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Tuesday, Nov 24, 2009
Her argument was that you had publicly said you would not support George Bush and therefore you should not be at the convention.
Her argument is a curious one. In order to be certified as a delegate you have to be a District resident, [you have to be] a registered voter by one year in the District of Columbia, and you have to be willing to support the president's nomination at the convention. Obviously I fulfill the first two, and I would vote for Bush's nomination at the convention, so on its face I met the requirements of being a delegate. The issue is, she wanted me to state that I would be supportive of the president in November, a position, frankly, that no other member of the delegation has been asked to swear a blood oath to. Certainly no one -- I'm not an imbecile -- wants their delegates breaking rank. It looks bad and it's embarrassing to have any of your delegates say, "Look, pal, I'm parting company at the end of this party." And that's where I am. I've been very clear I'm not going to support him in November.
Why did you still want to attend the convention as a delegate?
I was willing to support Bush at the convention because my other motivation is the platform. [Catania was supposed to serve on the convention's platform committee.] And it's not just the issues of gay and lesbian civil rights or marriage. I've been elected three times citywide. As a member of the D.C. Council, I have a whole series of urban agenda items I've worked on that include applying Republican principles to urban problems and finding creative solutions that work, and I wanted to be at the convention to talk about how the Republican Party could construct an urban agenda for itself.
The convention serves two purposes: to nominate the president and to articulate what it is the party stands for. I couldn't care less about George Bush. I'm not worried about the next four years; I'm worried about the next 40.
What has the feedback been since last week?
From Republicans and Democrats and independents, I've had nothing but uniform affirmation and approval. I've spent six and a half years trying to build this local party. This was not an easy decision or one I came to lightly. I think I've brought a lot of energy and a lot of enthusiasm to this party, and I'm credited with its growth, so it wasn't easy to leave [my leadership position]. But in the end I just couldn't see any way I could stay.
Some people watching this unfold might say, "Well, wouldn't the same feeling apply to your party affiliation as to your leadership position?" Are you still working on that decision?
Look, this is a process I've never done before. I've never taken a party -- a visceral part of who I've been all my adult life -- and left it and all the people who are associated with it. I've never done this before, and it's an incremental process. At this point I remain a registered Republican, although I have distanced myself from the party apparatus, from the cabal of geniuses who have cooked up ways to exclude Americans. I'm not a part of that anymore. As to whether or not I'll remain in this party, I've got to wait and see what happens in November. If this party continues its 40-year march to the right, then I can't rationalize [staying in] it anymore.
You went down to Austin in April 2000 and met with then-candidate Bush, correct?
Yes.
So at one point you had high hopes for where the party was going in terms of the issues that were important to you, right?
