From the diaries, by Erick

There are some lessons to be learned from NY-23 regarding third party efforts and why limited government conservatives need to play within a two party system. Even in New York, one of only five states to embrace fusion politics (allowing a candidate to run on one ballot as the candidate of multiple parties and combine his total vote between the parties), , Doug Hoffman was unable to win on the Conservative Party ticket. Arguably, the RNC and NRCC botched everything so badly in the race that Hoffman might have won as the Conservative Party candidate if the Republicans had not spent over a million in muddling things up. Even had he won, it’s hardly an argument that the entire approach would work nationally. In fact, I would argue that those who advocating for and working in third parties are empowering everything and everyone that is wrong with the political system as it now stands.

American politics always has been, and for the foreseeable future, will be, a two party system. I’ve heard arguments that the current two party system is a creation of the early 20^th century progressives. It’s not. When political parties started in America, really around the 1800 election, there were the Democrat-Republican Party and the Federalist Party, and it has always been that way: two major, dominant political parties have controlled American politics. Some will point out that the Whig party used to exist as a major party and gave way to the Republican Party, as though somehow that’s an argument for third parties being effective. It’s not. It wasn’t like there were then three major political parties in America. The Whig Party vacated the political stage and the Republican Party entered stage left, leaving . . . two major political parties.

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I wanted to share this video with you, which focuses on the health care debate and outlines the Republican plan for health care reform.

The Republicans are going online for twelve hours to talk about 12 truths on health care.

You can watch here.

‘Senator’ capitalized because the insecure often require that special little emphasis. In this case, SENATOR Boxer is demonstrating same by making a fairly pointless gesture that’s apparently fueled by pique:

Barbara Boxer may not only force her climate bill through the Environment and Public Works Committee without any Republican votes; aides say she could also do it without any Republicans in the room at all.

Boxer (D-Calif.) could exploit a loophole in committee rules that will allow her to approve the bill with a simple majority of the 12 Democrats on the committee, even if no Republicans are present. Republicans have vowed to boycott the proceeding.

This end run around Republicans — ignoring the usual rules that require at least two Republicans to be present for a quorum — could further hinder the chances for an already troubled cap-and-trade bill.

The problem here is that Senate Republicans are tired of Democrats forcing through legislation without analysis, deliberation, or in some cases, an opportunity to even read it; so they’re going to boycott the markup until they get a full EPA analysis. No attendance, no quorum, no markup. But SENATOR Boxer wants a bill to impress all those sophisticated Europeans at Copenhagen in December, so she’s going to alter the rules so as to force her version of the bill out via a rump committee.  As the Politico article notes, this has other Democrats swearing, because: a, there was little likelihood of cap-and-trade being passed in a SENATOR Boxer-friendly form to begin with; b, there was not previously much chance of any version of cap-and-trade being passed by December anyway; and c, there is now effectively zero chance of either happening before the New Year.  It’s trivially easy to slow legislation down to a crawl in the Senate, and there are now several motivated Republicans to demonstrate how to do that.

Marvelous work, SENATOR Boxer.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

If you work for a man, in Heaven’s name work for him. If he pays wages that supply you your bread and butter, work for him, speak well of him, think well of him, and stand by him, and stand by the institution he represents.

Thus begins the Apologia to “A Message to Garcia”. It would behoove Pete Sessions and John Cornyn, head of the NRCC and NRSC respectively, to heed this message. These individuals seem to have forgotten just who pays the bills and funds these committees. And to be clear, that would be THE BASE.

Slip-shod assistance, foolish inattention, dowdy indifference, & half-hearted work seem the rule; and no man succeeds, unless by hook or crook, or threat, he forces or bribes other men to assist him…

Those words were written 110 years ago, yet are wholly applicable to our current situation. The NRSC and NRCC seem to be embracing these things rather than avoiding them.

