Free Republic

Speaking at The David Horowitz Freedom Center's "Restoration Weekend" in Florida on November 16, Pat Caddell indicted what he called the Republican "consultant-lobbyist-establishment" complex for losing a presidential campaign in 2012 President Barack Obama had no business winning. “No presidential campaign should be run by consultants,” Caddell said. “They should be run by people who are committed to the candidate and not into making big money.” Caddell said “Republicans never attempted to put a frame around the national election” because “the people who run the messaging in the Republican party and their consultants refused to do it.” Caddell, the former...

In too many posts to count, I’ve argued that the reason Romney was the overwhelming choice of the Washington campaign consultant class since the day after McCain lost in 2008 was that he was their dream candidate. He possessed the two qualities most prized by this insular population of political parasites who occupy the D.C. beltway: An enormous amount of money and an equally enormous dearth of core convictions. For this reason, they correctly recognized Romney as someone who could easily be fleeced for a virtually limitless amount of money. He’d shower them with tens of millions of dollars in return for their sage “advice” on...

Palin (verb w obj.) pay • lîn To pile on a Vice Presidential nominee and blame him/her for defeat so political consultants do not have to accept any responsibility. There have been a number of stories out over the past few days from Republican political consultants on background claiming the GOP is now screwed because Paul Ryan is the Vice Presidential nominee.There is an underlying kernel of truth in their concerns. For seventy-two hours now, the GOP has talked about Medicare, not the failing economy. Several of the consultants I have talked to express a deep concern, based on...

I have lived in Washington for over forty years. Between us, my husband and I have worked for the federal government, in private practice, in the House, in the Senate, and for nonprofits. In those years, we've learned a fair amount about the workings of this city. But there are some things I never will understand. The first of these is the utility of relying on political consultants. I am sure there must be some good ones, but I seem never to have met them. The ones I have met seem to be largely glad-handlers, purveyors of conventional pieties,...

The first of these [things about politics I don't understand] is the utility of relying on political consultants. I am sure there must be some good ones, but I seem never to have met them. The ones I have met seem to be largely glad-handlers, purveyors of conventional pieties, people who make a fair hunk of change getting others to work, and people who are not terribly smart operators except at self-promotion.

At his post-victory news conference Wednesday morning, Governor elect Jerry Brown showed why he won the election with a million votes to spare. He's steeped in the issues, he listens to what is happening on the ground, and he's not afraid to mix it up. Now, I don't agree with Brown on a number of issues. But in the course of the campaign, I rarely got the feeling that Meg Whitman was listening to anyone other than her consultants or that she was even curious. California needs a strong governor; Whitman showed them a wind-up doll. Worse, the former eBay...

Despairing Republican friends have been asking me what I think we should do to rebuild the GOP and begin our certain and inevitable comeback. My answer disappoints them: "Build an ark." I say this because I've made a career out of counting votes, and the numbers tell a clear story; the demographics of America are changing in a way that is deadly for the Republican Party as it exists today. A GOP ice age is on the way. Demographic change is irritating to politicos, since it works on elections much as rigged dice do on a Las Vegas craps table:...

NEW DELHI: As new US Centcom commander General David Petraeus begins a strategy security review in Tampa, Florida, the presence of two security analysts from Pakistan as consultants have raised eyebrows here. Ahmed Rashid, an acknowledged authority on the Taliban and Afghanistan, and Shuja Nawaz, author of a book on the Pakistan army, have been named "consultants" at the classified review starting in Florida this weekend. The aim is to review the war plans in Afghanistan and Iraq as the Barack Obama administration considers the wisdom of a troop surge in Afghanistan. About 100 military specialists, known as the Joint...

Over at LITGM we all have political beliefs but we generally don’t talk about politics unless we have something unique to say because, well, it’s already “done to death” elsewhere. With Mitt Romney, however, I do have an insight. The Wall Street Journal recently described Romney as “a 60 year old uber-management consultant” who also has an investment management background. Unlike the detailed machinations of politics, management consulting and investment banking is something that I know stone-cold. And while Mr. Romney was caught flat-footed that his well funded and organized campaign was beaten by Mike Huckabee in the state of...

On this afternoon's "Tucker," the eponymous host was discussing with Dem strategist Peter Fenn and former Dem congressman Tom Andrews [a grown-up among liberals, IMHO] the unwillingness of the leading GOP presidential contenders to participate in the debate moderated by Tavis Smiley, billed as addressing issues of concern to black Americans. On the one hand, Carlson criticized the Republicans' reticence. On the other, he flashed anger at the way Dems play the race card. He concluded with a particularly tantalizing comment.View video here.TUCKER CARLSON: I do think the Democrats ought to stop calling everybody who disagrees with them racists. I...

