Category Archives: GOP

Followup to an election

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Our local elections were held yesterday. All-in-all, three of the four candidates that I voted for won and two of the  three city issues that I voted for passed. The third issue passed, too, but I didn’t vote for it. It was too vaguely worded to understand what it was changing, consequently, I voted against it.

In our local school board election, two ‘conservatives’ won plus one flaming lib. In all, I don’t think the slant of the school board has changed. It seems that all the board members roll over to the union and suck up for more state and federal money. I hope the two that I voted for hinder, as much as they can, the slide towards social education indoctrination that masquerades as education.

http://www.freep.com/assets/freep/graphic/C4197855127.JPGIn Jefferson City, Right To Work (RTW) is coming to a vote in the House. Twelve ‘Pubs have said they would vote against RTW. Many of them are dependent on campaign funds from unions and won’t vote against their paymasters.

Burlison seeks outside help in lead-up to ‘right-to-work’ vote

by  • 

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – When a number of Republicans quietly raised objections to taking a vote on ‘right-to-work’ in private caucus meetings, some Republicans decided to increase the pressure from the outside.

More than a dozen Republican members – including Wanda Brown, Paul Curtman, Chuck Gatchenberger, Casey Guernsey, Ron Hicks, Jim Neely, Donna Pfautsch, Craig Redmon, Jeannie Riddle, Noel Shull, Brian Spencer, T.J. Berry Noel Torpey, and Kathy Swan – apparently raised objections to taking a vote on the issue to Rep. Eric Burlison, the bill’s House sponsor, in private meetings.

Burlison slipped much of the whip count to Republicans involved with assisting outside conservative groups. The list was sent in a March 24 email to the lobbyist for the National Federation of Independent Businesses, for example, and other outside groups have relied on the same list. With the information, national interests have increased their pressure as a potential vote in the House seems imminent. .

Groups like FreedomWorks, in the lead up to a potential vote, began targeting lawmakers like Reps. T.J. Berry, R-Independence and Chuck Gatchenberger, R-St. Charles.

They are not the only ones to watch if the bill comes up in the Missouri House. Twenty Republicans voted against ‘paycheck protection’ when it arose in the House last week, a less strict restriction on union activity. The bill passed with just one vote to spare.

It’s going to be a rough legislative session in Jeff City. We’re in a weaker position this year than last year and many (most? all?), of the bills will be vetoed by Jay Nixon. That will drive another veto session next September. It is possible we would have more success this coming September. September leads into the November elections. Perhaps some RINOs, mindful of the coming election will vote to override Nixon’s veto. Or…maybe not.

In any case, we must keep the pressure on even if it means allowing a RINO to lose to a dem. With a dem, we know where we stand. With a RINO, we must be always watchful for the knife in the back. Why bother voting for a RINO when the end result is the same?

I did not vote for a city councilman this election. One was running unopposed. He was a member of the county oligarchy. By that I mean he was a member of a group who wants control of the county regardless of party. This group was responsible for the disastrous Broadband project that wasted millions of county money, a large segment, millions, disappeared and cannot be accounted for. This councilman candidate had no opponent. I still didn’t vote for him. He did receive a couple of hundred votes, I believe.

That’s local politics and, someone said, all politics are local. I agree. Local politics is where the battles begin.

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Twice is a…

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There is an old saying, in a variety of versions, that says, “Once is chance, twice is coincidence, third time is a pattern.” Some attribute the quote to Ian Fleming in Goldfinger. Others attribute it to other sources.

David Jolly, winner of Florida’s 13th Congressional District election.

That quote came to mind this morning with the news of David Jolly’s win yesterday in the race for Florida’s 13th Congressional district. Jolly, the republican candidate, won in a field of three. Opposing him was democrat Alex Sink and libertarian Lucas Overby. Jolly won 48.4 percent of the votes, Sink received 46.6 percent, and also-ran Overby garnered less than 5 percent of the votes.

This is the second time a ‘Pub won a contested race where the democrat candidate was expected to win. “The race [in Florida’s 13th District] was seen as a tossup, though Obama carried the district twice and Alex Sink took it in her failed 2010 gubernatorial bid against Republican Rick Scott,” said David West of the Brookings Institute.

