Erick Erickson's Blog, page 210

Recriminations

"The NRSC's argument amounts to telling the world that voters exercising their right to pick their candidates are stupid and Jim DeMint is stupid for siding with the voters."

On November 2, 2010, the Republican Party made its largest single day gains in the House of Representatives since 1948 and, I have been told credibly, the largest gains of any political party in local, state, and federal races combined in more than 100 years.

19 state legislative bodies ultimately flipped to the GOP. Of the 18 states that will gain or lose seats in Congress for the next decade, the GOP controls 12 of the 18 Governor's Mansions. The Democrats have been wiped out except among coastal elites and majority-minority districts. The GOP, long said to not be able to make inroads in New England, now controls the Maine Governor's Mansion, the Maine legislature, the New Hampshire Legislature, a New Hampshire Senate seat, and several congressional seats.

Nonetheless, the Senate Republicans are unhappy because they thought they should have won the Senate. Never mind that few people think the Senate GOP has learned a single lesson from 2006 or 2008. But instead of taking responsibility, they are forced to blame someone. Much like Mr. Obama blaming the voters for Democrat losses by not appreciating what he'd done for them, the Senate GOP is blaming conservatives. And the face of that blame belongs to Jim DeMint.

In the past 24 hours, Senate Republicans and some RNC sources are blaming Jim DeMint directly. Instead of blaming Senator DeMint, the NRSC duo of John Cornyn and Rob Jesmer, and to a lesser the RNC, should blame themselves.

Here are the facts.

1. Jim DeMint is being blamed for Sharron Angle's nomination in Nevada. DeMint specifically did not endorse nor campaign for Sharron Angle prior to her nomination. Even here at RedState, I backed Danny Tarkanian.

2. Jim DeMint waited until the end of the Delaware Primary to endorse Christine O'Donnell and, frankly, I'd rather Chris Coons than Mike Castle. You may not think you would, but you would. But that is beside the point. O'Donnell was a week away from the primary and already ahead in the polls before DeMint said one word or spent one dime.

3. In Colorado, and this is the biggie, Ken Buck barely lost. The NRSC, shortly before the end of the Colorado Primary, sent millions to Jane Norton freeing her up to attack Ken Buck to be anti-women. Michael Bennet then picked up Norton's campaign attacks and clobbered Buck.

4. Likewise in Colorado, neither the NRSC nor the RNC funded a GOTV program. They relied on the Republican Governor's Association, which left Colorado when Dan Maes cratered.

5. Instead of pouring in additional resources to Washington, Colorado, etc., the NRSC sent $8 million to California in the last week for Carly Fiorina who lost by somewhere around ten points.

6. In Alaska, Jim DeMint did nothing to help or support or fund Joe Miller until after he became the Republican nominee. Not including the NRSC, Jim DeMint spent $727,000.00 to help Joe Miller. The rest of the Senate GOP members combined spent $25,000.00.

7. GOP Senate candidates underperformed their polling at around 3% in most races. Why? Because the NRSC did not fund a ground game operation, nor did the RNC. They either left it to Karl Rove or Haley Barbour. There was not, as in past years, a mass exodus of GOP Hill Staffers from Washington to the ground in swing states.

But there is an even greater, larger point. None of this would have happened had the NRSC not decided to dictate to Republicans in the several states who their Republican candidates should be. Christine O'Donnell's and Sharron Angle's wins were largely reactions to what the NRSC was doing.

Compare this with the House campaign body, the NRCC. After getting clobbered over the NY-23 race and Dede Scozzafava, the NRCC took a hands off approach and let local voters choose their candidates. Not the NRSC. It doubled up around the country igniting a civil war with the grassroots — a civil war that would have never happened but their getting into Florida and doubling down.

The NRSC's argument amounts to telling the world that voters exercising their right to pick their candidates are stupid and Jim DeMint is stupid for siding with the voters.

One final thought — the NRSC would have you believe that Arlen Specter was more viable than Pat Toomey and Charlie Crist was more viable than Marco Rubio.