It is not as if the base hasn’t made their complaints known, ever hear of “Not One Red Cent“. On the contrary, upon hearing the complaints the NRSC has treated them with dowdy indifference to say the least. To the credit of the NRCC they did create the Young Guns program, but as mentioned above “half hearted work seems the rule”.

When will Chairmans’ Sessions and Cornyn remember that character matters…

Well he’s a fine accountant, but if I’d send him up town on an errand, he might accomplish the errand all right, and on the other hand, might stop at four saloons on the way, and when he got to Main Street, would forget what he had been sent for.

Can such a man be entrusted to carry a message to Garcia?

Can we now trust you to run our errands, bypassing the saloons. Or, should we come to expect the continued stench of gin on your breath and failure at the ballot box?

If put to the pinch, an ounce of loyalty is worth a pound of cleverness. If you must vilify, condemn, and eternally disparage, why, resign your position, and when you are outside, damn to your heart’s content.

You have both been to clever for your own good and are quickly outlasting your usefulness.

Remember these words dear Sirs…

In every store and factory there is a constant weeding-out process going on.

[...]

No matter how good times are, this sorting continues, only if times are hard and work is scarce, the sorting is done finer - but out and forever, the incompetent and unworthy go.

[...]

Self-interest prompts every employer to keep the best - those who can carry the message to Garcia.

The process has begun, our collective dander has been raised and we demand answers. Will you step down so that we may make room for our own Rowan?

It is not book-learning young men need, nor instruction about this and that, but a stiffening of the vertebrae which will cause them to be loyal to a trust, to act promptly, concentrate their energies: do the thing - “Carry a message to Garcia!”

Aaron B. Gardner.

Kudos to Michael Steele. The Politico is reporting what we said would happen some months ago.

“Chairman Steele hasn’t put up a cent, not even the obligatory $5,000,” said a New York-based GOP operative. “There’s been no support from the RNC. Democrats are going all out for this race. Everyone’s in the same direction.”

Here is what I have been able to confirm about NY-23 and why we need $25,000.00 for that race ASAP.

1. The GOP polled NY-23 last week and found: Owens in first by double digits and DeDe in 2nd with Hoffman coming up from behind and closing. Obviously, they have not released this poll. The NRCC tells me the polling was done, but Owens was not up “by double digits.” Owens was still in the lead.
2. Owens + DCCC and Hoffman + Club for Growth have purchased TV through election day. DeDe has not.
3. DeDe is in terrible shape financially. Almost broke. Oh yeah, and she has no volunteers.
4. The NRCC is up on YouTube attacking Hoffman to keep DeDe from coming in 3rd. Yes, the NRCC is attacking a conservative for them to save face in a seat that they will definitely lose.
5. The GOP won’t attack the Democrat because the Democrat and Scozzafava are running on an identical platform. It makes no sense for them to attack Owens on issues Scozzafava supports. NOTE: The NRCC tells me they are running ads on television attacking Owens.
6. The NRCC’s money spent attacking Hoffman could be spent in real contested elections in the fall.
7. Hoffman is the only candidate in the race with a significant ground game.

The fourth and sixth points are most critical. Pete Sessions is trying to save face and potentially wasting money that could be used next year. Also, Hoffman is gaining fast and can win with his ground game.

We have the opportunity to make a significant impact in this race.

GO HERE AND DONATE TO HOFFMAN ASAP.

The Republican National Committee will unveil a new website early Tuesday morning that promises to increase grassroots participation and offers improved navigability and smarter marketing and fundraising tools for the GOP, according to party officials.

Upon reaching the new GOP.com, RNC Chairman Michael Steele takes a virtual step onto the computer screen and leads users on a tour of the site’s new features.

“Notice anything different?” asks Steele. “It’s the new GOP.com. It’s a forward-looking, open-platform for the party of new ideas. If you’re a Republican activist, this is your space.”

The developers of the new website hope to capitalize on the organic activism that gave way to Tea Parties across the nation by “creating a larger, more informed, more organized, and more energized Republican community.”

