News: Bookeristas & Their Political Parties

USA: GOP Chief: "Tide Of Dems Is About To Turn"

Fresh off a summer filled with protests and Tea Party revolts, Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele went to Michigan yesterday to say the tide is turning toward Republicans. "The people have taken to the streets and said to their elected leadership, 'Shut up and listen to us,'" the moderate-conservative Republican chairman told Macomb County Republicans. "The people still matter. If this party doesn't get with the people, we will get lost."

GOP leaders can't depend on news releases and bureaucratic jargon to connect with people, he said. "What happened in 2006?" he asked. "Our leadership failed because they got to Washington, got lazy, sloppy, greedy and stupid. "We have to reengage in a way that keeps people moving with us."

France: Rama Yade To Agree To Run Outside Her Home District?

A senior leader of the center-right UMP party said yesterday that Rama Yade, the outspoken French Secretary of State for Sports and moderate-conservative, should eventually be a candidate for Val d'Oise in the March 2010 regional elections. The party official told said that Ms. Yade "wants to confront universal suffrage" and "there are good chances that this would come in Val d'Oise," but she would "not necessarily lead the list" (article in French).

Ms. Yade hopes to be listed as a candidate for Hauts-de-Seine, which includes the affluent area where she grew up and where she is already a local elected official. It is also the area from where French President Nicolas Sarkozy rose in politics, and where his son is a local elected official. Val d'Oise is a poor, mostly Arab and black immigrant area where she has no personal or political ties. As regular Booker Rising know, Ms. Yade - who is France's most popular politician - has been fighting the move to put her as a candidate in Val d'Oise, calling it "ethnic parachuting" (so until Booker Rising reads a statement from her saying she will stand in Val d'Oise, this move could just be party leaders trying to box her in here).

The heads of regional and departmental lists will be announced at a National Council meeting on November 28, and lists finalized at another board scheduled in late January 2010.

On a related note, here's a parody of Ms. Yade's dilemma set to "We Are The World" music.