Anonymous establishment "leaders" need to Sit Down and Shut the Hell Up

I'll clarify this with a preface. I don't know who I'm supporting for 2012. Sarah Palin is not my first choice at all. I have a real problem with her quitting in the middle of the term. I'm not focused on that right now. In case these jagoff "leaders" aren't noticing, there's an election tomorrow. Two Politico Stories out there are putting this crap out there instead, thanks to anonymous cowards afraid to put their names out there

Top Republicans in Washington and in the national GOP establishment say the 2010 campaign highlighted an urgent task that they will begin in earnest as soon as the elections are over: Stop Sarah Palin.

Interviews with advisers to the main 2012 presidential contenders and with other veteran Republican operatives make clear they see themselves on a common, if uncoordinated, mission of halting the momentum and credibility Palin gained with conservative activists by plunging so aggressively into this year’s midterm campaigns.

Problem one. Why the hell are these "leaders" pushing this BEFORE the election. Tomorrow's election. Sarah Palin shouldn't be your concern right now. Harry Reid should be. Palin is in the middle of the pack when it comes to 2012, but if you want to see that rise, keep pushing this crap. I hate coronations and anonymous bullshit from so called "leaders", no matter which side they come from. I hate it even more when it's before the 2010 elections. Too many people want to be party stars and controller instead of trying to succeed in the right mission of less government and more freedom.

The stop-Palin talks are by no means coordinated among the various campaigns. But top advisers for most of the 2012 hopefuls told us the candidates — as well as many establishment figures — are fixated on the topic, especially on how to keep her from running or how to deny her the nomination if she does run.

A longtime Republican leader said party elders hope to thwart Palin by strengthening the Republican National Committee, which has been a magnet for controversy and has seen lackluster fundraising under current Chairman Michael Steele, and outside groups such as those blessed by Rove and Gillespie and now spending heavily on congressional races. (See: RNC aims to counter DNC cash edge)

This would represent "a strong counterweight to some kind of guerrilla effort Palin might try to launch." This leader said the party needs to create a unified job creation theme to offset the "cult of personality" that is Palin. "You deter someone by creating stronger opposition."

This strikes me as Mitt Romney's M.O. Romney lost my vote for good after the 2008 elections. That includes the general election, and not just the primary. If it's between Romney and Obama, I go libertarian. This is not just because of Romney's chameleon tenancies on policy, but based on his national staff's behavior at the end of the 2008 elections. BEFORE that election ended, the campaign was sabotaged and a lot of anonymous cowards leaked to the press. A lot of them were the DC/Beltway staffers which McCain absorbed from the Romney campaign. They lost, wanted to shift the blame from themselves and their candidates, and needed new jobs. McCain was old and not going to run in 2012. If Palin goes down, Romney was at the time viewed as their guy from the start and he wins. The trouble is that Palin has a much stronger grass roots following, and in the age of the internet, these leaks can sometimes backfire. The details of the leaks are still all over the internet, especially on redstate I'm not going to rehash everything.

I have my issues with some of Michael Steele's comments, but I agree with him 100% here.

A day before the elections, the head of the Republican National Committee lashed out at anonymous GOP critics of Sarah Palin, saying they need to “shut up.”

"These Republican leaders who don't put their names in print but make comments in shadows need to shut up," RNC Chairman Michael Steele said during an appearance Monday on CNN’s “American Morning.” “We're focused on winning elections tomorrow night. We're not focused on 2012.”

Steele made similar remarks in an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

“Put your name next to your quote and then have a conversation with Sarah Palin. Until then, leave it alone,” Steele said. “You know all this kind of dissension and, you know, frustration within the party is not doing anything to get Republicans elected tomorrow. So until we get that job done, let’s not worry about 2012.”

Worry about Sarah Palin and 2012 later. Tomorrow is the election. Those so called leaders pushing this crap now to the press need to be looking for new jobs, because this will do nothing but give Obama a 2nd term. I know I certainly will not be rewarding them after 2010. Precinct delegates and voters are in charge, not you. Don't ever forget that.

Adding on - Rudy Giuliani said it best and called out these so called leaders.