Conscious of the propensity for online social networking to mobilize activists, the new website was designed with an unmistakable attentiveness to social media and blogging, having devoted a significant portion of the landing page’s real estate to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr.

At first glance, the RNC’s new digital threads look nothing like a typical political website. From the dynamic logo featuring user-submitted pictures of supporters to the refreshingly simple navigation menu, the revamped and reorganized GOP web presence represents a commonly-preached but rarely-practiced belief on Capitol Hill: that the best ideas come from outside the Beltway.

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Not promoted from the diaries by anybody because we’ve promoted Aaron to the front page. Yes, yes, I know “My God, what hath thou wrought?” I’m asking myself the same thing. — Erick

Come, sit by the campfire while I tell you a story.

September 2000 I left the U.S. Army confident that Al Gore would be the next President of the United States of America. The next year passed quickly as I scrambled to find my place in civilian life. On Sept. 11th I was driving to work and heard the news. Thus began a fixation on current events that I have yet to shake.

The next spring I quit my job and took a contract in Kosovo as a Systems Administrator. I spent roughly two years living and working in Kosovo. In between trouble tickets, I diligently clicked refresh on Drudgereport, which I had only recently discovered. Once I returned to U.S. soil I began to notice that the country had changed while I was away. Drudge, despite his best efforts, had failed to clue me in to the degree of animosity that was bubbling up from the fairly new fever swamps we are now all so familiar with.

I was a foreigner in my own land.

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Some people say that Republicans have made mistakes when it comes to Hispanic voters.  They point out that Hispanics are a growing part of the population, and assert that GOP opposition to amnesty for illegal immigrants is driving Hispanics away. 
 
The talking point has been commonly used to dismiss Republican views in major policy debates, including most recently the GOP concerns about how illegal immigrants benefit from the House health care bill.

Most of the people who make these claims are Democrats.  And they are right – Republicans do need to change some things to win the Hispanic vote.  But our position on amnesty is not one of them.

A false choice is often presented to Republicans:  support amnesty or offend Hispanic voters. 

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This is very well done. The South Carolina Republican Party has put together the video below. It launches tomorrow throughout the state.

I know a lot of you have all sorts of ideas for advertising for the GOP. I know because many of you email these things to me. It looks like the South Carolina Republican Party has been getting the same stuff, because this ad campaign is right in line with what a lot of you send me.

The cool thing is that this will only be the start. They are going to roll out some serious new technological tools, harness the internet, and work like crazy to grow the party. It is well done and I wish them luck.

To find out more, go to SCGOP.com. Of course, you might wait till tomorrow, because the video below is part of a roll out that starts tomorrow. But we’re RedState, so we have it for you today.

I’m a Republican from SCGOP on Vimeo.

The House Democrats tonight have denied Republicans the opportunity to offer any amendments at all on spending bills.

Any.

This is the first time in the history of our Republic that this has happened.

Senate Republicans should stick up for their House brethren and shut down the Senate as the House GOP is now pretty much powerless.

The daughters of two famous Republican politicians have been getting some serious face time in the media lately. Meghan McCain has a head start, thanks to her blog, her father’s campaign for the presidency last year and a set of beliefs which the Obama-loving drive-by media finds very close to their own. So she has been given a wealth of video footage and column inches to get out her message that even her father’s GOP is still not sufficiently Democrat Lite to successfully suck up to the generation she assumes to speak for.

McCain The Daughter has gotten so much media exposure that she’s starting to wear thin, even on the mellow nerves of crunchy cons, conservatives who are okay with some of the ways of liberalism. Meghan’s ways, especially her attitudes about sex, are not those aspects of liberalism that the crunchies are comfortable with. Rod Dreher, in his latest BeliefNet post, calls her “moronic” and “a useful idiot for the media left.”

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It seems like the announcement came out of nowhere this weekend:

Governor Jon M. Huntsman Jr. will resign and accept an appointment as ambassador to China, ABC 4 has confirmed.

