Reason number 5838523 to not donate a dime to the NRSC

I've long had gripes with the NRSC. As a rule, I do not donate to national political organizations and parties. I usually limit my donations to local committees I know and support or better yet - individual campaigns.

The latest from the clowns at the NRSC shows that they do not give a damn about winning in November. They care about preserving their own jobs only before the party. They are incumbents first, party 2nd, challengers to democrats 3rd.

From Redstate

Dan Riehl put up the letter outlining the complaint Joe Miller has raised over a Murkowski “observer.”

You can read the letter here. In short, the observer used a government computer with access to voter data, transmitted information via his iPhone, and generally flouted the rules to do so.

Turns out the “Mike” who did this is Mike Roman — an NRSC affiliated lawyer who has been hired by the Murkowski campaign. The NRSC made a grand spectacle of pulling back its Chief Counsel from Alaska, but I’m told the NRSC arranged for Mike Roman to help Murkowski in this matter.

The job for the NRSC, RNC, and NRCC is to elect republicans in November. It's not to have coronations for their favorites in primaries. They need to stay the hell out of the primaries. Until they do this, donors should refuse to donate to them and put the money into their own candidates instead.

Let's look at the NRSC's recent history.

2005/2006 - They spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in negative ads in the Rhode Island Senate race. True RINO and Obama/Kerry supporter Lincoln Chafee ran against True Moderate Steve Laffey in the primary. The NRSC spent hundreds of thousands in negative ads against Laffey. Chafee won, and then lost in November to another leftist democrat.

2009 - They endorse Arlen Specter and Charlie Crist. Both are now party switchers as their fiscal liberalism did not coincide with their party's grass roots. They were unable to win their primaries to they are now running as democrats or quasi-democrats. Specter lost his democrat primary, and Crist will lose as a so called "independent." Good riddance to both of those clowns, but this is yet another reason the NRSC is worthless and wasting our money.

2010 - Now they got involved in yet another primary. Lisa Murkowski v Joe Miller. Murkowski is apparently defeated in Alaska, but NRSC lawyers are now working to change that. Since it's close, I don't fault Murkowski for lawyering up, but the NRSC should not be involved here. It's job is to try and retake the senate. Period.


I went in depth on this back in April on why the NRSC sucks.

I've long said that the biggest joke in American politics is the US Senate. That's true now more than ever with clowns like the NRSC, Reid, Levin, Stabenow, Feinstein, Durbin, Corker, Shelby, Dodd, McCain, Biden, Obama, and Leahy, all current or recent senators.

If the NRSC is unwilling to use its time effectively to get a Republican senate, its job, then individuals will have to do its job for them. That means picking the right individual candidates to support in US Senate races. While no Michigan races are up, there are several prominent races worthy of our support. In order, I'd back through a combination of pragmatism, chance to win, and ideology (not all perfect):

1. Pat Toomey - Pennsylvania (Pickup)
2. Marco Rubio - Florida (Defense)
3. Ken Buck - Colorado (Pickup)
4. John Raese - West Virginia (Pickup)
5. Dino Rossi - Washington State (Pickup)
6. John Boozman - Arkansas (Pickup)
7. Winner of Wisconsin Primary (Pickup)
8. Winner of New Hampshire Primary (Defense)
9. Rob Portman - Ohio (Defense)
9. Sharron Angle - Nevada (Pickup)
10. Dan Coates - Indiana (Pickup)
11. Rand Paul - Kentucky (Defense)
12 Linda McMahon - Connecticut (Pickup)

There's no way I could send a dime to Carly Fiorina, Mark Kirk, or Mike Castle even if I was a millionaire because in most years, I could not even vote for them, but those are competitive races, and their committee votes matter and this year would be an exception on that rule. Adding those three would be 12 pickups. I didn't add John Hoeven in North Dakota who is likely to replace Byron Dorgan. That's another pickup, which would be 13. That would give the GOP 54 seats. Do I expect that many wins. No. It would take 10 to pickup the Senate. Do I expect that? No. I expect 52-48 Dem after this race, but I hope I'm wrong. Colorado, Nevada, and Kentucky got tougher after the primary winners there.

If I had to pick two, Toomey and Rubio. Those are two of the most competitive races, along with the two that will piss off the DC establishment the most. Toomey and Rubio got screwed by them, and they will remember.

