Say What?

(Click on image to enlarge and then head back, please.)

First, some back story.  California never gets the benefits of regular campaign stops from presidential candidates or either party's campaign committee.  California is considered a lock for the Democrats, so to actually speak to us peasants would be a waste of time.  Candidates and  their committees come here only to raise money.  We're like a huge ATM machine.

So you can imagine my surprise (and that of David Horsey) when the RNC selected Hollywood, California for it's annual Spring Conference.

Like Nixon going to China, the Republicans have entered hostile territory. Ostensibly, this interesting choice of venue is part of RNC Chairman Reince Priebus’ outreach to communities that Republicans have long considered unreachable. But Priebus and his party have about as much chance picking up votes in Hollywood as they would in Harlem.

The location is merely symbolic, akin to Barack Obama showing up at a National Rifle Assn. conclave just to prove he is man enough to do it. Assembling the party’s governing body in such an unexpected place is really meant to focus attention on the findings of the GOP’s Growth & Opportunity Project. That report, released by Priebus a couple of weeks ago, says the party organization needs to make its message more appealing to Latinos, blacks, women and young people and then figure out ways to deliver that message in technologically innovative ways.

The underlying concern is that in 2012, the Obama campaign sank Mitt Romney’s presidential bid by scooping up the vast majority of nonwhite voters, micro-targeting other likely Obama voters, such as single women, and driving up turnout among heretofore undependable young voters by smartly exploiting social media. The report says Republicans need approaches to match what the Democrats have done.

The report also bears an implicit message that not all Republicans want to hear. The message is that the party can no longer be held hostage by tea party zealots and the religious right. The party establishment managed to move in that direction at the national convention in August when several measures were approved that gave more clout to party officials and enhanced their ability to maintain order in the rowdy process of choosing a presidential candidate.   [Emphasis added]

 Rules changes were debated during the early part of the conference, and the far right wackaloons got mostly beaten back.  On a couple of issues, including releasing convention delegates to vote their conscience rather than represent the caucus or primary vote, they got a hearing, but it will take a 75% vote to get those stands through.  That doesn't look likely.

Whether the GOP will remain fractured remains to be seen.  I suspect 2014 will be key in that regard.  In the mean time, Republicans held a convention here, pouring dollars into our economy.  This is getting funnier and funnier.

More popcorn, please.

Of Blind Squirrels and Broken Clocks

(Editorial cartoon by Jack Ohman / Sacramento Bee (March 7, 2013) and featured at McClatchy DC.  Click on image to enlarge and then return.)

Sen. Rand Paul's old fashioned, actual talking filibuster on Wednesday was a wonder to behold.  And you know what?  I was cheering him on, something I never thought I'd do.  Apparently some of his GOP colleagues were not as thrilled as I was at his attack on drones targeting American citizens, however.

From the Los Angeles Times:

The political fallout from Sen. Rand Paul’s filibuster has begun as fellow Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham switched Thursday to support John Brennan as CIA director, saying the vote has become a “referendum” on the drone program.

Graham’s changed position comes after Paul, the Kentucky tea party favorite, became an overnight political sensation for holding the Senate floor nearly 13 hours as he pressed the Obama administration for assurances Americans would not be targeted on U.S. soil by unmanned military-style aircraft.

“I was going to vote against Brennan until the filibuster, so he picked up one vote,” Graham said. “This whole argument that somehow Brennan and the president are operating outside of just good logic and human decency – I don’t want to cast a vote to suggest that I think that’s credible.”

The South Carolina Republican and his longtime GOP ally, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, held the Senate floor for their own moment Thursday, as they defended the drone program and criticized Paul’s effort as misguided.   [Emphasis added]

What Sen. Paul did was bring the whole issue of drones before the Senate and the American people in a very colorful and newsworthy way.  For that I give him lots of style points.  I also give him credit for taking on the issue of drones being used on American soil against Americans.  I would have really liked him to go further and declare the use of drones for assassinations everywhere against anyone to be contrary to the American and International rule of law traditions.  But at least he said something, and did it for nearly 13 hours.

Way to go, Rand! 

Poor Mitt

Mitt Romney must be wondering if Ron Paul's campaign is ever actually going to end. Here's a quarter, Mitt. No.

Ron Paul and his followers are determined to keep their libertarian ideas before the GOP, and they're going to do it by hijacking delegates at state conventions, like the one in Minnesota this weekend.