Would you rather have Pat Toomey or Arlen Specter?

Would you rather have Marco Rubio or Charlie Crist?

You're damn right it was a necessary fight and the NRSC and RNC have no one to blame but themselves.

Morning Briefing for November 4, 2010

RedState Morning Briefing

For November 4, 2010

Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.

1. Recriminations

2. The Democratic knives come out in the House.

3. The fight didn't stop yesterday. Take it to the state capitals

4. This is Terrific News

5. The Point - Doubling Down on Freedom

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1. Recriminations

On November 2, 2010, the Republican Party made its largest gains in the House of Representatives since 1948 and, I have been told credibly, the largest single day gains of any political party in local, state, and federal races combined in more than 100 years.

19 state legislative bodies ultimately flipped to the GOP. Of the 18 states that will gain or lose seats in Congress for the next decade, the GOP controls 12 of the 18 Governor's Mansions. The Democrats have been wiped out except among coastal elites and majority-minority districts. The GOP, long said to not be able to make inroads in New England, now controls the Maine Governor's Mansion, the Maine legislature, the New Hampshire Legislature, a New Hampshire Senate seat, and several congressional seats.

Nonetheless, the Senate Republicans are unhappy because they thought they should have won the Senate. Never mind that few people think the Senate GOP has learned a single lesson from 2006 or 2008. But instead of taking responsibility, they are forced to blame someone. Much like Mr. Obama blaming the voters for Democrat losses by not appreciating what he'd done for them, the Senate GOP is blaming conservatives. And the face of that blame belongs to Jim DeMint.

In the past 24 hours, Senate Republicans and some RNC sources are blaming Jim DeMint directly. Instead of blaming Senator DeMint, the NRSC duo of John Cornyn and Rob Jesmer, and to a lesser the RNC, should blame themselves.

Here are the facts.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

2. The Democratic knives come out in the House.

And, like all entertaining wars to the knife, this one has multiple factions. The 'moderates' blame the liberals for walking all over them; the liberals blame the moderates for going along with passing bad ideas like the stimulus, cap-and-trade, and Obamacare; the idiots (this may be a subgroup: there's a bit of an overlap here with the first two groups) are claiming that this entire problem would have gone away with a little more marketing; and everybody blames the President. Because really, why not? It's fairly clear by now that being on Barack Obama's good side is not exactly inherently valuable. They're all right, of course: the Democratic debacle in the House represents a perfect storm of legislative cowardice, political greed, a grotesquely flawed group understanding of proper civic policy, and a White House that routinely demonstrates the organizational and administrative core competency that normally one associates with opium-raddled Victorian expatriate remittance men. None of which helps them right now, of course; but it's a lot of fun to point out.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

3. The fight didn't stop yesterday. Take it to the state capitals

Last night was an epic victory for conservatives and Republicans. We pushed back against the arrogant, over-spending Congressional Democrats and, by proxy, President Barack Obama. Much of the commentary has talked about the coming gridlock in Washington. For example, The Economist has described "two years of nothing." But that's not true. Even if there is little agreement on jobs and other policies, Congress and state governments will have to pass budgets and spending bills. That provides us an opening to continue to channel our activism, especially at the state level to have profound impact in actually reducing the size of government.

But first, let's talk about the scope of the victory last night in the state capitals.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

4. This is Terrific News

I just heard that Jeb Hensarling is going to run for Conference Chair to replace Mike Pence.

This is terrific news. Hensarling is one of the most substantive conservative policy guys I know in the House.

Coincidentally, Jeb Hensarling is the first politician I ever gave money to. Seriously. The Club For Growth, in Jeb's first run, sent out a mail piece with a list of candidates to choose from.

Here was an economics guy who worked for Phil Freakin' Gramm and was running for Congress to reduce government. SOLD!

Please click here for the rest of the post.

