GOP's 2012 Anti-Democracy Agenda: Conservative Maximalism

Biblical Or Conservative Maximalism:

An attempt by so-called "Conservative" Christians to portray the World as a Bi-polar argument, of which only one side is correct.

Examination of the so-called "Liberal/Secular" views in detail shows many differences of opinion, clearly demonstrating that to portray biblical scholarship in such "Us" against "Them" terms reflects a particular Sectarian point of view, not supported by the evidence.






The GOP vs. Democracy


Washington assumes both parties deserve blame for our problems. But the true fault lies with the GOP and its Maximalist demands.

It’s about time the Democrats started saying openly what has been clear for months or even years now—that as long as economic recovery would work to the political benefit of Barack Obama, the Republicans have been, are, and will be in favor of sabotaging the economy. Senators Chuck Schumer and Dick Durbin made the point in a press conference in the Capitol Thursday.

Noting that his GOP colleagues are coming out against business tax cuts (read that again: Republicans against tax cuts for businesses) that Democrats happen to support, Schumer said, “It almost makes you wonder if they aren't trying to slow down the economic recovery for political gain.” Well, not almost. Certainly. And I don’t “wonder.” I think it’s obvious. But this is a start.

Washington is a city of conspiracies, but far and away the most pernicious one is the fiction, in which one must participate if one wants to be regarded as a “serious” person, that both parties are more or less equally to blame for the present malfunctioning of our democracy. One hears this all the time at the sort of panels, dinners, and seminars I attend. The topic is our energy future, our fiscal prospects, whatever. Discussion turns to obvious remedies, which inevitably involve the government taking some minimal amount of action, or the investment of a few modest public shekels.

The symposiast will then note, sighing forlornly, that we appear to be light years away from consummating even these modest actions. He will then bemoan a vague “lack of political will” or “absence of leadership” as the reason for the inertia.

Nonsense. There’s nothing vague about it. It’s crystal clear. We can’t do these things because of the extreme nature of the Republican Party and the right-wing noise machine that enforces such rigid ideological purity.



Period and end of story. I think most people at these panels and dinners know this deep down. But it’s thought impolite to say it. Often it’s a technical violation of law to say it, since most of these events are sponsored by nonprofit organizations that must be scrupulous about their nonpartisanship to keep the taxman at bay. Whatever the reason, the conspiracy has produced a culture that refuses to acknowledge one of its fundamental truths.

A couple of weeks ago I went to an event devoted to infrastructure. Discussion focused on the infrastructure bank proposal of John Kerry. It would seek a modest $10 billion up front for a series of public-private projects that the vast majority of experts agree have been neglected and are desperately needed in this country, as China and Brazil and so many other countries are spending many billions on their transportation and freight systems.

But sadly, it’s very difficult to imagine it becoming reality. Why? Not, as Kerry said at the event, the special interests. Oh, they play their role, no question of that. But we can’t have an infrastructure bank because it’s a Democratic idea—and an Obama idea (which it isn’t, technically, but never mind). It is therefore socialism, fascism, and all the rest. The GOP will oppose it en bloc.

There do exist a few well-meaning Republicans. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, for example, is co-sponsoring Kerry’s legislation. Good for her. However: If this bank ever gets close to passage, just watch the noise machine (Fox, talk radio, the blogs, etc.) rev into gear. Republicans will dash away from it as from leprosy. As it happens, Hutchison is retiring, so a) she no longer has to be taken that seriously by her caucus and b) it’s no skin off her nose now, since she’ll not be confronting the voters of Texas again.

So she’ll probably stick with this idea. But we have seen many instances of previously fair-minded Republicans being perp-walked through the noise machine and Tea Party rage and emerging the way Iowa Senator Charles Grassley did in the summer of 2009, when he went from negotiating the health-care bill in reasonably good faith to suddenly tweeting about pulling the plug on grandma.

A common form that the conspiracy takes is the aggrieved call for a third party to rescue us. A couple of weeks ago, David Brooks wrote a column lamenting our lack of Hamiltonian national greatness and listed four policies that would constitute it. As Ezra Klein showed, most of those policies are supported by a guy named Obama.

This week, Tom Friedman, whose efforts to alert readers and policy makers to our coming environmental disaster I admire, wrote that we need a third party that will do five things:

1.) Pass a short-term stimulus
2.) Enact Bowles-Simpson
3.) Shrink our presence in Afghanistan
4.) Raise mileage standards
5.) Pass a gas tax

So let’s see. There’s no question that the Democrats would do 1 if they could, and little doubt that they’d do 5 as part of a comprehensive energy-future bill. They already did 4, in 2007, and in fact demonstrated their commitment to the goal by taking the rare step of removing the long-time committee chairman who opposed it. Obama is now doing number 3—haltingly, but on the promised schedule. On Bowles-Simpson, it’s certainly true that many Democrats would hesitate to implement portions of it, especially some of the entitlements recommendations. The Democrats have their own sacred cows, which sometimes get in the way of action.

But most of Friedman’s agenda is impossible not because we lack a third party, but because of the GOP and the noise machine. They won’t permit 1 or 5 under any circumstances. They never lifted a finger to do 4 while they ran Congress. And while liberal Democrats dislike and would fight some parts of Bowles-Simpson, conservative opposition to it is implacable because the commission wants to raise revenues.

Today’s GOP is about ideological maximalism on all fronts. Eric Cantor’s withdrawal from the Biden talks shows it again. They cannot negotiate, because negotiating means accepting something you don’t like, which the noise machine will not permit. And worse, because the noise machine wants Obama to fail and is so powerful, Republican office-holders inevitably arrive at that point too.

Mitch McConnell in essence admitted Wednesday that Republicans were opposing Obama on Libya for partisan reasons. They can’t be quite so brazen about the economy, so they hide their political motives behind rhetoric about the deficit. It’s high time the Democrats started pulling back the curtain.

