We’ve had an internal conversation among the contributors about RedState headed into 2009. I’m very interested in your thoughts. Below are my thoughts, edited from an email exchange:

• We remain up front as a site that you must be pro-life to write on our front page.  That gives us credibility within the movement others lack.

• Talk to most reporters, Hill staffers, etc. in D.C. and a pattern becomes clear: RedState has become one of those places that has the power to direct the conversation on side.

• We remain the only right-of-center community online that caters more to the grassroots than the inside the beltway crowd.  And it is, more or less, a conversational community.

• We are the most widely read right of center blog on Capitol Hill.

With those four factors comes a position to lead and influence the conversation, the candidates, etc.  So here’s where I want us to head:

1.  A concerted focus on politics, candidates, and campaigns as they start brewing.  We do have enough room on the front page to really cover what is going on at the party level in states, look at up and coming candidates, and also target Democrats.  If we can’t do it all, we should really be encouraging new diarists to write about these issues.  People trust RedState to pick solid, viable candidates.  We were out front on Tom Rooney in FL-22 before most others.  We got behind Pete Olson in the primary.  We must maintain our integrity in dealing with candidates and politicians.

2.  Building the media narrative against Obama and the Democrats.  We have a unique position to do this.  We have a number of people on the front page who are much more inclined to write about policy than day to day politics.  Those with this area of interest will be needed here.  We must build the case against Obama’s policies and agitate in favor of ours.  I know there has been some discussion about pushing this off the front page. Let me be very clear here: we cannot encourage people to back candidates or policies if we’re not going to talk about the policies those candidates support and the policies we are in favor of.  We must use the front page to motivate and activate our readers, but we must do so through education, both about the people and the policies.  Take a page from Blackhedd on this: he’s got readers who email me if he hasn’t posted in a few days to make sure he’s okay.  The education and explanation in his posts draw us an audience we’d otherwise not have.  Once they are at RedState, they get engaged throughout the site.  Same with Pejman and his overnight hits.  The site would not be the site but for knowing at sunrise there will be 3 to 7 Pejman posts.  And then there is a whole group of users who have improved their commenting skills at the site by watching Moe engage, poke, and needle.  The education and conversation are integral points to drive enough traffic for us to accomplish point 1.

3.  Build the enemies list database.  We must attack the personalities inside the Obama administration and the way they conduct business.   We must document all the people, their connections, and their evils so that when the GOP does take back over at least one House of Congress we will have all the data for them to begin their meddlesome investigations into the Obama White House.  Just as importantly, we’re going to want to track money and people like Tim Gill as they start funding state legislative races for 2010.

4.  Educate on Activism.  We ought to have a post a week or every other week on how to file an FOIA request, how to do an open records request in a state, where local GOP meetings are taking place, etc.  A calendar on the new site would be excellent to help accomplish some of these things.  Posts on campaign strategy, etc. would serve us well, even if it means we have to go outside the normal list of contributors to get something cooking.

5.  Take point 4 and foster some independent, investigative news.  We should be uncovering dirt and encouraging our readers to do so.  We build traffic by reporting new information, not just pontificating.  There is news to be found out there.  And we need to free up our readers to explore in those areas, making sure they feel welcome even if they have only a limited interest in other things.

6.  Take online offline and vice-versa.  This is the most important in my mind.  We have got to get our readers connecting offline and reporting back online.  We should provide the tools for online collaboration of offline activities.  If I had to prioritize everything all of us have said we want with the coming site revision, our number one project should be this: a tool whereby we can connect our users in each state with each other.  This also means we ought to encourage some offline activities among readers.  At the same time, we need to work with local groups to push them toward RedState.  It’s not just enough to have state by state collaboration.  We need to also work toward issue by issue collaboration.  Over all of this must come the idea of engaging our readers and letting there be some organic growth within RedState.  We’re going to have the ability to let multiple readers co-write a single RedState blog, we might as well let them. Free up our readers to do great things through the site — let us be the hub and facilitator, then get the hell out of the way and let our readers have fun together.