Last summer, the first shoe dropped. Second Amendment supporter Samuel Belsito, running on the ‘Pub ticket, beat a democrat for a Connecticut Congressional seat.

Connecticut’s 53rd House District traditionally has been viewed as safely Democratic. Yet Samuel Belsito, a 70-year-old Republican businessman, broke a 40-year stranglehold last week and won a special election over Democratic candidate Anthony J. Horn. — Washington Times.

What is more interesting is that Belsito won AFTER the Sandy Hook shootings! Despite the panic generated by anti-gun liberals in the state, Belsito broke a 40-year run of democrat control of that House seat.Belsito was the first shoe to drop, Jolly was the second, who will be the third that sets the pattern?

Belsito won by upholding the 2nd Amendment. Jolly won due to his opposition tp Obamacare and his vow to vote to repeal it. I wonder what national issue will be the next one to be tested at the polls? Border Security? Immigration? Amnesty? National Security? Restoration of our military? The list is endless.

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Erick Erickson in Red State today, published an acerbic column lambasting Mitch McConnell. It’s too good to not quote because I agree with it in its entirety.

Judgment and Leadership

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  March 12th, 2014 at 04:30 AM

Charlie Crist, now running as a Democrat for Governor of Florida, could be a United States Senator.

Trey Grayson, now working for a super PAC to elect Democrats, could be a United States Senator too.

Bob Bennett, who joined Democrats to come up with a federal individual mandate, could still be a United States Senator.

Arlen Specter, who recently passed away, could have died still a sitting United States Senator.

David Dewhurst, the moderate to liberal Republican Lieutenant Governor of Texas now struggling to stay elected after a conservative wave through the Lone Star State, could be a Senator.

All of these men were supported by Mitch McConnell either openly or behind the scenes. All of these men are the men McConnell wanted to surround himself with.

Imagine a United States Senate with Charlie Crist and Arlen Specter and without Rand Paul, Mike Lee, and Ted Cruz. That is the United States Senate that Mitch McConnell wanted.

Now McConnell says of the new crop of conservative candidates that he wants to “crush them everywhere.” He calls conservatives traitors, fringe, and drunk.

Mitch McConnell backed Charlie Crist against Marco Rubio.

Mitch McConnell backed Trey Grayson against Rand Paul.

Mitch McConnell backed Bob Bennett against Mike Lee.

Mitch McConnell backed David Dewhurst against Ted Cruz.

Mitch McConnell backed Arlen Specter against Pat Toomey.

It is time to back Matt Bevin against Mitch McConnell.

McConnell and his butt-buddy Boehner both need to go.

 

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Thermometers or Thermostats?

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An alternate title could be, “Act or React.” I read an article this morning in the Washington Times that accurately reflects the state of the GOP. Yes, as expected, if comes down to a confrontation of US vs. THEM.

The ‘US’ in the sentence above is the GOP outside of Washington. The ‘THEM’ is the Washington GOP elite who have lost their goals, focus and independence. All of those elites, at one time or another, espoused conservative viewpoints. However, as soon as they arrived in Washington, those conservative principles fade. Yes, there are a few who still retain those principles, like Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and to a lesser extent Rand Paul and Marko Rubio. But more and more, it seems they are the exceptions rather than the rules.

The Washington elite are thermometers. Cruz, Lee, and others are thermostats. Thermometers react. Thermostats act. It’s a major difference.

Conservatives frustrated by GOP’s compromises, lack of leadership

By Ralph Z. Hallow – The Washington Times, Sunday, March 2, 2014

Prominent Republicans see no evidence that their party’s electoral successes have advanced the cause of limited government and moral governance.

“Today, our party’s leaders act like thermometers measuring the temperature of the electorate. We need to be the thermostats and set the temperature,” said Rob McCoy, pastor of Calvary Chapel, a few minutes’ drive from the Reagan presidential library in Simi Valley, Calif.

For Republicans like Mr. McCoy, who is running for a state Assembly seat, the national party has racked up decades of compromises that have led to relentless government expansion, ever-increasing spending growth, continually mounting national debt and growing intrusiveness into the private lives of Americans.

But it is not solely about the increasing debt, sponsored by both parties. Economist Veronique de Rugy of George Mason University said, “Every president has spent more total real dollars in his last budget than in his first.” She notes.

…Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson increased spending by 38 percent, but George W. Bush, twice elected on a conservative Republican platform, increased spending by 53 percent during his presidency.

“Even Reagan increased total spending by 22 percent” over President Carter, she says on her website. — Washington Times.

The growing trend: spend, spend more, has upset generations of conservatives.  When spending and debt increased geometrically under Obama, no politician, democrat nor republican, escaped scrutiny.

Mrs. Van Etten, an elected Republican National Committee member, rejects the idea that the temperature setters are interested only in blocking action in Washington.

The problem, she said from her Topeka office, is not one of action versus inaction, but that “Republicans [are] being asked to compromise. That implies that we’re meeting the Democrats in the middle. What Republicans are being asked to do is capitulate completely and just give the Democrats everything they want.”

The temperature setters refuse to grant the temperature takers an exclusive franchise on the pragmatic electoral concerns. Oklahoma veterinarian and RNC member Carolyn McLarty contended that the hard-liners’ tactics “have strengthened the base by offering a glimmer of hope that some in Congress have the guts and grit to make a difference.”

Standing fast on principle to block bad legislation no matter the outcome doesn’t automatically conflict with pragmatic goals, said Iowa Republican Party Chairman A.J. Spiker. He insists the Ted Cruz-style filibusters and filibuster threats were not lost causes but rather “much-needed wind in the sails of conservatives.”

Far from voter backlash that the thermometer faction so fears, Missouri Republican Party Chairman Ed Martin said, “Our voters are glad someone is standing up to fight. It is better to fight even when you know you’ll probably lose, because that way our elected Republicans show they take their limited-government promises to voters seriously and are at least taking risks to achieve change.” — Washington Times.

The disconnect between the thermometers and thermostats extend well beyond Washington. The attitude is endemic throughout the GOP at the state and local levels. Fortunately for conservatives, the thermostats, the Tea Party and other grassroots organizations, are, one by one, removing the thermometers at the local and state levels. There are inroads at the federal level as well for Members of the House.

But the Washington view, is a disease that frequently changes thermostats newly arrived in Washington to thermometers. The pressure to ‘go along to get along’ is immense.

My local GOP representative, Vicky Hartzler, is one infected by that disease. She was elected through the efforts of the Tea Party. She ran as a Tea Party candidate and beat long-time democrat representative, Ike Skelton. But soon after she arrived in Washington, Hartzler was advocating near-Trillion Dollar welfare bills masquerading as ag bills. SNAP, aka Food Stamp, comprise nearly 80% of the annual agriculture bill. That is more than $600 Billion dollars in welfare payments. What is Hartzler’s claim to fame in the bill? Removing a $60 Million duplication in a catfish subsidy.

Big Whoop!

Leonard H. Courtney, Lord Courtney, (1832-1918)

Leonard H. Courtney was one of the first to proclaim, “The cost of freedom is eternal vigilance.” Eternal vigilance is always a cost of freedom, whether it is vigilance to insure our national security, to maintain our vigilance against waste, fraud and tyranny by government, or to watch—and replace when required, our representatives in Congress. Vigilance is a duty of all of us, every citizen and voter.

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Taking Sides

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This is an election year and in Missouri, the political season started this past Monday when candidates were allowed to file for state and local offices. This week is also the start of the ‘official’ campaign season although many candidates started campaigning some time ago. For democrats, the season started the day after the last election.

The local pols assembled early Monday morning when the County Clerk’s office opened. All of them, ‘Pub and Dem, were lined up to file. All were well-dressed, prepared for the expected media photos and it was probably the last time candidates of both parties were together in a feigned friendly atmosphere.

Even the factions within the parties were present. On the ‘Pub side, the TIF proponents, those who want to spend the taxpayer’s money in the form of TIFs, were present with their list of candidates opposing the other ‘Pubs who were working to pay off the debts created by those TIF supporters in the past.

TIF financing is a gamble. The supporters of TIF are betting that reducing or forgiving revenue now…and for a number of future years, will produce huge amounts of revenue in the future. The problem with most TIF arrangements is that the local governments must put up front money, funds to expand local infrastructure, roads, water and sewage, with the expectation of pay-back at some point in the future.