Sources: Daily Beast, NY Times, Washington Post, Wikipedia, Youtube, Google Maps

David Weigel Slams Republicans, Resigns, Roots For Democrats

Dave Weigel's Resignation: The Backstory And Meaning


When he arrived at a party on the Huffington Post's D.C. office roof-deck on Thursday evening, Washington Post reporter/blogger David Weigel felt secure in his job.

Earlier in the day, the media-focused site FishbowlDC had published a series of off-the-record emails written by Weigel in which he had disparaged members of the Conservative movement that he covers.

But after checking with the powers that be at the Washington Post, it was relayed to him that they found the material not consequential enough to be a firing offense. Weigel, a well-regarded chronicler of all things Tea Party, had been an immediate success at the paper, and his offer of resignation was seen as highly gratuitous.

By Friday morning, however, things had changed.

Weigel made a call to the Huffington Post at roughly 10:15 a.m. to privately relay that he was, in fact, leaving the Post.

A new set of off-record Weigel emails had been disclosed to The Daily Caller disclosing even more snide quips about major conservative players (as well as comments expressing hope that health care reform would pass Congress).

The conservative-leaning website was ostensibly making the argument that Weigel was no longer objective enough to cover his beat. The Post editors agreed. The resignation he offered the night before was now viewed as the best path forward. And by noon the final deal had been struck to end Weigel's three-month run at the paper.

The entirety of the episode (and it took less than a day to conclude) was greeted with shock within the close-knit community of Washington political reporters. Weigel's libertarian leanings have long allowed him to cover the far right from a sympathetic and nuanced perspective, unique among mainstream reporters.

Even when using the term "Paultards" to describe Ron Paul followers, he was doing it while noting the unfairness that Paul wasn't included in a Fox News debate even as the network relentlessly covers Tea Party protests, which are populated to a large degree by Paul followers. Even some of those he had insulted in the disclosed emails contacted him on Friday morning with "don't worry" notes.

But within the Washington Post, Weigel's politics (he is a Libertarian with clear progressive leanings) appeared to surprise management, some of whom assumed he was a conservative. The ethos (or perhaps perception) of impartiality is still closely held in the Post newsroom. And with a recent slew of opinion/reporter hires (Ezra Klein, Greg Sargent, and Weigel), some of the old guard felt uncomfortable.

So Weigel was let go. Hours after it happened, he walked over to the Huffington Post's office to commiserate. He refused to talk about what happened on the record. But he did make it quite clear that he had no animus towards his now-former bosses at the Post. They had wanted to keep him there, he said. They understood the traffic and popularity he had brought to the site. But the situation had apparently become untenable.

The immediate reaction towards the Post was swiftly negative. Undoubtedly, there were other reporters in the newsroom there that felt the exact same way as Weigel. Their fortune had been simply not putting their thoughts in an email chain, or, simply, not having their personal emails leaked. For political observers, it was a somewhat depressing reflection of the limits of the new media universe -- where the traditional powers have not quite yet reached a level of comfort with journalists who are transparent with their biases but, nevertheless, fair and accurate in their reporting.


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Sources: Washington Post, Daily Caller, Huffington Post, Media Bistro, Politico, Village Voice, Youtube, Google Maps

Mitt Romney Gets Fired Up At 2010 CPAC! Scott Brown Introduces

Mitt Romney's New Groove Debuts At CPAC


Meet the new Mitt, same as the old Mitt. The first of the 2012 presidential contenders to speak at CPAC, Mitt Romney just finished a fiery, sound bitey, (red) meaty stump speech that should erase the remaining doubts from anyone's mind that he's running for president in two years.

Romney got a huge ovation when he took the stage this afternoon. That's no surprise -- Romney "gets" CPAC, having won the vaunted presidential straw poll at the conference three times in a row. The crowd welcomed Romney, and he made it clear he was happy to see them, too.

"It's good to be back with you," he said to cheers. "I love to be back at CPAC."

Romney then launched into a speech that would be at home on the stump in Iowa or New Hampsire (and probably will be). Just before he took the stage, Democratic pollster PPP released a new poll showing Romney within two points of President Obama in a hypothetical 2012 matchup. Obama led Romney in the poll 45-43.

Romney seemed ready to take on Obama, addressing the crowd like he was already the GOP nominee.

"President Obama instituted the most anti-growth, anti-investment, anti-jobs measures we've seen in our lifetimes," he said. "He called his agenda ambitious. I call it reckless."

To contrast himself with the "big government" Obama, Romney took the tack we've seen in the past, embracing his past in corporate America as evidence that he can turn thing around in America faster and better than Obama. Romney compared corporate titans like Sam Walton, Steve Jobs and even Richard Branson to the founding fathers, claiming each had put his mark on the company he founded, as the founders of the United States did in early America.

"People shape businesses," he said. "People shape countries. America reflects the values of the people who first landed here, those who founded the nation, those who won our freedom, and those who made America the leader of the world."

Most of what he had to say was pure conservative red meat -- calls for strong national security, lower taxes and "fiscal responsibility." But Romney also mentioned Obama's swipes at the Supreme Court in his State of the Union address, a moment that may have put him at odds with his audience.

"The President found it inexplicable that the first amendment right of free speech should be guaranteed not just to labor union corporations and media corporations, but equally to all corporations, big and small," Romney said. "When it was all over, I think most Americans felt as I did: his noisy critique and bombast did not register as clear and convincingly as Justice Alito's silent lips forming these words: 'Not true!'"

But polls show that most Americans -- especially independents -- actually agree with Obama's take on the Citizens United ruling instead of Romney's take. The moment provided an interesting insight into the struggles politicians like Romney have at CPAC this year. On the one hand, he has to reach out to the classic main line conservative base that CPAC has hosted for years -- the businesspeople and social conservatives that have been the core of this gathering for years. On the other, Romney has to be careful not to raise the hackles of the Tea Partiers, most of whom proclaim themselves to be independent and are quick to attack establishment Republicans who don't pay attention.

Overall, though, Romney's speech was the kind of sound bite-heavy address we're all likely to hear a lot more of come late 2011. It's time to get ready, Romney seemed to say to his CPAC base, campaign 2012 starts now.


