I hate Washington, DC. Despite the few friends that I have who live and work around DC, I’ve found my view of that city growing from a genuine dislike to a visceral hatred. Perhaps I’m an idealist but, to me, DC is the home of snake-oil salesmen, prostitutes, and power-hungry pikers. It’s worse than a den of iniquity. It is iniquity.

Freedom, to much of the DC crowd, is a quaint euphemism that those who cling to their guns or religion take far too seriously. You are the subjects, the peasants whose land and labor they tax, the grist for their political machinations—they are your rulers, your lives and your wallets theirs for the taking.

What’s worse, the lines between good and evil (and I’m speaking in the moral, black & white sense here) have become so blurred that, in most cases, it’s only a matter of degree (or time) before those few good people who go to Washington to change things become corrupted by compromise and collusion.

Here’s a case in point:

On January 15th, the Republican National Committee is holding its election to determine who will be its next chairman. In fact, much how union bosses run their unions, the RNC chairman is “chosen” by a few (168 in the RNC’s case) to lead the many. Among those running are Saul Anuzis, Maria Cino, Gentry Collins, Reince Priebus, Michael Steele, and Ann Wagner.

Not knowing any of these people personally, it would be improper to cast aspersions against any of their characters for now. However, given all of the tumult within the RNC over the last few years, its scandals and spending, there appears to be a few of these people who should not be the next RNC chairman.

First and foremost, of course, is Michael Steele. If the RNC wants to avoid a becoming completely irrelevant by 2012, Steele must go.

Second, any Republican who has had a hand in supporting or advocating for ObamaCare is poison; they are the arsenic-laced Kool Aid. This would seemingly exclude both Maria Cino and Michael Steele’s right-hand man Reince Priebus from being the next RNC chair.

Cino, according to Gateway Pundit, is up to her neck in pushing ObamaCare as a lobbyist for Pfizer and, additionally, is another establishment Republican.

Priebus, on the other hand, isn’t just up to his neck, he’s in over his head with ObamaCare. Priebus who was the general counsel of the RNC during Steele’s reign (up until last month) is now running against Steele —unless, as some speculate, Steele does a ‘bait and switch’ by dropping out and throwing his weight behind Priebus.

As general counsel of the RNC, it is incredible that Priebus was unaware (or unapproving) of the behaviors of his boss. In most cases, when there is unethical behavior or unforgiving lapses in reasonable judgement, most persons of high moral standards would not tolerate it—let alone continue collecting a paycheck as the right-hand man of the perpetrator.

However, giving Priebus the benefit of the doubt about whether he knew (or should have known) about the scandalous spending his boss was racking up on the RNC’s tab, Priebus’ work for a law firm profiting from and seemingly unopposed to ObamaCare makes Priebus as dangerous as arsenic in a batch of Kool Aid.

According to Think Progress [h/t Jim Hoft]:

Despite his heated anti-Obama attacks, Priebus makes a living at a law firm far more comfortable with the policies of President Obama. Priebus works as a partner at the Milwaukee law firm Michael Best & Friedrich LLP. Over the summer, the firm created a series of presentations to explain health reform to its clients and to pitch the firm’s services for employers looking to comply with new health reform regulations. In one presentation, John Barlament, a colleague to Priebus at the firm, said that a health reform repeal is not only unlikely, but that the lawsuits brought by Republican Party allies to declare the law unconstitutional probably have no merit. Referring to the controversy over the individual mandate, Barlament explained that the commerce clause of the constitution “gives Congress authority to act on his legislation”

If Priebus’ law firm is already profiting from ObamaCare, how likely is it that the RNC will push for repeal if Priebus is at the helm?

