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The
Ties That Bind ...
State GOP leader underscores unity, return to core beliefs
By
JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette
Sunday,
Feb. 25, 2007, 3 p.m. -- Only days after word of her appointment
as interim chairwoman of the Republican Party of Kentucky,
Gail Russell received an e-mail from a liberal blogger.
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Louisville
attorney Gail Russell, recently named interim chair
of the Republican Party of Kentucky, was keynote speaker
at Saturday's Nelson County Lincoln Day Dinner.
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"Welcome
to the HMS Titanic," the e-mail read in part -- an analogy
Russell disputed. "We're going to miss that iceberg,"
she told the crowd as Saturday's Lincoln Day Dinner in Bardstown.
"I'm here to tell you that we're a very seaworthy party."
Nearly
100 people attended the annual dinner that honors the nation's
16th president at the Old Kentucky Home Country Club. Though
the event had been billed in the media as the "third
annual" dinner, state Rep. David Floyd noted that northeastern
Nelson County -- an area with a long history as the county's
GOP stronghold -- has been the site of Lincoln Day dinners
in past years.
As
keynote speaker, Russell brought a message of unity and a
call for party supporters to "let people know we are
a force for good in the world."
Russell
attributed the GOP's losses in the November election to a
party that strayed from its core message to voters. Republicans
were busy name-calling and pointing fingers at each other
over scandals, she said. "We were the party of too much
ego and not enough humility."
Republicans
across the Commonwealth need to restate -- and reclaim --
their conservative political agenda, she said.
"We
need lower taxes," she said, along with judges who don't
make law from the bench. "We need to have government
as a safety net, and local government is the best government.
"Democrats
want to compare Iraq to Vietnam," a comparison Russell
said just isn't valid in today's times. "After Vietnam,
the enemy didn't come after us," she said. "But
if we lose in Iraq, this enemy will be coming after us."
Russell
noted that she's often questioned about her party affiliation
because she is a former Democrat. She likened her change in
party affiliation to Saul's conversion on the road to Damascus.
Her conversion was less dramatic than Saul's -- "I wasn't
knocked to the ground," she quipped -- though she felt
her conversion had an element of divine inspiration.
She
ended her remarks with a recitation of the lyrics of the Gospel
hymn "Blessed Be The Ties That Bind."
The
Lincoln Day Dinner was organized by the Nelson County Organization
of Republican Women and the Nelson County Republican Party.
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