Posted by According to this AP story today from Phillip Rawls, Paul Hamrick backs off of plans to work for the Senate GOP Caucus:
Hamrick agreed that some new members had raised concerns, and that prompted his decision to back off. “To do this type of work for a group like a caucus, you have to have a high confidence level,” he said.
There’s more good reading on the subject here in this column from George Talbot of the Press-Register.
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Good riddance.
A horrible choice reversed, but with residual damage to Jabo Waggoner.
Paul Hamrick has no place at the winner’s table. He wasn’t part of the solution – he was a big part of the problem.
Thank God
I heard Jabo say “a lot of us used to be Democrats.”
Two points: 1) Paul Hamrick still IS a Democrat and 2) any leaders in today’s GOP weren’t still Democrats at the 2010 election.
Jabo should be out. There is absolutely no excuse for such poor decision making, stupidity or crookedness, whichever it was.
Always had a hard time taking anyone named “Jabo” serious anyhow.
The GOP needs to get better @ being in charge or let some of the new people take the lead!
@murry: a couple of the “new people” come to mind. Certainly don’t think they’d do worse. Plus I’m sure they have a more reality based take on things because they haven’t been drinking Goat Hill Kool-Aid for years and years.
I can’t imagine what Jabo was thinking doing this to begin with. Talk about being out of touch…. I dont know what the rules are in the GOP caucus but if theres anyway to remove him from his leadership post then it needs to be done asap. This was an insult of the worst kind to every conservative from Cherokee to Orange Beach who worked their tails off to achieve the super majorities the GOP now have.
The ”new people” Senator out number the old senators. If Bussman, Reed, etc don’t like whats going like that claim they could vote to put one of their own in charge. However, they could just being saying this to the press and behind the scenes not really wanting to rock the boat to much.
dan t, Del Marsh had as much to do with this decision as Waggoner did, if not more. Some versions of the story have that Marsh asked Jabo to put Hamrick on his payroll because he wanted him hired but he didn’t want him to show up on his budget since he was promoting cut backs. Marsh has defended Waggoner (the only Republican Senator who has defended him) because he was part of the decision to hire Hamrick. How big a part is still not known.
Albert opens with a definitive statement and closes with a question on how much someone was involved. Albert you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.
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Thanks for the feedback, Ted. I didn’t mean to hit a nerve. People who were with Waggoner, Marsh and Hamrick when this decision was discussed have said Marsh played a key role in it. If Marsh didn’t have anything to do with it, then he is free to state that and criticize Waggoner’s decision, things he has not done.
Tacky comment, Dodo.
I have heard the same about Marsh. Del has a different agenda from every other senator. I’m afraid he is getting caught up in the ole ‘I need to be protem to everyone’ instead of focusing on ‘I need to be the republican leader of the senate’
Del defended the contract on my show the day before Hamrick broke the news (in an exclusive) that he had withdrawn his name. There are some who feel former Senator Steve French had something to do with this…any ideas why?
I didn’t realize Marsh has defended the Hamrick hire on your show, Matt. Further confirmation of his support and role it seems. Apparently Hamrick has done work for French over the years. So it could be in French’s interest for Hamrick to be on the inside. And French and Marsh were together all the time during the special session after French lost. You would think Slade Blackwell had to have noticed that. Now, thanks to Blackwell, that French isn’t in the Senate, it’s likely harder for French to get large clients for his insurance business like he did in the past. Word was he would leverage his position to get people to buy insurance from him — including Greene Track. Although I don’t have confirmation on that. I just heard that Greene Track pulled their business from him after he reneged on a alleged deal to vote for the gambling bill. French definitely has some strange bedfellows. And French may have liked to work for his buddies Waggnoner and Marsh, but he probably knew that wouldn’t be a hit with Blackwell and some of the other new ones. Hamrick had worked for Larry Means campaign, so it is surprising the Republicans thought hiring him would be okay with Phil Sims. The new members are certainly letting their influence be known.
Error above. Phil Williams. I wanted to correct it before someone corrected it for me.