Keep on this like a bulldog, Erick. Until we gut the national GOP of the insider leeches it’s infested with, the Party will continue to bleed money and lose elections.

We need more at the county level in many states, to flip swing counties and leans D counties to our column. Getting decent sized counties to have a more professional organization would deliver us more congressional seats and Deeper Benches.

Thanks for naming names and connecting the dots.

Now, if we want to change this, we’ve got to elect to the state committee chairs and to the state national committeeman and committeewoman slots better, more conservative, Republicans.

To do that, we conservatives have to get inside the Party, into its “voting member” slots — the precinct level voting slots.

For example, tonight I was at my legislative district 18 committee meeting, where we elected new officers and our allotment of state committeemen. Each district gets one state committeeman for every three elected precinct committeemen. Those of us conservative PCs who knew one another fairly well compared notes and came up with a list of 83 (our full allotment) truly conservative PCs that we agreed to vote for. I had to leave before those ballots were counted, but we think we will be sending 83 “true conservatives” to our AZ GOP annual meeting where we hope we will elect again a “true conservative” to the AZ GOP chairmanship and to all of the other officer slots.

If we conservatives want to make our Party’s apparatus, at the local, county, state and national committee levels, then we have to get “inside” the Party. Priebus was elected by the precinct committeemen all across this country, who elected, indirectly, the state chairmen and the national committeemen and committeewomen.

Don’t you want to have a vote?

Thank you.

CW
http://theprecinctproject.wordpress.com

My issue with the gay marriage thing is courts deciding the issue. If a state decides to recognize it, through a proposition, then there is not as big of a problem. I think for many is using the word marriage may be the problem, if the legal term was different would that make a difference to you?

As Christians we are to hate the sin, but still love the sinner. Even Christ ate with sinners and preached to sinners. When questioned about that he called the Pharisees hypocrites. I think it is better to follow Christ’s example than yours. And, since we are all sinners, it hardly behooves us to throw stones. In the Lord’s Prayer Jesus asked that we be forgiven our trespasses “as we forgive those who trespass against us”. And in the Sermon on the Mount he said we are not to judge lest we be judged. And, blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy. I believe the opposite is true also–that the condemning will be condemned. First cast the beam out of thine own eye. We each have sins enough to grant a little mercy to our fellow humans.

The old adage is “The love of money is the root of all evil,” not money itself.

Sounds like a mini version of Washington in general. Consultants/lobbyists hijack an institution, take whatever they think is theirs, and then try to convince us they had everyone’s best interest at heart.

Its nice to do all this backward looking but what are the Republicans doing for the future? The democrats are grooming the mayor of San Antonio to run for governor of Texas in the 2014 election so he will be in position to run for president in 2016. He also was the keynote speaker at the damicrat convention. Who are the republicans grooming; John Boehner? Campaigning for the next election started November 7, 2012 and in some cases before. Republicans will continue to sit around and play the woe is me game and then wonder why they lost the next election.

Incest is repugnant — political or otherwise. These political perverts need to be exposed and driven from the party but it will never happen with people like Priebus and Larson in charge. From one pervert to another…

Wow, great reporting.

Very depressing though. If Republicans can’t even root out corruption in THEIR OWN PARTY HEADQUARTERS, how can we expect to do so in the government?

Ho Hum, the Republican establishment is not only spineless and ineffective, but now it is also corrupt.

Erick, yesterday I had offered a critique (“I’m not sure what the Republicans stand for in Congress” article) of the tendency of this website to focus on GOP sins and made a short summation of why I, and millions of like-minded conservatives have left the GOP to vote Constitutional Party, Libertarian, or Independent. And to further illustrate my point, your lead story today is yet another indictment of the Republican Party and its establishment. As evidenced by the comments herein, the readers are all worked up about “what did Romney know and when did he know it, money is at the root of all evil, we need to get rid of the national consultants, etc. etc.” This is all well and good but how exactly does this help advance the cause of restoring the Republic to its foundational principles?

