Rebuilding the Party: The Technology Part 2
We now have a new Chairman for the Republican Party. With a new Chairman comes new people and new vendors and new ideas.
When I first wrote on this topic on Christmas Day, the post made it round the world — surprising particularly because the post was written on Christmas Day.
There were five points I made and that I stand by:
- That you have come to me thinking I am a technologist is an indication of the problem;
- Luckily for you, I have come to recognize my limits, but sadly there are too many others out there who do not recognize their limits and, unfortunately, offer themselves as solutions to our tech problem instead of offering real solutions;
- If anyone you talk to says you need to duplicate what Obama did, run the other way as fast as possible;
- When looking for people, choose technologists who are interested in politics, not political guys who learned tech; and,
- Look outside Washington, D.C.
In my post, I discussed who Cyrus Krohn is and why keeping him at the RNC is important. Since then, all the thinking we have done at RedState over endorsements, etc. has come down to one this: will Cyrus be kept at the RNC.
He is that important. We will know whether Michael Steele is serious about bringing change to the party by, ironically enough, whether he brings change to the e-Director’s position. Change in that position will most likely mean he was not serious about change at all.
Allow me to explain:
Does Michael Steele Have a Potential Ethics Problem?
I have, for some time, been on a tirade against the self-dealing, back scratching, and incestuous relationship among GOP consultants. The Democrats have had their own problems with the issue.
To be sure, there are some consultants and consulting firms that are must use. But not all of them.
To his credit, Michael Steele recognizes the same problem and sent out an email to RNC members describing how he intended to solve the problem. But, one of the criticisms about Steele from some of the RNC members has been his relationship to Blaise Hazelwood, a DC consultant.
In Steele’s email, he wrote, “No member of the RNC staff will benefit financially from the RNC beyond their salary. The RNC will utilize a RFP process that mirrors best practices among national non-profit organizations. Contracts will be awarded strictly on merit.”
But privately, some RNC members question if he’ll live up to his email and they point their finger to Mrs. Hazelwood. Here’s why:
In 2002 and 2004, Mrs. Hazelwood worked at the RNC serving as Political Director. During that time, the RNC sent just shy of $1 million to Targeted Creative Communications in 2002 and again in 2004. Mrs. Hazelwood’s husband is the president of the company.
Notably, in the 2006 cycle, after Mrs. Hazelwood left the RNC, the payments to her husband’s company went from almost $1 million per election cycle down to $600,000.00.
In 2006, Mrs. Hazelwood went to work for Elizabeth Dole at the National Republican Senatorial Committee in the ill-fated “defend Lincoln Chafee” election cycle. Interestingly, prior to Mrs. Hazelwood going to the NRSC, payments to her husband’s company by the NRSC totaled zero dollars. In 2006, the number went up to $121,000.00.
Presently, Mrs. Hazelwood has ownership interests in iWeb Strategies and Grassroots Targeting, LLC. She is not at the NRSC or the RNC. Both of her companies have brought in large sums from a variety of candidates. I think that shows that she’s a competent operative. We should then be able to conclude that she is a consultant who Republicans would naturally be drawn to.
But that does not really explain the 2002 to 2006 cycles when Mrs. Hazelwood was involved at the RNC and NRSC. When she left the RNC, payments to her husband’s company went down and when she arrived at the NRSC, payments went up from zero to over $100,000.00.
Today at the RNC event, many of the 168 committee members had questions about consultants and conflicts of interest. As Lt. Governor Steele makes his last pitch tomorrow for RNC Chairman and takes on the issue, he probably needs to provide some clear insight on what Mrs. Hazelwood’s role would be at the RNC and how her outside business interests would be treated.
Majority Strategies / NextWave Communications — An Update
This post is past due, I’m afraid. I committed to write it about three weeks ago and kept getting distracted.
