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CPAC: Pat Caddell eviscerates Republican consultants and the GOPe
Conservatives4Palin ^ | 16 Mar 13 | Doug Brady

Posted on 03/18/2013 4:45:52 PM PDT by xzins

For the past four years or so, I’ve written numerous posts condemning the inbred society of Republican “insiders” and “consultants” who tell their candidates that they need to become Democrat light to win elections. These Washington denizens, I’ve argued are more interested in a candidates willingness to spend huge amounts of money for their services than their ideology or electability. That’s why they’ve consistently tried to marginalize real conservatives who see them for what they are: parasitic mercenaries who’ve become rich dispensing bad advice since about the time Reagan left office. They are scared to death by conservatives with core convictions who, thus, don’t need them such as Governor Palin. In a post on the eve of the 2010 mid-term elections, I listed several reasons why it was in their interest to make sure Governor Palin wasn’t the 2012 nominee because they had, in Mitt Romney, the perfect candidate for their narrow self-interest:

First, for whom do these mysterious “insiders” work (or want to work)? Keep in mind that Washington political consultants are basically parasites whose foremost goal is to suck as much money out of a campaign’s coffers as possible. But they first have to get hired by a campaign and, to do this, they must ingratiate themselves to the candidate. Most of these insiders know that Governor Palin will not play their game and, consequently, won’t hire their incompetent, backstabbing a*ses, so it’s undoubtedly in their financial interest that she not win the nomination. Sure, they’ll be able to find work on House and Senate campaigns, perhaps a campaign for the local dog catcher, but the real money is in the big show: the presidential election.

Second, which potential candidate benefits the most by a concerted effort to marginalize the Tea Party in general, and Governor Palin in particular? It would have to be an establishment candidate, of course. A candidate the Tea Party would never support. One who has taken positions that are, shall we say, anathema to the limited government principles espoused by Governor Palin and the Tea Party movement. A candidate whose position on, for example, government run health care is less than pristine.

Third, which candidate has consistently been promoted by Washington consultants and insiders as being the “inevitable” Republican candidate in 2012? Hmmmmm. And finally, who is willing and able to hire as many of these campaign advisors as it takes regardless of how much they cost? In other words, which candidate will result in the most financial gain for the community of mercenaries known as Washington political consultants?

Yesterday Pat Caddell made some of these very points — and then some — as he brought down the house at CPAC. Via Michael Patrick Leahy at Breitbart:

Caddell stole the show as a panelist in the breakout session titled “Should We Shoot All the Consultants Now?” He spoke with a fire and passion that electrified the room. When the session began the large room was half filled, but as word spread of the fireworks going on inside, the audience streamed in. By the end, it was standing room only…

Caddell on GOP consultants:

“When you have the Chief of Staff of the Republican National Committee and the political director of the Romney campaign, and their two companies get $150 million at the end of the campaign for the ‘fantastic’ get-out-the-vote program…some of this borders on RICO [the 1970 Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act] violations,” Caddell told the crowd. “It’s all self dealing going on. I think it works on the RICO thing. They’re in the business of lining their pockets.”

“The Republican Party,” Caddell continued, “is in the grips of what I call the CLEC–the consultant, lobbyist, and establishment complex.” Caddell described CLEC as a self serving interconnected network of individuals and organizations interested in preserving their own power far more than they’re interested in winning elections.

“Just follow the money,” Caddell told a rapt audience. “It’s all there in the newspaper. The way it works is this–ever since we centralized politics in Washington, the House campaign committee and the Senate campaign committee,  they decide who they think should run. You hire these people on the accredited list [they say to candidates] otherwise we won’t give you money. You hire my friend or else.”

On the GOP Establishment’s lack of fire in the belly:

As a Democrat, Caddell said he could tell the truth about the failings of the Republicans 2012 campaign efforts since “I have no interest in the Republican Party.” He compared Republicans unfavorably to Democrats.”In my party we play to win. We play for life and death. You people play for a different kind of agenda…Your party has no problem playing the Washington Generals to the Harlem Globetrotters.”