Which leads me to my main question as a new reader of and commentor to this website: What precisely is the purpose of this blog?

It appears, based on the numerous blog articles, that your focus is that of a watchdog / public conscious for the GOP establishment, and to that end, you do an excellent job of highlighting its many problems. I respectively submit, however, that the job of saving the American Republic is far more pressing and important than trying to save the Republican Party, and that you are barking up the wrong tree if you feel that the GOP must first be saved before you can save the Republic.

Sunlight is the best disinfectant against this kind of cancerous disease. Excellent Reporting Erick. These corrupt Establishment Republicans need full exposure to the light of day.

Apparently we were not aware of “moles” in the party elite BEFORE the final death blow on November 6, 2012. I see.. so what do We The People do? Vote our conscience in the next election? I thought that’s what we did in THIS ELECTION. I say give in to the majority mandate, allow them… on the “other” side to have all they want, let them implement the desired result, because in the end when everybody’s love of money is spent then just maybe we can get back to the fundamentals that made a Great Exceptional Nation… A GREAT AND EXCEPTIONAL NATION. Good ideas have never come from the collective, but always the individual who had better ideas. From candlestick mentality to vacuum tubes, from carriages to automobiles, bicycles to airplanes, someone had to invent a way out of the collective nightmare of Mob Rule. The mob has made it’s voice heard…. So again… what do We the People do? Can anybody “man-up”… it’s obvious billions of campaign bucks didn’t sway the MOB?

My liberal, left-wing, usually non-believing, friends toss these New Testament “chestnuts” my way all the time. But not once has any one of them pointed out that:

* Jesus threw out the money changers — quite forcefully, in fact.

* After her accusers slunk away one by one, Jesus sent away the adulterous woman with the admonition that she “not sin again”.

My liberal friends’ game is pretty obvious: ensure that they (and the left) do what they please especially on the social engineering front without anyone’s “judgement” on the merits of the scheme and without any complaints (generally dubbed “condemnations”) from the likes of conservatives like me.

The key point is that the autopsy needs to be overseen by someone who is independent. However the challenge is that you need someone or someones who can get down into the weeds and know the right questions to ask. Getting both things may easier said than done.

See, now this is kind of funny. I can’t *really* ban you on sight, per se, for suggesting that it’s impossible to be for same-sex marriage while being a conservative. I mean, sure you’ve just personally insulted people like Dick Cheney and myself, but it’s not really auto-banworthy.

But I CAN ban you on sight for having a disposable email account!

Isn’t that just HYSTERICAL?

People don’t like big government or no government. They also don’t want to drown government in the bathtub, but they mostly want to keep it in the bathroom.

This happens every 4 years with the Republicans. These eastern seaboard leeches come in dressed as some form or another of “consultants” and syphon off much of the contribution money given by average American voters. It never stops! These Vampires get theirs always before any party considerations or candidate support needs. I know that this happens in both parties but it stinks like old Vampire blood stinks. Plus this consulting really is bad when it contributes to losing an election.

oh my, there IS a lot of work to do.

:::head explodes:::

Truth. I agree a lot of the consultant class cares more about getting paid than getting their employer elected, but with what do we replace them? Maybe that will be Erick’s next piece because you did just raise a good, worthwhile AAR point.

Businesses hire and fire people every day without a ratings system.

You just need to have common sense here.

Does anyone have a link to names of the RNC natl committee men and women? I’ve written to ours asking him to oppose Priebus if he runs again, or at least not support him. I would suggest others do the same.

If I may say so, part of the problem with reducing cronyism in Republican campaigns is the fact that very few Republican campaigns are willing to accept any outsiders to do any of their work. It’s a very incestuous relationship because newcomers and people who are more truly independent are treated with relentless suspicion.

A housecleaning is in order and what should happen in the next election cycle is that Republicans should diversify their choices. I’d be happy to help.

Going with someone different doesn’t mean going with someone who doesn’t support the candidates or who will be unprofessional or ineffective. They’re just not looking hard enough and protecting their *ss(ets).

Erick, thanks for this article. I worked as a volunteer for Romney and Ryan in Virginia. Even the volunteers that worked the phones with me thought Romney should have been more aggressive in his campaign speeches. The coordinator in the “Victory Center” said that all the consultants said that independent voters and women didn’t like aggressive candidates. This seemed odd to us, but we deferred. After the election, I sent a note to the RNC asking that they remove me from all their data bases as I would not be contributing or donating to that organization in the future. I also stated that I no longer feel the RNC represents me. I am now beginning to see in your blog what I felt must be going on inside the RNC and, maybe, with Republican leadership. Before we win elections again, the current staff at the RNC as well as McConnell and Boehner need to go. My two cents.

Link to the RNC. Click on your state to find out who your committeeman/woman is.

http://www.gop.com/members/

We’re pretty good at pissing off the establishment idiots.

“conservativethought” apparently doesn’t put much “thought” into his posts. He blew himself up on another thread.

Good to know. I can stop holding my breath on CW’s account for that apology.

Please go on . . .
I would think most potential candidates wouldn’t even know where to start on evaluating a prospective consultant. It’s hard to compare consultants when you aren’t even sure what they do.
Businesses, on the other hand, know their business and know what they want their employees to do. Candidates running for federal office for the first time have no experience on which to base decisions.
So, what is common sensical when hiring a political consultant?

Your comment presumes first time candidates know what they are getting into when they file for federal office. I suggest that they do not. I’m not talking about running for president. More like running for Congress for the first time.

Sounds like someone is jealous that he didn’t get any of the money! HA!

Then let’s stop hiring novices as federal candidates because they’re TROO KONSURVATIFES.

I have come to the conclusion that the Republican Party is the single biggest cause of the spread of socialism in the Western world. The last sucessful Presidential candidate that he GOP nominated was Ronald Reagan. People say what about George Bush. GHW Bush was elected because of teh sucess of Reagan. GW bush was eleted by accident. The GOP never wanted Reagan to start with and has deliberatley moved away from anything Reagan ever since. Evertime a good conservative candidate comes along the GOP wages war on them. Karl Rove, Micheal Steele, Boehner, mcConnell and McCain are the leadeers of the pack and they are nothing more than Liberal republicans which is just a hair better than a liberal Democrat. The only time the party mentions conservative is when it is election time and then they lie about it just toget elected. I hve been a conservative Repoublican for 50 years but as of Nov. 6th no more. I am disavowing anything to do withthe GOP. Ithought we could take it back but th=at won’t work. we have to form a strong thrid Paraty and bury the GOP.If we can’t then how is your Russian and Chinese.

And Reince Priebus needs to go. The guy is an absolute disaster as GOP chairman. He basically did two things to improve our chances of winning this year: 1. jack, and 2. squat.

I attended our monthly local county Republican meeting earlier this week. Our speaker was the President of the Young Republicans organization at our local public university (about 30,000 students). He had some VERY interesting things to say that most of us older folks were suprised to hear. His primary focus in the talk was to address the huge Obama support that came from young voters.

He gave us some shocking statistics on the huge difference in funding directly to college campuses throughout the nation from the DNC and the RNC. Many state and/or campus Democratic organizations received several million dollars as opposed to Republican groups like his which received a couple of thousand. He said in Texas, the state organizations were funded about 10 to 1; 1.2 million to Dems and about 200K to Reps. According to this young man, those funds allow campus Dem groups to send (scholarship) many more delegates to their state and national conventions, buy t-shirts and bumper stickers, hold lots of parties/events to increase enthusiasm for, and participation in, campaigning and voting, run liberal issue-based ads in the school newspapers – basically just fund all kinds of young-people-targeted GOTV operations. Think about it – if you are an easily influenced young college student who has not yet developed any basic core economic values and the Dems offer you all expensed paid 3 day trips with your friends to an out-of-town convention/rally; all the Republicans are offering is an opportunity to pay your own way to participate in something “meaningful” – which do you think they choose? I’d like to think that my kids were taught enough conservatism at home to choose the latter but reality check says they probably just wouldn’t do either one. Those that have not been taught conservatism at home (heaven knows they don’t get it in the public school system) just go with where the fun times are – AND probably hear the liberal talking points loud and long enough that it becomes the only “truth” to them.