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Sources: CPAC, TPM, Youtube, Google Maps

Firing Michael Steele Could Be GOP's "Waterloo"...Here's Why

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Firing Legally Elected RNC Chairman Michael Steele would be the GOP's "Waterloo".

Here's why....

You know folks I thought the Republican Party would have learned something crucial about American Voter Mentality by now, especially after their crushing defeat in 2008 but alas that isn't so.

As it currently stands GOP Leaders are attacking Michael Steele and yes these attacks do appear to be racially motivated whether anyone else wishes to admit this theory is true.

Michael Steele is the first African-American RNC Chairman in the Republican Party's history.

Perhaps GOP Leaders thought when he was elected Steele would just be a quiet, token Minority Gimmick to attract Black Voters for future elections.

Wrong!

Steele was Loud, Outgoing, Bold, Brash and loaded with Gaffes that would make VP Joe Biden proud.

On the upside Steele is also Highly Intelligent and understands the Political landscape much like Pres. Barack Obama. (Obama won remember?)

Instead of GOP Leaders bonding with Steele to make him feel welcome, they immediately began distancing themselves from him and trying to control him as if he were a purchased Slave.

Yes I said it! A purchased slave!

Now GOP Leaders are using Steele's promotion of his book as a way to push him off the cliff into non-existence.

Well I have something to say about these attacks.

GOP LEADERS YOUR BEING FOOLISH and...SEEMINGLY RACIST!!

America is a Melting Pot and Michael Steele helps to make up that Melting Pot!


In case you haven't noticed Voters are hurting right now.

We need Jobs and we want to feel Safe!

This includes Independent Voters, Young Voters, White Voters, Black Voters, Hispanic Voters, Senior Citizen Voters and Democrat Voters riding the fence who are all watching how viciously your behaving towards Mr. Steele.

We're all watching you!

If any of you felt as if Michael Steele was wrong why not take him aside and deal with him quietly?

You know the same way Sen. John McCain dealt with Sarah Palin on the 2008 Campaign trail when she goofed up BIG time!

In case you've forgotten Pres. Barack Obama received 45% of White Voter support on election night November 2008.

That's more than Clinton and Kerry in previous elections.

The flip side is GOP candidates need Minority Voter support in order to regain control of Congress.

For the moment heavy Minority Voter Support looks possible for Republicans.

Why?

Due to Obama's Admin. intentionally ignoring America's Middle Class, Senior Citizens, Low Income Voters and Black Voters since he's been elected, Democrats may have a hard time retaining us during 2010 and 2012 elections.

(We thought Pres. Obama cared about us but thus far he's only returned affection and shown gratitude to Wealthy Wall Street Bankers NOT his "small time" loyal Voters.)

In addition Pres. Obama has a staff of "eggheads" who can't seem to relate to real, everyday people. Hurting People.

American Voters ask for Jobs and he comes up with this "Green Jobs" program.

His Green Jobs program is a good idea but....

People are Unemployed, facing Eviction, facing Foreclosure and trying to keep Warm in a terrible Winter.

Who does Pres. Obama thinks has time to return to school when their faced with such dire personal circumstances?

Even citizens who already possess College Degrees don't really have time to return to school. Their just trying to survive like everyone else.

Sometimes it seems as if Pres. Obama's Admin. is trying to get rid of all small time, regular people in hopes of re-creating a Super Intelligent, "Egghead" race.

I know it sounds crazy but why else would he sit back for an entire year and let people lose their jobs and homes?

His HAMP (Making Homes Affordable program) (managed by Tim Geither) was basically useless.

Pres. Obama also intentionally allowed Democrat State Governors and City Mayors (such as in North Carolina) to use Stimulus Funding to fill in Budget Gaps or waste it on silly, Non-Jobs producing projects.

For example in North Carolina thousands of Teachers lost their jobs because Gov Bev Perdue used Stimulus Funds for other stuff. i.e., Helping balance NC's Budget.


These same hurting, highly disgruntled American Voters may have a change of heart in 2010, 2012 and consider swinging on over to GOP candidates but....

Not if GOP Leaders turn them off by treating RNC Chairman Steele like dirt or a third world citizen.

Regardless of how any GOP Leaders feel about Michael Steele, he is still a Human Being created in God's image deserving of respect.

The same respect they consistently display to Sarah Palin.

While we're on the subject of Palin, why is it that I see her paw prints all over these recent attacks on Chairman Steele?

Maybe its because he failed to mention her in his book.

And....

If GOP Leaders are betting their future on Tea Party Protesters its a HUGE mistake!

In fact if Republican Strategists do their homework they'll discover the Tea Party Movement is actually destroying the GOP.

(Gov Tim Kaine's observation was on the money regarding Tea Party Protesters when he spoke on the movement back in December 2009.)

The majority of those Tea Party folks won't even cast ballots for ANY Politician because their angry at "Big Government".

Sarah Palin knows this but she just wants more money.

Furthermore many of those Tea Party Protesters are Polarizing Racists.

Take a look at some of those signs.

Those signs are an embarrassing disgrace to any Political Party.

I don't recall seeing any Tea Party Protesters while George W. Bush or Bill Clinton were in Office do you?

To sum it up if GOP Leaders continue publicly and personally attacking Michael Steele, it will be to the Republican Party's own demise.

Important races worthy of winning are fast approaching like those in North Carolina.

North Carolina Voters even Democrat Voters, are sick and tired of all the Corruption and Racism killing this state.

Each year more and more Political and Public Corruption continues to increase without Democrat Leaders doing anything to stop it.

Hint, Hint: NC is a state ripe for a possible Republican takeover.

If the GOP doesn't quickly heal itself and unify, Democrats will continue to stomp Republicans.

I predict that if the GOP continues down a road of Southern, Conservative "Racial Purity" by 2012 Pres. Barack Obama won't have worry about having to run against a Republican Candidate, because the GOP will no longer exist.

P.S.

If GOP Leaders think they can win without Young Voters, Minority Voters, Low Income Votes and Senior Citizens, think again because....

Its NOT going to ever happen.

Minority Voters are the future so get used to it!











Michael Steele: "I Didn't Seek This Job"


Hard to figure: "I didn’t ask for, I didn’t seek this job, I didn’t ask for it," Steele told Dennis Miller today. "It wasn’t part of my, you know, chartered course in life to wind up as chairman of the Republican National Committee. You know, there was a convergence of moments here."

Adds The American Spectator's Philip Klein:

Now, perhaps Steele's right and I'm mistaken. Perhaps I completely imagined covering the RNC chairman's race, going to watch him debate other candidates, or attending the RNC election last January. Maybe I imagined receiving emails on behalf of his candidacy, and maybe this video in which Steele announces his candidacy by saying, "I want the gig. I'm ready, I'm ready to lead this party" is an elaborate fabrication".



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Sources: Politico, American Spectator, MSNBC, C-Span, Huffington Post, Youtube, Google Maps

Rush Limbaugh Released From Hawaiian Hospital

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Limbaugh Released; No Heart Trouble Found



Conservative talk radio show host Rush Limbaugh said Friday that tests show nothing wrong with his heart after chest pains hospitalized him earlier this week.

Limbaugh spoke at a Honolulu news conference shortly before being released from The Queen's Medical Center, where he was rushed Wednesday during a vacation. Doctors said he did not have a heart attack or heart disease.

"The pain was real, and they don't know what caused it," Limbaugh said.

Asked whether he was taking painkillers, Limbaugh said no.

His medical problems have attracted attention in the past. In 2003, he acknowledged an addiction to pain killers for severe back pain and took a five-week leave from his radio show to enter rehab.

Limbaugh couldn't resist a few political comments in the short press conference at the hospital. He said he got the best health treatment in the world "right here in the United States of America."

"I don't think there's one thing wrong with the United States health system," Limbaugh said.

Caller after caller to his show Thursday sounded their well-wishes, asked to simply say "ditto" — a traditional Limbaugh catchword — so they could get on with questions and comments on social and government issues on the national talk show. Friday's show was a Best of Rush special.

Americans in a poll last month called Limbaugh America's most influential conservative voice, and more than 14 million people hear him at least once a week, making him the nation's highest-rated broadcaster.



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Sources: MSNBC, Google Maps

Rush Limbaugh Hospitalized In Hawaii For Chest Pains! In Serious Condition!

(KITV) Rush Limbaugh Rushed To Honolulu Hospital


Conservative radio talk host Rush Limbaugh was rushed to a Honolulu hospital on Wednesday afternoon with chest pains, sources told KITV.

Paramedics responded to the call at 2:41 p.m. at the Kahala Hotel and Resort.

Limbaugh suffered from chest pains, sources said. Paramedics treated him and took him to Queen's Medical Center in serious condition.

He was seen golfing at Waialae Country Club earlier this week. The country club is next to the Kahala Hotel and Resort.

The radio show host had been in the islands during the holidays. Coincidentally, his visit comes at a time when two of the nation's most powerful Democrats, President Barack Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, are also staying in Hawaii.

In 2001, Limbaugh received a cochlear implant after he suddenly lost hearing due to autoimmune inner ear disease. Limbaugh underwent treatment in 2003 for an addiction to prescription painkillers, including Lorcet, Norco and hydrocodone.




(MSNBC) Rush Limbaugh Taken To Hospital


A Honolulu television station is reporting that conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh has been taken to a hospital with chest pains.

KITV reported Wednesday that paramedics responded to a call at 2:41 p.m. from the Kahala Hotel and Resort where Limbaugh is vacationing.

The station, citing unnamed sources, said paramedics treated Limbaugh and took him to The Queen's Medical Center in serious condition.

Queen's spokeswoman N. Makana Shook says the hospital is unable to comment on the report.

Television station KHON quoted unidentified sources saying Limbaugh was taken from the hotel in an ambulance.

Limbaugh was seen golfing at Waialae Country Club earlier this week. The country club is next to the Kahala Hotel and Resort.


Previous Health Problems

Limbaugh reported about eight years ago that he had lost most of his hearing, saying it was caused by an autoimmune inner-ear disease. He had surgery to have an electronic device placed in his skull to restore his hearing.

In 2006, he faced a single charge involving prescription fraud after a three-year investigation of drug use. Under a plea deal, the charge was dropped in return for Limbaugh continuing treatment.

Prosecutors began investigating Limbaugh in 2003 after The National Enquirer reported his housekeeper’s allegations that he had abused OxyContin and other painkillers. He soon took a five-week leave from his radio show to enter a rehabilitation program and acknowledged he had become addicted to pain medication. He blamed it on severe back pain.

Prosecutors seized Limbaugh’s medical records after learning that he received about 2,000 painkillers, prescribed by four doctors in six months, at a pharmacy near his Palm Beach mansion. The investigation was held up as prosecutors and his lawyer battled in court over whether the records were properly seized.



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Sources: KITV, MSNBC, Google Maps

Michael Steele & Tea Party Movement Leaders Team Up

Michael Steele, Dick Armey unite on health care opposition


Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele will join forces with one of the key leaders of the Tea Party movement next week in an effort to put the brakes on the Democratic health care reform bill.

Steele and former House Majority Leader Dick Armey will hold a joint press conference call on Monday morning to discuss efforts by both the RNC and the conservative grassroots to stop health care reform.

The call will be the first joint effort between Steele and the tea party movement – which Republican candidates have been trying to court since the widespread anti-tax rallies in April that launched the populist uprising.

“The two have connected on the matters of this health care bill,” said an RNC source.

Communication between the two groups has been tricky, as the RNC cannot be seen as contributing funds to or coordinating with an outside group, though both Steele and Armey have been speaking for some time.

The Republican Governors Association has also tried to capitalize on the Tea Party movement – hosting tele-town halls with governors popular in the tea party crowd and on subjects important to the anti-tax protestors.