The Michael Steele Controversey

All over the political wires are critics of Michael Steele for various quotes or actions while at RNC. The latest response is this.
From the AP

"I'm the first here to admit that I've made mistakes, and it's been incumbent on me to take responsibility to shoulder that burden, make the necessary changes and move on," Steele told GOP activists and party leaders, drawing a standing ovation.
"The one mistake we cannot make this November is to lose," he added, and the crowd cheered in agreement.
Saturday's speech to the Southern Republican Leadership Conference was Steele's first public appearance since the disclosure of questionable spending — including a $2,000 tab at a sex-themed California night club — resulted in top advisers cutting ties with him and North Carolina's state party chief calling for his resignation.

While I have concerns largely due to my treasury background, I'm not on the Fire Steele bandwagon yet. The RNC chair is a two year gig. The major report is in November after election day. Results matter, and that is the truest test of the RNC.

I'm glad Steele mentioned that he made mistakes. What is the RNC, Steele and his staff, going to do about it? There's a little more than six months for everyone to prove themselves.

The New RNC Chair - Michael Steele

Yesterday, the RNC elected Michael Steele to be RNC chair. While he wasn't my first choice (Saul Anuzis), he wasn't my last choice either (Mike Duncan). One thing I do like about Steele is that he didn't make his name in Washington. He came out of the ranks of state government, as the Lt Governor of Bob Ehrlich. He also was, along with Newt Gingrich and JC Watts, tied in with GOPAC which works on building farm clubs of Republican officeholders.

Congratulations to Steele, but now it is time for the RNC to get to work to take back the majority from the idiots like Pelosi, Reid, Obama, and the fools in the US Senate (more than any other political body) who are FUBARing this country. While much has been made about technology being a major difference in these elections, it is one aspect out of many that needs to be addressed, and not the biggest. The biggest is to bring the ideas back, and ideas do not come from Washington DC.

Part of the reason of the 1994 victories was put in place before the Contract with America. It didn't start with Rush Limbaugh or talk radio. It didn't start with the internet, then dominated by the right and/or libertarians. It didn't start with Newt Gingrich, although he was one of the major people responsible for the comeback. It started with reforms in state governments. John Engler and Tommy Thompson with their welfare reforms started the changes. In 1993, Virginia and New Jersey flipped in their gubenatorial elections.

In 1994, The GOP picked up 12 gubenatorial seats, in addition to its congressional victories. These pickups were in the South and West as one would think, but also in the Northeast. New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Connecticutt of all place. They also held in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. They held all their seats in the Upper Midwest at the time as well. Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Iowa, and Illinois. Now a lot can be be said for reasons of the changes since then, not the least of which (In Ohio and Illinois) were crooks in state government like George Ryan (Chicagoland politics is even more corrupt than Detroit and New Orelans) and Bob Taft. In off year elections, governors usually lead the ticket. That's the case in Michigan as well, which will be an open seat as Granholm is (thankfully) termed out. Those lead the way.

One thing I was not doing when Howard Dean was elected DNC chair was laughing. Most of the GOP was laughing at his 50 state strategy. I wasn't. Many democrats were cringing and said that Dean was wasting his time. I was also cringing, for a different reason. The problem I saw was too many followers in the GOP, and that leads to trouble and complacency. When the main principles of the GOP are supposed to be less government and more freedom, and when Bush is leading a big spending spree, trouble is on the horizon, and peaked with this stupid bailout. Much of the base stayed home in 2008.

What Steele and the RNC need to do is a simple, but three-fold strategy.

1. Keep the base. By keeping the base, I do not mean exclude the others that aren't part of the base, but without the base united, nothing will happen. The GOP can not under any circumstances become democrat lite nationally. Now I understand that certain people can not win in some areas on some social issues (which mostly should be left to the states - let California be California, Alabama be Alabama, and Ohio be Ohio), but the big spending, bailouts, and trash like that needs to come to the end, especially on the federal level.

2. Don't concede a damn thing. Candidates should be run everywhere, and should be supported everywhere. What the hell have the democrats done for Detroit over the last fifty years? They destroyed it, and it started with the "white progressives" running it. On the same note, what efforts have the Republicans made in Detroit to compete? Jackshit. They ran against Detroit, without having a plan for reforming Detroit. This isn't limited to Detroit. The GOP concedes most fights against incumbents before it starts. This is especially true in the Senate. It should be easy to run against senators. They, more than anyone else, screwed up this country, and have been around forever. There's no way North Dakota should have two democrat senators. There's also no way that 1/2 of the seats should have been conceded before things even started in 2006. Arkansas (Still locally very democrat) had no Republican candidate. A first termer had a free ride. That's unacceptable.