The official announcement came during a press conference held by President Obama Saturday morning at the White House in the Diplomatic Room.

President Obama asked the people of Utah to forgive him for taking their
Governor but called the China ambassadorship a job, “as important as any
in the world.”

Governor Huntsman said Saturday that he wasn’t looking for a new job,
but “When the President of the United States asks you to step up and serve in a capacity like this, that to me is the end of the conversation.”

The reaction by many shocked political junkies was, “What?” The reaction by most others was, “Who?” Huntsman had very little name recognition before the president’s announcement, but his name had surfaced in various places in the past few weeks.

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[UPDATE]: Here are couple more links for you:
Rebuilding the GOP: The Committeeman Project
Get Your STORC On

I am not ordering anybody to follow this checklist.  I’m not even going to nag about it.  I am merely suggesting that you consider answering the questions on them before you go off on how the party isn’t listening to you.

• What is the name of your local GOP group, on the county / district level?
• Who is the chair?
• When do they meet?
• What was discussed at the last meeting?
• What happened at that meeting that you disagreed with the most?
• How did they address your concerns?
• When does the group or sub-group that would best resolve your concerns meet?
• Who else in that group or sub-group would you say is your best ally in resolving that concern?
• Who in your area is running for state, county, and local office?
• What did they say that they needed the most help with?
• Who is the greatest obstructionist in your group, and how do you get around him or her?

I’ll keep saying it until it sinks in: there’s no cavalry coming to save us, ladies and gentlemen.  That’s because we’re the cavalry.

And we are perfectly capable of saving ourselves.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

This just in from Politico’s Andy Barr:

Hoping to recapture the grassroots energy of last month’s “tea parties,” Republican Govs. Mark Sanford of South Carolina and Rick Perry of Texas will host a tele-town hall Thursday that’s being dubbed “Tea Party 2.0.”

The Republican Governors Association said it is expecting 30,000 people to participate in the town hall, which will take place roughly one month after the much-publicized anti-tax tea party rallies held in hundreds of locations across the country on April 15, the tax filing deadline.

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Promoted from diaries by Dan Spencer.

“Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.”-John Quincy Adams

The media and the Democrats call us the party of no. They say we’re standing in the way of history by opposing the president. Well, I think about the quote I pasted above and I came to the conclusion that a party that says no is a noble party, especially when that party say yes on principle. We need to wear the word “NO” on our lapels and shirts like a badge of honor. It’s not a bad thing to be the party of no; why, let’s take a look at what exactly the GOP is saying no to.

The GOP said no to a bloated, irrational spending bill and stimulus package that would cage our grandchildren in the abyss of debt and high taxation for the majority of their lifetime; not to mention expand federal power beyond it’s limitations. The GOP is saying no to a government doctor, who by its own history cannot run a program in an efficient and sustainable manner. You look at Social Security and Medicaid and how could you not say no to the idea of a universal system? The GOP said no to the idea that the White House run the 2010 Census.  They said no to the card check system which sought to take the power from the workers and place it firmly in the hands of union bosses. Yes, my party said no to a lot of things and they’re about to say no to a whole helluva lot more.

We say no to hate crime legislation that would dictate the worth of human life of some over others. Hate crime isn’t a crime against homosexuals or African Americans; when you take the life of any person, that’s a hate crime. There are no guidelines for what is or what isn’t a crime driven by hatred. Are we so disconnected from our neighbor? Has the relationship between man and his brother decayed that much? And have we so shut the coffin on the almighty that we dictate for ourselves who’s life is worth more; that’s not American, that’s not humane; it’s a perfect example of reckless judgment and power in the hands of deeply flawed people.

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For Secretary of State Colin Powell, who in 2008 actively supported the ticket National Journal listed as 2007’s two most liberal senators, is once again advising the Republican Party to move to the center. I wonder if he means that if the GOP had moved even more to the center than it has, he would not have worked for a ticket that is moving the country so far to the left. Or perhaps the former Army general assumes that where the two most  liberal guys in the Senate are on the political map is the new center. He doesn’t elaborate.