What often happens, and has happened in the past, is that when the TIF expires, the businesses enticed to come to our cities and counties, move or threaten to move thus creating a new cycle of negotiations.  The city of Belton nearly bankrupted itself by allowing a large number of TIFs and when the city needed the revenue, it wasn’t there.  Belton had other problems—spending money on a rec center and water park like a drunken sailor (with apologies to members and former members of the US Navy.)

I’m trying to find an accurate label for the TIF spenders. They may claim to be republicans but they don’t follow any of the tenets of conservatism, small government, low taxes, stable budgets and spending only on those items that rightly belong to the county government, not big money-wasting projects like the failed broadband initiative where millions disappeared into the gloom of crony politics.

I note some former county commissioners are now employed by those same companies that defrauded the county. Those companies and individuals are still under investigation by federal agencies but that hasn’t stopped their plans to waste, and maybe skim, a few million of the county’s meager funds.

But the political battles aren’t just at the county level. The GOP is disintegrating. In neighboring Kansas, Dr. Milton Wolf is running against the incumbent Pat Roberts for the US Senate.

Wolf exposed Roberts lack of residency in Kansas. Robert’s residence is, and has been for decades, in Virginia. When he comes back to Kansas, he stays with friends and supporters.

Roberts is a good-old-boy of the GOP Washington establishment. Locally, he is known as the ‘absent’ Senator. The NRSC, supposedly neutral for internal GOP politics, provided opposition research for Roberts against Wolf by disclosing private comments supposedly by Wolf concerning some X-rays. The NRSC then paid a local ‘ethic’s expert’ to moan over the disclosure and berate Milton Wolf. I note it was the NRSC who did the disclosure, not Dr. Wolf. Wolf posted the X-ray to a private group. It begs the question how the NRSC acquired those private comments?

Wolf terminated his social media sites when he decided to run for the Senate. The NRSC had to really dig to find those postings. I wonder who and how much the NRSC paid for the information.

Why has the NRSC become involved in a state race? Because Milton Wolf is a Tea Partier and has the support of various local Tea Party organizations as well as the national Tea Party Express. The Washington GOP establishment, the NRSC, Karl Rove and others, has declared war against their conservative core members, the Tea Party and other grassroots organizations.

GOP_v_TeaPartyThe schism has even extended to the Young Republicans, consisting of strong conservatives. John Weaver, a Young Republican from Texas, and a campaign consultant for John McCain and Jon Huntsman, said in a Tweet, “Tea Party is full of drooling, senile angry bullies who are ‘mad at everything.’” The tweet was subsequently deleted by Weaver. Local Young Republican leaders quickly distanced themselves from Weaver. One described Weaver as ‘arrogant.’

I have been an associate member of the Young Republicans. (Memo to self: renew membership.) I can state that Weaver’s views are not common throughout the organization. However, his remarks do reflect the views of the Washington establishment who are scared to death they will lose their seats of power. In their frenzy, the GOP establishment have allowed themselves to be co-opted by the democrats into being the first line of liberal resistance to conservative opposition against liberalism, socialism and the democrats. Now, conservatives across the country must add another group to fight—the ruling class, the Washington establishment.

When we should be fighting democrats, liberals and socialists, we are spending time and treasure in an internal civil war within the GOP—just what the democrats want most. A party divided cannot win. Karl Rove, the NRSC, the Washington establishment and their tools across the country are willing agents of socialism and tyranny. Unless the conservative unite against them, we are lost.

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Where is the GOP going?

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I’ve written a series of posts about the internal civil war within the GOP. More and more, the GOP DC elites, Boehner, Cantor, McConnell, Cornyn, act in concert with the democrats. The latest fiasco was the debt limit increase.

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION Scene from Game of Thrones and John Boehner.Rather than fight the increase and use it to cut spending, as Boehner and others promised last year during the ‘Continuing Resolution’ battles, Boehner, et. al, dropped all opposition and submitted a ‘clean’, that is no spending cuts, no restraints, as Reid demanded.

Conservatives rally against debt ceiling ‘surrender,’ call for Boehner’s head

11:18 PM 02/11/2014, Alexis Levinson, Political Reporter

The House voted Tuesday to raise the debt ceiling with no conditions attached, and conservative groups are calling for Speaker John Boehner’s head.

