When Frank Keating's wife was running against Sullivan, don't you remember one episode where she was sick or just happened to have the flu and there was more to her defeat than just not having any grass roots supporters on her side.

Steve Largent with his "connections" locked into a very nice paying job in Washington, DC -- he also spent some time waiting on offers before he got lucky on the job he now has in Washington, DC. Steve Largent had a bad campaign manager when he was running for Governor. REPUBLICAN PARTY or should I saw the Steve Largent campaign for Governor did allow Brad Henry to come in as practically an "UNKNOWN" and beat Largent over Democrats doing all kinds of smear ads. A skilled and capable campaign manager could have turned all of that bad publicity right back at the Brad Henry campaign. Cathy Keating's
actions during her campaign run also proved she definitely would not have been a good choice.

WHAT MAKES THE REPUBLICAN PARTY TICK IN OKLAHOMA? -- the Republican party should continue following the GREAT PLAINS AIRLINES financing. Michael, what were the names of the two insurance companies involved in the financing deal? Great Plains Airlines was awarded $18 million in OKlahoma State tax credits then turned around and $15 million of the state tax credits were sold to two insurance companies. What were the names of those two incurance companies?

Frank Keating(after leaving the Oklahoma Governor position) used his Republican "connections" in Washington, DC to land a lucrative job offer as President and CEO of American Council of Life Insurers. (any connection to the great plains insurance financing deals?) Keating landed a very influential lobbying job!! Great Plains Airlines
tried to apply for $120 million dollars in federal loan guarantees in a "lobbying effort" in Washington, DC.

As Republican party, I am sure many Republicans around in Oklahoma and around the U.S. was embarrassed when we had Frank Keating as Governor say things that got national press stories such as Keating saying the best way to deal with teachers' unions is HOMICIDE!

Another embarrassing quote FRANK KEATING was quoted as saying Oklahoma voters were "VERY DUMB" for not electing his wife Cathy to
Congress.

As a Republican, Keating was often mentioned that his off-the-cuff remarks were his biggest failure as a Republican governor. I agree!

I don't think any organized Republic party effort could do damage control with comments like those.

We do have a candidate, CHRIS MEDLOCK, that is seriously trying to get some financial answers into the Great Plains Airlines mess as a City Councilor that is now running for Mayor of Tulsa. Chris Medlock deserves the support of the ENTIRE Tulsa City Council and the entire City Council should start pulling their own weight on reports
instead of asking Chris Medlock to keep coming up with all the reports himself when he can't do complete reports without all the facts. I think Chris Medlock is looking out for the Tulsa taxpayers so they won't get stuck with a $7.5 million tab on the Great Plains Airlines/BOK loan deal mess. You got to give some Republican credit to Chris Medlock ¦Ñustanding up for what is right for Tulsa taxpayers on this issue!

I find it interesting that you titled this "the real GOP" Do you somehow disassociate yourself from the national or regional GOP? Being ignorant of what the real GOP is, if I see someone around town claiming they are a member of the GOP, how do I know they are the real thing or not? How can you have one without the other?

I find it interesting that you titled this "the real GOP" In your article you make all the points for forming a good independent party. Why not? I mean, who says you have to fall into one party label or another? If you dont fall into democrat ideology, but don't exactly match with republican, then start your own! I would think locally would be the best place to run a campaign on ideas and not solely on party labels.

By the "real GOP," I meant to convey the difference between the impression some have of a monolithic machine, and the real forces that work to shape the party.

Why not form an independent party? For one thing, if it's a party, it's not really independent any more. For another, our first-past-the-post voting system fits best with a two-candidate election. Plus, Oklahoma's ballot access laws effectively give Republicans and Democrats a permanent spot on the general election ballot. If we had instant runoff voting and more open ballot access, you might see a large number of factions contending in the general election. Instead, our system encourages the factions to pick a party and fight it out in the primary, to try to get that automatic ballot line in the general election.

I think the grass roots supporters of both major parties have more decentralist and populist values in common than either does with the party establishment that nominally represents it.

In the war hysteria/red scare under St. Woodrow, the genuinely decentralist and libertarian left was largely decimated by New Class "liberals." And the rural cooperativist left was co-opted by the New Deal corporate statists.

Similarly, the traditional form of Main Street conservatism has been co-opted more recently, by the New Right and the neocons, in ways aptly described by Thomas Frank.

But there's always hope for an alliance of the genuine, grassroots left and right against the corporate center. One good example is Murray Rothbard's and Karl Hess's attempted New Left-Old Right alliance ca. 1970. Another is the recent era of good feelings between the Libertarian and Green parties. Yet another is the interesting cross-pollination now going on between the paleos at Chronicles and American Conservatives, lefty decentralists like Kirk Sale, neo-populist Bill Kauffman, and assorted geolib tax shift advocates.

If we ever have a political movement that reflects genuine American values, instead of two alternative flavors of corporatism, it will involve fusing a lot of influences, ranging from the agrarians and distributists on the right to followers of Ivan Illich and Paul Goodman on the left.