New Karl Rove group, Conservative Victory Project, versus the Koch Bros Americans for Prosperity and Freedom Works, Club for Growth, Senate Conservative Fund
Please pass the popcorn as this is going to get very interesting in the days ahead as the hard right with all the boots on the ground plus money butt heads with the Rove/Bush big money donors. Will this effort stop Republicans from leaving the Party especially women and minorities? Will it stop long time GOP from helping Democrats in 2014 to take the House, keep the Senate, and oust some of the hard right at the State level who have been responsible for voter suppression and changing the rules on how electoral votes are counted? No to both questions as we have learned over the years that we cannot trust what the GOP is saying. When you go to a retreat to have to learn how to talk to voters, you probably shouldn't be in politics.
Let me say up front I agree with Joe Scarborough who said on Morning Joe this morning that Haley Barbour would have been a better choice to run an organization like this one to oppose hard right candidates. IMO Barbour is a very organized person and has a track record of winning as RNC Chair and as two-time Governor of Mississippi. He understands the Buckley rule and is actually much more likable then Rove will ever think of being. The one negative to Barbour is that he is old school and has a hard time appealing to younger people.
Politics is undergoing change right -- the old backroom deals with hard knuckle politics isn't going to work today as there is always going to be someone who puts on the Internet what is happening. If the parties don't change, they will be left behind. Seeing the change already as the Democrats as they are more center left with Progressives having a ton of common sense while the Republicans went hard right and threw common sense out the window. This Country needs at least two viable parties or the other one will get too arrogant and make stupid decisions that are not good for the whole Country. We have seen Republicans fulfill that agenda for six years under President GW Bush as they went farther right with each election.
An example is the Buckley rule:
Most of us long time Republicans don't recognize today's party but we also know that Karl Rove is not the answer to take it back centrist. He has always lived in bubble on elections which almost cost President Bush in 2000 and again in 2004 when he refused to put any credence in anyone's numbers but his own. Very arrogant and only believes he knows it all and the rest of us peons are there to carry out his wishes.
Today many of us are not loyal followers of the GOP or Rove as we have taken our blinders off and see a party that has gone hard right into the world of no common sense or reality. Changing the message doesn't change the core values of the hard right where with a little bit of research you can pick up on the net where they have stood in the past. We know that Paul Ryan is as hard right as Todd Aiken but just packages the message better. That means that those on the hard right need exposed at every turn so they cannot pass themselves off as mainstream Republicans like Paul Ryan has tried or now Senator Ted Cruz as they and others are anything but mainstream. They are hard right supported by the Koch Brothers.
When I first heard about this group, my first thought was train wreck along with GOP will be destroyed faster then I think. After reading the comments of people opposed to the Rove group, I stand by my initial analysis. How can Republicans aka Bush people be so dumb as to put Rove in charge of trying to bring back the GOP to the center when the numbers are on the side of the hard right and they just elected a hard right RNC Chair controlled by the Koch Brothers. Do I think this additional effort by Crossroads will work? NO because they may have money but few boots on the ground as many us who have stayed involved in politics are not going to buy into this latest Rove scam after what we saw out of Rove, Romney, and the GOP in 2012. Very poor choice.
If I had to bet how this is going to turn out, unfortunately my bet is on Koch's and the hard right as they have many more people then Rove. Even more moderates don't like Karl Rove and definitely don't trust him even a little.
Pop some popcorn and stay tuned as the fight for control of the GOP has started with tons of money waiting to be spent on both sides. Only thing I know for sure is that big donors are stupid to fall for any of this and give Rove any more money to waste. By the time the Republicans get through the primaries, they will be weakened by their own Party and Dems will be picking up seats IMHO!
Please pass the popcorn as this is going to get very interesting in the days ahead as the hard right with all the boots on the ground plus money butt heads with the Rove/Bush big money donors. Will this effort stop Republicans from leaving the Party especially women and minorities? Will it stop long time GOP from helping Democrats in 2014 to take the House, keep the Senate, and oust some of the hard right at the State level who have been responsible for voter suppression and changing the rules on how electoral votes are counted? No to both questions as we have learned over the years that we cannot trust what the GOP is saying. When you go to a retreat to have to learn how to talk to voters, you probably shouldn't be in politics.
Let me say up front I agree with Joe Scarborough who said on Morning Joe this morning that Haley Barbour would have been a better choice to run an organization like this one to oppose hard right candidates. IMO Barbour is a very organized person and has a track record of winning as RNC Chair and as two-time Governor of Mississippi. He understands the Buckley rule and is actually much more likable then Rove will ever think of being. The one negative to Barbour is that he is old school and has a hard time appealing to younger people.