Establishment RINO candidate Charlie Crist bolts GOP - NRSC with egg on their face

I didn't call Charlie Crist a RINO until today. He sure is one now. I save that term for those who deserve it.
From Redstate

One year ago today, NRSC backed Arlen Specter bolted from the GOP. Today, the media is reporting NRSC backed Charlie Crist is also bolting the GOP.
Seeing a trend here, aren’t we?
Charlie Crist will not only run as an independent in Florida, but he has also reserved all of his air time in Florida through November, or as much as he can.
Why?
Because he knows the Club for Growth is going to do what they did to Specter — fund an effort to have Crist donors ask for their money back. Well, because Crist has spent it all on television advertising holds that he may or may not later use, he can say he has none to give back.
Classy, Charlie.

It's time for the NRSC people to get out of the beltway, away from the cocktail parties,  and take a good hard look at how things work in the real world away from the Capitol reporters bureau, Bethesda, DC, Arlington, and Alexandria.

Two establishment supported candidates are now gone. Arlen Specter left the GOP and went to the democrats after Pennsylvanians rejected him. Joe Stesak is running against him in the democrat primary. I hope he wins the primary and teaches that bum a lesson. If not, oh well. Screw the NRSC, back individual Candidates only

The NRSC is at it again. They officially broke their longtime policy of getting involved in open primaries when they endorsed Charlie Crist, Florida's governor in the open Senate race which is held by Mel Martinez. Marco Rubio, the Florida Speaker of the house, is another candidate.---------------------
I think the DC establishment STILL has not learned their lesson, and will have to be defeated over and over until they get it. They know jack and squat, and jack left the building. They didn't get it with Laffey. They didn't get it with Specter. They don't get it here either. They lost something like 14 seats in 4 years and are doing the same crap they've done before.

If McConnell and Cornyn and the NRSC are backing Crist, then I'm leaning towards Rubio strictly by default. I don't know that much about him, outside of the Weekly standard piece and his website, but what I've heard sounds more good than bad. While I'd probably vote for Rubio over Crist based on fiscal issues, I wouldn't support the NRSC backing either candidate.

The NRSC endorsements bring up another can of worms. When do they endorse and when do they back off? There a major primary battle in Missouri between DC's establishment guy Roy Blunt and Missouri's statewide elected official Sarah Steelman. That's also an open seat. Steelman is attacking Blunt's ties to DC and K-street and fiscal responsibility. That's a valid attack after the job DC's done on fiscal issues the past eight years. Is the NRSC getting involved in one and not the other? That's a can of worms that should not have been open.

And it could have been prevented by the NRSC doing its job and winning general elections. This mismanagement and poor decisionmaking is why you will not see me give one dime to the NRSC. Only individual candidates deserve donations.

I followed that up later the October with Washington Establishment gets Right Hook.

I've said for almost four years that the Republican Party is at a crossroads, mainly due to fiscal issues. It can follow the lead of the Republican Study Committee, Mike Pence, Jim DeMint, and Jeb Hensarling in its opposition to deficit spending, or it can follow the lead of Ted Stevens, George W Bush, and Charlie Crist in their support for big spending policies. The choice made here, will determine whether the GOP can take the house back in 2010, and the senate back in 2012 or 2014. It will also determine if Obama will be a one-termer. The bailout in 2008 turned the election from a close race to an ass kicking. The fiscal policies in 2006 caused an ass kicking. Democrat-lite policies from the GOP do not work. Why vote for democrat-lite when the real thing is always available.

While I understand that what works in one community does not always work in another, basic principles should always apply, and that they should be less government and more freedom.

Many in the GOP are starting to get that message again with Obama's radical leftism, Mike Pence having a more visible role, Ted Stevens being defeated, and George W Bush being gone. Starting being the operative word. There's still a lot of trust that needs to be earned, and nobody trusts the government right now. That's why we have the tea parties. That's why the calls are flooding the offices. That's why people are involved in politics who have not been involved.
Speaking of fiscal conservatism and tea parties, they aren't GOP. They are conservative. There's a difference, and people are getting right hooked by it. Florida Governor and senate candidate Charlie Crist is a big example. He was at the Mackinac Conference and probably wants to run for president someday. I was real tempted to get a big banner up there that said "Marco Rubio for Senate." Marco Rubio is Charlie Crist's opponent in the primary. Rubio has one of my favorite quotes. “If you are unhappy with the Republican establishment, then let’s get a new establishment.” Right now, we're in the process there in Washington. The DC insiders don't support Rubio, but that's changing. Rubio called out Crist and rightly so in the magazine Human Events. 
-------------------------------
  In 2005, the NRSC ran negative ads against Steve Laffey who ran against RINO Lincoln Chafee. Chafee got the establishment GOP support and won the primary. He still lost in the general in 2006. The NRSC spent money meant to support republicans, not fight them.