Through his group FreedomWorks, Armey has helped organize anti-tax rallies across the country and facilitated the massive protest outside the Capitol on September 12. Until now, the group had kept its distance from Republicans as the movement has expressed deep frustration with both parties.

Steele and fellow Republicans on Capitol Hill have tried to tap into that energy by organizing their own tea party protests, the latest of which occurred earlier this week.






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Sources: Politico, RNC, TPM, Youtube, Google Maps

Sarah Palin's Book Tour Stops In Iowa...Signs Of 2012 Presidential Bid??

Sarah Palin hits Iowa on book tour


Sarah Palin made her post-election debut in first-in-the-nation Iowa Sunday, but her appearance could have easily taken place in any state. There were no meetings with influential local activists, no contact with the state GOP, nor any time devoted to chit-seeking efforts to raise cash for other candidates.

But if the former Alaska governor and vice-presidential candidate's maiden trip to the Hawkeye State as a presidential prospect was unusual by Iowa precedent, the event illustrated why she doesn't necessarily need to stick to the traditional playbook – and raised the possibility that even sacrosanct political dictums of Iowa can be bent or even broken.

Signing books in a suburban chain bookstore, as she has throughout her publicity tour for "Going Rogue," Palin's visit to conservative western Iowa's hub city bore little resemblance to the typical forays of White House hopefuls into the state that traditionally kicks off the presidential campaign.

Instead, she breezed into a Barnes and Noble an hour-and-a-half after her scheduled noon starting time and penned her name into hundreds of books before heading up the interstate for another signing in South Dakota.

Asked between autographs why she chose to come to Iowa, Palin told a small group of reporters: "It's great to be in Iowa, everybody loves Iowa."

When a reporter inquired if she had any message for caucus-goers, Palin said only: "Thank you, appreciate you very much."

The small group of journalists was then quickly hustled out of a curtained-off section of the store where Palin was seated.

But does standard practice matter with Palin?

What makes her potentially so formidable was on vivid display in the hundreds of admirers who waited for hours on the ground in a mall hallway – and some began the vigil overnight in the bitter cold - to get a quickly scribbled signature, handshake and fleeting glimpse at the person most just called "Sarah."

Though some wearing Cornhusker red came from Nebraska, just over the Missouri River, many were from this city and the surrounding northwest Iowa counties that traditionally give Republican candidates some of their largest margins in the state.

But they weren't the sort of party regulars who comprise the county GOP committees and always show up when a national politician comes to town. Many said they hadn't previously participated in the state's quadrennial caucuses and some indicated that they weren't even sure what the caucuses are. And while most were self-identified conservatives, there were also registered Republicans or independents who had previously backed candidates of both parties but who were drawn to Palin because of what she represents.

Jane Mild, along with her daughter, Sarah, left their rural Guthrie County home at 6 in the morning to drive to Sioux City.

A precinct captain for Gov. Bill Richardson, a New Mexico Democrat, in 2008, Mild said she and her teenage daughter were inspired by Palin and see her as a model for women.

“I wish she was treated more fairly,” Mild said, noting the reports about her family and wardrobe. “She gets asked a lot of questions men don’t get asked.”

Palin, as this event and her previous well-attended book tour stops make clear, continues to enjoy a following that transcends politics and could potentially bring thousands of new participants into the Republican primary process.

Most of those interviewed here said they were ready to support Palin if she runs in 2012 and would caucus for her. If Palin capitalizes on this sort of dedication, she could enlarge the caucuses in the fashion that such non-traditional politicians as Pat Robertson did in 1988 and Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama did last year.

The impact Palin and her still-soaring celebrity could have on the 2012 GOP field was underscored in how sharply her book-signing Sunday differed from that of Huckabee, a potential 2012 rival. When the former Arkansas governor and reigning Iowa caucus champion signed copies of his latest book at a suburban Des Moines bookstore last month he had about 100 supporters stream through the line, many of them his loyalists from the 2008 campaign.

Yet for now, and it's still very early in the process, Palin appears to be doing little to build an organization. There was no sign-in sheet here that could have captured the valuable names and email addresses of potential caucus precinct captains.

Jason Recher, who travelled with her on the campaign and is now with her on the book tour, suggested Palin had little interest in using the 32-city swing to bolster her presidential prospects, at least outwardly.

"This book tour is about people - not politics," Recher said.

Yet anytime a White House prospect arrives on Iowa soil, of course, politics suffuses the appearance. And no Republican can draw buzz like Palin, whose picture took up most of the top half of the front page of the Sunday Sioux City Journal with a headline that read: “Something about Sarah.”

Palin was careful to apologize after the event for her tardiness (She blamed weather on the East Coast, though she had also spent some of her Sunday morning visiting wounded troops at Washington, D.C.’s Walter Reed Army Hospital). She said she didn’t know when she’d return to the state.

Some local Republicans – who are used to being courted by top national political figures – indicated disappointment that Palin only did the book stop.

“I guarantee we’d have 20,000 people show up for an event here,” Mark Lundberg, chairman of the Sioux County Republican Party told Radio Iowa’s O. Kay Henderson.

A far smaller crowd, about 30 people, arrived at the bookstore parking lot on Saturday night to be in the front of the line. Swaddled in blankets, hats, gloves, hunting camo and all manner of layers, they sat in canvas, fold-up chairs as the temperature plummeted into the teens.

By mid-day Sunday, hundreds more were inside the mall, waiting quietly in line and thumbing through “Going Rogue” while a Santa Claus and Abe Lincoln looked on.

With a mix of Midwestern hospitality and wariness for an out-of-town reporter they explained why they were so drawn to Palin.

Patricia Anderson, a registered independent from Sioux City who hadn’t caucused, approached a reporter to make her case for the polarizing former governor.

“She tells you what she believes,” Anderson said. “You don’t have to guess. It’s better to listen to her than the media.”

Alice Revell, from rock-ribbed Sioux County to the north of here, sported a pin that read: “I Don’t Want To Have To Say Happy Holidays.”

“Her values are my values,” said Revell. “She’s pro-life. She doesn’t just talk the talk, she walks the walk. She’s a hunter, my husband is an avid hunter.”

