Posted on 05/02/2013 3:32:23 AM PDT by iowamark
The Politico is reporting (read: let’s wait for a second source to confirm it) that the RNC, well, “[t]he Republican National Committee has chosen a Karl Rove-linked voter data project called Liberty Works to help it compete with Democrats in the digital arena. Liberty Works will team up with Data Trust, whose chairman of the board is former RNC Chairman Mike Duncan, committee spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski confirmed to Politico.”
This is deeply troubling, if accurate, because I maintain the GOP must distance itself from the Bush administration players to start being successful again. Further, for all of Karl Rove’s fine attributes, he is also largely a direct mail guy who learned at the foot of Lee Atwater and never really learned anything after Atwater passed. I’m just not sure, after the 2012 race, that this is a wise investment. Direct mail guys believe the data is the value and what Team Obama discovered is that the tools to analyze the data are the value.
This concerns me. As a friend said on twitter yesterday, the GOP motto for fixing itself seems to be “incest is best.”
And this whole thing, excepting the incest crack, gets me to Rush Limbaugh.
I keep hearing people say Rush Limbaugh is a detriment to the Republican Party, holding it back, and if we cannot move beyond him we will never win again. Frank Luntz and S. E. Cupp both have taken after Limbaugh lately and they are not alone.
The way I see it, Rush Limbaugh is a fighter. The guys who have taken to actually fighting on values like Rush does, i.e. Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and Rand Paul have been putting all the points on the board. They’re keeping the fight against Obamacare alive just as the GOP is trying to cave and public animosity for the law grows. But for those three, we’d have gun control legislation. On the House side, the Republican Fight Club of Congressmen Amash, Bridenstine, Broun, Gohmert, Huelskamp, Jones, Massie, Pearce, Salmon, and Yoho have been the only ones leading the fight to stop the Republicans from expanding government at a time distrust of government is a commonly held sentiment.
Limbaugh gives voice to them and those who listen to Limbaugh encourage them. The guys with the spine are the ones we should be supporting and they are the ones Rush Limbaugh supports. But there is something else, which goes full circle to Karl Rove controlling the data.
If you disagree with Rush Limbaugh, he may note that disagreement on the air. You might get some angry constituents calling your office. But that’s it. He’ll be right, you’ll be wrong, but life will go on.
If you disagree with the other side of the GOP, though, they’ll plant stories about you in the New York Times, make sure the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal attacks you, threaten donors and demand they withhold money from you, take away your committee positions, shut down all your legislative initiatives, etc. That’s why the GOP should not put data in Karl Rove’s hands.
The establishment has a worse track record on candidates that those who’d side with Rush Limbaugh. They have an even worse track record on policy (how’d steel tariffs in Pennsylvania work out?). And if you do not tow their line that often loses, they will punish you in ways Rush Limbaugh never would or even could.
But these guys would have you believe it is Rush Limbaugh on the outside, and Senators Cruz, Lee, and Paul and Congressmen Amash, Bridenstine, Broun, Gohmert, Huelskamp, Jones, Massie, Pearce, Salmon, and Yoho who are the ones holding us back. Only among Washington Republicans is that fantasy a reality.
I think the RNC is making a big mistake. The one hope is that conservative super PACs will respond in kind or Karl Rove and the RNC can make clear now that they will not treat the data and the tools to analyze the data as treasure, denying it to the rest of the Republican coalition they just happen to disagree with or cannot control.
bfw
Because of Rove and all the Bushbots I no longer can relate to the ruling republican elites, they are all part of the New World Order socialist movement. They in fact assisted the democrats in passing the HC law and that is why they want it to move forward and not repeal it, they are all nothing but little dictators.
We have already seen our last free election and it was in 2008.
Like the democrats, the Republicans are searching for a direction. They can either troll for the “moderate” voters and attract more “centrist” democrats that are concerned with the economy of just reposition themselves for the “conservative” voters with base issues.
History has shown if you want to win, you have to activate the base. They did this in the 80’s and when W was elected and back in 2010.. The democrats did this in 06, 08 and in 2012.
If they ignore the base on issues like immigration and the 2nd amendment, they’ll lose big time.
