RNC Chairman Keeps Eastwood’s Empty Chair In Office As A Trophy

Whatever happened to Clint Eastwood’s empty chair prop from last year’s Republican National Convention? It’s sitting in RNC Chair Reince Priebus’s office as a source of inspiration, and apparently a trophy from the last election. Before you laugh, remember that it’s about the only thing Republicans got out of 2012.

The chair used as a prop by actor and director Clint Eastwood during his strange speech at the Republican National Convention in 2012 made the long journey from Florida to Washington DC, where it now sits in the office of RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, reports MSN.

Eastwood’s chair is in Priebus’s office because he “gets the joke,” and said that it’s “the first thing he points out” when talking about “how his party must dramatically rethink its strategy and message in hopes of recovering from the presidential drubbing of 2012.”

As far as Republican strategy for the next four years in concerned, Priebus says “I believe that number one, we have to control the debates. I think that having over 20 debates is too many and I think we ought to regulate the debates, pick the moderators and get involved in setting the calendar.”

The RNC Chair also said that the GOP was making good waves on immigration. “I think you are seeing a lot of movement from our party on these issues. A lot of it, I tell you, was tone. You know it wasn’t necessarily the policy on immigration, it was what is coming out of your mouth.”

He’s not totally wrong on that point. President Obama has talked a lot about immigration reform, but he hasn’t done much about it. The Dream Act is hardly his brain-child. It was originally introduced in 2001, and is generally a pet project of Senate Majority Leader Harri Reid. Obama more or less puts his “stamp of approval” on some immigration reform, it just fails to go anywhere. And no, it’s not because Republicans blocked his ideas in Congress (believe it or not, the House actually passed the Dream Act in 2010 before it died in the Senate). It’s because despite all the promises, there are no ideas.

Except maybe one from Florida Senator Marco Rubio. Elected in 2010 for his first US Senate term, Rubio has spent his January laying out his proposal for immigration reform, reports CNN. It includes “permanent residency provision” and a route to citizenship for illegal immigrants in the US, but Rubio stresses it’s not “blanket amnesty.” It’s more like easing undocumented workers into the system.

You can take it or leave it, but it’s the only real idea out there right now. Rubio’s proposal trumps any specific plan from President Obama, but Rubio jokes that he might convince the POTUS to work with him. “Maybe he’s interested in his legacy,” says Rubio. Maybe there’s hope for the GOP after all?

Personally, I think step one to a new Republican Party is to fire Reince Priebus, but that’s another story.

Are you surprised that Reince Priebus keeps Clint Eastwood’s empty chair in his office?

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