Last month I pointed out problems with Majority Strategies/Next Wave Communications. Specifically, I pointed out that Majority Strategies screwed up the absentee ballot mailer in Saxby Chambliss’s runoff, as they had in Ohio. Likewise, I pointed out the various conflicts of interest between the organization and the GOP.
Incestuous relations among GOP consultants is an ongoing problem.
Three weeks ago, Brett Buerck of Majority Strategies called me to discuss my post. He took exception to what I wrote and I wanted to fairly recount his side of the conversation.
Having talked to Brett, it seems that the problem involving Majority Strategies may not be questionable funneling of business, but some serious communications breakdowns.
Brett tells me that while his company did some business in Georgia, they specifically did not handle the variety of expenditures in which the absentee ballot mail piece was covered. I had confirmed it was them with people inside the RNC, NRSC, and Georgia operatives. After my conversation with Brett, those same people said it was likely they had made a mistake and that, as Brett said, his company did not handle all the mailings. One of the initial people who confirmed Majority Strategies did the mailing has subsequently, as I previously wrote, said he had made a mistake and it was not Majority Strategies. Likewise, Justin Tomczak of the Saxby Chambliss campaign says he does not know who did it.
As to my criticisms of the Ohio mail piece, Brett pointed out that the mail piece was legally a proper mail piece and had been successfully used before. The criticisms, he says, are more an assault on his company than its work. He and I agree the business is extremely competitive and not everyone can rapidly turn around an absentee ballot mail piece, but people always angle for the business.
I had a good conversation with Brett and do think it is safe to conclude they were not responsible for the Chambliss mail piece as I had originally been told by multiple people. That raises other serious concerns about communications inside the party apparatus that do not involve Majority Strategies.
There remains the issue of consultants within the GOP dealing with each other. We have the same issue with the RNC as with others. And it is an issue I intend to remain vigilant on. But I did want to present Majority Strategies side of the story and, having gone back again to people who initially confirmed the story, I must say I tend to believe Brett that Majority Strategies was not responsible for the mail piece.
Perseverance
I got an email yesterday. The correspondent wrote
I truly appreciate and support your efforts; however I have to admit my total frustration in having failed to stop the Treasury nomination, it is an offensive move. I called everyone but end up talking with one of the volunteers at the Senator’s offices and I truly wonder about this strategy effectiveness. Maybe we need to pursue a different approach. Please advise.
We are not meant in the course of our activism to be always successful. We will have moments of success and they will be large and they will be small. But sometimes we will not be successful.
The persistent widow in Luke 18 had to keep going to the judge who “neither feared God nor cared about men.” She “kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’” She persisted and the judge finally said, “Even though I don’t fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming!”
It is the same with an activist. We must persevere.
Yesterday the Politico ran a story on Jim DeMint filled with invective from anonymous Republican staffers in the Senate. They hate Jim DeMint because he perseveres. He is not always successful, but sometimes he is. And if he perseveres, at some point, he will prevail.
DeMint, in the article, said something very wise about the present Republican leadership. He said “that lawmakers in both parties ‘only respond to pain.’”
Again, we don’t expect to be successful all the time. We will have set backs. That is the nature of the game. We must also accept that some people have good reasons for doing what they do, though we disagree with them. But we must also expect and demand that we are respected as the base of the party. We must fight and our fight must frequently induce pain on our own side. It is frequently the only way to make headway.
Persevere and fight on.
One way to do so is to join the RedState Army. We will be sometimes defeated. We will be sometimes victorious. But most importantly, we won’t be idly bitching and yelling into the wind — we’ll be working to make a difference. It is no good to complain and not act. It is very good to act without complaint and fight the good fight until the setting of the sun.
On Phil Gingrey and Rush Limbaugh
You’ve no doubt seen this article in the Politico. The article, which originally erred by naming Tom Price instead of properly citing Phil Gingrey, quotes Gingrey as follows:
“I think that our leadership, Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, are taking the right approach,” Gingrey said. “I mean, it’s easy if you’re Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh or even sometimes Newt Gingrich to stand back and throw bricks. You don’t have to try to do what’s best for your people and your party. You know you’re just on these talk shows and you’re living well and plus you stir up a bit of controversy and gin the base and that sort of that thing. But when it comes to true leadership, not that these people couldn’t be or wouldn’t be good leaders, they’re not in that position of John Boehner or Mitch McConnell.”
