Thank God for small favors.
Washington-based Hotline reported Wednesday that the Republican National Committee, holding its winter meeting in Honolulu last week, had narrowed its search for a 2012 convention site to four cities — Houston, Tampa, Fla., Phoenix and Salt Lake City. The report prompted a flurry of blogs — and furrowed brows from local officials, who had heard nothing about any announcement.
Alas, the Hotline got three of the cities right, a Republican official confirmed Wednesday afternoon, but the Bayou City wasn’t among them.
I spent two weeks in 1992, the last time the RNC came to town, doing clinic defense at the Planned Parenthood on Fannin. I was part of what we called the Dawn Patrol, which started at 5 AM. I did three hours at the clinic, then went to work. It was exhausting, and exhilarating, and I’m too damn old to do that again. So thank you, RNC, for staying the hell away.
Jared Woodfill, chairman of the Harris County Republican Party, confirmed that the RNC’s Manny Rosales, outreach director for party Chairman Michael Steele, visited Houston a few weeks ago on something of a scouting trip.
“We were excited,” Woodfill said. “We reminded him that Harris County is the largest Republican county in the country, that we have plenty of hotel space, NASA and that the state is heavily Republican. And it’s the home of George H.W. Bush.”
The “largest Republican county in the country”, which, um, went blue in 2008. Heck of a job, Jared!