In 2009, the NRSC endorsed big spending Arlen Specter for re-election. Specter is now a democrat because the grassroots republicans had enough of him. Pat Toomey for senate. Toomey is an electable (won three times in a district that went for Gore and Kerry) conservative who can win a tough state like Pennsylvania.

Also this year, the NRSC said they would stay out of the Florida open primary, changed their mind, and supported Charlie Crist. My response? Rubio for senate.

The NRCC isn't much better. In Arizona, they flodded a district with money in an open primary for a candidate that lost. Wasted money.

Those are reasons why I don't give money to the establishment committees. If you plan on donating, the best way to go is to individual candidates, like Rubio, Toomey, Pence, DeMint, etc. Cut out the middleman.

That leads to the Politico article today which was very interesting. Tea partiers turn on GOP leadership. I wouldn't say, "turned" on GOP leadership. Most of the tea partiers I know and talked to never liked the GOP leadership anyway. This is grass roots. These aren't followers, but they chose their own paths. If you give them a big spending republican, they will get opposed just like an Obama democrat.

The way to combat this is to drain the NRSC and back individual candidates for senate. Marco Rubio for senate. Pat Toomey for senate. 

It's up to us as political watchdogs to look at who is running in the different races, research the candidates, be patient and watch how things go, and then make an intelligent decisions on which candidates deserve our support. People like more of the same, Charlie Crist, aren't worth it. Floridians figured that out, and Crist turned tail and left the party. Screw him.

The best revenge here is for Crist to finish third, behind Kendrick Meek and Marco Rubio

You got to be kidding me

This is a joke. Charlie Crist, the establishment supported (NRSC) economic liberal governor of Florida and senate candidate now wants us to buy this.

From The Hill

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R) is now denying that he endorsed the stimulus package, the same package he promoted at a rally with President Obama in February.
......
"Well, I didn't endorse it," he said.  "You know, I didn't even have a vote on the darned thing. But I understood that it was going to pass and I wanted to be able to utilize it for the benefit of my fellow Floridians."
It's true that as governor Crist didn't have a vote on the package, but he has reportedly said that he would have voted for it if he were in the Senate.

What the hell? He may not have "endorsed" it, but he certainly supported it, and in political terms, they mean essentially the same thing. In fact, Crist supported it so much that he campaigned with Mr. Obama in support of the stimulus bill, which has been an absolute failure and waste of almost 1 trillion dollars.

Here's Charlie Crist in May of 2009. From the Orlando Sentinel.

Gov. Charlie Crist, now a U.S. Senate candidate, said Tuesday he would have made the “pragmatic” decision to vote for the $787 billion federal stimulus bill, differentiating himself from fellow-Republican opponent Marco Rubio and the man he is trying to replace — Mel Martinez.
Speaking to a politically mixed crowd in Daytona Beach, Crist emphasized his support for the bill as practical and pragmatic, though it would have meant crossing party lines. Only three Republican senators backed the stimulus bill, and Martinez wasn’t one of them.
Now Florida stands to get about $15 billion over the next two years through different stimulus grants.
“A lot of that $15 billion dollars you sent to Washington, D.C., and my view is we ought to get it back," Crist told his audience. "Florida deserves her fair share.”

15 Billion back out of 700billion+ spent, much of that by Floridians. That doesn't even make sense. The bottom line is that money should not have been spent in the first place. Pragmatism and Practicality is not spending money that is not there. Decisions like this are reasons why the GOP lost bad in 2006 and 2008, and in the case of NY-23, the GOP only got 5% of the vote because there wasn't a dimes worth of difference between DeDe Scozzafava and Bill Owens. It was so bad there that the so called republican Scozzafava endorsed the democrat.

