutions run by rich old people are invariably hilarious and insulting, but at least this one has a guy who does look like a normal young (college educated, white, well-off) urbanite. It’s not one of these guys. Scott Greenberg is saying strange, vague things that sound like they were written by someone trying to mask his actual agenda, but he is not openly condescending to young people (well, besides that stripey shirt) by referencing youth culture or awkwardly employing slang (or, god forbid, rapping). He’s a Republican because he believes that helping the rich get richer will somehow make gas prices fall, and while I do not expect that message to resonate with many other people in Greenburg’s demographic, it is at least a less hostile pitch than “I am a Republican because I think white men are a persecuted class” or “I am a Republican because the other guys are nerds and fags.”

Another ad with this guy is here.

RNC: Baby Got Debt