After years of quiet, relentless organizing, followers of libertarian-leaning GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul have exploded inside the Minnesota Republican Party, becoming its most potent army.

"This is one of the greatest states that I have witnessed, where I have seen the transition, where the enthusiasm's there," the grinning Texas congressman told hundreds of exuberant activists Saturday at the state party's convention in St. Cloud, where he won 12 of 13 open delegate spots to the GOP national convention in Tampa, Fla., in August. The 13th went to former presidential candidate and U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann -- and only after a Paul supporter dropped out to let her have that spot.

In Minnesota, more than almost any other state, Paul forces have completed a historic party takeover. They proved their might Saturday, but also firmly established Minnesota as a remote GOP outpost nationally.

Now state GOP activists will march to the national convention firmly backing Paul rather than presumed Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. [Emphasis added]

More traditional GOP activists were both stunned and angry at the outcome. Many of them have ruled the state party for decades, but recently they haven't done so well. Money ran out and the party was given an eviction notice for non-payment of rent due on their state offices. The party was ripe for the picking and the Pauliacs stepped right in.

What I found somewhat surprising is that the Tea Partiers didn't have any success this time around.

Paul power comes from a sharply different place than the Tea Party movement, which the GOP welcomed just a few years ago. Tea Party members and the libertarian-minded sound similar when they talk of less spending and a dramatically reduced government, but beyond that, they part ways. Libertarians preach less intrusion in private life, question all federal income taxes and want to leave moral issues up to states.

The change also marks a clear split from when state Republicans made "family values" the passport for party entry. Instead of evangelizing about religious principles, Paul disciples cheer for a scaled-back foreign policy and the freedom to drink raw milk and grow hemp. [Emphasis added]

Does that mean President Obama will have no trouble in Minnesota? Not hardly. The state which elected Sen. Franken and Gov. Dayton in extremely close races also elected Michele Bachmann and will probably re-elect her.

It does mean, however, that there are still a lot of people unwilling to just fall in line behind Mitt Romney, and the convention is less than three months away. He'll have to keep tacking to the right on economic issues and tax issues and figure out a way to satisfy the social conservatives without offending everyone else.

And there's still more primaries and state conventions ahead.

Less Is More

File this story in the "Be Careful What You Wish For" bin. A politician is running for the US Senate on a platform which promises to reduce the budget deficit by cutting back on pork for his own state.

Joe Miller, the surprise leader in Alaska's unresolved Republican Senate primary, said Sunday that the growing national debt requires a "belt tightening" that should include cutting back on federal dollars that his state receives.

Miller's holds that position, articulated throughout his campaign against incumbent GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski, despite Alaska's historic reliance on federal resources, needed to develop the vast territory of the young state.

Now, this sounds terrific in the abstract, especially coming from a candidate whose state became a symbol of wasteful government spending with its "Bridge To Nowhere" a few years back. The late Sen. Ted Stevens was a master at bringing pork home to Alaska, and the current senator, Lisa Murkowski, was rapidly developing those skills during her term. Mr. Miller sounds like he wants to be a reformer in that respect, and one can't help but admire such a stance, at least up to a point.

That said, however, one also should keep in mind just what is going on here. Mr. Miller, backed by the Tea Party and by Sarah Palin, really wants the federal government to butt out completely. His target isn't just bridges which don't connect populated or popular places, it's any federal money which comes with federal strings. That would, of course, include such things as Medicaid, education, highway funds, welfare, job development funds and any other program which the Galtian libertarians eschew.

Oh, I'm sure Mr. Miller doesn't want any cuts in the military expenditures which might remove a base or installation from Alaska. The federal government should, after all, be responsible for the national defense and Alaska, because of its location, is important to the national defense. Any other expenditures, however, should be closed down.

The theory, of course, is that by cutting out the pork, the deficit would disappear and taxes could be cut, leaving Alaskans with more money to spend the way each wants to. Fine. Let's see how that plays out during the next oil field disaster, or the next earthquake, or the next economic implosion.

Now, let's hear from some of the other Red states, those which, like Alaska, get far more dollars from Washington than they send to Washington. Many of the Gulf states won't need all those clean up dollars from the feds. They can clean up the mess themselves and be the better for it.

This is going to be kind of fun to watch.