7. An army of activists. We’re going to have to grow our army of activists. We’ll use the email blasts. We’ll start doing SMS messaging. We’ll integrate tools to contact Congress, etc. But we also need to find our kickass technologists who know PHP and can help Neil build awesome tools for collaboration, etc. The platform we’re shifting to will be very flexible and expandable. We’ve got to figure out who the users are who are able to and willing to volunteer time to build the site as a central hub or clearinghouse for the right online.

We have a variety of posters with a variety of skill sets, knowledge bases, interests, and time.  In 2009, we must work better to harness all of those to remain the influence leader we’ve become and be the place where right-of-center activists come to get educated on the issues, motivated by the topics, and activated for or against particular causes and candidates.

As you can tell, we’re moving slow this day before Thanksgiving. I’ve already been digging into the sweet potato pie. This will be our first Thanksgiving at home. With a baby expected in the next two weeks, we’ve decided not to travel. And we’re having no guests. So it’ll just be us.

Evelyn, this morning, discovered the Superman episode with Batman and the Joker. When she’s not downstairs telling the Joker she’s going to have a talk to Jesus about him, is absolutely fascinated that all three are on the same show at once. Now if only Wonder Woman showed up.

As for me? Today, like every day, will be a work day. The fight continues. We’ll be posting sporadically and promoting diaries to the front.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Question for the Open Thread: What do you want to see RedState accomplish in 2009? My thoughts are here

(H/t to Em Zanotti for the pic)

I was going to post-jack Josh’s post, but instead I’ll go all ego and put up my own post here.

Governor Palin will be in Georgia on Monday. In fact, she’ll be 30 minutes from my house at 1:30 p.m.

So anyway, I’ve decided to buy my wife a shotgun for Christmas. I could use Governor Palin’s advice on this as I’ve never bought a gun before. It will need to be a manly gun because I will take ownership of it once the three year old decides boys are not as yucky as she thought.

This is all to ask, rather shameless, can Christy and I get tickets or face time or something? Please?

By the way, I voted today for Saxby. Even in Democrat leaning Bibb County, the early voting numbers look good for Saxby. Let’s keep it up and keep the Dems from getting to 60.

Again, I cannot encourage these types of posts enough.

• A look at Wisconsin.

• Rounding up gubernatorial prospects.

• FL-05 data.

• This one is worth a gander again.

• Great Virginia blogging. Use Norm’s stuff as a good template for state stuff.

• My own contribution about Georgia.

• Another worth reading again.

This is Faiz Shakir. He is a research director at the Center for American Progress and editor of Think Progress.

Center for American Progress is the “think tank” that only thinks about how to spin Democrat agenda items into publicly acceptable public policies.

And Faiz Shakir is one of their hit men — running Think Progress to help set a media narrative in favor of Democratic policy. Or he is he?

Earlier today he sent an email to Saxby Chambliss’s campaign from his gmail account:

From: Faiz Shakir [mailto:faiz.shakir@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, November 24, 2008 11:27 AM
To: Michelle
Subject: press list

Hi, I’m coming down to Atlanta to cover the campaign for a few conservative blogs. Any chance I can get on your press list? Thanks

Yes, I’ve confirmed faiz.shakir@gmail.com is the same Faiz Shakir at Center for American Progress.

So is he really covering the campaign for conservative blogs? No. Of course not. He’s lying trying to get a press list from Chambliss’s campaign.

But why is a research director at a left-wing “think” tank playing partisan games?

“The Center for American Progress is a non-profit, non-partisan organization under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue code,” according to CAP’s website. CAP’s head honcho is in charge of Obama’s transition team. Is Shakir following orders in the fight to get a 60 seat Democrat majority to push Obama’s agenda?

Again, why is the research director of a non-partisan, non-profit think tank playing games — lying to get contact information from Saxby Chambliss’s campaign?

I hear that Ken Blackwell, the former Secretary of State of Ohio, is seriously considering throwing his hat into the ring for RNC Chairman against Michael Steele.

Blackwell is active in the NRA, the National Taxpayers Union, and also is a big Club for Growth fan.

Some of the people I talked to this morning said that Blackwell, like Steele, is a fresh face for the GOP, but unlike Steele conservatives tell me they know where Blackwell stands on issues.

Now all we need is J.C. Watts to throw his hat in the ring if we’re just out looking for an African-American to go up against Obama instead of looking for the most qualified guy. Republicans should not be engaged in this level of “me-too-ism” that most people find disingenuous anyway.

They apparently don’t know how to run a fair election, even though they’re all patting themselves on the back congratulating themselves on the integrity of the process.

It’s like Robert Mugabe is in charge or something.

This is outrageous.

A woman who worked for Al Franken earlier this week during the Senate recount in one county ended up counting ballots as a nonpartisan volunteer here Saturday in a recount that grew heated at times.
Maggie Vertin, who spent two days in Fergus Falls for Otter Tail County’s recount as an observer for Franken, was one of eight volunteers who assisted with the Wilkin County effort in Breckenridge.

Bob Westfall, who was in Breckenridge on Saturday as an observer for Norm Coleman, said he had concerns when members of his team learned a ballot counter had worked for Franken.

“I don’t understand how you can switch from being partisan one day to being neutral today,” Westfall said.

Vertin, who’s an election judge in Wilkin County, said she volunteered to help with the recount because she wanted to be part of the

Just how the hell does that work exactly? You go from being a partisan objector to ballots favoring the other team to somehow transcend the partisan actions you were doing just the day before.

I call bull crap.

For those of you who think we should just let the Democrats have sixty seats and let them run the place, this is an important story. It’s an important story about how much damage the Democrats could do and how some groups, besides unions, are desperately seeking sixty Democrat senators.

Down in Georgia, the Stonewall Democrats are throwing a fundraiser for Jim Martin. The Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgendered groups out there are aggressively fundraising and agitating for a filibuster proof Democrat controlled Senate.

Why?

Because the gay marriage movement has taken a serious setback. The gay rights movement knows it needs to pick off Saxby Chambliss to undermine democratic efforts in the several states to reaffirm marriage as between a man and a woman. They’ll need Jim Martin’s help to stack the federal judiciary with far left judges. And they will need a Democrat controlled Senate to undermine the Defense of Marriage Act.

It is another reason we need to rally for Saxby Chambliss.

What is it about guys named Al trying to change election rules after the election is over?

Geez.

Franekn has filed suit with a favorable judge in a favorable county demanding the right to dig through rejected absentee ballots. It’s against the rules, mind you, so Franken is demanding the rules be changed.

Opening up the rejected-ballot question is also a recipe for potential fraud. When the Franken campaign filed its initial lawsuit demanding access to the voter lists, it used as an example an 84-year-old woman in Beltrami County whose vote was supposedly rejected because she’d had a stroke, and therefore her signature on her absentee ballot did not match the one on file. After some outside investigation, the Franken campaign admitted that the story was not true, and that her ballot had been rejected for entirely different (and legitimate) reasons.

In other words, Franken is lying to sow doubt about the election. Stealing it during the canvassing process didn’t work. Now he has to change the rules.

Of course, even the media in Minnesota is getting tired of his antics.

Franken needs to trust the secretary of state and the 87 county auditors to do their jobs and do them well. The system in place is open and transparent. A lawsuit at this point is like trying to change the rules of a football game during the overtime period. Let’s play by the rules of the existing recount lawbook.

The GOP really does have a Senator problem — a group of old kleptocrats who’ve been around for so long, they view themselves as entitled to power, prestige, and graft.

One of the Senators who is not willing to get comfy is Senator Jim DeMint. It must gall the other members of the Senate Republican Caucus that Jim DeMint thinks they should stand for something. After all, they must think, Senate rules do require them to stand when they want to speak. Clearly, then, they are standing for something.

Just not anything any one in America is interested in.

Jim DeMint is out to change that and Roll Call reports the geriatric brigade, clutching to power by fingernails, is having no part of it:

Read More →

According to Gallup:

The Republican Party’s image has gone from bad to worse over the past month, as only 34% of Americans in a Nov. 13-16 Gallup Poll say they have a favorable view of the party, down from 40% in mid-October. The 61% now holding an unfavorable view of the GOP is the highest Gallup has recorded for that party since the measure was established in 1992.

and

Most rank-and-file Republicans (59%) want to see the party move in a more conservative direction and another 28% want it to remain about the same. Only 12% would prefer to see the Republican Party become less conservative.