The vote was 221-201, with just 28 Republicans joining 193 Democrats to vote for it. Speaker Boehner cast a rare vote in favor of the bill.

But the attacks began before the vote even took place, as soon as it was known that Boehner would bring a no-strings-attached debt ceiling hike to the floor.

“A clean debt ceiling is a complete capitulation on the Speaker’s part and demonstrates that he has lost the ability to lead the House of Representatives, let alone his own party. Speaker Boehner has failed in his duty to represent the people and as a result, it is time for him to go… Fire the Speaker,” said Tea Party Patriots co-founder Jenny Beth Martin in a statement before the vote. The statement linked to a petition to “Fire the Speaker,” and the group’s Twitter account has been tweeting since the vote asking people to call Boehner and tell him to “resign.”

Senate Conservatives Fund had a similar idea.

“John Boehner must be replaced as Speaker of the House,” reads a post on their website from before the vote.

“Instead of fighting for conservative principles, Speaker Boehner has completely surrendered to the Democrats,” the post reads, and the group launched its own petition to “Replace the Speaker.”

Club for Growth lampooned the idea, flagging it as a “key vote” for their rankings of how pro-growth members are.

“When we heard that House leadership was scheduling a clean debt ceiling increase, we thought it was a joke,” wrote Club for Growth Vice President of Government Affairs Andy Roth in an email to House offices before the vote. “But it’s not. Something is very wrong with House leadership, or with the Republican Party. This is not a bill that advocates of limited government should schedule or support.”

For America, another conservative group, also went after the House Republican leadership.

“Republicans have caved again!” reads a post on the group’s Facebook page. “They promised to fight Obama, but they’ve just announced they will raise the debt limit without any conditions … Yet another failure from the GOP and more proof it’s time to dump the leadership!”

The post is illustrated with a photo of Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy.

Freedomworks’ Matt Kibbe dubbed the vote the “Boehner debt hike,” and marked it as a key vote in their score card for members as well.

“Governing with Democratic votes to raise the debt limit with no reforms attached is an all-time low for Speaker Boehner,” Kibbe said in a statement. “Based on reports, the Boehner debt hike spends money we don’t have to increase entitlement spending and grow the debt. In other words, with the money they spend today, they’ll come back and borrow to pay for tomorrow.”

Heritage Action also knocked the bill, urging members to vote against it.

Historically, Boehner does not have a warm and fuzzy relationship with any these groups. In December, Boehner accused outside groups like these — that were criticizing the bipartisan budget deal — of “misleading their followers” and said “they’ve lost all credibility” in the wake of the government shutdown in October.

The GOP is splitting. The latest polls in the Kentucky Senatorial race has McConnell trailing significantly behind his democrat opponent. McConnell will meet a primary opponent, Matt Bevins, a strong conservative with backing from the SCF, Heritage Foundation and numerous grassroots and Tea Party organizations. According to those same polls, Bevins would beat the democrat candidate by a number of points.

It makes sense, to retain the GOP senatorial seat, for McConnell to step down in favor of Matt Bevin. He has refused to do so and apparently would rather lose the seat to the democrats than keep it for the GOP.

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We have similar examples at the state and local levels. The Senatorial Conservative rankings were released over the last weekend. I wrote about it in an earlier post. We have another example of a ‘Pub, Roy Blunt, voting in concert with democrats.

We have more examples within our state legislature. During the veto override session last September, a significant number of so-called ‘Pub Representatives failed to support the veto overrides for bills they had voted for during the earlier regular legislative session. Locally, Donna Pfautsch, Representative for Missouri’s 33rd district, reversed her vote. Her failure to support the MO tax cut bill contributed to the failure to override democrat Governor Nixon’s veto.

When we have ‘Pub legislators supporting the policies of democrats, can we truly call them republicans? All too often, ‘Pubs, instead of opposing democrat lawlessness as exhibited by Nixon and others within Missouri, we have ‘Pubs voting in lock-step supporting the democrats.

That must end.

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UPDATE: Don’t mess with TPs

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I’ve been reporting on the internal civil war within the GOP. Most of the news has not been good for either side. The momentum was driving the GOP towards disintegration.

