Let Us Now Praise Famous Women

Someone – Regina Roundtree, a Woman On Fire -- has conceived the idea of honoring Pat Longo, long one of the principal worker bees in Connecticut’s Republican Party. Of course, she’s much more than that.

Mrs. Longo immediately comes to mind whenever I recall William Faulkner’s tribute to women: “If you have something very important to do, give it to a busy woman.”

On March 1, Mrs. Longo will be honored at a special dinner arranged by Ms. Roundtree at Anthony's Ocean View in New Haven. All the particulars may be found at The Connecticut Black Republicans & Conservative site (CTbrac) here.

Mrs. Longo, who is to receive the 2014 “Lillian Ford Feickert Award,” will find herself in good company.

The keynote speaker of the evening will be Dr. Alveda King, the niece of Martin Luther King Jr.

A former college professor who served in the Georgia State House of Representatives, Dr. Alveda King is a recipient of the Life Prize Award (2011), the Cardinal John O’Connor Pro-Life Hall of Fame Award (2011) from the Legatus organization and the Civil Rights Award from Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) (2011). Dr. King regards the pro-life movement as a continuation of the civil rights struggle. A brave survivor of the Civil Rights Movement -- Her family home in Birmingham Alabama, was bombed, as was her father’s church office in Louisville, Kentucky, and she was jailed during the open housing movement – Mrs. King is singularly unafraid of the usual rhetorical bricks thrown at women presumptuous enough to rise to the defense of unborn children.

Crystal Wight, editor andpublisher of the blog Conservative Black Chick, will receive the “Woman on Fire” award at the event, though she will not be able to attend.

Attendance is mandatory for those in Connecticut who, over the course of the last couple of decades, have “seen the future” as devised by the usual culprits and know instinctively that “it will not work.” Names will be taken of slackers not in attendance. And after the state we all love has slipped into the abyss, nudged over the edge by the reigning power brokers, the list of sunshine patriots will be produced and published in what remains of the state’s free press.

If Connecticut is to be saved, salvation will come from busy women on fire, like Ms. Roundtree, who has given me the opportunity of praising Pat Longo.

Mrs. Longo, as all the right people attending CTBrac’s “Women on Fire” event will know, was elected Connecticut National Committeeman to the Republican National Committee in January of 2007. Prior to that, she had served as Vice Chairwoman of the Connecticut Republican Party for fourteen years. A very busy woman, she has been a fundraiser, grassroots organizer and a delegate coordinator to the Republican National Convention for Connecticut. She has for much of her political career been building up the Connecticut Republican Party, while others in the party, thumb-twittlers, have been watching her from the sidelines building up the Republican Party.

Twenty plus years is a long time to be tending vines in the Republican Party vineyard, and Republicans may be somewhat tardy in doing themselves the honor of honoring Mrs. Longo at the “Woman on Fire” event.

Like many active Republicans in the state, Mrs. Longo is a survivor with just enough conservative cordite in her veins to make her both dangerous and interesting. At the same time, Mrs. Longo is a bridge builder, and an extraordinarily wise woman.

Unless one is Caesar – or Lowell Weicker – one does not want to blow up the bridges that connect the various territories Republicans in the past have staked out for themselves. To have survived Mr. Weicker is no mean accomplishment for the Republican Party.

There is now a great quarrel – which rages mostly in Connecticut’s left of center media, and in the fevered brain of left of center commentators who have taken it upon themselves to advise Republicans how best to become more like them – concerning conservatism in Connecticut verses what one must call, for lack of a better word, “moderatism.” Under the general scheme being pressed upon Republicans by the state’s new progressive left, moderate Republicans are to be tolerated, while conservative Republicans are to be put to the torch. This arrangement, people attending the “Women of Fire” event will notice, has advantaged progressive Democrats, who are – dare I say it? – extremists.

The best answer Republicans can offer to this “trap-door” option – promote “moderate” Republicans who thereafter lose elections to progressive Democrats – is Pat Longo herself, the Pontus Maximus of Women on Fire.

When Mrs. Longo receives the award named after Lillian Ford Feickert -- Vice Chair of the New Jersey Republican Party, president of the New Jersey Woman's Suffrage Association, U.S. Senate candidate, and fearless, tireless, Republican Party organizer – it will be an award well given and appropriately received.

By the way, Republican men who do not fear strong women – nearly all conservatives and not a few non-extremist moderate Republicans – are cordially invited to the event. They will not be burned; the evening will be set alight with good conversation, great food, enlightening speakers; and in the Winter of Republican Party discontent, the illuminating blaze from “Women on Fire” will warm the cockles of their hearts. And should any Democrats who feel alienated by the progressive turn  their party has taken feel inclined to attend, let your heart be your guide -- bring along your fiery wives.