That 12% is no doubt Republican members of Congress.

Of course, if they were to put Jeff Flake on Appropriations and Jim DeMint on Finance, they could prove me wrong about that.

Bad words on my tongue. Bad words on my tongue.

Sigh.

I’d like to take this opportunity to heartily encourage you to come on down to Macon, GA to campaign for Saxby Chambliss. He needs all the help he can get — we can’t have 60 Democrats in the Senate.

I’m happy to buy you cup of coffee and show you around the office. There are lots of venues. I guarantee you’d turn out a huge crowd. In fact, McCain signs only went up around here after your name got added.

Okay, so it’s somewhat self-serving. Still. I just gave Saxby 500 bucks. Now he needs to win. You can put him ahead. So come on down.

Ligon Duncan makes some sound points though many might not like to consider them.

For those Christians who are more dismayed than overjoyed about the prospects of an Obama presidency, there should be a remembrance that as our President, Barack Obama will have God-given authority to govern us, and that we should view him as a servant of God (Rom. 13:1, 4) to whom we should be subject (Rom. 13:1, 5; 1 Pet. 2:13-14). Thus, again, we are to pray for Barack Obama (1 Tim. 2:1-2). We are to thank God for Barack Obama (1 Tim. 2:1-2). We are to respect Barack Obama (Rom. 13:7). We are to honor Barack Obama (Rom. 13:7; 1 Pet. 2:17).

For those Christians who are more overjoyed than concerned about the prospects of an Obama presidency, there should be a remembrance of our ultimate allegiance: Jesus is Lord (and thus, He, not we, decides what is right and wrong), we serve God not man, and the Lord himself has promised to establish “the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him” (Malachi 3:18). Thus, where our new president opposes or undermines biblical moral standards in our society, fails to uphold justice for the unborn, undermines religious liberties or condones an ethos that is hostile to the Gospel, we will pray for God’s purposes to triumph over our President’s plans and policies.

Without doubt and whatever our particular views may be, we face hard days ahead. Realistically, we must all expect to be frustrated and disappointed. Some now may feel defeated and discouraged. While others may all-too-soon find their audacious hopes unfounded and unrealized. We must all keep ever in mind that it is God who raises up leaders and nations, and it is God who pulls them down, and who judges both nations and rulers. We must not act or think like unbelievers, or as those who do not trust God.

We all know about ACORN right? The group masterfully steals elections by overwhelming the system with fraudulent voter registration applications that translate directly into voter fraud. They stampede election centers causing chaos so votes can be cast while people are distracted. They vote for the dead and claim racism when they are challenged.

Well now we know how an unpopular jackass like Al Franken has been able to get so close to Norm Coleman in Minnesota. He used ACORN for help. This no doubt explains precisely why Franken is so insistent that straight Democrat ballots that had no mark next to Franken must actually be Franken votes, but somehow a ballot that clearly had a mark for Coleman must be challenged. (So much for counting all the votes, eh Al?)

One of Franken’s lawyers couldn’t keep his mouth shut.

Even the observers and lawyers have been instructed by their respective campaigns to not talk to the media. But Minneapolis lawyer Bill Starr, who is volunteering for the Franken campaign, was willing to say a few words. He said he thinks Franken will prevail. His hunch is based on a theory he has.

“People who voted for Coleman are more likely to have taken the SAT in their lifetime,” he said. “They’ve filled in circles. Franken voters are probably not college-educated. They’re new voters and immigrants. They’ve been brought in by groups like ACORN, from the inner cities. They’re more likely to make mistakes. I’ve bounced this off of minority people, and they agree with me.”

Now we know.

Remember Al Fraken’s undervote theory? He wants to count as votes for himself ballots with no mark in his oval, though the person voted for every other Democrat.

He claims that the voter’s intention was clearly to vote for him, even though there is no mark by his name because the voter voted for every other Democrat on the ballot.

Below is a ballot from Plymouth, MN. Can you tell for whom that person intended to vote?