Now Charlie Crist isn't quite as bad as Scozzafava, but he's not what is needed in DC. We do not need big spending economic liberals and big government - from either party. The NRSC, once again, has ignored the people outside the beltway with its recruitment AND primary endorsement of Crist. Nothing new for them. They endorsed Arlen Specter for re-election and got all the establishment behind him. Then Specter switched parties when the people of Pennsylvania had enough of him and the polls showed him getting sent home in the primary. Sounds similar to the 5'er in Scozzafava who was thoroughly rejected by the people of the 23rd district in New York.

There is a choice in Florida, unlike New York-23rd's special election. Marco Rubio, a recent state rep from democrat leaning Miami-Dade county Florida. Rubio would help bring fiscal conservatism back to Washington. His win would also send a strong message to party leadership on what is expected of them. Change or cronyism? That's the choice.

Washington Establishment gets right hook

Politico has a great article today that leads to this long editorial.

I've said for almost four years that the Republican Party is at a crossroads, mainly due to fiscal issues. It can follow the lead of the Republican Study Committee, Mike Pence, Jim DeMint, and Jeb Hensarling in its opposition to deficit spending, or it can follow the lead of Ted Stevens, George W Bush, and Charlie Crist in their support for big spending policies. The choice made here, will determine whether the GOP can take the house back in 2010, and the senate back in 2012 or 2014. It will also determine if Obama will be a one-termer. The bailout in 2008 turned the election from a close race to an ass kicking. The fiscal policies in 2006 caused an ass kicking. Democrat-lite policies from the GOP do not work. Why vote for democrat-lite when the real thing is always available.

While I understand that what works in one community does not always work in another, basic principles should always apply, and that they should be less government and more freedom.

Many in the GOP are starting to get that message again with Obama's radical leftism, Mike Pence having a more visible role, Ted Stevens being defeated, and George W Bush being gone. Starting being the operative word. There's still a lot of trust that needs to be earned, and nobody trusts the government right now. That's why we have the tea parties. That's why the calls are flooding the offices. That's why people are involved in politics who have not been involved.

Speaking of fiscal conservatism and tea parties, they aren't GOP. They are conservative. There's a difference, and people are getting right hooked by it. Florida Governor and senate candidate Charlie Crist is a big example. He was at the Mackinac Conference and probably wants to run for president someday. I was real tempted to get a big banner up there that said "Marco Rubio for Senate." Marco Rubio is Charlie Crist's opponent in the primary. Rubio has one of my favorite quotes. “If you are unhappy with the Republican establishment, then let’s get a new establishment.” Right now, we're in the process there in Washington. The DC insiders don't support Rubio, but that's changing. Rubio called out Crist and rightly so in the magazine Human Events.

The only enduring legacy of this stimulus will be the deficit it’s left us with,” Rubio said. “I don’t care how much money he raises — he will never convince Florida Republicans that the stimulus package and his embrace of it, and his campaigning in favor of it — hand in hand with the president — was a good thing for Florida, a good thing for their children, or a good thing for our country”

Rubio is frank in his assessment of why Crist went along with the stimulus at the time: Obama was popular.

“I think he supported the stimulus package because Barack Obama was popular at the time, and I think he supported it because he didn’t want to have a budget session in Tallahassee where he had to make difficult decisions — which, quite frankly, is reflective of everything that’s wrong in American politics today,” Rubio said. “We have too many people that just want to be popular.”

Right on the nose. That is also a big reason why I NEVER donate to the NRSC or NRCC. Those two groups pick and choose establishment candidates and fund them, even in primaries.

In 2005, the NRSC ran negative ads against Steve Laffey who ran against RINO Lincoln Chafee. Chafee got the establishment GOP support and won the primary. He still lost in the general in 2006. The NRSC spent money meant to support republicans, not fight them.

In 2009, the NRSC endorsed big spending Arlen Specter for re-election. Specter is now a democrat because the grassroots republicans had enough of him. Pat Toomey for senate. Toomey is an electable (won three times in a district that went for Gore and Kerry) conservative who can win a tough state like Pennsylvania.

Also this year, the NRSC said they would stay out of the Florida open primary, changed their mind, and supported Charlie Crist. My response? Rubio for senate.

