At last: Lee Roupas finally resigns as Cook County GOP Chair, after a disgraceful tenure in which the Cocktail Party refused to fire this longtime “Romney Guy”
There’s great news in Chicago today.
Republican News Watch is reporting that disgraced Cook County GOP Chair Lee Roupas has at last resigned, and has now been replaced by Sig Vaznelis, who appears to be someone more up to actually doing something worthwhile in his position.
The reason this is interesting for those of you far from Chicago is that it’s classic Cocktail Party GOP establishment nature to protect guys like Roupas no matter how badly they perform, because these guys are being groomed to replace Cocktail Party guys higher up the cucumber and mayonnaise chain, ensuring the status quo remains the same in Republican ranks indefinitely.
This is what America’s really up against, on a national scale, because every GOP entity at the state, county, and local level is more likely than not run by people who hold these positions for the sheer prestige and honor of holding the position. They are not interested, at all, in winning elections. They just want to look fancy in their sharp blue blazers and hand out the nicest, most expensive business cards at networking events.
When one of these guys screws things up royally — as Roupas did repeatedly — the Cocktail Party GOP establishment circles the wagons and protects him for as long as possible, instead of firing him straight away and finding someone more competent who could actually work towards winning elections. The reasoning in the Cocktail Party ranks is that if any one of them is ever dragged out of office, it could mean the rest of them would be vulnerable like that as well.
This makes the Republican Party’s organization — coast to coast — more like an exclusive fraternity than a political organization focused on winning elections. In many cases, like here in Chicago, the GOP doesn’t even want to TRY to win elections. Republicans didn’t even bother to field a candidate for Mayor in this spring’s election. Roupas and the rest of the Cocktail Party boys here were more focused on planning their next networking event, because they’re only involved with the GOP to see how this involvement can advance and enrich their own personal careers.
They have fun at events, they like posing for pictures, and they use the connections they make in the GOP to build lucrative careers for themselves…just like they’d do in a fraternity at an Ivy League school.
The older fraternity members protect and mentor the younger ones, and donors to the Republican Party at every level fund all of this, even though guys like Roupas have no real intention of ever doing anything to stop the Left or beat Democrats at the ballot box.
In case you haven’t figured it out, guys like Roupas are the biggest supporters of Mittens “Mood Ring” Romneycare because Romney would undoubtedly give them all well-paying, fancy-titled positions on his presidential campaign. No one really cares if Romney will win or not, because they’re just after new business cards that prove they were important to the campaign, so they can use all this on their resumes for better jobs the next year.
I know nothing about Sig Vaznelis, but there’s no way he can do a worse job as Cook County Chair than Roupas.
But, as bad as Roupas was, I’m sure you’ll see him pop up somewhere again, maybe in another state, since the Cocktail Party tends to recycle these guys and give them endless mulligans whenever and wherever they fail.
© 2011, Kevin DuJan. All rights reserved.
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Hey Kevin, since you are still up (or up early) have you heard about the rumors that Sarah Palin is scheduled to appear on the "Bob & Mark Show" tomorrow morning at 9:30am Pacific time?? This may be it!
Tomorrow being Friday 9/16/11?
Sorry, actually today, since it is past midnight here. Here's a link to a thread on FR about the source of the rumor, and some confirmation that she is booked on the show: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2779187/…
Was this the guy who called you names?
Lee Roupas is the guy who engaged in a coverup and prevented an investigation into serious wrongdoing by a Cook County GOP employee. Huffington Post busted him on this last summer. I'm not aware of him calling me any names, but if he did I'd just consider the source on that as Roupas' opinion has never meant much to me. Most people I know call him "Pants Poopus", so that sums him up pretty well I think.
Good analysis Kevin – and also by some of the commenters. And thank you for the link to RNW.
I had never heard that nickname – guess I'm behind the times as "Doofus" is what I always heard – but I laughted I'll admit. If a 3rd grade nickname fits, what can we do.
I had high hopes for Lee when he started too, but I'm cautiously optimistic that Sig will be different. In any case, as the chairman had to come from the 80 committeemen, I think Sig is the best we could hope for. Although I don't know him well either, I do know him to be mature and professional. I also have no idea what presidential canidate he supports. Regardless, I expect him to keep that seperate from the chairman job.
Hope springs eternal.