I asked him if he thought ignorance and a lack of understanding of basic constitutional and economic principles were part of the problem and he answered most definitely yes. He said they had tried to come up with ways to educate the masses but they were having a very difficult time getting approval to sponsor conservative speakers or events on campus because the liberal leadership in the University put up roadblocks that they just couldn’t seem to fight – not enough numbers and not enough money. Understand that this is happening in a small town that went 68% for Romney – imagine how much worse this could be in a liberal community. Someone else asked if the Dems were also roadblocked in holding liberal events and his answer to that was also surprising. He said they (Young Republicans) had basiclly managed to run off the Young Democrats a couple of years ago after a couple of key people graduated. BUT there are numerous issue-oriented liberal groups on campus that have been growing in numbers that are constantly holding special meetings/events to promote their particular cause(s). For example, the anti-gun group, several environmental groups like Sierra Club and an anti-global warming group, even one called “Support the EPA” (no kidding!). These groups seem to have no problem getting liberal professors or deans as sponsors and they aren’t deemed “political” organizations – i.e. not associated with a particular party, so they were able to get approval for anything they wanted to do.

Money and media. Still the problem. Even (especially?) with the young vote. Conservatives are NOT getting the message out. EE’s article just highlights how our money is going to the wrong places – like consultants not producing results? After 2008, our family no longer donates to the RNC – our funds go directly to conservative candidates. Louie Gohmert and Ted Cruz won. Romney did not. GOP needs to be cleaned out – from top to bottom.

The problem with liberals, even those who claim to be believers, is that they begin with premises which are false. One of the biggest is the Jesus meant someone else, not them.

My big problem with so-called believers like Conservativethought is that they are selective in the beliefs. And, that they give credence to the canard that conservatives are haters; when real conservatives should be among the most loving and caring of people. By spewing hatred, he/she tars us all with that brush, thus making it harder to win others to our way of thinking.

Now, I am not sure if you are trying to lump me in with your “liberal, left-wing, usually non-believing, friends” or not, but I am not trying to duck responsibility for my actions. Nor, am I trying to excuse anyone else’s. We all make choices and we have to live with the consequences of those choices. But, Jesus specifically called people to repentance, and chided them when they resisted or refused. He called a spade a spade, and, as you pointed out, adjured them to “sin no more”. But, he still loved them and as the Parable of the Prodigal Son points out, would have welcomed them back into the fold. And, that is what I was trying to point out to Conservativethought, but maybe my brain, and therefore my writing, weren’t clear enough in the early morning hours. I apologize if I have misconstrued your missive.

I am so depressed. We should be funding stuff at the grassroots level like you’re saying instead of wasting a lot of money on tv ad buys that don’t make a difference.

My head is still spinning from trying to figure out this little web. God…what is the matter with people just “keeping it simple”…tell the truth, have a plan, explain the plan wherein EVERYONE understands it and get these hacks out of here. I just read an e-mail … well not really a website wherein prominent names are talking about secession … I was scared to think about another Obama re-election…now I’m getting more terrified about who could counter Obama if the ship sunk. I know…you guys think I am melodramatic…but really…I just read this thing and now I read this.

The last four years of the GWB administration made me a little suspicious of what the heck was going on…too much money being spent…bigger government. You think they would have learned. But…who winds up the biggest victim…the American people…whether they voted for Obama (because he will sell anyone out) or Romney…because he didn’t know enough to keep it clean.

Neil, I’m with WY_Cowboy on this one.

If a candidate, truuuuuuue
conservative or not, wants to start his campaign with the simple task
of verifying that a potential consultant’s given him an accurate
CV/resume and has properly disclosed his conflicts of interest, how does
he do that? There is currently NO objective database he can use even
for that simple task.

