2008 Memories: MNGOP’s Carey calls Obama, Franken ‘most radical extremists’ ever

Minnesota Monthly’s Tim Gihring gives GOP chair Ron Carey an “Uncommon Loon” award for his go-get-’em speech to Republicans at the Mayo Civic Center in May. Decrying Democrats’ “left-wing values,” he predicted — incorrectly — that “the joke’s gonna be on” pundits who suggested an electoral “slaughter” would befall Republicans in November. But here’s the keeper: “Look at what the Democrats offer us – Barack Obama and Al Franken are the most radical extremists this country has ever seen.” As Gihring writes, “Never mind Joseph McCarthy, the Ku Klux Klan, Timothy McVeigh, the Michigan Militia, Mother Jones, Jim Jones, Huey Newton, Eric Rudolph, the Weathermen, the Freemen, Aryan Nation, John Walker Lindh, David Koresh, Charles Manson…”

In a curious but not unrelated footnote, a private memo surfaced today in which RNC chair Mike Duncan told Republican National Committee members that “Republicans have grown accustomed to having our party recognized as the ‘Party of Ideas,’ but we must acknowledge that many Americans today believe the party is stale and does not deserve that label.” He continued, “All Republicans have an obligation to develop principled solutions rather than falling back on ideology alone; we must show how our ideology can be applied to solve problems.”