I ran a primary campaign against Phil Gingrey in 2002. Sadly, we lost in the runoff. Back then we accurately characterized him as an unimaginative whore to leadership. Of course then in a Democrat controlled Georgia state legislature, Phil was always the first Republican in line to kowtow to Democrat Governor Roy Barnes. Everybody knew Phil would be the first Republican to sell out the caucus to the Governor in the state legislature.
Nothing has changed. You should not extrapolate from Gingrey’s comments that the average Republican member of the House of Representatives feels that way. I hear from dozens of them daily and they all think Rush is right. That’s exactly why Boehner has shifted to full opposition against the stimulus package.
During the farm bill debate in 2007, the Georgia Republicans in the House made a pact to stick together and vote against the bill. Going into it, they intended to. But then someone pointed out to them that if they had state wide ambitions, they needed to support the farm bill. It was, of course, fatuous nonsense. But Gingrey promptly marched down to the floor and voted for the farm bill, betraying the rest of his colleagues (Kingston voted for it too, but everyone knew he would given the massive amount of farmers in his district lobbying him. Gingrey had zero farmers).
So don’t be surprised by this. Just note that should Gingrey ever run state wide in Georgia we’ll actively oppose him.
Rush Limbaugh, Barack Obama, and Mitch McConnell
I have previous posited that Mitch McConnell, hero to so many on the right, has infected the GOP with a nasty cancer of defeatism.
If you listen to someone like Lincoln Chafee, it’s all part of the plan to hold the caucus together.
“He’s a good mathematician and he’s going to be counting votes – especially if Obama will be wading in,” Chafee said. “And if the Obama people are smart they won’t depend on a razor-thin margin to prevent filibusters.”
I actually understand that. McConnell will not be effective if he can’t hold his caucus together. I think he is a good mathematician.
But behind the scenes, I think there remain problems.
Barack Obama on Friday told the Republicans they need to stop listening to Rush Limbaugh. First, Obama is probably still pissed about Operation Chaos dragging out the Democratic primary. Second, Barack Obama has listened to Rush Limbaugh more than the Republican Party. Had the GOP listened to Rush Limbaugh, the GOP would not be in its present predicament.
As Rush rightly points out, moderates stand for nothing and the voters want to support someone who stands for something. As I’ve previously stated, the GOP and the Democrats both win elections by starting with their base voters and then adding to the base. Lately, the GOP has been intent on starting from outside the base and working its way in.
Mitch McConnell is indicative of this problem and seems intent on spreading his party killing cancer. He needs to turn back from the path down which he intends to lead the Republican Party.
Roll Call notes McConnell intends to outline a “post-partisan” path. Everything you wanted to know about where McConnell is headed can be found in this part of the article:
Morning Briefing for January 26, 2009
1. Obama’s Treasury Secretary Needlessly Makes the Chinese Mad
He cheated on his taxes. He said he did not understand his taxes. Nonetheless, Tim Geithner is supposed to be super smart. Why then did he nearly start an economic war with China before he even got sworn in?2. Barack Obama Is Already Signaling His Weakness to Terrorists
Changing Bush policies designed to keep us safe will only get us killed.3. Muslim Leaders Expect Obama to Take Eye Off Terror
It’s already beginning and it will end up killing us.4. Bush Green Lights Wind Power. Puts Obama in Danger of Hacking Off Environmentalists or Kennedys
This was a masterful stroke by the outgoing administration. Obama will now have to either prove he really is a green President or show he kowtows to Ted Kennedy.5. The Stimulus Provides No Help Till Election Year 2010 At Its Earliest
Why is the government pushing something that will do nothing for two years?6. House GOP Introduces Their Own Stimulus Plan
The Obama Stimulus Plan provides more money for grass planting on the national mall than for small businesses.Rush Limbaugh Continues Proving Liberals Are Stupid
So there’s this video of Rush Limbaugh that’s surfaced. In it, Rush talks about keeping people tuned in and engaged to his radio program.
