The January 6th Committee coverup

The January 6th committee was designed to get Trump, just like the NY felony case, and the Georgia case, and the civil case, and... you get the point.  In each of those cases the attitude has been "justice be damned, we want to get Trump so he can't win re-election".

But as we have known for years, Pelosi was culpable. Trump was not.  The truth will come out eventually. 

Levin on January 6th committee hearings

 Mark Levin dissects the true purpose of the January 6th committee hearings.

He makes a point about the Constitutional convention.  I think every state in the Union would probably be happier if they could make their own laws unimpeded by federal oversight, even liberal states like California. Leave the Federal government to truly federal issues like national defense and other Constitutional provisions granted to the federal government. 

Years ago I suggested on this very blog a divorce at an individual level; each individual could opt into either a Democratic or Republican template on welfare, education etc. and be governed by those particular rules (with the exception of the aforementioned federal provisions like national defense which cannot be done at an individual level).  Theoretically nice, it would be pretty much impossible to institute.  But if it were scaled back to a state level, individual mobility within America might solve for the ability to live under the set of beliefs most closely aligned with your own. The overturning of Roe  v. Wade is a prime example of that; those states wishing to allow abortion have not been prevented from doing so, despite the fevered histrionics of the left.

RNC Steeled for Battle

The RNC yesterday elected it's first black chairman, Michael Steele, to a two year term. It took 6 ballots to achieve the victory. Steele has a reputation as a centrist but that isn't necessarily a fair assessment. There are a good number of positives that come out of this and the RNC has elected a man who comes ready to bring the fight to the Democrats.

Some positives

After two election cycles (2006 and 2008) of substantial losses in the House and Senate, as well as the White House, Mike Duncan is gone. If nothing else, it proves that Republicans don't reward failure the way Democrats do (e.g. the auto bailouts). More importantly though, the man who was chosen by George Bush is no longer at the helm of the Republican party. He was not the right man for the job. Cleaning house after the defeats, in this case is a good idea.

Michael Steele is the chair of GOPAC, the organization that recruits and trains Republican candidates, he brings that wealth of knowledge to his chairmanship, and potentially a synergy between the two efforts.

He has vowed to fight for every vote, every group - something the RNC has seemed not to think to do at times;

"We're going to say to friend and foe alike: 'We want you to be a part of us, we
want you to with be with us.' And for those who wish to obstruct, get ready to
get knocked over," Steele said.

"There is not one inch of ground that we're going to cede to anybody," he added.

"This is the dawn of a new party moving in a new direction with strength and conviction."

That vision is something that indicates he understand there are many areas of untapped voter potential for the GOP.

What's ahead?

Steele has a challenging set of tasks ahead. He's got to improve fundraising, ensure quality candidates for 2010 and beyond, and re-visit the infrastructure and the policies of the RNC to see what's working and what needs fixing. More importantly when Steele talks about making inroads into groups, one of those groups that has to be his starting point is conservatives. There is still a lot of disillusionment among conservative voters that the GOP has left them, or at least taken them for granted. The Republican party has image repair to do, by word and deed, to not only those on the outside but those who form or formed it's core constituency. The proof early on will be in the actions of the new Chair, both words and actions are required.

We've seen Michael Steele on the talk show circuit. He has the words, now let's see him put his ideas into a party in need of revitalization. I believe he can succeed, and I wish him luck. Or, to paraphrase Rush Limbaugh talking about another new leader, I can put it into four words 'I hope he succeeds'.

Funnels - getting cash into the Right hands

Remember when Barack Obama opted out of public financing for his election campaign? Do you recall the reasons? The video is pretty dry, but the ad piece from Obama near the beginning is very telling.



FYI - Democracy Now is a liberal organization, Massie Rich is with the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan organization.

So Obama opted out to combat the vast army of Republican 527s lined up to destroy him. He had to do it. In October there were some ads, but nothing huge. And McCain raised significant money (thanks in large part to the RNC, and not his boneheaded allegiance to the federal funding). It doesn't seem that conservatives brought out there wallets as hard as they could have, but it also seems like 527s are one more area we are behind the Democrats on. Where's our moveon.org? Who is our George Soros (with some common sense added in)? Where are conservative donations going and why is it that the efficacy of the use of that money seems so muted? The answers aren't readily clear.

What is clear, is that in order to fund smarter, more effective campaigns in the future, more money will be needed, and funneling it to the right teams is crucial. Fundraising needs to be underway now, but more importantly, who gets the money? The RNC, the 527s, individual campaigns? There seems to be a lack of strategic imperative associated with both the financial sides of campaigning - revenue and expenditures. The strategy needs to be devised quickly on

1) How to collect more money.
2) How to collect more efficiently.
3) How to be transparent in the collection process.
4) Who collects it.
5) Where it goes (i.e. who gets it and in what percentages).
6) How it is spent.
7) Do we have enough 527s on the Republican side and do they have enough backing?

With regard to the last three points it would seem that the 527s are set to be the attack dogs and should be aligned to get the right proportion of fundraising to support that objective, the RNC should get a very significant portion and should be in a position to best align the spending with the opportunities that are presented for seat gains. Very high level thoughts, hopefully the folks inside the RNC have thought well beyond this already and are making the appropriate reviews of 2008. Based on the performance of the GOP in 2008, I'm not convinced that is yet the case.