Over the weekend, a new report arose. The establishment isn’t having such a great time, either. In fact, they’re in more trouble than they admit, especially one of their front men, Karl Rove and his Crossroads GPS PAC.

Donations to Karl Rove’s Groups Drop 98% after Targeting Tea Party

by Tony Lee 1 Feb 2014

After wasting nearly $325 million during the 2012 election cycle with nothing to show for it and then declaring war on the Tea Party, donations to Karl Rove’s three Crossroads groups decreased by 98% last year. The groups reportedly raised a paltry $6.1 million combined in 2013.

Rove runs Crossroads GPS, American Crossroads, and the Conservative Victory Project Super PAC, which was formed this year to wage war against conservatives. Rove’s two groups raised $325 million in 2012 and about $70 million in 2010. As Politico notes, though, “Rove added a third group to the network in 2013, forming the Conservative Victory Project to counterbalance the influence of Tea Party and conservative grassroots forces in GOP primaries.”

Since then, as Breitbart News reported, “Rove’s organization has been so tarnished among the conservative base that candidates fear donors will not contribute to any group associated with him.” Aware of this, Rove’s Crossroads network has reloaded with groups that share donors but are technically not affiliated on paper with them.

All three of the groups “are permitted to accept unlimited corporate and individual contributions,” and donations to Crossroads GPS, a nonprofit, are even tax deductible.

My first thought was, “Who are these hidden donors?” Could the be Soros and or Bloomberg? Just wonderin’.

UPDATE: FEC Contribution Reports

Friday was the deadline for PAC reports to the FEC. One such report revealed the massive income loss for Karl Rove’s PACs. But Karl Rove wasn’t the only PAC affected.  Bottom line: the GOP establishment isn’t doing well on the revenue front.

GOP War on Conservatives Backfires

by Mike Flynn 2 Feb 2014

On Friday, every political campaign had to file its 2013 year end report with the FEC. The reports delivered two big surprises. The Democrats are dominating the Republicans in fundraising. More surprising, perhaps, though, is that Tea Party and conservative SuperPACs raised around three times as much as GOP establishment SuperPACs. The DC GOP may have started the war against the Tea Party, but it won’t finish it. 

Not long after their stunning losses in 2012, Karl Rove and other establishment Republicans announced a new effort to engage in primaries to ensure the “right” candidates got the party’s nomination. Rove and the party leadership argued that the party lost because of “flawed”, i.e. too conservative, candidates. There were indeed some flawed candidates in 2012, but far more establishment, “electable” candidates went down to uninspiring defeat. 

The GOP attack on the Tea Party came about for two reasons. The first was to deflect from the massive defeat suffered by Rove and other GOP consultants. Rarely in the history of mankind have so many resources been squandered so spectacularly. Perhaps the more important reason, though, is that the Tea Party movement is becoming a serious thorn in the side of Washington insiders. 

The movement has effectively ended earmarks. It threatens any corporatist giveaway. It calls out cronyism in both parties. It demands that Congress repeals ObamaCare, while business interests would rather “fix” the law to push the obligation for health benefits onto the government. More importantly, though, it wants rational immigration reform that doesn’t simply flood the market with cheap labor as business would desire. 

Whatever strategy the DC GOP is employing, though, is clearly backfiring. All the official Democrat campaign committees collectively raised around $200 million in 2013. The Republican committees raised just over $170 million. This disparity comes when the GOP hold on the House is solid and the party stands a very real chance of taking control of the Senate. It ought to be swimming in donations. The long-standing GOP advantage on fundraising has evaporated. 

Except.

The most interesting data from Friday’s reports is the surging financial strength of conservative SuperPACs. Karl Rove’s three SuperPACs collectively raised $6.1 million last year. The Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund, where I am Political Director, alone raised $6.4 million. The four largest conservative SuperPACs raised $20 million. GOP establishment SuperPACs raised just over $7 million. 

Donors haven’t stopped giving. They have just stopped giving the Republican party. 

The existential flaw in the party’s self-declared war against conservatives of the Tea Party is that they represent the base of the party. As the Whigs will tell you, a party should not ignore the convictions and sentiments of its most loyal members. 