A pair of women from Omaha wearing shirts that identified them with the “Minuteman Patriots” said Palin represented what they called real American women.

“Not the elitists you see on television,” explained Pat Carro. Asked who she had in mind, Carro cited “the ones you see on “The View.’ ”

Another Omahan, Ray Hansen, braved the afternoon cold to pose for a picture in front of Palin’s book-tour bus, festooned with her image and an Alaska backdrop, after having his book signed.

“She’s a real American, that’s why,” Hansen said, when asked why he liked Palin.

Back inside, Palin, wearing her usual blue star pin along with a USO pin, took a marker to book after book, looping a large signature before greeting her admirers and asking their names as country music played.



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Sources: Politico, Amazon.com, Google Maps

"Tea Party" Movie Trailer...Anti-Obama, Anti-Government

Sources: Teapartymovie.com, Huffington Post, Freedomworks.org, Youtube

Tea Party Movement Turns Into Financial Boon!...Grassroots Political Power Brokers

Tea Parties emerge as revenue stream



Tapping into the deep reservoir of anger on the right at President Barack Obama and Congress has turned out to be a financial boon to a diverse collection of tea party-affiliated political groups and candidates soliciting donations and raising money from the sale of T-shirts, books and paraphernalia.

The tea party brand has proved to be a potent source of revenue for new for-profit companies funding — among other things — an upcoming convention keynoted by Sarah Palin, for established national non-profit groups soliciting small donations and for political action committees and long-shot candidates raising hundreds of thousands of dollars to try to overcome sometimes long electoral odds.

And it’s spawned a host of competing initiatives to capitalize on the willingness of conservative activists to put their money where their politics are, even during tough economic times.

A combination of newly engaged small donors and already engaged ones redirecting their contributions are the main source of the money, according to movement organizers in Washington and across the country, who predict that if tea party donors unite behind a group or cluster of groups, they could emerge as a force as well-financed as the liberal juggernaut MoveOn.org.

But the fundraising efforts have also prompted grumbling about the monetization of a local grass-roots movement and raised concerns about whether the money is being used to advance the cause of the activists who burst onto the national scene last summer with marches and town hall protests around the country.

The debate over fundraising reflects the tensions of a movement whose internal stresses have raised concerns on the right about its ability to become a factor in the 2010 elections. Already, there are charges and countercharges that the money that has been raised has not been used effectively to advance the small-government, limited taxation ideals at the heart of the tea party movement.

“There are a lot of questions about money and where all the money has gone,” said Erick Erickson, editor of the influential conservative blog RedState.com, which has emerged as both chronicler of — and guide for — the tea party movement.

Conservative bloggers and activists have at times accused some tea party organizers of poor budgeting, wasting money on flashy initiatives like cross-country bus tours that critics say don’t do much to advance the cause, or — worse — using cash raised from activists to pad their groups’ coffers or their own wallets.

“The biggest problem I have is that there are a bunch of hacks out there,” said Erickson, who has been traveling the country advising conservative groups and big donors on strategies for feeding and channeling the grass-roots energy behind the tea party movement. He said “multimillion-dollar donors” have largely refrained from supporting many of the tea party-affiliated groups because they’re waiting for signs of which will be able to effectively advance the movement.

In the meantime, though, small-dollar donations from the movement’s grass-roots activists have emerged as a significant funding stream that could be key for the tea party to advance from merely staging protests to shaping elections, according to Eric Odom, an early tea party organizer who has founded a handful of tea party-related groups.

“If you take the million people who turned out on April 15 [at Tax Day Tea Parties around the country], and you can get even half of those to contribute $100, that’s pretty significant and that’s what we’re working on,” said Odom, who helped organize the April rallies.

This month, Odom unveiled a new political action committee called Liberty First PAC to raise money from tea party activists to fund congressional challengers embodying the movement’s principles. Though the PAC has only raised $15,000, he says it’s received pledges for $100,000. “Our next $400,000 is within reach, and after that, it should take care of itself,” he predicted.

Odom conceded, though, that a for-profit company he co-owns called American Liberty Alliance burned through the $30,000 it raised — from donors and by selling Web ads — to fund a monthlong candidate-backing cross-country bus tour before it could pay a couple of the people who helped pull it off, though he says the payments weren’t guaranteed.

The California-based political action committee Our Country Deserves Better PAC-TeaPartyExpress.org has raised big bucks — and hackles — for its own pair of bus tours on the so-called Tea Party Express, whose riders participated in tea party rallies in towns along its cross-country routes.

The PAC sought $250,000 in donations from grass-roots activists to fund a bus tour that started in San Diego in October and ended this month in Orlando. The PAC, which is planning another pair of tours in 2010, reported to the Federal Election Commission that from the beginning of the year through the end of June (the most recent figures available), it raised $585,000 and paid $235,000 to PAC officials, the consulting firm that runs the PAC, and the activists who have traveled on the Express.

The PAC’s coordinator, Joe Wierzbicki, said its goal “ is to support conservative candidates for Congress in 2010 and a conservative presidential candidate in 2012.” A good portion of its money went to produce ads supporting Republican campaigns, including Jim Tedisco’s narrow loss in the special election for a western New York congressional seat, and opposing Democrats such as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. In all, the PAC this year spent $327,000 on independent expenditures http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/com_supopp/C00454074/ through the end of June.

In two closely watched battles between Republican moderates and conservative challengers, small donors have played a major role. Doug Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate in a New York special congressional election, received most of the more than $265,000 he raised for his unsuccessful campaign from outside his upstate New York district. And Marco Rubio, who is trailing Florida Gov. Charlie Crist in a battle for the GOP nomination.html for the Senate, raised $315,000 of the $1 million in contributions he reported in the last quarter from small, out-of-state donations.

Wierzbicki’s PAC has come under heavy fire from activists who have charged it alternately with trying to co-opt the movement for partisan political purposes and “using the name tea party to put money in his own pockets.”