Black tape has been put on the desks of civil servants to show them where to put their pens as part of a £7m Government 'efficiency' drive. It is the latest idea from consultants being paid to come up with so-called innovative ideas to improve the working environment of public sector staff. The tape is also used to mark out exactly where the computer keyboard should be placed, as well telephones. Previous novel thinking by the consultants included a desk ban on family photographs - along with any 'inactive fruit'. Staff representatives described the idea, which is being piloted by...

As Colorado, other states and federal officials increasingly look to toll roads to spur growth or clear clogged highways, a review of 23 new turnpikes nationwide shows that a clear majority are failing to meet revenue projections to justify their costs. Even with adjustments for the break-in period in the opening years, 86 percent of new toll roads in eight states failed to meet expectations in their first full year. By year three, 75 percent - 15 of the 20 that have been open that long - remained poor performers. Despite that history of flawed forecasts, Colorado officials are promoting...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's re-election campaign has hired two media consultants who helped President Bush win a second term in 2004. Alex Castellanos, a prominent Republican ad-maker in Arlington, Va., heads National Media. Fred Davis III, of Los Angeles, heads Strategic Perception. Both were part of the team that created the Bush campaign commercials portraying Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic nominee, as a waffling, Washington insider. The two are the latest in a string of former Bush aides hired by Schwarzenegger. His lead strategist is Matthew Dowd, who ran most aspects of Bush's re-election campaign. Schwarzenegger's campaign manager...

Leadership Problems Plague Steele in Md. by Matt Lewis Posted Feb 18, 2006 It seems the wheels are coming off of Lt. Governor Michael Steele's U.S. Senate campaign. In the past couple of weeks, he has lost his campaign manager and his communications director. Steele, the African-American Republican Lt. Governor of Maryland, represents one of the few chances Republicans have of picking up a formerly Democrat Senate seat. Additionally, several pundits have speculated that his election, along with Lynn Swann in Pennsylvania and Ken Blackwell in Ohio, would be a major step forward in terms of attracting blacks to the...

WASHINGTON - Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's AIDS charity paid nearly a half-million dollars in consulting fees to members of his political inner circle, according to tax returns providing the first financial accounting of the presidential hopeful's nonprofit. The returns for World of Hope Inc., obtained by The Associated Press, also show the charity raised the lion's share of its $4.4 million from just 18 sources. They gave between $97,950 and $267,735 each to help fund Frist's efforts to fight AIDS. The tax forms, filed nine months after they were first due, do not identify the 18 major donors by...

Consultants trying to unravel the issues surrounding San Diego's tangled finances told city officials yesterday that their work will take until at least mid-March to complete, three months later than their recent estimate. The development adds to the uncertainty the city faces over its fiscal condition and is likely to further delay the release of long-overdue financial statements that are needed for San Diego to re-enter the municipal bond market. KPMG, the accounting firm conducting the 2003 audit, has predicted that it will take at least a month to issue the statements after Kroll Inc., the firm handling the investigation,...

Many articles have been written about the phenomenon of “outsourcing”—the practice of sending work needed within a company to be performed outside of the company. More recently, the word has become synonymous with “offshoring”—the practice of sending the work to be done by lower-paid workers overseas, often in third-world or emerging countries such as Mexico, China, and India. These phenomena have been going on for some time—one of the first industries to be moved outside of the United States has been textiles. Indeed, while garment manufacturing was first sent to low-cost locales, there was some outcry over the growth of...

SACRAMENTO - California's capital is packed with more than 1,000 lobbyists, but when people want to make something happen in Sacramento, they often turn instead to Bob White, a genial Republican maestro who helped elect Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. White has an advantage lobbyists don't. While registered influence peddlers must reveal whom they work for, White calls himself a strategist who doesn't directly push for changes in state policy. That legal distinction allows White to conceal who his corporate clients are, even though he and members of his consulting firm, California Strategies, go to bat for them by exploiting a loophole...

SAN FRANCISCO - Top deputies to Secretary of State Kevin Shelley were informed that consultants hired to do nonpartisan voter education work were attending Democratic events on his behalf and attempting to boost his public image, according to documents obtained by a newspaper. Memos titled "Week-Ahead Reports" show that top officials in Shelley's office were routinely informed of the contractors' upcoming schedules and plans, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. A "Democratic Club" luncheon and efforts to "get exposure for KS (Kevin Shelley) in Southern California" were among activities mentioned in the memos. The newspaper's report is the latest revelation in...

California Recall Race Produces Boom Times for Handlers By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE LOS ANGELES, Sept. 6 — Dan Schnur, Rob Stutzman and Mark Bogetich are partners in a Republican consulting firm in Sacramento. But the recall election has divided them, at least through the vote. Mr. Schnur is the campaign manager for Peter V. Ueberroth, an independent candidate for governor, while Mr. Stutzman and Mr. Bogetich have both signed on with Arnold Schwarzenegger, the actor-turned-Republican-candidate. "We've strung up some barbed wire down the middle of the office, so things are working just fine," Mr. Schnur said. The California recall election...