Either way, they need to get cracking.
The GOP-e does not want the Reagan base. They're targeting women, gays, and illegals, hoping that a "compassionate" socialist lite will somehow outperform Democrat Marxism at the polls.
In the Republican establishment's collective mind, Obama is 100% correct about Bibles, guns, and bitter clingers.
It is people like on the national level Rush Limbaugh, Col. Allen West, Sarah Palin, Dr. Ben Carson whom have a backbone that are impeding the democratic, socialistic utopian dreams.
On the local level, there is one guy locally whom is going after the local politicians and it is ticking the politicians off. two politicians have had to resign because they either were serving as a fire chief and school board member plus a city council - many of the issues that were passed are now in doubt because of the legality of the dual holding positions of council members.
The Republican Party is over with. Done. They’ve gone leftist and there’s no turning back.
Maybe someday a new party will spring up and real conservatiives will speak out. Maybe after the economic collapse.
No, he’s an entertainer. He doesnt fight anyone, he doesnt take risks.
He runs a very successful business that depends on him telling a small % of Americans what they want to hear.('McCain ansd Romney will beat Obama in landslides'). And I sometimes find him entertaining.
By the way, have you called Lifelock yet ??, Identity theft is on the rise.
Limbaugh and Rubio are a perfect example. They’re friends, so Rush is loyal to a friend, America be damned.
At least they’re friends (according to Rush), mouthpieces like Coulter sell out for the mere hope of invitations to party with celeb/pols.
They’ve already alienated huge swaths of their base.
Care to source those quotes? I never heard him say either of those things. His support for them was tepid at best.
Recall Rush's love affair with the Bush's because both of them invited him to stay as a WH guest.
Not just Rubio but how he propped up Ryan in 2010 and 2011 into something special. Ryan sucked up to him too.
Like I said, Rush doesnt fight anyone. He called Fluke a ‘slut’ because that is what his listeners wanted to hear and to get media coverage and that means $$$. It was a great idea for him.
That sure didnt hurt Fluke, in fact is was a Christmas to her.
Talk radio giant Rush Limbaugh says that Sen. John McCain will score a stunning upset over Sen. Barack Obama and win the presidency on Nov. 4
[Rush] Limbaugh Predicts McCain Victory (NewsMax ^ | October 31, 2008 | David A. Patten, FR thread link )
I almost forgot this one :
We Could See a McCain Landslide (Rushlimbaugh.com, August 12, 2008)
“The enthusiasm that got people out in 2010, I'm seeing at every Mitt Romney rally. Romney's drawing crowds of 20,000, 25,000, 30,000, 15,000. “The enthusiasm that we all saw in 2010 is there. The same issues that existed in 2010 exist today. There hasn't been anything that's gotten better.”
Rush: Everything But Polls Say Romney Landslide (Newmake Monday, 05 Nov 2012)
DONT DOUBT ME!
This has allowed all sorts of things to be lumped into "disabilities," and the slide continues at warp speed.
Thank you. I had forgotten or missed those.
Thank you, your request gave me an excuse to post them again.
I agree.
The GOP has a lot of potential, but Karl Rove represents the problem.
Sorry to say it but Bush represents the problem (to an extent) though he wasn’t all bad.
McCain represents the problem. And Romney represented the problem.
We need more Tea Party. And the GOP had better start getting its act together.
There is an election coming up.
Exactly correct, and now he is an amnesty enabler covering Rubios butt. I am finished with Rush, if he is on the radio or TV (gretta) I am changing the channel.
The only time I listen to Rush now is if I am driving while the DC radio station WMAL does the Rush weekly replay version on Sunday's and I listen to it a few minutes to see if I agree (and maybe laugh) or if he is FOS. But I get bored fast.
Rush has a trick he does to take both sides of certain arguments so he can later claim he was right.
He is against amnesty but for Rubio.
I used to listen to him every day that I could but I cannot sit through that now.
by the way, have you signed up for Life-lock yet? Identity theft is on the rise.
Yup, he is as phoney as a $3 bill. He went total RINO after his first sleep over at the White House. I still turned him in after that but he was not the same, now he is unbearable to listen too.
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