Do you think Angie’s List, FICO scores,
ApartmentRatings, etc.are useful for people engaged in the respective
transactions where they don’t know the other party? Are
inspector-general reports about a military unit useful for determining
its combat effectiveness? Is Heritage Action’s rating system useful in
primaries? If so, why the disdain for the possibility that candidates
and the conservative cause might benefit from third-party ratings?

Yes,
the details and integrity of such a rating system are vitally important
to get right. But even a pretty good consultant rating system is better
than nothing at all.

I haven’t read all the comments, but this is exactly what we conservatives must do.

Last night, for example, my legislative district committee, LD 18 in AZ, had its organizational meeting. Every two years, by statue, those of us who are elected precinct committeemen must meet and elect new officers and elect state committeemen. Because we have a majority of conservatives in the PC slots (some are RINOs, some are Ron Paul people), all of our new officers are conservatives and all of our state committeemen (each LD gets one state committeeman for every three elected PC slots, and just over 50% of our PC slots are filled (each precinct gets one Republican PC slot (provided there’s at least one registered Republican voter in the precinct), and then one more for every additional 125 registered Republicans in the precinct (or majority portion thereof)).

So why is this significant? Because when our elected PCs go to our county organizational meeting on Jan. 12, we’ll be voting on officers there. Some of those officers are also members of our state committee. If we send a majority of conservative PCs to that meeting, we have a greater chance of electing conservative officers. Right now, there are two slates of candidates running — one is truly conservative, the other is a bunch of RINOs pretending to be conservative.

After the county meeting, our state committeemen will go to the state organizational meeting. Same thing — we’ll have some “establishement” RINOs masquerading as conservatives, backed by McCain, McKyl, and McFlake, and some true conservatives running for the officer slots.

Majority rules. If a majority of the state committeemen who show up (in person or by proxy), we’ll elect the conservative candidates; if not, our next chairman and the officers will be RINOs.

Want to change the RNC? Want real Republican debates moderated by conservatives? Want real conservatives running the RNC?

The become a precinct committeeman. About HALF of the Republican PC slots across the nation are vacant.

Every hear Reince Priebus implore conservatives to become PCs? Ever hear an incumbent Republican of any stripe advocate this? Every receive a mailer from a candidate or the RNC, NRSC or NRCC imploring you, not to give money, but instead to get involved with your local Party committee as a precinct committeeman?

Ever wonder why?

Thank you.
CW
http://theprecinctproject.wordpress.com

If y’all think you know a way to make it work, then by all means, have fun storming the castle.

But have fun getting all the blame the first time you let one slip through the cracks, when your rating system enables the poor decision making to continue.

The reason the Republicans lost is because people don’t like to hear the bickering. They don’t like being reminded of the myriad faults of individuals in the party. Nothing’s changed since they lost the election when we are seeing headlines like “incestuous bleeding.” Also the Republicans message will never get out because the mainstream media won’t report it. The liberal media always looks for dissension in the Republican ranks to report on and ignores any failings with the Democrats. Romney was “Goldwatered” – ignored and marginalized so no young person would hear any positive thing he had to say. The Dems complained about McCarthyism. Well they turned the tables and they’ve been virtually doing the same thing to the Republicans for decades. I see a blacklisting of Republicans in Hollywood. Only those like Clint Eastwood who succeeded in his career in the 60s can compete with the them. And any aspiring actor claims to be liberal. They know they have to in order to achieve success in that liberal town. Marginalize the mainstream media and maybe you’ll get your message out.

Did you ever hear of the Tea Party and Direct Mail firm Target Marketing and Conservative HQ headed by Richard Viguerie, “The Funding Father” who has raised over $7 billion for conservative causes including Ronald Reagan?
Viguerie could do wonders with the Direct Mail letters he creates. The simple minded solicitation letters sent by the RNC insult one’s intelligence and demonstrates their cavalier incompetence.