Keep in mind, this shift away from the GOP to more conservative organizations occurred even before the irrational attempt of GOP leadership to push through an amnesty bill. Conservatives were lectured that the government shutdown was ill-adivsed because it “distracted” from the failures of “ObamaCare.” 

Okay. So, while the country is fully understanding the failures of ObamaCare, the establishment GOP wants to pivot to an issue championed by President Obama and Chuck Schumer? Serious question: Are they trying to blow the midterms?

What is most fascinating about the FEC reports is that is almost no longer matters what the GOP does. There are new people in town. For the last four years they have had the grass-roots. Now, they also have the money. 

This just makes me smile!

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News from the Front for Jan 27 2014

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There appeared a column in Red State over the weekend that reports on the continuing internal civil war between the ‘Pub establishment in Washington and the party’s core constituents. In this latest report, Red State discloses the plan for the establishment to roll-over on immigration.

This is What the GOP Establishment Thinks of You

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  January 26th, 2014 at 10:49 AM

It is very easy to avert our eyes from the painful reality that is confronting us within the Republican Party.  We would all love to cheer on a GOP victory in the midterm elections, win back the Senate, and live happily ever after.  But as Republicans gear up for the week of amnesty, they have made it clear that the entire purpose of a Republican majority is to push the most important priority of the Democrat Party.

This is why we need to change the party in the primaries.

GOP leadership is now fully aware of our growing effort to elect Republicans who believe in the party platform, and according to the Wall Street Journal, they will time their amnesty bills accordingly:

“House leaders hope to bring legislation to the floor as early as April, the people close to the process said, after the deadline has passed in many states for challengers to file paperwork needed to run for Congress. Republican leaders hope that would diminish chances that a lawmaker’s support for immigration bills winds up sparking a primary-election fight.”

So this is what the party leaders think of the people who rebuilt the party since 2010 after it was destroyed during the Bush years.

There is only one obvious response to this malevolent attitude on the part of party leadership.  If they want to pass amnesty after the primaries under the pretense that we will already be on the plantation, we must commit to withholding support from any amnesty supporter even in a general election.

For years, I’ve always felt that no matter how low the GOP has sunk it was still worth voting for any Republican in a general election.  Whenever my dad would suggest that we stay home in the general, I would always have something to point to – some horrible policy that would evolve from Democrat control of government unless Republicans remained in power. But that time has passed.

What will happen if the Democrats are in charge?  We already have Obamacare, and Republicans have committed to preserving it.  We already have record debt, and Republicans have committed to raising the debt ceiling.  And now Republicans are pushing the most destructive Democrat policy of all – perennial open borders, a permanent Democrat majority, and the ballooning of the welfare state.

This pending amnesty push, which will also double our record low-skilled legal immigration, will change our economy and society forever.  There is no way we could overcome the electoral juggernaut engendered by open borders.  At some point we need to draw a line in the sand and fight back against this cynical ploy.  If the undocumented Democrats in our party wish to pass amnesty after the primaries, we should not grant them amnesty in the general election.

What’s the worst that can happen?  A Democrat majority?

That’s exactly where we are headed if we don’t fight this maniacal push for immigration deform.

Game on.

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Red State provided the list below of conservative candidates who are running, in the upcoming primaries, against establishment ‘Pub politicians. Let’s help all of these conservatives beat their establishment opponents.

We all strongly believe in the rationale for a viable second party.  We can’t function with an oligarchy.  That is why we must all spend the next 4-7 months fully engaged in the primaries.  This is our party and it’s time to take it back.  Here are some candidates we can support and send a big message in the primaries:

  • Kentucky Senate: Matt Bevin challenging GOP establishment king, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (donate here)
  • Kansas Senate: Milton Wolf challenging Senator Pat Roberts (donate here)
  • Mississippi Senate: Chris McDaniel challenging Senator Thad Cochran ( donate here)
  • Louisiana Senate: Rob Maness challenging Democrat Senator Mary Landrieu and establishment Republican Bill Cassidy (donate here)
  • Idaho House District 2: Bryan Smith challenging RINO Mike Simpson (donate here)
  • Georgia Senate: Paul Broun running against a number of establishment candidates (donate here)

From Red State.