I bet you won’t be surprised to learn Al Fraken is contesting that vote.

So, no marks at all go to Franken. Any mark for Coleman must be challenged.

The Skepticians have more details.

In Al Franken’s 2005 book, “The Truth (With Jokes)”, Franken aptly defines the term “cautiously optimistic” with this blurb:

Cautiously optimistic? That’s not good. That’s an optimist’s way of saying, “We’re screwed.” I’ve instructed my wife that if a doctor ever tells her that he’s “cautiously optimistic” about my test results, she is to pull the plug immediately. (Source: “The Truth (With Jokes)”, p. 12)

Fast forward to the present. According to the Politico newspaper, Franken is now using that very same phrase to describe his chances in the recount.

Emerging from the meeting with Reid, Franken said that he was “cautiously optimistic” that he would prevail in the recount. (Source: Politico.com, Nov. 19, 2008)

The DSCC is rallying support for Jim Martin by making false trumped up claims about how and why Sen. Saxby Chambliss ousted then-Sen. Max Cleland. Below is a list of some of their more egregious claims – mind you the DSCC is not the only group propagating false claims in a desperate attempt to unseat Sen. Chambliss.
 
Here and now, I challenge you to watch the campaign ad in question and decided for yourself if the below claims are true or blatant lies.

Max Cleland Email from 10/23/08 

• In 2002, Saxby Chambliss won his Senate seat in the final days by putting my picture next to Osama bin Laden and lying about me.  It was despicable, but it worked.

 
J.B Poersch Email from 10/18/08

• I have never forgotten Saxby Chambliss’ revolting and repulsive hit piece equating Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein to triple-amputee war hero Max Cleland in 2002.
• We cannot forget that Chambliss has a sordid history of ugly, nasty personal attacks.

Max Cleland Email from 8/13/08

• Our opponents put my picture next to Osama bin Laden and said I wouldn’t keep America safe.

J.B Poersch Email from 2/11/08

• Remember, incumbent Senator Max Cleland was a decorated war hero - a triple amputee - and here were Georgia Republicans smearing his patriotism and equating him with Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden.

Is there even a shred of truth in any of these claims? Not a one. But, there are two lines from these same fundraising emails (not included above) that are true; only they apply to Democrats not Saxby Chambliss and the Republicans:
 

• The disgusting lies and the dirty tricks are just around the corner.
• I’m not going to take their smears or their lies anymore.  Neither should you.

 
If you want to offset their lies and smears Democrats are using to prop up Martin in the run-off campaign, please go to www.saxby.org and/or www.nrsc.org to donate and learn the truth.

I’ve given $500.00. What will you give?

We are in the process of putting some questions out that we hope each of the candidates for RNC Chair will answer. I’ve already raised some questions about Michael Steele, particularly regarding his time with the Republican Leadership Council and his stance on abortion.

I’ve had a lot of people call me since that posting — mostly people who like Michael Steele and a few people who don’t. There is one thing they all have in common. They do not question his commitment to life issues. Whether they like him or not, they say there is no room to question Steele on the life issue.¹

That’s great news.

Also, on the issue of the Republican Leadership Council, I’m reliably told Steele left the RLC after the group began challenging Republicans in primaries. He touches on that in an interview today with the Washington Times.

But he said he would like to see the Supreme Court overturn the landmark 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision, which legalized abortion nationally. Almost all religious conservatives regard the federal constitutional protection of the unborn as a moral obligation.

He also said he has high regards for Club for Growth President Pat Toomey, a former Republican congressman from Pennsylvania, and does not see him or the club as representing the “extreme, far right.” Critics of Mr. Steele have said he has made disparaging remarks about both Mr. Toomey and the club.

**Mr. Steele did acknowledge, however, that he disagrees with the club’s practice of endorsing candidates in primary contests. He said he also disagrees with the RLC’s endorsing in primaries.**

We need to raise money for Saxby Chambliss’s runoff.

**I just gave him $500.00.

What will you give?**

With Stevens now behind in Alaska and Franken doing his best to steal Minnesota, we must save Saxby’s seat.

It is very winnable. But he needs your support.

Contribute here.

Put “RedState” in the event code line.