Naturally, many on the left are portraying this as the caption at Fark does — “Early interview with Rush Limbaugh shows him bragging how he manipulates his listener’s emotions for profit. Right-wingers insist they are not being duped.”
There’s just one problem. If you actually take the time to listen to what Rush is saying, he’s talking about people who hate him continuing to listen to him. That’s the whole point.
Rush says, “The key is knowing that nobody can get everybody to like them. Keeping in mind that the law of averages indicates that half of the people who listen to you are not going to like you. You’ve still got to find a way to make those who don’t like you keep listening to your program.“
In other words, it’s not about right-wingers getting duped, it’s about roping in stupid liberals, many of whom contribute to Rush having a 20 million person listening audience.
I cannot believe someone is so stupid he could listen to that entire clip and somehow think Rush was talking about the right. We like him because he’s right.
Barack Obama’s Dangerous Game Starts the Process Toward Our Deaths
I have previously said Barack Obama changing the Bush administration policies on terror would get many of us killed.
They will. Barack Obama, with his orders to shut down Gitmo and bar enhanced interrogation techniques, is already headed toward Lady MacBeth syndrome (or should that be Pontius Pilate Syndrome). Within the next several years he is going to be repeated having to wash American blood off his hands because of his actions.
More proof comes from the New York Times today.
The emergence of a former Guantánamo Bay detainee as the deputy leader of Al Qaeda’s Yemeni branch has underscored the potential complications in carrying out the executive order President Obama signed Thursday that the detention center be shut down within a year. The militant, Said Ali al-Shihri, is suspected of involvement in a deadly bombing of the United States Embassy in Yemen’s capital, Sana, in September. He was released to Saudi Arabia in 2007 and passed through a Saudi rehabilitation program for former jihadists before resurfacing with Al Qaeda in Yemen. His status was announced in an Internet statement by the militant group and was confirmed by an American counterterrorism official. “They’re one and the same guy,” said the official, who insisted on anonymity because he was discussing an intelligence analysis. “He returned to Saudi Arabia in 2007, but his movements to Yemen remain unclear.”
The previous administration did not lightly make the decision to house terrorists at Gitmo. This administration would rather pander to the left than keep us safe.
Media Turns on Obama, Part 2
The White House is treating the press like the press corp is Obama’s pet. They whored themselves to get Obama elected, so they can hardly be surprised by it. Nonetheless, they are upset Obama’s pay to play marketing operation continues.
Veteran CBS newsman Bill Plante was one of the most vocal critics, questioning the White House’s handling of Wednesday night’s second swearing in – which was covered by just a four-reporter print pool that didn’t include a news photographer or TV correspondent. He also asked new press secretary Robert Gibbs why ABC, which paid millions to host the DC Neighborhood Ball, was granted the only inauguration day interview with President Obama – a move he equated to “pay to play.” “We have a tradition here of covering the president,” said Plante, who is covering his fourth administration.
What’s fun about this is that not all the press has gotten the memo. As Fox News notes, not everyone in the press is upset. Some still want to sexually gratify themselves in front of The One:
Pressed further by the Politico reporter about his Pentagon nominee, Obama turned more serious, putting his hand on the reporter’s shoulder and staring him in the eye. “All right, come on” he said, with obvious irritation in his voice. “We will be having a press conference, at which time you can feel free to [ask] questions. Right now, I just wanted to say hello and introduce myself to you guys — that’s all I was trying to do,” Politico.com reported. The situation came to a close when a cameraman in the room interrupted, declaring: “I’d like to say it one more time: ‘Mr. President.’”