Politics is undergoing change right -- the old backroom deals with hard knuckle politics isn't going to work today as there is always going to be someone who puts on the Internet what is happening. If the parties don't change, they will be left behind. Seeing the change already as the Democrats as they are more center left with Progressives having a ton of common sense while the Republicans went hard right and threw common sense out the window. This Country needs at least two viable parties or the other one will get too arrogant and make stupid decisions that are not good for the whole Country. We have seen Republicans fulfill that agenda for six years under President GW Bush as they went farther right with each election.
An example is the Buckley rule:
The group favors William F. Buckley’s dictum to nominate “the most conservative candidate in the primary who can win the general election,” over Ronald Reagan’s commandment, “Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.”That Buckley Rule was all well and good back in the 70's/80's but whoever is behind this establishment effort today doesn't have a lot of moderates to work with today or women who have gotten more and more fed up with the Republican Party since 2000. Each year it seems to have gotten worse with more hard right conservatives elected. We are not talking about Joe Scarborough type of conservatism but the hard right John Birch/Libertarian/Ayn Rand types.
Most of us long time Republicans don't recognize today's party but we also know that Karl Rove is not the answer to take it back centrist. He has always lived in bubble on elections which almost cost President Bush in 2000 and again in 2004 when he refused to put any credence in anyone's numbers but his own. Very arrogant and only believes he knows it all and the rest of us peons are there to carry out his wishes.
Today many of us are not loyal followers of the GOP or Rove as we have taken our blinders off and see a party that has gone hard right into the world of no common sense or reality. Changing the message doesn't change the core values of the hard right where with a little bit of research you can pick up on the net where they have stood in the past. We know that Paul Ryan is as hard right as Todd Aiken but just packages the message better. That means that those on the hard right need exposed at every turn so they cannot pass themselves off as mainstream Republicans like Paul Ryan has tried or now Senator Ted Cruz as they and others are anything but mainstream. They are hard right supported by the Koch Brothers.
When I first heard about this group, my first thought was train wreck along with GOP will be destroyed faster then I think. After reading the comments of people opposed to the Rove group, I stand by my initial analysis. How can Republicans aka Bush people be so dumb as to put Rove in charge of trying to bring back the GOP to the center when the numbers are on the side of the hard right and they just elected a hard right RNC Chair controlled by the Koch Brothers. Do I think this additional effort by Crossroads will work? NO because they may have money but few boots on the ground as many us who have stayed involved in politics are not going to buy into this latest Rove scam after what we saw out of Rove, Romney, and the GOP in 2012. Very poor choice.
The organizers of American Crossroads hope to bring electoral victory to the Republican Party by defeating unelectable tea party candidates in GOP primary races. The new super PAC, called the Conservative Victory Project, will be run by American Crossroads president Steven Law and is supported by former Bush political adviser Karl Rove.
“There is a broad concern about having blown a significant number of races because the wrong candidates were selected,” Law told the New York Times on Saturday. “We don’t view ourselves as being in the incumbent protection business, but we want to pick the most conservative candidate who can win.”The Victory Project plans to oppose candidates like Christine O’Donnell, Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock. Though running in places where Republicans were favored, the tea party-backed candidates lost the general election after defeating moderate Republicans in the primary. Many tea party candidates who were victorious in 2010, such as Allen West and Joe Walsh, also ended up being defeated by Democratic challengers in 2012.
Victory Project spokesman Jonathan Collegio told CNN that Republicans lost six Senate races in the last two election cycles because they nominated “undisciplined candidates” rather than Republican veterans.
Read More:Anyone who thinks this will drive the hard right to give up power, is smoking something because the chances of that are zero, zip, nada as witnessed by some of the comments from the hard right this morning:Raw Story (http://s.tt/1zjDQ)
Both the Club for Growth and the Senate Conservatives Fund – two of the most prominent groups that have boosted candidates on the right – mocked the new initiative as yet another hapless establishment-side attempt to muzzle the GOP base.
Matt Hoskins, executive director of the Senate Conservatives Fund, branded it the “Conservative Defeat Project.”
“The Conservative Defeat Project is yet another example of the Republican establishment’s hostility toward its conservative base. Rather than listening to the grassroots and working to advance their principles, the establishment has chosen to declare war on the party’s most loyal supporters,” Hoskins said. “If they keep this up, the party will remain in the wilderness for decades to come.”
Club for Growth spokesman Barney Keller essentially responded by pointing to the scoreboard in recent primaries in which conservative insurgents have prevailed and emerged as influential GOP leaders.
