The latest flap

You may or may not have heard about this from the Politico, also Joe Scarborough spoke about it yesterday (3/4) on his MSNBC show Morning Joe. Quite frankly it is the only level headed programming that abomination of a news channel puts out, but I digress. While I agree with Joe that someone's head should roll, namely the finance officer of the RNC, it points to a more systemic problem with the guys currently at the top of the RNC. Namely Michael Steele. He has time and again failed to persuade the larger donors to donating to the RNC, no doubt he has increased the web presence and the smaller donors (which were significant in Obama beating Hillary) but that simply isn't enough. Mr. Steele inserts his foot into his mouth so often he has become quite the connoisseur of shoe leather. And I am pretty sure his tone is what turns off the major donors, but I'm just thinking out loud here.

See the funny thing is, the controversial presentation on it's face is mostly true. Is it overly cynical? Absolutely, and that is why it has no place in official documents. I have had my problems with the RNC this past year backing some non-conservative types, most notably Dede Scozzafava in upstate NY and Charlie Crist in FL's Senate primary. The problem for the RNC is that the trend is moving away from giving money to the larger party to giving it to the individual campaigns. That trend comes from the true grassroots nature of the whole tea-party, anti-tax, anti-big government movement. It is the kind of Internet fueled grassroots we saw in Howard Dean's candidacy in 2004 and Obama's primary battle with Hillary. Tea Partiers are for the most part independents but are moderate to conservative and have no brand loyalty so to speak. That accurately describes the majority of the country and this is a point that is often missed by media pundits and leaders on the left. They are getting out in front of the parties and endorsing candidate by candidate. This is easy to notice when you read how the movement is organizing, what candidates they are getting behind,etc. This is why when the Republican party drifts to the left they repudiate the hell out of them. See the 2006 mid-terms. And if you don't know the number of reasons how the Bush Administration went to the left in domestic policies and spending, see me after class. Look quite simply America already has one Democratic party they do not want another.

Now back to the controversy at hand, this PowerPoint presentation. Everyone is up in arms over the "fear" tactics, talking about "socialism". Oh G_d, really? Save the phony outrage for someone who hasn't followed election over election covering the last 16 years. Heck history shows that this kind of stuff has been going for HUNDREDS of years. Get over it. OK now that I got that off my chest. Let me take a look at what is really offensive in the presentation, it's the tack they use to attempt to shame the big donors into giving. Now I know most charities to an extent do this, BUT this isn't a freaking charity Mr. Steele! It is just one more embarrassment for this Chairman and it is becoming increasingly clear that the only thing standing between a Republican landslide in the midterm is Michael Steele.

As for the socialism talk, it is true. BUT the party heads should be talking about the real ideas being brought forth by the conservative leaders who happen to be Republican. The solutions are what should be presented to potential donors, but breaking out the MoveOn.org playbook from 2004 is not inspiring anyone. The problem is that some of them do not know what these ideas are, they haven't backed most of the candidates that espouse it! Every conservative has been saying it since Bush left office, it is time for the conservative principles of Ronald Reagan, Lincoln to come back. It is time for the party to once again embrace our philosophical forefathers, Alexis de Tocqueville , Edmund Burke, the Federalist papers, etc. When given the choice and if the principles are laid out, the American people WILL choose the conservative candidate, not some watered down John McCain type. Most of the inside the Beltway Republicans need to be reminded of these things, it is their path to electoral victory.