3. Ideas win. Campaigns should not begin and end with "They suck." Yes, they do suck, but that's not enough of a reason for the middle to vote against somebody. It did not work in 2004 for the dems, and it did not work in 2008 for the GOP. In 1994, a vote on these issues was promised - and delivered (Votes on issues happened, some didn't pass)- if the Republicans took control.

Going back in time

On the first day of the 104th Congress, the new Republican majority will immediately pass the following major reforms, aimed at restoring the faith and trust of the American people in their government:


FIRST, require all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply equally to the Congress;
SECOND, select a major, independent auditing firm to conduct a comprehensive audit of Congress for waste, fraud or abuse;
THIRD, cut the number of House committees, and cut committee staff by one-third;
FOURTH, limit the terms of all committee chairs;
FIFTH, ban the casting of proxy votes in committee;
SIXTH, require committee meetings to be open to the public;
SEVENTH, require a three-fifths majority vote to pass a tax increase;
EIGHTH, guarantee an honest accounting of our Federal Budget by implementing zero base-line budgeting.
Thereafter, within the first 100 days of the 104th Congress, we shall bring to the House Floor the following bills, each to be given full and open debate, each to be given a clear and fair vote and each to be immediately available this day for public inspection and scrutiny.

1. THE FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY ACT: A balanced budget/tax limitation amendment and a legislative line-item veto to restore fiscal responsibility to an out- of-control Congress, requiring them to live under the same budget constraints as families and businesses. (Bill Text) (Description)

2. THE TAKING BACK OUR STREETS ACT: An anti-crime package including stronger truth-in- sentencing, "good faith" exclusionary rule exemptions, effective death penalty provisions, and cuts in social spending from this summer's "crime" bill to fund prison construction and additional law enforcement to keep people secure in their neighborhoods and kids safe in their schools. (Bill Text) (Description)

3. THE PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY ACT: Discourage illegitimacy and teen pregnancy by prohibiting welfare to minor mothers and denying increased AFDC for additional children while on welfare, cut spending for welfare programs, and enact a tough two-years-and-out provision with work requirements to promote individual responsibility. (Bill Text) (Description)

4. THE FAMILY REINFORCEMENT ACT: Child support enforcement, tax incentives for adoption, strengthening rights of parents in their children's education, stronger child pornography laws, and an elderly dependent care tax credit to reinforce the central role of families in American society. (Bill Text) (Description)

5. THE AMERICAN DREAM RESTORATION ACT: A S500 per child tax credit, begin repeal of the marriage tax penalty, and creation of American Dream Savings Accounts to provide middle class tax relief. (Bill Text) (Description)

6. THE NATIONAL SECURITY RESTORATION ACT: No U.S. troops under U.N. command and restoration of the essential parts of our national security funding to strengthen our national defense and maintain our credibility around the world. (Bill Text) (Description)

7. THE SENIOR CITIZENS FAIRNESS ACT: Raise the Social Security earnings limit which currently forces seniors out of the work force, repeal the 1993 tax hikes on Social Security benefits and provide tax incentives for private long-term care insurance to let Older Americans keep more of what they have earned over the years. (Bill Text) (Description)

8. THE JOB CREATION AND WAGE ENHANCEMENT ACT: Small business incentives, capital gains cut and indexation, neutral cost recovery, risk assessment/cost-benefit analysis, strengthening the Regulatory Flexibility Act and unfunded mandate reform to create jobs and raise worker wages. (Bill Text) (Description)

9. THE COMMON SENSE LEGAL REFORM ACT: "Loser pays" laws, reasonable limits on punitive damages and reform of product liability laws to stem the endless tide of litigation. (Bill Text) (Description)

10. THE CITIZEN LEGISLATURE ACT: A first-ever vote on term limits to replace career politicians with citizen legislators. (Description)

Unfortunately, when the trouble happened, largely from 2002 to 2006, the GOP got away from those ideas, and we had spending increases, and balanced budgets from the Mike Pence wing of the party shot down. What is needed today is a new contract on these 70% issues that Americans support and are the backbone of the GOP. This needs to be pushed in 2010. Be the leaders, kick Pelosi and Reid to the curb, and make Obama follow until 2012, and kick him out.