Tea Party Nation, a for-profit company that runs a social networking website for activists and is now selling tickets — at $560 a pop — to what it’s billing as the “First National Tea Party Convention,” has also come under fire from activists. According to the organization’s website, the planned three-day convention in February is “aimed at bringing the Tea Party Movement leaders together from around the nation for the purpose of networking and supporting the movements' multiple organizations principal goal

The registration fee doesn’t include lodging at Nashville’s sprawling Gaylord Opryland Hotel, where the convention is being held. But it does include access to scheduled speeches by tea party heroes Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and Palin, whose speaking fee (reported to be in the six figures) was paid by convention organizers.

“If this were a perfect world, we wouldn’t charge anybody, but to put on an event like this, there are expenses that have to be covered,” said Tea Party Nation President Judson Phillips. He explained that his group is hoping to turn a profit from the event so that it can “funnel money back into conservative causes” through a 527 group it plans to set up to get involved in campaigns.

“This is the source of a lot of disagreement within the tea party movement, where a lot of people say money is a bad thing. But the simple fact of the matter is that you are not going to get candidates elected without money,” he said.

“The tea party movement is a grass-roots movement; it’s not a business,” countered Anthony Shreeve, an East Tennessee local tea party organizer who resigned from the convention’s steering committee after a disagreement over finances. “Most tea party activists won’t be there because they can’t afford it.”

Tea Party Nation’s website sells ads such as the one for a book called “Tea Party Revival: The Conscience of a Conservative Reborn,” which bills itself as “an essential guide” to the movement, and also hawks Tee-shirts emblazoned with “Got Tea?”

The Tea Party Express’s online store site bears only a message explaining that merchandise “was backordered due to the tremendous amount of support. Not to worry. ... you will be receiving your items soon.” And a conservative Georgia-based company called Patriot Depot has offered up a wide array of movement paraphernalia, including a T.E.A. ("Taxed Enough Already") yard sign ($19.95) and personalized tea bags it promised to send to Congress before the April 15 tax deadline.

Then there are the more established — and well-funded — Washington-based conservative groups that have gotten most of their cash from big donors, but in recent months, as they’ve helped facilitate and organize aspects of the tea party movement, have quietly competed to add grass-roots activists to their member and donor rolls.

Many grass-roots party activists, whose local groups by and large are financed by $5 and $10 donations collected in hats passed in living rooms and coffee shops weekly around the country, resent the fundraising solicitations from national groups, said Glenn Gallas, a Hot Springs, Ark., tea party organizer.

“You just become another name on their e-mail list to ask for money from,” he said.

Nonetheless, FreedomWorks, Americans for Prosperity and Americans for Limited Government — among the Washington groups most involved in offering their organizational services to local Tea Party activists — all say they’ve seen major spikes in membership and small donations.

It’s impossible to gauge how much of those groups’ funding comes from the gras-sroots versus huge individual or corporate donations, since the groups aren’t subject to mandatory disclosure rules. But what is known of their finances — for example, that most of Americans for Limited Government’s $4 million budget comes from large donors including New York real estate magnate Howard Rich, while Americans for Prosperity is funded in part by interests affiliated with its founder manufacturing tycoon David Koch — have yielded charges from the left that the groups are drumming up fake grass-roots’ opposition to Democratic initiatives.

Adam Brandon, spokesman for FreedomWorks, a non-profit chaired by former House Republican Leader Dick Armey, said the group is seeing “just a huge number (of grass-roots tea party activists) giving” since it got involved in the movement. It has helped facilitate some of the seminal events in the movement, including the massive Sept. 12 “Taxpayer March on Washington.”

But another Washington group that co-sponsored that march and other tea party activities, the National Taxpayers Union, has not seen its donor rolls blossom during its involvement in the movement, according to spokesman Pete Sepp.

“What we were trying to do in activating these folks was first to get them involved and then, hopefully, seek their financial support,” said Sepp. “One would think ‘gosh you’re crazy for not hitting them up for money right away,’ but we really wanted to see how we could cultivate grass-roots contacts for the long term to establish an ongoing presence in their own communities, rather than suddenly put these people on donor rolls and hit them up mercilessly,” he said.

“A lot of these folks are not in a great financial position to begin with. It’s one of the reasons that they’re out protesting is because they’re feeling the pain,” he said, adding that too much of an emphasis on raising money “could potentially harm the movement, because it’s a premature national initiative that doesn’t have the support of the majority of we the people.”


Sources: Politico, C-Span, Youtube

NC GOP Rejects Resolution To Turn Away Independent Voters...Wise Decision

N.C. GOP denies push for closed primaries



Republican primaries in North Carolina will continue to be open to unaffiliated voters.

GOP spokesman Jordan Shaw said the party's Executive Committee, comprising nearly 600 lawmakers and local political leaders, overwhelmingly rejected a resolution to allow only Republicans to choose the party's nominees.

Voters unaffiliated with a party have been helping pick who runs on the GOP ticket since 1988.

Republicans pushing for the change argued that party members should be the ones picking their nominees, because independents are more inclined to back moderates.

The resolution was adopted at the party convention in June, when a simple majority of committee members present usually is required for passage.

Many state leaders worried closed primaries would damage Republican chances to win elections in 2010. North Carolina's 1.4 million unaffiliated voters make up 23 percent of the electorate.

State party Chairman Tom Fetzer said Republican candidates benefited in the 1994 elections because the GOP welcomed unaffiliated voters at a time when the Democratic primary was still closed.

Unaffiliated voters have been allowed in Democratic primaries since 1996.

State law allows an unaffiliated voter to participate in one party primary but not both. A party has until Dec. 1 to tell the State Board of Elections it wants to prevent registered voters without a party from participating in next year's primary.






"Purity" may cost NC GOP



The N.C. Republican Party has been channeling its inner Jesse Helms lately, and not just because a portrait of the late conservative icon was unveiled last week.

At a GOP banquet Saturday night in North Raleigh, one of the main speakers was to have been Doug Hoffman, the New York conservative congressional candidate who was the favorite of Glenn Beck & Co. But he canceled because of an illness.