On Mitt Romney and his dismal campaign:

Caddell also said Romney failed to back his campaign with his own money when it was most needed. “My question for Romney is, you spent $45 million [of your own money] in your 2008 campaign where you didn’t have a chance. Why didn’t you give your campaign a loan in the spring instead of letting Obama define you?”

Romney, Caddell said, was not on top of his game when he failed to anticipate attacks based on his business career. “You didn’t know Bain was coming? Ted Kennedy used it against you.” Romney lost to Ted Kennedy in the 1994 Senate election in Massachusetts.

Caddell was equally caustic in his evaluation of the Republican consultants who managed Romney’s campaign. “Of course this election could have been won.  It should have been won,” he said. “The Romney campaign was the worst campaign in my lifetime except for ninety minutes [in the first debate] thanks to Barack Obama.”

“There was a failure of strategy, a failure of tactics, a massive failure of messaging. Most of all there was a total failure of imagination.” Caddell singled out Stuart Stevens, a key figure in Romney’s campaign, in a particularly withering critique. “Stevens had as much business running a campaign as I do sprouting wings and flying out of this room,” he said to an audience that applauded.

On the GOP’s failure to capitalize on Obamacare’s unpopularity:

“A majority of the people wanted to repeal Obamacare, [an issue that] the Republican Party abandoned,” Caddell noted. He added that “on the issue of bigger or smaller government, one-third of the people who want smaller government voted for Obama.”

Think about that for a moment.  Caddell wasn’t finished. He also predicted that the GOP will become extinct if they continue down the road of the Republican Establishment:

Caddell predicted that the Republican Party, unless it became the anti-establishment, anti-Washington party, would become extinct, like the 19th century Whig Party. “These people [in the consulting-lobbying-establishment complex] are doing business for themselves. They are a part of the Washington establishment. These people don’t want to have change.”

Governor Palin made that same prediction over two years ago.  Finally, Caddell notes that the one time in the recent past the GOP was successful is when they ran as conservatives and largely ignored the advice of the Washington Republican Establishment:

The 2010 takeover of Congress by the Republicans, Caddell said, “was not engineered by the Washington Republican establishment. They [the establishment] then took that victory and threw it away.”

Bingo. The next time you see these idiots on TV telling us that real conservatives like Governor Palin can’t win a general election, consider the source. Read Leahy’s entire piece here.

 




TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: cpac; enemywithin; gop; gope; liberal; notconservativepac; rove; socialist

Pat Caddell, the Fox News Contributor and Democrat pollster who engineered Jimmy Carter’s 1976 Presidential victory, blew the lid off CPAC on Thursday with a blistering attack on “racketeering” Republican consultants who play wealthy donors like “marks.”

“I blame the donors who allow themselves to be played for marks. I blame the people in the grassroots for allowing themselves to be played for suckers….It’s time to stop being marks. It’s time to stop being suckers. It’s time for you people to get real,” he told the audience that included two top Republican consultants …

“When you have the Chief of Staff of the Republican National Committee and the political director of the Romney campaign, and their two companies get $150 million at the end of the campaign for the ‘fantastic’ get-out-the-vote program…some of this borders on RICO [the 1970 Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act] violations,” Caddell told the crowd. ”It’s all self dealing going on. I think it works on the RICO thing. They’re in the business of lining their pockets.”

“The Republican Party,” Caddell continued, “is in the grips of what I call the CLEC–the consultant, lobbyist, and establishment complex.” Caddell described CLEC as a self serving interconnected network of individuals and organizations interested in preserving their own power far more than they’re interested in winning elections …

As a Democrat, Caddell said he could tell the truth about the failings of the Republicans 2012 campaign efforts since “I have no interest in the Republican Party.” He compared Republicans unfavorably to Democrats.” In my party we play to win. We play for life and death. You people play for a different kind of agenda…Your party has no problem playing the Washington Generals to the Harlem Globetrotters.”