I hope Michael Steele is up to the task and gets the RNC straightened out from the mess it's in. He has a chance to be the hero much like Haley Barbour was when he took over a "down and out" GOP back in 1993.

Inside baseball (RNC, MI GOP races)

I'm violating the 3rd rail of my site. I generally do not comment much publicaly on inside baseball measures that are not elections. It often causes more trouble than it is worth. Right now we have two significant races affecting the GOP. One is for RNC chair. The other is MI GOP chair.

I'll start with the MI GOP chair. I am currently undecided in who I am supporting, assuming that I am a state delegate for the next convention. I have been a delegate every time I chose to run for the spot, so I assume it is likely I'll be at the next meeting. Ingham County Chair and former State Senator Norm Shinkle was running, and dropped out and supported Former Slovakia Ambassador Ron Weiser. That means two people are running now. Ron Weiser and State Rep and US Senate candidate Jack Hoogendyk. I know both Norm and Jack who are both good people. I do not know Ron Weiser. I don't claim solidarity to the "West MI" clique or the "East MI" cliques, etc. etc. I've backed those firmly in the West MI clique in the past, and those in the East MI clique in the past. I will continue to back those in both camps.

I have three questions for each of the candidates.

1. How are you going to keep the State Senate, AG, and Sec of STate seat, and how are you planning to take back the house, governor, and State Supreme Court back from the dems?

2. How do you plan to assist candidates who are running - specifically.

3. How will you build on the current foundation set by Saul and his administration and which would you do the same or different?

Those three questions and answers will determine whom I support.

Now for the RNC, there are six candidates for that position.

1. Saul Anuzis
2. Mike Duncan
3. Michael Steele
4. Ken Blackwell
5. Chip Saltsman
6. Katon Dawson

1. Saul Anuzis. Saul is great at logtistics and communications. That's his specialty. Many chairs want to be part of the cocktail party crowd. Saul will go to the grassroots meetings instead. Saul also is not afraid to go on TV to go after the dems, or to ruffle feathers. He's a solid conservative (fiscal, life, guns), and is working to make sure the GOP is fiscally conservative again. I remember how on Granholm's tax increase, he was doing his best to try and firewall that from going into law. It didn't happen, but he showed that the Republicans need to stand for something and not follow the leader of Granholm which started this downward spiral going back to 02-04.(Johnson/Sikkema) I do have one concern. Who will Saul hire in DC for election consulting? Saul is a delegater, like a lot of CEO's. After 2004 I talked with him about election mailings and strategies since I had some concerns about some of them and what happened in a few races. I think that is his one major weakness in Michigan. If that is addressed, and I think it can be as Saul IS a delegater, then Saul can be a great chair for the RNC. Election strategy is my only concern, but it is a concern. I think it is less of one in DC for him than it is in Michigan with the cliques. DC has it's cliques, but Saul isn't as tied to/against them than he was to a degree in Michigan.

2. Mike Duncan, the incumbent, needs to go. The RNC, NRCC, and NRSC hung out to dry so many winnable seats and got involved too often in primaries, spending money that needs to be used to win seats away from democrats. That's not to get to the next part. Mike who? I've never seen him. He's the RNC chair, and I couldn't pick out his face in the crowd? That's not good. Lastly, he was Bush's guy. I've frankly had enough of the Bush years and the big spending and the "big government conservatism." Sorry, Mike. It's not personal against you, but just how it is time for Boehner to step down from leadership, it's time for new leadership in DC that is frankly not tied to the establishment crowd.

3. Michael Steele. His claim to fame is running successfully as Bob Ehrich's LT in Maryland back in 02. Ehrlich as governor, Steele as LT Gov. He ran in 06 against Ben Cardin and did not win.

4. Ken Blackwell. I like the guy since he wasn't tied to the corrput Taft liberal republican machine in Ohio and their tax increase/gun grab support. More importantly, Blackwell spoke up and fought that when it was not the in thing to do. Taft was convicted of four misdemeanors while in office, and Blackwell was not a part of that. Unfortnately, he lost badly in his gubenatorial campaign.

5. Chip Saltsman - Mike Huckabee's campaign manager and former policy advisor to Bill Frist. He did a good job in Tenneesee from keeping it from being Gored in 2000.

6. Katon Dawson - South Carolina Chair. I don't know much about him, although South Carolina is the most GOP state in the South up and down the ticket.

For MI GOP Chair, I'm undecided. For RNC, I support Saul Anuzis.