(Michigan's) Kent County GOP cancels invitation to Utah gov (over civil unions)

[Bozita]

Source: Detroit Free Press

Kent County GOP cancels invitation to Utah gov
BY DAWSON BELL • FREE PRESS LANSING BUREAU • APRIL 28, 2009


Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., sometimes mentioned as a possible Republican presidential candidate in 2012, got an early taste of party politics, Michigan style, this week when an invitation to appear at a Kent County Republican event in Grand Rapids was abruptly retracted.

Huntsman, serving his second term in the most Republican state in the country, apparently got crosswise with Kent County political leaders because of his endorsement earlier this year of civil unions for gay and lesbian couples.

He still plans to visit Grand Rapids on Saturday as part of a two-day swing through Michigan that will include a Friday night dinner in Oakland County and a GOP event in Muskegon, spokeswoman Lisa Roskelley said Tuesday afternoon.

Roskelley said the governor has no hard feelings about the canceled Kent appearance.

Read more: http://www.freep.com/article/20090428/NEWS15/90428089

[Mari333]

1. ugh. Grand Rapids is a hotbed of

mega churches and mcmansions. This is the town that brings you Dick Devos and Amway. Dutch reformed and uptight. It has a few little enclaves of bright spots, but otherwise it is just a small city that also brings you the Gerald R Ford Museum. Can you imagine going to vacation with your parents and you visit the Gerald R Ford museum? It would scar you for life.

[PassingFair]

6. Unfortunately it is much better off economically than the rest of the state...

my office in Oakland/Macomb is always compared
unfavorably with their sales numbers...

I don't know if it's because they are "diversified"
in their business mix, or if it's because money
pumped in there from the Bushies...(Blackwater, et. al.)

[noonwitch]

18. I just want to point out that GR Ford was not part of the religious right

He was a moderate. He just came from a very conservative community. I grew up in the area. There are good and bad things about conservative communities, just like anywhere else.

The city of Grand Rapids is not where all Amway and the megachurches are located, the suburbs are.

[amandabeech]

19. GR is sometimes referred to as the Salt Lake City of the Midwest.

The hard-core Dutch Christian Reformed and Reformed really give the Mormons a run for their money on conservatism.

GR is a hard city to break into socially, as well.

Speaking as someone who grew up 70 miles NW of the place and has non-Dutch relatives in the GR area.

[Doctor_J]

2. I wonder how many times the GOP will shoot themselves in the foot,

before they realize their foot is so full of holes that they can't walk any more.

Their self-destructiveness makes Courtney Love look sane.

[Bette Noir]

3. Utah isn't conservative enough for them?

Heaven help them.

[sandyj999]

4. That part of the state is an embarrassment to me. n/t

[jbnow]

8. Obama won in Kent county. Barely, by .5%, but bush won

by almost 19% so that's great for Kent county. (where I still would not want to live)

[No Elephants]

10. Quite a change in one cycle. Guess there's hope for them.

[Zuiderelle]

5. Well, THAT is disgusting.

[Zambero]

7. So is this the new GOP "Litmus Test"?

Not all-out gay marriage, but the more "moderate" civil unions question? This sounds like another golden opportunity for wingnuts to push the Republican party even further to the right. The fact that the governor's position on just one issue would render him an outcast amongst "true believers" would tend to shrink the shrunken GOP tent even further. I wonder how much longer remaining moderates such as Sens. Snowe and Collins can stomach being part of a party that no longer values them, and indeed hates them?

[No Elephants]

9. I thought that Republicans might be getting more sane. I have mixed feelings about being wrong on

that one.

[blue_onyx]

11. The GOP are convinced that the reason they've lost...

is because they weren't being true to their party's philosophy. That's why they are sticking with the same policies or maybe even moving more to the right. It's a southern, extremist party that will slowly push moderates like Arlen Spector out of their party.

[MasonJar]

12. The GOP in its natural habitat of bigotry and anti-anything right and sensible.

[MasonJar]

13. It is time for DU to stop blasting the South when stories like this appear.

Good grief,y'all, GOPers are everywhere and eternally embarrassing to humanity.

[Mari333]

14. Michigan has its crazies

believe me.

[davidinalameda]

15. repugs are everywhere and just as crazy as those in the south

but there are just more of them in the south

[gratuitous]

16. Bravo Michigan Republicans, bravo!

No sense listening to a successful politician when fear and ignorance are still free. I keep thinking they'll run out of ways to make themselves more irrelevant and marginalized, and stumble upon an actual winning strategy if only by chance. But this latest from Kent County persuades me that that time is not yet.

[prolesunited]

17. Keep it up GOP

Close in the ranks so nobody will pass the narrow litmus test to be a member of your party. That will win you more elections. :sarcasm: