Tag: Hugh Hewitt

Hewitt writes a memo to the House GOP

Hewitt writes a memo to the House GOP

Hugh Hewitt today writes a memo to the Republican members of the House of Representatives. He addresses the reasons the GOP is lagging behind the Democrats in raising money.

We all know you are getting crushed by the Dems when it comes to fundraising.

We also know you are working hard to turn this around. We also see that the Pelosi Democrats are significantly to the left of the public face they put on last fall, and that on a number of issues the GOP caucus has held together and scored wins.

So why is there this gap? Why isn’t the money flowing in with which to take back the House?

The answer has to be that people don’t give to unknowns, and they certainly don’t want to give to any GOP candidate who isn’t solid on the war, on border security, on spending and taxes. They aren’t buying –or sacrificing for– the hope that the candidates who emerge in 2008 will be the sort they are proud to back.

The key to getting some energy back in the donor base –small and large– is to identify the challengers on whose success will come the return of the majority.

Hugh has a solution.

You need to make the base believe you can win back a majority, and that takes candidates in districts currently held by Democrats. There are 233 Democrats and 202 Republicans. That means the GOP needs to find at least 16 new faces to take seats away from Democrats, and probably a couple of more given the weakness of some of the GOP incumbents.

So make some moves to prove you are serious about getting the majority back and not just protecting the incumbency of Members comfortable in the minority.

Establish a fund for challengers only and do the legal footwork necessary to segregate it from the NRCC’s general fund.

Read the whole post. Hugh has the right idea. I hope John Boehner, Roy Blunt and Tom Cole are listening.

 

Senators need your views today

Senators need your views today

Republicans, particularly Republican Senators, should not be encouraging the enemy in time of war.

In a previous post I urge everyone to Take the Pledge.

In a post this morning, Hugh Hewitt relates that the urgency to contact your Senator has increased. They have not been listening. According to an article in the Washington Post today:

The committee’s partisan vote strengthened the hand of Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.) and a bipartisan group of senators backing a less forceful resolution of opposition.

Warner and his co-sponsors, Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), went to the Senate floor last night to introduce their resolution of opposition, brandishing a raft of new co-sponsors, including Democrats Ken Salazar (Colo.), Mary Landrieu (La.), Claire McCaskill (Mo.) and Bill Nelson (Fla.), as well as Republicans Gordon Smith (Ore.) and Norm Coleman (Minn.)….

But several Republicans indicated they would vote for a resolution of opposition if the language were toned down. Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), a presidential candidate, said he was in talks with Warner on a resolution he could embrace. Others were still awaiting some sign of compromise from the president.

According to Hugh:

The Warner resolution encourages the enemy, and that is according to the testimony of General David Petraeus. Not only should it have zero co-sponsors, there should be zero GOP support for any of its first cousin resolutions. In my interview with him yesterday, Norm Coleman indicated that he will reconsider support for the resolution, and every Republican named in this story needs to hear from you as well. E-mailers tell me that Senators Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and George Voinovich of Ohio are also among those who were considering the Warner resolution prior to the Petraeus testimony.

Please spend the day working the phones and the e-mail to let these senators and the GOP leadership know that the Warner resolution is unacceptable.

Sign the pledge and ask your friends and family to do so as well (more than 6,000 have done so in 18 hours.). The country is not defeatist, does support victory in Iraq, and most certainly does not support encouraging the enemy.

Senator Kyl told me that “I think my colleagues have their ears to the ground,” but they are clearly not hearing from the core of the party, a core that will not shrug off a vote for the Warner resolution or any resolution that undermines the policy already in place and supported by not just the President but also by General Petraeus.

Please tell the candidates in the ’08 cycle especially –Alexander, Collins, Coleman and Smith and would-be presidential nominee Brownback—that a vote for the Warner resolution is the end of support for them and the NRSC.

Senator Alexander’s phone: (202) 224-4944. His e-mail is here.

Senator Brownback’s phone: (202) 224-6521. His e-mail is here.

Senator Coleman’s phone: (202) 224-5641.His e-mail is here.

Senator Collins’ phone: (202) 224-2523. Her e-mail is here.

Senator Smith’s phone: (202) 224-3753. His e-mail is here.

Senator Voinovich’s phone: (202) 224-3353. His e-mail is here.

The GOP leadership, which needs to announce that no resolution will be voted on that encourages the enemy, and that includes the Warner resolution or any cousin of the Warner resolution:

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s phone is (202) 224-2541. His e-mail is here.

Minority Whip Trent Lott’s phone is (202) 224-6253. His e-mail is here.

Senator Jon Kyl’s phone is (202) 224-4521. His e-mail is here.

Senator John Ensign’s phone is (202) 224-6244. His e-mail is here.

When you are done calling and writing, start over, and ask your friends to do so as well, beginning with the pledge.

I don’t know what these senators are thinking this morning, but they clearly haven’t been listening to you. No debate will begin or vote be taken until next week, so invest some time in supporting the troops by bringing clarity to these senators: You can’t win a war by encouraging the enemy and undercutting the commander on the ground in Iraq or the Commander-in-Chief in the White House. Not to understand that is a great way to send an irreversible message to core supporters that their time and money is best spent elsewhere.

Hugh states:

It will discourage me to begin the ’07-08 campaign cycle aware that I won’t be able to support with time or money some very fine senators or, in all likelihood, the NRSC. But victory in war trumps party. The senators may say they are voting their conscience. So will I.

So will I.

 

Take the Pledge

Take the Pledge

I’m with Hugh Hewitt on this:

If the United States Senate passes a resolution, non-binding or otherwise, that criticizes the commitment of additional troops to Iraq that General Petraeus has asked for and that the President has pledged, and if the Senate does so after the testimony of General Petraeus on January 23 that such a resolution will be an encouragement to the enemy, I will not contribute to any Republican senator who voted for the resolution. Further, if any Republican senator who votes for such a resolution is a candidate for re-election in 2008, I will not contribute to the National Republican Senatorial Committee unless the Chairman of that Committee, Senator Ensign, commits in writing that none of the funds of the NRSC will go to support the re-election of any senator supporting the non-binding resolution.

Take the pledge, and tell the NRSC:

NRSC
Ronald Reagan Republican Center
425 2nd Street, NE
Washington, DC 20002
202.675.6000
webmaster@gopsenators.com

Then e-mail Senator McConnell and Senator Ensign, and tell them too. Senator McConnell’s phone number is (202) 224-2541. Senator Ensign’s phone number is (202) 224-6244.

GOP activists and donors built the GOP senate delegation, as well as the majority that was punted away. They can disassemble it as well, and GOP support for a neoappeasement resolution is exactly the way to start that process.

The Congressional GOP has to realize it cannot have it both ways –you can’t be for victory after you were against it.

And GOP senators –alone or as a group– definitely cannot count on the support of the base if any of them vote for appeasement.

Go to this site to sign the pledge.

 

Lynne Cheney – Sandbagged by Wolf Blitzer

Lynne Cheney – Sandbagged by Wolf Blitzer

Lynne Cheney walked into the belly of the beast – CNN – this week to talk about her new children’s book, “Our 50 States”. Wolf Blitzer, knowing that she was coming to talk about her book, decided he would ambush her with loaded questions about the War on Terrorism, the current elections and Iraq in an aggressive adversarial tone.
Continue reading “Lynne Cheney – Sandbagged by Wolf Blitzer” →