Caddell left no doubt he is not an admirer of Mitt Romney’s campaign management skills. He called Romney “the worst executive I’ve seen” when it comes to leading a political campaign. Romney’s failure to attack Obama’s Benghazi debacle during the foreign policy debate was “cravenness” that came about because his consultants told him “we don’t want to look warlike.”

Caddell also said Romney failed to back his campaign with his own money when it was most needed. ”My question for Romney is, you spent $45 million [of your own money] in your 2008 campaign where you didn’t have a chance. Why didn’t you give your campaign a loan in the spring instead of letting Obama define you?”

Romney, Caddell said, was not on top of his game when he failed to anticipate attacks based on his business career. “You didn’t know Bain was coming? Ted Kennedy used it against you.” Romney lost to Ted Kennedy in the 1994 Senate election in Massachusetts.

Caddell was equally caustic in his evaluation of the Republican consultants who managed Romney’s campaign. ”Of course this election could have been won. It should have been won,” he said. ”The Romney campaign was the worst campaign in my lifetime except for ninety minutes [in the first debate] thanks to Barack Obama.”

“There was a failure of strategy, a failure of tactics, a massive failure of messaging. Most of all there was a total failure of imagination.” Caddell singled out Stuart Stevens, a key figure in Romney’s campaign, in a particularly withering critique. “Stevens had as much business running a campaign as I do sprouting wings and flying out of this room,” he said to an audience that applauded.

Caddell said that Romney inexplicably allowed Obama to define him without fighting back. If Obama had a 50% favorable rating on election day, he had an 80% chance of winning. If he had a 45% favorable rating on election day, he had a 90% chance of losing. On election day, Obama’s favorable rating was 51% because, Caddell said, “Republicans failed to hold him down.”

“A majority of the people wanted to repeal Obamacare, [an issue that] the Republican Party abandoned,” Caddell noted. He added that “on the issue of bigger or smaller government, one-third of the people who want smaller government voted for Obama.” …

Caddell predicted that the Republican Party, unless it became the anti-establishment, anti-Washington party, would become extinct, like the 19th century Whig Party. “These people [in the consulting-lobbying-establishment complex] are doing business for themselves. They are a part of the Washington establishment. These people don’t want to have change.” …

When an audience member asked Caddell why he, a Democrat, was offering Republicans advice that would help them beat his own party, his response was met with huge applause. “I’m not a fan of Barack Obama,” Caddell said. “My first allegiance is to my country. I have paid a huge price, and when I watch you people screwing up I’m offended.”


1 posted on 03/18/2013 4:45:52 PM PDT by xzins
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To: xzins
Pat Caddell called it. Do you believe it yet?

Pat Caddell slams the media: They have become an “enemy of the people” Sept. 29, 2012(video 26:00)

Emotional Pat Caddell on the MSM ignoring Benghazi: “These people have no honor!” Oct. 27, 2012 (video at link 4:06)

The MSM are enemies of the people!

2 posted on 03/18/2013 4:54:14 PM PDT by TigersEye (The irresponsible should not be leading the responsible.)
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To: xzins

http://youtu.be/2_MYVUc6Sas


3 posted on 03/18/2013 5:12:18 PM PDT by SWAMPSNIPER (The Second Amendment, a Matter of Fact, Not a Matter of Opinion)
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To: xzins

Pat Caddell tells it like it is and he nailed the GOPe on this.


4 posted on 03/18/2013 5:19:42 PM PDT by jazusamo ("Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent." -- Adam Smith)
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To: xzins
"Caddell predicted that the Republican Party, unless it became the anti-establishment, anti-Washington party, would become extinct, like the 19th century Whig Party"

Let it be for the sake of the country. If we Conservatives can extinguish the GOPe, and their consultants, then possibly a Conservative party can take hold, with a rock star like Dr. Ben Carson as the lead- or Paul, or Rubio, or even Palin. The RNC is past it's usefulness, and it's expiration date, by YEARS.