The state GOP is also considering a rule change that would bar unaffiliated voters from voting in state Republican primaries, in theory screening out some moderate voters.

In this age of polarization, it is politically incorrect to be a moderate.

The Republican Party likes to bill itself as the conservative voice of North Carolina and that is true enough, although the Libertarian Party might take exception.

But the NC State Republican Party has historically been far broader than the Helmsian party, with strong ties to the more moderate GOP brand of the mountains, the foothills, the board rooms and the suburbs.

Sometimes the Republican Party forgets that.

Twice in the last century, Republicans have won the governorship. In both cases they elected moderate conservatives, Jim Holshouser (1973-77) and Jim Martin (1985-1993).

Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, another moderate conservative, probably would have been elected governor last November if Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama had not made a huge effort here.

It has only been in U.S. Senate races that the Republican Party traditionally has spoken with a pure conservative voice. That's largely because Helms and his longtime political organization, the National Congressional Club, helped elevate to office a series of Helms-like conservatives.

But that was a club, not a political party.

Those calling for ideological purity have a short memory. Helms was repeatedly angry and frustrated at President Ronald Reagan, who would provide only lip service to such issues as abortion and school prayer. And it was Reagan who signed a nuclear arms reduction treaty with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.

This is actually an old debate. During the 1970s and 1980s, the state Republican Party was often torn by factional warfare between Helms-style conservatives and more traditional Republicans.

I was present in 1988 at a GOP convention in Franklin County in which a riot broke out, with multiple fistfights.

The Republican Party grew rapidly in the '60s, '70s and '80s in North Carolina by courting conservative Democrats.

But North Carolina has maintained the strongest Democratic Party in the South during the past decade by siphoning off moderate Starbucks Republicans.

As conservative British Prime Minister HaroldMcMillan (1957-63) once noted: "A successful party of the right must continue to recruit from the center and even from the left center. Once it begins to shrink into itself like a snail, it will be doomed."





North Carolina GOP May Block Independents From Primaries


North Carolina Republican Party leaders are meeting this weekend to decide if they want to continue allowing unaffiliated voters to cast ballots in GOP primaries.

The state party's executive committee is expected to debate a resolution asking the party to limit voters to registered Republicans only, starting in May's primary. Unaffiliated voters have been allowed to participate in GOP primaries since 1988.

Onslow County GOP Chairman Patrick Lamb says a closed primary would ensure more true conservative candidates are nominated.

Party chairman Tom Fetzer says a closed primary would not bode well for Republicans who want to get a majority in the Legislature and re-elect U.S. Sen. Richard Burr. Fetzer says winning is about building coalitions.

Democrats have invited unaffiliated voters to participate in their primary since 1996.



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Sources: WRAL, McClatchy Newspapers, News & Observer, WITN, Wikipedia, Google Maps

North Carolina GOP Turning Away Independent Voters...Stupid, Stupid, Stupid

"Purity" may cost NC GOP



The N.C. Republican Party has been channeling its inner Jesse Helms lately, and not just because a portrait of the late conservative icon was unveiled last week.

At a GOP banquet Saturday night in North Raleigh, one of the main speakers was to have been Doug Hoffman, the New York conservative congressional candidate who was the favorite of Glenn Beck & Co. But he canceled because of an illness.

The state GOP is also considering a rule change that would bar unaffiliated voters from voting in state Republican primaries, in theory screening out some moderate voters.

In this age of polarization, it is politically incorrect to be a moderate.

The Republican Party likes to bill itself as the conservative voice of North Carolina and that is true enough, although the Libertarian Party might take exception.

But the NC State Republican Party has historically been far broader than the Helmsian party, with strong ties to the more moderate GOP brand of the mountains, the foothills, the board rooms and the suburbs.

Sometimes the Republican Party forgets that.

Twice in the last century, Republicans have won the governorship. In both cases they elected moderate conservatives, Jim Holshouser (1973-77) and Jim Martin (1985-1993).

Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, another moderate conservative, probably would have been elected governor last November if Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama had not made a huge effort here.

It has only been in U.S. Senate races that the Republican Party traditionally has spoken with a pure conservative voice. That's largely because Helms and his longtime political organization, the National Congressional Club, helped elevate to office a series of Helms-like conservatives.

But that was a club, not a political party.

Those calling for ideological purity have a short memory. Helms was repeatedly angry and frustrated at President Ronald Reagan, who would provide only lip service to such issues as abortion and school prayer. And it was Reagan who signed a nuclear arms reduction treaty with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.

This is actually an old debate. During the 1970s and 1980s, the state Republican Party was often torn by factional warfare between Helms-style conservatives and more traditional Republicans.

I was present in 1988 at a GOP convention in Franklin County in which a riot broke out, with multiple fistfights.

The Republican Party grew rapidly in the '60s, '70s and '80s in North Carolina by courting conservative Democrats.

But North Carolina has maintained the strongest Democratic Party in the South during the past decade by siphoning off moderate Starbucks Republicans.

As conservative British Prime Minister HaroldMcMillan (1957-63) once noted: "A successful party of the right must continue to recruit from the center and even from the left center. Once it begins to shrink into itself like a snail, it will be doomed."





North Carolina GOP May Block Independents From Primaries


North Carolina Republican Party leaders are meeting this weekend to decide if they want to continue allowing unaffiliated voters to cast ballots in GOP primaries.

The state party's executive committee is expected to debate a resolution asking the party to limit voters to registered Republicans only, starting in May's primary. Unaffiliated voters have been allowed to participate in GOP primaries since 1988.

Onslow County GOP Chairman Patrick Lamb says a closed primary would ensure more true conservative candidates are nominated.

Party chairman Tom Fetzer says a closed primary would not bode well for Republicans who want to get a majority in the Legislature and re-elect U.S. Sen. Richard Burr. Fetzer says winning is about building coalitions.

Democrats have invited unaffiliated voters to participate in their primary since 1996.



View Larger Map


Sources: McClatchy Newspapers, News & Observer, WITN, NCGOP, Wikipedia, Google Maps