Right now, it appears that Priebus is leading the RNC Chairman’s race, but the majority of committee members are still undecided. While contact information is being gathered on the committee members, here is where, according to National Journal, the race currently stands [see update below the list]:

REINCE PRIEBUS (22)
Linda Ackerman, California national committeewoman
Henry Barbour, Mississippi national committeeman
Sandy Boehler, North Dakota national committeewoman
Jim Bopp, Indiana national committeeman
Pat Brady, Illinois Party chair
Mary Buestrin, Wisconsin national committeewoman
James Dunn, Oklahoma national committeeman
Sharon Giese, Arizona national committeewoman
Curly Haugland, North Dakota national committeeman
Mark Hillman, Colorado national committeeman
Bruce Hough, Utah national committeeman
Steve King, Wisconsin national committeeman
Jeanne Luckey, Mississippi national committeewoman
Matt Pinnell, Oklahoma Party chair
Alec Poitevint, Georgia national committeeman
Reince Priebus, Wisconsin Party chair
Pete Ricketts, Nebraska national committeeman
Steve Scheffler, Iowa national committeeman
Shawn Steel, California national committeeman
Stan Stein, North Dakota Party chair
Tony Sutton, Minnesota Party chair
Brad White, Mississippi Party chair

MICHAEL STEELE (12)
Peter Ada, Guam national committeeman
John Frey, Connecticut national committeeman
Holly Hughes, Michigan national committeewoman
Robert Kabel, District of Columbia Party chair
Lilliana Belardo de O’Neal, USVI committeewoman
Holland Redfield, USVI national committeeman
Pat Rogers, New Mexico national committeeman
Herbert Schoenbohm, USVI Party chair
Norm Semanko, Idaho Party chair
Joyce Terhes, Maryland national committeewoman
Bob Tiernan, Oregan Party chair
Betsy Werronen, District of Columbia national committeewoman

SAUL ANUZIS (10)
Saul Anuzis, Michigan national committeeman
Morton Blackwell, Virginia national committeeman
Gio Cicione, Rhode Island Party chair
Bill Crocker, Texas national committeeman
Mark Fahleson, Nebraska Party chair
Dana Randall, South Dakota national committeeman
Tom Ross, Delaware Republican Party chair
Heidi Smith, Nevada national committeewoman
Mike Stuart, West Virginia Party chair
Dick Wadhams, Colorado Republican Party chair

ANN WAGNER (10)
Lance Beshore, Missouri national committeeman
David Cole, Missouri Party chair
Bettye Fine Collins, Alabama national committeewoman
Chris Devaney, Tennessee Party chair
Ann Dickinson, Missouri national committeewoman
Donna Lou Gosney, West Virginia national committeewoman
Peggy Lambert, Tennessee national committeewoman
Jim Reed, West Virginia national committeeman
Randy Ruedrich, Alaska Party chair
John Ryder, Tennessee national committeeman

MARIA CINO (5)
Evie Axdahl, Minnesota national committeewoman
Ed Cox, New York Party chair
Jo Ann Davidson, Ohio national committeewoman
Kevin DeWine, Ohio Party chair
Priscilla Rakestraw, Delaware national committeewoman

GENTRY COLLINS (3)
Chris Healy, Connecticut Party chair
Matt Strawn, Iowa Party chair
Tom Fetzer, North Carolina Party chair

UNDECLARED (106)

According to Politico, Reince Priebus collected two more commitments [Brian Sullivan, the GOP Committeeman from Minnesota, and Donna Cain, the GOP Committeewoman from Oregon], bringing Priebus’ support to 26.

For the Republic National Committee, this election is probably one of the most important in a long time. Who the winner of the RNC Chairmanship is will likely determine whether there will be a concerted drive from the grassroots to boycott and bring down the RNC. Perhaps, before voting on January 15th, those 168 voting members should consider choosing the next leader of the RNC carefully, using principles instead of politics.

The spread of evil is the symptom of a vacuum. Whenever evil wins, it is only by default: by the moral failure of those who evade the fact that there can be no compromise on basic principles.

Ayn Rand

Choose wisely, as there is more than politics at stake.

_________________

“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.”  Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

X-posted.