5 posted on 03/18/2013 5:19:48 PM PDT by matthew fuller (Fast and Furious fizzled- Enter Sandy Hook.)
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To: xzins
Time for the Tea Party to roll up its sleeves and throw the professional vultures out of the people's party.

"We don't intend to turn the Republican Party over to the traitors in the battle just ended. We will have no more of those candidates who are pledged to the same goals as our opposition and who seek our support. Turning the Party over to the so-called moderates wouldn't make any sense at all."
-- President Ronald Reagan

6 posted on 03/18/2013 5:19:48 PM PDT by Windflier (To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
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To: Windflier

A Freaking Men.


7 posted on 03/18/2013 5:22:57 PM PDT by Shady (Libya shows us how Americans rate...)
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To: jazusamo; onyx
Caddell on the Elite running the GOP:

“The Republican Party,” Caddell continued, “is in the grips of what I call the CLEC–the consultant, lobbyist, and establishment complex.” Caddell described CLEC as a self serving interconnected network of individuals and organizations interested in preserving their own power far more than they’re interested in winning elections.

8 posted on 03/18/2013 5:30:04 PM PDT by xzins (Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! True supporters of our troops pray for their victory!)
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To: xzins
I like Pat Caddell because he's got the GUTS to tell the truth about the GOPee. Sure he's a Donkey, but he has integrity and that's something the CLEC of the RINO Party wouldn't understand if it bit them in their collective butts. Well done, Pat Caddell!
9 posted on 03/18/2013 7:11:20 PM PDT by MasterGunner01
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To: xzins

Pretty sad state of affairs when it takes a dem consultant to tell you how you are screwing up, GOP elite parasites.........


10 posted on 03/18/2013 7:28:58 PM PDT by doorgunner69
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To: xzins

“Caddell predicted that the Republican Party, unless it became the anti-establishment, anti-Washington party, would become extinct, like the 19th century Whig Party…”

That will never happen.

There will never arise another, “third”, party.

So many folks right here on FR have told us so.

But… wait a moment…

What if the _Republicans_ succeed (as they are certainly trying) in marginalizing themselves downward into becoming “the third party”.

What then…?


11 posted on 03/18/2013 7:46:52 PM PDT by Road Glide
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To: xzins

When the democrats decided to remove God or any reference to Our Creator at their 2012 convention. They also demonstrated they are no longer the democratic party of your father’s father. They have become a hyphenated radical unit and should be known as Demo-Coms dedicated to the establishment of a collective idealism using the device of PCP to modify behavior and shed beliefs that they believe would impede remaking their concept of the perfect utopian state. That is hardly democratic because the word democrat idealizes the individual voice.

But Rove, GOPES (GOP Elite Snobs) and RINOS lack the capacity or the understanding or the courage to point to the historic radicalization that occured at that moment and use it politically. Worse yet they are unable to forthrightly defend what the demo-coms have set out to destroy and some are even comming up with their own version of PCP . Anyone preaching PCP is going down the poisonous road to oblivion . Following a policy of PCP. Politically Correct Politics which the hyphenated democrat party, the Demo-Coms,is using is flat out wrong.Worse yet moral questions such as marriage, sexual practices, family constituency and particularly beliefs those of containing Judeo Christian tenets are being assulted and not defended. That offers a majority of voters no choice in the direction this country is to take.

PCP when used by the Demo-Coms such terms as: Afro-American, Hispanic-American, Asian-American, White-American, Rich-American ,Gay-American, are more than simply nouns but vehicles used to separate US from each other. Beside separating US from our money the Demo-Coms demand we become adhearents to a system without the constituional constraints on government. Thus surrendering our protections from governmental abuses and excessive bureacracy to the will of a bureaucratic collective which is no longer answerable to the average citizen.

Sadly for the Republicans God remains in Limbo

GOPES ARE PAYING THE PRICE
http://www.theusmat.com/


12 posted on 03/18/2013 8:43:36 PM PDT by mosesdapoet ("It's a sin to tell a lie", in telling others that , got me my nickname .Ex Chi" mechanic"ret)
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