The NRCC isn't much better. In Arizona, they flodded a district with money in an open primary for a candidate that lost. Wasted money.

Those are reasons why I don't give money to the establishment committees. If you plan on donating, the best way to go is to individual candidates, like Rubio, Toomey, Pence, DeMint, etc. Cut out the middleman.

That leads to the Politico article today which was very interesting. Tea partiers turn on GOP leadership. I wouldn't say, "turned" on GOP leadership. Most of the tea partiers I know and talked to never liked the GOP leadership anyway. This is grass roots. These aren't followers, but they chose their own paths. If you give them a big spending republican, they will get opposed just like an Obama democrat.

“It’s an outgrowth of the frustration people have had with the Republican Party,” said Andrew Moylan, director of governmental affairs for the National Taxpayers Union, another group that has played a large role in organizing the tea party movement. “I think a lot of people have been angry at Republicans for betraying our trust.”

“I think the GOP establishment has ignored their constituents and the feelings of their constituents for years,” added Meckler.

It’s an unusual predicament for the Republican Party, since the conservative-oriented issues that animate Tea Party activists once seemed destined to make the movement a valuable auxiliary to the Republican Party.

While there’s little evidence of tea party activist support for Democratic candidates, the specific notion of electing a GOP majority hasn’t ranked high on their agenda either.

Trust has to be re-earned. This was the major damage done to the GOP after Gingrich and Armey left, and after the arrival of President Bush.

One of those activists, Canyon Clowdus, an Army veteran who is taking on third term conservative Rep. Michael Conaway (R-Texas), has blasted the incumbent for making “a horrible mistake” in voting for Troubled Asset Relief Program.

“He has put a financial burden on my four children that will amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars each,” Clowdus says of Conaway on his campaign website.

“I think it was a bad, bad political decision,” Armey said of the 34 Senate Republicans and 91 House Republicans who voted for the TARP bailout, “and if you talk to grassroots activists, it has become a political test for them.”

Moylan agreed that TARP is “really kind of the flash point that started all of this.”

The bailout, supported and OWNED by Obama, Bush, and McCain. The stimulus package. Cap and trade. One after another. ALL of it is bad. Pete Hoekstra has mostly a good record, but he voted for the bailout the second time it was in the house. I can't get past that, and it cost him a chance at my primary vote (I'm supporting Mike Cox) for governor. Hoekstra's a good guy, but on fiscal issues that are tough decisions, I now have big doubts about his ability to handle pressure.

More:

For some, supporting insurgent campaigns or waging primary bids just isn’t a strong enough signal to send to a Republican Party that has abandoned core conservative policies.

Erick Erickson, founder and editor of the influential conservative blog RedState, has urged Tea Party activists to “put down the protest signs” and stage takeovers of local Republican parties.

“Grassroots activists need to start infiltrating the party,” said Erickson. “The only way to start getting [the establishment] back is to start pounding them with every fist we have.”

While I'm more judicious with the fists and pound them when I must, I don't believe in fighting blind. Know the rules of the game and use them to your advantage. I agree with the general premise, which goes to Rubio's comment about getting a new establishment.

In Michigan, our GOP committees are elected. It starts with precinct delegates. There are also usually more openings than spots filled for this position. That is an elected position in the August primary election. I've run for the position, and won every single time without even running a campaign. The primary job of the precinct delegates is to seat people at the state convention and elect people to the county executive committee. It's relatively easy, at least here, to seat people at state convention. I've been a state delegate every time I wanted to be. State delegates vote on district committee (where I currently serve), state committee, state chair/vice chairs, RNC committeeman, and candidates for some offices on the November ballot, including Attorney General, Supreme Court, and Secretary of State. It's a big deal. Those are the rules of the game, and also remember this. Washington establishment is the big problem. Many, many, mid and low level establishment figures in the GOP away from Washington are good friends of fiscal conservatism. Not everyone in the party is a RINO.

I don't know how it works in states besides Michigan, but if people really want to make a change on spending issues, it starts with getting involved long term. If you are a conservative and an old style 1994 Republican, get involved. It's your party as much as it is mine. Work hard, but most importantly, work smart. That's how to get a new establishment, and how to LAND a right hook against the Washington establishment instead of a swing and a miss.

Screw the NRSC, back individual candidates only

Real quickly.