5. The Point - Doubling Down on Freedom

Much will be made about last night's election. Massive Republican gains across the board will properly be celebrated by some, but countered by others who think those gains might have been more if we'd just chosen the "right" candidates.

You see, to some in the Washington establishment - only they are smart enough to know who the right candidate is. We must have candidates who "can win," they say. They will focus on Senate races in Colorado, Nevada and Delaware, in particular, as examples of candidates gone wrong. Of course, in so doing, they will gloss over those conservatives who shook the establishment to its core en route to victory, such as Mike Lee in Utah, Marco Rubio in Florida, Rand Paul in Kentucky and Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania.

But all of this completely misses the point.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

This is Terrific News

I just heard that Jeb Hensarling is going to run for Conference Chair to replace Mike Pence.

This is terrific news. Hensarling is one of the most substantive conservative policy guys I know in the House.

Coincidentally, Jeb Hensarling is the first politician I ever gave money to. Seriously. The Club For Growth, in Jeb's first run, sent out a mail piece with a list of candidates to choose from.

Here was an economics guy who worked for Phil Freakin' Gramm and was running for Congress to reduce government. SOLD!

He went on to lead the Republican Study Committee after Mike Pence had left that position and was willing to lead philosophical and economic fights against his own Republican leadership.

That's the type of guy we need as Conference Chairman.

I'm sure others will probably come out and say they are running, but given his background, experience, and fire in the belly I cannot imagine anyone being better or more competent to succeed Mike Pence as Conference Chairman.

This is really terrific news.

Potential Tea Party Targets for 2012

As you are settling down from yesterday's victories, you will want to also pay attention to this list. While many will be focusing on a potential Presidential pick for the GOP, we should not all get distracted by that.

We have a significant opportunity to improve the Senate GOP through some primaries. Here is a list of potential targets for primaries — the Senate Republicans up for re-election in 2012:

John Barasso (WY)

Scott Brown (MA)

Bob Corker (TN)

John Ensign (NV)

Orrin Hatch (UT)

Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX)

Jon Kyl (AZ)

Richard Lugar (IN)

Olympia Snowe (ME)

Roger Wicker (MS)

Now, before you all get giddy about Olympia Snowe, I would respectfully suggest that Corker, Hatch, Hutchison, Lugar, and Wicker make better targets as we have a much greater certainty of both beating them in primaries and also winning the general election.

Wicker and Corker in particular make exciting prospects for the tea party movement.

The Morning Briefing: The Tsunami

[UPDATE]: The whole of the Maine legislator has flipped to the GOP. Several people I have talked to said such a deep and thorough shift to any one party has not happened in one election in the past 100 years.

——————

This is an unusual Morning Briefing because you need to understand what happened while you've been sleeping.

Republican gains are massive. And when I say Republican gains are massive, I mean tsunami.

No, the GOP did not take the Senate and some races are still outstanding, but the Senate GOP has moved to the right. More so, the Republicans picking up, in the worst case, seven seats is historically strong.

But consider that as you wake up this morning the Republican Party has picked up more seats in the House of Representatives than at any time since 1948 — that is more than sixty seats. Ike Skelton, Class of 1976, is gone. Many, many other Democrats are gone.

That, in and of itself, is significant. But that's not the half of it. The real story is the underreported story of the night — the Republican pick ups at the state level.

There will be 18 states subject to reapportionment. The Republicans will control a majority of those — at least ten and maybe a dozen or more. More significantly, a minimum of seventeen state legislative houses have flipped to the Republican Party.

The North Carolina Legislature is Republican for the first time since 1870. Yes, that is Eighteen Seventy.

The Alabama Legislature is Republican for the first time since 1876.

For those saying this is nothing because it is the South, consider these:

The entire Wisconsin and New Hampshire legislatures have flipped to the GOP by wide margins.

The State Houses in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, Iowa, Montana, and Colorado flipped to the GOP.

The Maine and Minnesota Senates flipped to the GOP.

