RNC Chair Calls on Controversial Party Official to Quit

[brooklynite]

Source: Daily Beast

Reince Priebus, the chair of the Republican National Committee, as well as Michigan Republican Party chair Bobby Schostak, called on controversial national committeeman Dave Agema to step down on Friday. Agema has come under fire for repeatedly making anti-gay and anti-Muslim remarks. In a one-sentence statement to the Detroit Free Press, the two said "For the good of the party, we believe Dave Agema should resign."

Agema, a longtime Republican activist, was elected to be one of the Wolverine State's two representatives to the RNC in 2012. Since taking office, he repeatedly received national attention for comments suggesting gays want free health care because they die between the ages of 30-44 and that Muslims don't contribute anything to the United States as well as for posting an article on his personal Facebook account that said gays were "filthy," prone to pedophilia, responsible for spreading AIDS and infected with the STDs.

The call for Agema's resignation came at the end of the RNC's three-day winter meeting in Washington, D.C., which the Michigan national committeeman did not attend to avoid giving "liberal critics" an excuse to amplify the controversy around him. In his Friday statement, Priebus and Schostak join three Republican congressmen from Michigan as well as a number of other prominent party activists in calling for Agema to step down.

Read more: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/01/24/rnc-chair-calls-on-controversial-party-official-to-quit.html

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Does it occur to anyone in Republican Leadership that "problems" like this are an effect rather than a cause?

[giftedgirl77]

1. If they keep on calling for "controversial" people

to drop out or step down they are going to be a really lonely little group.

The are going to go down in a drunken fit of bible verses & bad spay tans.

[Happyhippychick]

2. He sounds like

a typical republican to me

[olddad56]

3. who was expressing a typical republican sentiment.

[arely staircase]

4. among republicans (at least party activists) in my area

there is nothing unusual, much less controversial, about anything he has said.

[olddad56]

9. I lived next door to a GOP party activist for several years...

The most arrogant, intrusive,condensing, self centered person I have ever encountered. And he was a "behind the scenes" guy. Maybe they are all like that.

[arely staircase]

10. the GOP County chair here regularly writes op/eds in the local paper

with almost as offensive language. I say almost because he wouldn't say the word gay in a "family paper." So only Victorian sensibilities restrain his vitriol.

[maindawg]

5. from the front

Its war boys. The teabillies are under attack! Cant wait for the counter attack.

[brooklynite]

8. Our FReedom loving FRiends rally to the cause...

It is a shame what the GOP-e is doing to this guy. He should be a presidential contender, not an outcast! I am positive the vast majority of patriots think as he does.

If I had my way, Agema would be governor of Michigan and running for president in 2016. He is OUR KIND of candidate!


Doing to him just what they did to Joe McCarthy when he dared to tell the truth.


http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3114564/posts

[Spitfire of ATJ]

6. Comments like that MADE him a party leader.

[Julian Englis]

7. These are fairly typical views for western Michigan Republicans

Somehow, I don't think the party is going to disown everyone who holds these views renounce them or they'd lose half the party members in Kent and Ottawa counties (the metro Grand Rapids area, which is heavily Dutch and Calvinist).

[hrmjustin]

11. Sounds like a typical Republican to me.

[maindawg]

12. thats what makes it so incendiary

The mainstream rethugs are trying to silence the tea party people. But the tea party people are the base. I believe Hucks was addressing a rethug convention.
These wankers are so full of hate that they hate themselves.

[Eugene]

13. Apologetic Dave Agema won't step down, says he's drawn voters to GOP

Source: MLive

Apologetic Dave Agema won't step down, says he's drawn voters to GOP

By Jonathan Oosting
on January 24, 2014 at 7:02 PM, updated January 24, 2014 at 7:26 PM

LANSING, MI -- Michigan Republican National Committeeman Dave Agema, asked to step down by a growing number of prominent party members, offered a public apology on Friday but made made clear that he has no plans to resign.

Agema, a former state representative from Grandville, has come under fire in recent months for a series of controversial anti-gay and anti-Muslim statements on Facebook, talk radio and a Berrien County Republican Party holiday dinner.

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus and Michigan GOP Chairman Bobby Schostak, citing "the good of the party" called on Agema to resign on Friday, joining West Michigan businesswoman Betsy DeVos and other prominent Republicans.

Agema released a statement of his own later in the evening, vowing to work with "people of all faiths that uphold American values" and suggesting that he could have handled himself better when discussing his opposition to same-sex marriage.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

Read more: http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2014/01/apologetic_dave_agema_wont_ste.html

[jsr]

14. No. Let Agema stay and talk more.

A lot more.