Palin at CPAC: GOP Needs to 'Furlough the Consultants'

Sarah Palin did not mince words when talking about the Republican permanent political class of consultants–even making a reference to Karl “the architect” Rove–that has plagued the party with their timidity and venality: “Furlough the consultants.”

In a thunderously electrifying speech that brought down the house at CPAC on Saturday, Palin urged conservatives to end the top-down approach to picking candidates, tune out the pollsters, and send the focus groups home.

“If we truly know what we believe we don’t need the professionals to tell us,” Palin said. 

She said experts who keep losing and getting hired should run for office themselves. 

“Buck up or stay in the truck,” Palin said. 

In a reference to Karl Rove and the Super PAC he helped create that some claim is aimed at competing with Tea Party candidates, Palin said the “architects can head on back and put their name on the ballot.” She said she would hope some of these consultants would give themselves “discounts” on consulting services. 

Palin criticized the Republican establishment for focusing on processes and aesthetics instead of on concerns of average Americans in the country’s heartland. 

“Rebuilding the party? How about rebuilding the middle class,” Palin said.

She said Republicans talk about “rebranding the GOP” instead of “restoring the trust of the American people.”

Palin said those in Washington, D.C. cannot ignore the middle class, and politicians should come to Washington to “rebuild a country,” not to “dedicate ourselves to new talking points from D.C.” 

“The last thing we need is Washington, D.C. vetting our candidates,” Palin said. “We will never ever win a contest of abandoning principles in a contest of more giveaways,” Palin said. 

Palin said the permanent political class is in “campaign mode,” but conservatives cannot get caught up in “abstract debate” and must focus on the people. 

She urged conservatives to take Margaret Thatcher’s advice and “look at every problem from the grassroots and not from the top looking down” while going “wobbly” on beliefs and conservative principles. She said conservatives could use a leader like Thatcher.

She urged Republicans to focus on the little people who “cling to God, guns, and the Constitution” and lead in a way that makes the Constitution the country’s “guiding light” and “North Star.”