Choice of Martinez sparks GOP rebellion

Rebellion is brewing among conservatives on the Republican National Committee over President’s Bush’s attempt to “impose” Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida as “general chairman” of the party, who favors “amnesty” for illegal aliens.

“I will be voting against Senator Martinez if he is nominated for any chairmanship of the RNC,” Tina Benkiser, Texas Republican Party chairman, told The Washington Times yesterday.

Bill Crocker, the elected national committeeman from Texas, says that when the RNC convenes here tomorrow, “Absolutely, I will vote against Martinez.”

The conservatives — one of whom accused the Bush White House of “outsourcing” party leadership — say the general-chairman post does not exist under RNC rules, which can be changed only at the party’s presidential nominating convention.

Unhappy committee members say that, in the past, Republican presidents and RNC leaders have successfully run roughshod over the rules, because the RNC officer presiding over votes at committee meetings have simply overruled points of order and other objections from the floor, with no accredited professional parliamentarians to exercise a check.

This time, the organizers of the rebellion say, their strategy will rely in part on having a parliamentarian present. And violations of Robert’s Rules of Order and of the RNC’s written rules — adopted at the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York — could result in legal challenges.

“I have also requested that the RNC employ the services of an independent certified parliamentarian to assure that breaches of the rules are avoided,” North Dakota RNC member Curly Haugland said in a letter sent to all RNC members yesterday. “And I trust that my request will be honored due to the potential need for numerous interpretations of the rules.”

Mr. Bush has said he hopes the RNC will elect Mr. Martinez as “honorary chairman” but that title has changed, in Republican Party press releases and conversations with RNC officials, to “general chairman.”

Robert M. “Mike” Duncan, a Kentucky RNC member and RNC treasurer, is expected to be elected as the national chairman, with the responsibility of day-to-day management of the committee.

“Every president has the prerogative of naming who runs the national committee,” Mr. Duncan told The Washington Times. “The choice is determined by the needs of the party at the time the selection is made.”

Arguing precedent, proponents of the arrangement point out that the RNC members went along with President Reagan’s desire in 1983 to have his friend, Nevada Sen. Paul Laxalt, voted in as general chairman, even though the rules provided for no such office. The RNC members at the same time elected Frank J. Fahrenkopf Jr. — an RNC member and chairman of the Nevada Republican Party at the time — as chairman.

But opponents say that 1983 precedent does not justify another violation of the party’s rules.

“I have a hard time understanding the logic,” said RNC member Randy Pullen, who is running for Arizona Republican Party chairman in an election at the end of this month. “Just because the RNC did something wrong once before, somehow that justifies doing it again?”

Mr. Pullen pointed out that Mr. Martinez, who served as Mr. Bush’s secretary of Housing and Urban Development before winning a Senate seat, is not an RNC member. RNC rebels say the rules are clear that the person who heads the committee must be a member of the committee.

“Outsourcing our leadership at this critical time is not an option,” Mr. Haugland said.

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