Morning Briefing
For May 2, 2013
1. Rush Limbaugh and the Need for Spine
The Politico is reporting (read: let’s wait for a second source to confirm it) that the RNC, well, “[t]he Republican National Committee has chosen a Karl Rove-linked voter data project called Liberty Works to help it compete with Democrats in the digital arena. Liberty Works will team up with Data Trust, whose chairman of the board is former RNC Chairman Mike Duncan, committee spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski confirmed to Politico.”
This is deeply troubling, if accurate, because I maintain the GOP must distance itself from the Bush administration players to start being successful again. Further, for all of Karl Rove’s fine attributes, he is also largely a direct mail guy who learned at the foot of Lee Atwater and never really learned anything after Atwater passed. I’m just not sure, after the 2012 race, that this is a wise investment. Direct mail guys believe the data is the value and what Team Obama discovered is that the tools to analyze the data are the value.
This concerns me. As a friend said on twitter yesterday, the GOP motto for fixing itself seems to be “incest is best.”
And this whole thing, excepting the incest crack, gets me to Rush Limbaugh. . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
2. We Can Win. But Only if We Fight to Win.
I’ve been on the road the last two days. In finally getting to emails this morning, I see a lot of people have emailed about Joe Scarborough taking on Ted Cruz. The Senator’s crime? Daring to explain to his Texas constituents that there are a number of Republicans in Washington who aren’t too pleased with Mike Lee, Rand Paul, and him.
Cruz had gone back to Texas and told some activists at a Freedomworks conference that Mike, Rand and Ted were constantly being yelled at by fellow Republicans. It’s a true statement verified by other Senators. These Republican conference meetings leak all the time. Reporters hover outside the door waiting to talk to these Senators. But Ted dared tell just how scared some of his colleagues are that they are being exposed as not quite the conservatives they campaigned as being.
In the Senate Republican Conference, one is seemingly only allowed to leak when bashing the conservative trio.
Cruz’s statement is newsworthy. Does anyone doubt that? There have been dozens of articles, shows, and blog posts attacking these guys — especially by self-annointed “conservatives” in the media. Heck, even the Wall Street Journal editorial board was aghast that Cruz, Lee and Paul would take on the blind hawks over drones, or dare to say the F-word — “filibuster” — of legislation attacking gun rights.
The anger generated over Ted Cruz’s statement to Freedomworks is straight forward. The Senate Republican Conference wants to be able to attack conservatives and opposes those same conservatives responding. They just aren’t used to having more than one Jim DeMint willing to fight back. And now they have three with Ted Cruz more and more filling the void Jim DeMint left with his departure. . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
3. Hitting The Brakes on Foxx as Transportation Secretary
Last Sunday’s news of Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx’s nomination as the next transportation secretary came without much ado. However, for those who live around the Charlotte area and know the history of local public transportation, the pick of Foxx at the very least deserves some consideration. . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
4. No truce with the Kermit Gosnells.
There can be no truce with Kermit Gosnell. Kermit Gosnell is intolerable, and the conditions of institutional neglect and hyper-ideological blinkers that allowed him to murder babies and collect their hands and feet as trophies is likewise intolerable. Pro-lifers were told that imposing abortion via judicial fiat would not lead to The House of Horrors; we are fully cognizant of the fact that we were lied to, and we do not trust pro-abortion advocates to not lie to us again. We have every right to distrust pro-abortion advocates, too. And note the difference there between “pro-choice” and “pro-abortion:” it is clear that there is a contingent out there desperate to keep abortions operating at their current levels, and you can usually tell who they are by the fact that they’re trying to stop pro-lifers from demanding the imposition of basic sanitary conditions at abortion clinics. . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
5. Capitalism and community
Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) recently gave an address to the Heritage Foundation entitled “What Conservatives are For.” I think he intended a double meaning with the title, as he addressed both the purpose of conservatism, and the positions conservatives should support.
I heard a bit of this speech on the Rush Limbaugh show Wednesday afternoon, and my interest was piqued, so I found the full transcript and video at Senator Lee’s official website. . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
6. Swinging Colorado Back
“Colorado is no longer politically purple. Nope. These days it’s somewhere between Air Force and Midnight on the blue scale.”
Curtis Hubbard, editor of the editorial page for the Denver Post, declared the above earlier this year in an article detailing the success of progressive Democrats in legislating restrictions on the 2nd Amendment, providing in-state tuition to illegal immigrants, and enshrining into law the long sought after civil unions.
Hubbard goes on to brush off the potential for pushback from the state’s conservative voters due to Democratic overreach by making the claim, sans any evidence, that these policies enjoy “wide public support.” This comes as no surprise, the Denver bubble is thick enough to protect against a nuclear attack from North Korea, if only they could find Denver on a map. . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
7. It’s Time to Codify the Hastert Rule
Over the past few months, we have witnessed a dynamic in Washington in which House leadership is passing liberal legislation with support from the Democrat caucus. Instead of using their unfettered control over the House to advance conservative legislation and jam the Senate with popular bills, they are playing defense on Senate-passed legislation. On other occasions, they have wasted valuable legislative days on suspension bills that grow government.
Just who controls the House? Democrats? . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
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