“They are welcome to support the likes of Arlen Specter, Charlie Crist and David Dewhurst,” Keller said of the new Crossroads group. “We will continue to proudly support the likes of Pat Toomey, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz.”From Atlantic Wire:
Read more at Politico
But conservatives noted that establishment Republicans who didn't talk about rape lost, too. The Senate Conservatives Fund's Matt Hoskins told Politico the Crossroads group was the "Conservative Defeat Project." Free Republic posters mocked "Tokyo Rove." On Breitbart.com, Ben Shapiro called Rove and his cohorts, "The Bush insider team that helped lead to the rise of Barack Obama." RedState editor Erick Erickson said the Conservative Victory Project was sure to pick losers. "I dare say any candidate who gets this group’s support should be targeted for destruction by the conservative movement." Erickson wrote. "They’ve made it really easy not to figure out who the terrible candidates will be in 2014." In another post at RedState, Daniel Horowitz warned of an enemy within under the headline "The Snakes in the GOP Grass":
One by one, people like Karl Rove seek to crush another sacred belief of the conservative base. All social issues? Gone. Enforcement before amnesty? No way. Stay strong on taxes? Forget about it. Fight Obamacare? That’s a done deal...In this battle, we must distinguish friend from foe. It is a battle we did not initiate, but it is one we must win.
The conservatives are right that many establishment picks lost in 2012, too: North Dakota's Rick Berg, Montana's Denny Rehberg. In Connecticut, a doorhanger ad for Linda McMahon said, "President Obama and Linda McMahon will fight for us." She lost. But all of the conservative positions listed by Horowitz -- opposition to Obamacare, gay marriage, lax immigration laws, higher taxes -- were held by the most important establishment pick of all: Mitt Romney. It's possible the GOP's problem is not just about style.From Washington Times Blog:
Gentlemen, commence with the sword rattling, and let the infighting begin.
The Senate Conservatives Fund has attacked the Conservative Victory Project, a brand new super PAC organized by American Crossroads, the sleek 2012 fundraising machine that boasted Karl Rove as its point man. A New York Times account of it all paints a dire picture of discord:
From Media Matters:"The biggest donors in the Republican Party are financing a new group to recruit seasoned candidates and protect Senate incumbents from challenges by far-right conservatives and tea party enthusiasts who Republican leaders worry could complicate the party's efforts to win control of the Senate," the paper said Sunday.
The response from conservative media figures has been almost uniformly negative, with many citing American Crossroads' poor performance in the 2012 election and President Obama's election after years of Rove's work in the Bush White House as evidence against him.
Newly signed Fox analyst Eric Erickson sarcastically noted: "The people who brought us No Child Left Behind, Medicare Part D, TARP, the GM bailout, Harriet Miers, etc., etc., etc. are really hacked off that people have been rejecting them." Erickson added, "I dare say any candidate who gets this group's support should be targeted for destruction by the conservative movement."
Daniel Horowitz, a front page contributor to Erickson's RedState.com described Rove's group as "snakes in the GOP grass," and described the group's name as "Orwellian" since "they will never tell you how they plan to achieve conservative victory without running conservative candidates."
In response to Rove's announcement, Fox News contributor Michelle Malkin asked, "Who needs Obama and his Team Chicago to destroy the Tea Party when you've got Rove and his big government band of elites?" Addressing Rove, she wrote, "You and your Incumbency Protection Racket are the problem, not the Tea Party."
Ben Shapiro of Breitbart.com accused Rove of "quietly undermining conservatism" and described Rove and his allies as "the Bush insider team that helped lead to the rise of Barack Obama," and whose advice "led to the epic Romney defeat."
W. James Antle III pointed out in The Daily Caller that many candidates favored by the Republican establishment in 2012 -- likeTommy Thompson, George Allen, Rick Berg, Denny Rehberg, Linda Lingle, and Heather Wilson -- "all lost the general election" and that "if the Tea Party is to blame for anything, it is not distancing the party from Bush enough."
WorldNetDaily, linking to the New York Times story, described the effort in a headline as "Rove Doubles Down In War On Conservatives."
Rick Moran, writing at American Thinker, said "this kind of bloodletting is self-defeating."Can sit in my chair and chuckle at the comments from the hard right against Rove and his new scheme to make more money because I am no longer emotionally invested in the Republican Party as I have one foot out the door. Will be supporting/helping Democrats for Congress in '14 because I am sick and tired of the obstructionist Republicans in Congress who are sitting on bills to put Americans back to work. They will do anything to stop the Obama agenda no matter how much it hurts the American people. Not only Democrats and Independents are fed up with the Republicans in Congress especially after last week's Senate hearings, but so are many Republicans who are figuring out what to do next.
With such a negative reaction from the right, will Rove use Fox to promote fundraising for this effort, as he has done so often in the past?
If I had to bet how this is going to turn out, unfortunately my bet is on Koch's and the hard right as they have many more people then Rove. Even more moderates don't like Karl Rove and definitely don't trust him even a little.
Pop some popcorn and stay tuned as the fight for control of the GOP has started with tons of money waiting to be spent on both sides. Only thing I know for sure is that big donors are stupid to fall for any of this and give Rove any more money to waste. By the time the Republicans get through the primaries, they will be weakened by their own Party and Dems will be picking up seats IMHO!
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