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If you read my posts last week and read the news, you’ll remember the RNC held a strategy meeting at a ‘secret’ location. The meeting, supposedly, was to plan a strategy to win this year’s congressional elections. Instead, they chose to discuss plans for the 2016 election and came up with a plan to lose win that one.

Reince’s Solutions Miss the Mark

By C. Edmund Wright, January 27, 2014

In typical establishment fashion, Reince Priebus and the wizards at the RNC have looked at the last presidential nomination cycle and learned the wrong lessons.  They have concluded that not allowing Mitt Romney a smooth coronation was the problem, and they are out to make sure their anointed one never has to face that again.  As such, the prescriptions for change recently announced by Priebus will only make things worse.  This is what happens when a national party is isolated from — and igorant of — its nation.

Yes, the debates did become a series of shameless food fights as the process unfolded — and something should be done about that.  But what exactly?  One might think that the establishment consultants would look in the mirror and figure out that it was they, and their candidates, who made it so.  As long as the debates were focused on the problems of Obama and liberal judges, liberals in Congress, liberal academics, liberal unions, and liberals in the media, the debates were awesome.  We needed more of those debates.  Of course, only Herman Cain, and at two different times Newt Gingrich, had this figured out.

It was precisely this strategy that propelled each to the lead in the national polls — Cain in November and early December 2011, and then Newt once in December of 2011 and again during the South Carolina primary week in 2012.  Both men hammered only the opposition, while the others threw food at each other.  Who can forget the absurd over-the-top attacks from Michele Bachmann on Rick Perry’s vaccination program, not to mention the argument Perry and Romney had about  who was mowing whose yard?

Had any of these candidates, or their overpaid, under-observant consultants, taken a big-picture look at what was going on, it would have been obvious that the voters were craving only two things: a plan for beating Obama, and then a plan to undo his damage once that was accomplished.  Cain and Newt, neither with any money, both rocketed to the top of the heap by doing just this and by complimenting the other Republicans.  Newt was especially effective, often taking down self-righteous journalists like Juan Williams and John King in the process of exposing the intellectual bankruptcy of liberalism.

The other campaigns?  Not so much.

The Mitt Romney money machine, which spent 99% of its ad budget in Florida savaging Newt — while ignoring the word “Obama” and even the name “Mitt” — was primarily responsible.  But then again, so were Ron Paul, Rick Santorum, Bachmann, Perry, and Jon Huntsman once Newt had gained a 14-point lead in Iowa.  Unfortunately, Newt responded to this surreal 6-against-1 attack poorly, too, resorting to the foolish “Bain Capital” attack ads in Iowa and New Hampshire — and then joining Romney in the gutter in Florida.

So what happened in between New Hampshire and Florida?  South Carolina happened.

And in the Palmetto State, the path to victory was demonstrated.  The week of the campaign, including the Monday/Thursday debate schedule, was a week-long attack by conservatism against liberalism.  Newt stole the show, simply because he is better at this than any of the others, but Newt is not the point.  The message is the point, and they all were on message in South Carolina.  The result was a 13-point win for Newt, but more than that, it was a win for the GOP.  Turnout and interest skyrocketed, with the former exceeding 2008 by 35%.  They all won.  Conservatism won.  Liberalism lost.

The message of South Carolina was the winning message, and had Romney — or any candidate — carried that message into November, Barack Obama would likely be retired in Hawaii by now.  Perhaps this is why Republicans gain the White House only when they nominate the S.C. winner.  The message in S.C. was also similar to the organic message of the 2010 midterms, and not far from the 1994 midterm message as well.  (For the record, those were the two best elections for Republicans in modern history.)

In Florida two days later, at the Monday debate, that message was totally jettisoned.

In fact, Florida, and the entire campaign thereafter, showed the GOP establishment at work in typical form: using shock and awe against conservatives while tiptoeing around the real opposition.

The column continues at the website. You can read it all…here.

Instead of attacking the democrats, their policies and agenda, the GOP is planning to repeat the failures of the past. It wasn’t their attacks on fellow GOP candidates that lost the election. No, it was the date of the convention. Romney didn’t have enough time to campaign against Obama.

Reince Pridbus conveniently forgot Romney had nearly 18 months to campaign against Obama. Instead, following the orders from the RNC, he chose to campaign against fellow ‘Pubs.

Once again, the GOP is planning to fail.

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