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I firmly believe today that former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell’s Conservative Resurgence Plan was the best thing to come out of the race for the RNC Chairmanship earlier this year. With its focus on precinct-level organization, it not only provided the best blueprint for rebuilding the Party in locales where it has completely collapsed but also the often neglected aspect of strengthening it where it’s strong so the GOP can be competitive again in every part of the nation. Blackwell promised that, as RNC Chairman, he would spend unprecedented amounts of money and resources to rebuild the Republican Party’s organizational and campaign infrastructure from the most local of levels (i.e. the precinct) on up. The logic of it was simple;

If we are organized at the precinct level, our organizations at [every] other [level] will be [that] much more efficient and productive.

To be specific, the Conservative Resurgence Plan called for the recruitment of a “new generation of precinct leaders” who would be the GOP’s first line of command on the field, interconnected online and operating neighborhood by neighborhood, recruiting volunteers, canvassing and talking to voters, explaining the GOP’s stand on the issues, organizing events, etc. In addition, these “Precinct Organizers” and their lieutenants would have access to a specially developed set of online party-building database, multimedia, voter mapping, fundraising, volunteer management and task tracking applications to enable them inform, plan, coordinate and direct their on-ground activities and resources in their areas of responsibility in and out of campaign season.

The Republican Party must be a civic institution again, with a volunteer base that is active year-round and is given real responsibility beyond showing up at a phone bank. In this last election, it should have been possible for volunteer leaders to organize their precinct or neighborhood for McCain, tasking them with knocking on doors, distributing signs, and most crucially, recruiting other volunteers to build the party exponentially. Instead, virtually all volunteer activity was channeled towards driving casual phone contacts, not personal neighbor-to-neighbor door knocks.

Our technology should give Republican activists the ability to connect with fellow activists at the precinct level. We must encourage the growth of standalone volunteer communities, giving them the tools to organize themselves online, with the official party taking a step back and not trying to control them.

Unfortunately, Ken Blackwell’s campaign never gained any traction within the cliquish environment of the 168 members of the Republican National Committee. I was hoping that when he withdrew his name from the ballot and endorsed Michael Steele, it was a sign that even though his candidacy was dead, his Plan was going to see some semblance of life in Michael Steele’s RNC.

I’m not quite so hopeful anymore.

But then, recently, I started thinking; why wait for the RNC? What, exactly, is preventing Blackwell from seeing his precinct rebuilding Plan through? Does one really need to be Chairman of the RNC to get something like this done? In fact, considering the recent depressing displays of fecklessness, blindness and incompetence (i.e. NY20, Specter) from the official GOP establishment and its various arms, perhaps Blackwell not having to balance the interests of the rank-and-file against the narrow interests and warped conventional wisdom of Beltway Republicans, which (he would have had to as RNC Chairman) is a blessing in disguise.

With this, let me (re-)introduce an idea I only just touched on a few weeks ago; The Committeeman Project.

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Yeah. I’m as mad at the GOP as you are — then again I have been for a long time, not just lately. So, in the hope that something good could come of our losses, I listened in on Eric Cantor’s conference call launching the National Council for a New America (NCNA) project and you all saw my immediate report. I patiently listened to Representative Eric Cantor and Senator John McCain and heard the vague overview, I took note of the names that were attached to the project, and I realized the import of the five basic issues that they wanted to address. And I just knew what the first reaction to the idea would be. Certainly, I was not disappointed.

One commenter on my piece reflected what seems to be the most common reaction: “If John McCain is in, I’m out.” The same sentiment was expressed about Romney, but to a lesser degree. And I’ve heard this dozens of times over the few days since my report. That and much more, and scarce little of it has been complimentary.

As I said, I feel your pain.

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