The NRSC is at it again. They officially broke their longtime policy of getting involved in open primaries when they endorsed Charlie Crist, Florida's governor in the open Senate race which is held by Mel Martinez. Marco Rubio, the Florida Speaker of the house, is another candidate.

Crist is a centrist Republican on social issues and a liberal Republican on economic issues with his support of tax increases and Obama's pork bills. So far, he's real good on 2nd Amendment issues, and he is pro-life on the abortion issue. He's not my favorite, but I wouldn't consider him a RINO but a center-left Republican. There's a difference. A RINO is Lincoln Chafee, Bill Milliken, or Colin Powell. RINO's back democrats for President or Governor.

Rubio is a less government conservative from relatively blue Miami-Dade county.

I have a big problem with the NRSC's decision. The job of the NRSC is to defeat democrats, not get involved in the Republican primaries 15 months in advance. This trash is one of the reasons why the GOP is in a minority and the funds to the NRSC dry up. If I'm a donor whose goal is to take back the Senate, I don't want my money to be dried up in primary spending, and I damn well don't want it to be dried up in attack ads. These jokers are throwing good guys to the wolves in GENERAL elections, while backing their pets in the primaries. What the hell are they thinking?

What's the NRSC going to do in this primary? It is going to spend money on ads bashing Rubio like they did to Steve Laffey in Rhode Island (against real RINO Lincoln Chafee in 96....who lost re-election). The NRSC supported Arlen Specter until he switched parties. On the other hand, they couldn't find one person to run against Mark Pryor in Arkansas? On the NRCC side (House), they pushed in primaries for their pets and got beat in the primary AND general. Good job fools.

The NRSC also previously said they would stay out of the Florida primary.

FLASHBACK: Just last week, Cornyn told the Politico he would stay out of the race, saying, "I don't think it's the proper role of the NRSC or folks in Washington to try to tell Floridians who their nominee should be, so I think that will have to work its way out."

Nice switch, guys. Thanks a lot. The National Journal gives a warning.

Today's biggest news: The NRSC will back Crist, their goal being to dry up Rubio's money. Will it also rile up conservatives who want DC to stay out? Nothing helps an underdog like taking it to "the man." We're still waiting to see if the Club for Growth weighs in.

I'm all for sticking it to the DC establishment. I loved Rubio's response to the NRSC endorsement.

Rubio's spokesman Brian Seitchik had this to say about the NRSC's endorsement: "We knew that Governor Crist was going to have the establishment's support in Washington and Tallahassee. The NRSC endorsement is not a surprise. But this campaign is about more than Marco and Charlie Crist. This campaign is about the future of the Republican Party. Marco and Crist have fundamentally different approaches to solving problems, and this campaign will be about those differences."

This was followed by this youtube ad seen at Roll Call

“Some politicians support trillions in reckless spending, borrowed money from China and the Middle East, mountains of debt for our children, and a terrible threat to a fragile economy,” an announcer in the ad states over a visual of Crist and Obama together. “Today too many politicians embrace Washington’s same old broken ways but this time there is a leader who won’t. Let the debate begin.”

I think the DC establishment STILL has not learned their lesson, and will have to be defeated over and over until they get it. They know jack and squat, and jack left the building. They didn't get it with Laffey. They didn't get it with Specter. They don't get it here either. They lost something like 14 seats in 4 years and are doing the same crap they've done before.

If McConnell and Cornyn and the NRSC are backing Crist, then I'm leaning towards Rubio strictly by default. I don't know that much about him, outside of the Weekly standard piece and his website, but what I've heard sounds more good than bad. While I'd probably vote for Rubio over Crist based on fiscal issues, I wouldn't support the NRSC backing either candidate.

The NRSC endorsements bring up another can of worms. When do they endorse and when do they back off? There a major primary battle in Missouri between DC's establishment guy Roy Blunt and Missouri's statewide elected official Sarah Steelman. That's also an open seat. Steelman is attacking Blunt's ties to DC and K-street and fiscal responsibility. That's a valid attack after the job DC's done on fiscal issues the past eight years. Is the NRSC getting involved in one and not the other? That's a can of worms that should not have been open.

And it could have been prevented by the NRSC doing its job and winning general elections. This mismanagement and poor decisionmaking is why you will not see me give one dime to the NRSC. Only individual candidates deserve donations.