The Texas and Tennessee Houses went from virtually tied to massive Republican gains. The gains in Texas were so big that the Republicans no longer need the Democrats to get state constitutional amendments out of the state legislature.

These gains go all the way down to the municipal level across the nation. That did not happen even in 1994.

This was a tsunami.

Robin Carnahan's Incompetent Elections

Ah Missouri. Robin Carnahan is the Secretary of State of Missouri — the person who oversees elections:

Missouri officials say they are working to resolve a problem that has prevented local election workers from accessing the statewide voter registration computer system.

Local election officials said they have been unable to access the information most of the day.

As a result, election workers in Kansas City are doing time-consuming manual searches to answer registration questions.

Robin Carnahan is also the Democrats' Senate nominee in Missouri.

A Special Note to Our Democrat Readers in Washington

Just wanted to write a special note to our readers who are Democrats in Washington, D.C. We know we get a number of you on here and I am sure you have felt more than a little left out in the past few weeks.

I want a post just for you today so you can stop feeling left out, particularly on this day.

So, just for you here is a great guide on how to write a resume from the Rockport Institute.

Trinity College also has one.

There's even an online resume builder you might like to take advantage of.

Remember, you'll need references on a resume. I suggest you not put Nancy Pelosi down as a reference after today. Who knows, after what happens today the White House might be hiring.

You guys have a great day. I know I will.

Oh, and here is the online job application site for Wal-Mart. They helped you guys out with the Obamacare push. Maybe now they'll hire you.

Good Morning. It Is Election Day.

"I won."
— Barack Obama

January 23, 2009

"Let me just say it this way, the Democrats will retain the majority in the House of Representatives. We have a huge — we have, what, 54-, 55-vote majority. We had a swing in the last two elections of 110 seats. We will — I am not yielding one grain of sand. We are fighting for every seat.

But we are ready. And in the past when there have been these swings, it has been when people have not been ready. We've won our elections. We've won our special elections. We just recently took a seat that had never been Democratic since it was created at the time of the Civil War.

So Democrats are ready. We are confident about what we have done for the American people. We have to get out there. We have been working hard, now we have to go out. We said we were going to do certain things, we did them, and now we have to go talk about what we have done."
— Nancy Pelosi

February 28, 2010

"[W]e're gonna punish our enemies and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us."
— Barack Obama

October 25, 2010

Go vote, my friends. Go vote.

Thanks,

Erick

Morning Briefing for Election Day 2010

RedState Morning Briefing

For Election Day 2010

Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.

1. Good Morning. It Is Election Day.

2. A Special Note to Our Democrat Readers in Washington

———————————————————————-

1. Good Morning. It Is Election Day.

"I won."
— Barack Obama

January 23, 2009

"Let me just say it this way, the Democrats will retain the majority in the House of Representatives. We have a huge — we have, what, 54-, 55-vote majority. We had a swing in the last two elections of 110 seats. We will — I am not yielding one grain of sand. We are fighting for every seat.

But we are ready. And in the past when there have been these swings, it has been when people have not been ready. We've won our elections. We've won our special elections. We just recently took a seat that had never been Democratic since it was created at the time of the Civil War.

So Democrats are ready. We are confident about what we have done for the American people. We have to get out there. We have been working hard, now we have to go out. We said we were going to do certain things, we did them, and now we have to go talk about what we have done."
— Nancy Pelosi

February 28, 2010

"[W]e're gonna punish our enemies and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us."
— Barack Obama

October 25, 2010

Go vote, my friends. Go vote.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

2. A Special Note to Our Democrat Readers in Washington

Just wanted to write a special note to our readers who are Democrats in Washington, D.C. We know we get a number of you on here and I am sure you have felt more than a little left out in the past few weeks.

I want a post just for you today so you can stop feeling left out, particularly on this day.

So, just for you here is a great guide on how to write a resume from the Rockport Institute.

Trinity College also has one.

There's even an online resume builder you might like to take advantage of.

Remember, you'll need references on a resume. I suggest you not put Nancy Pelosi down as a reference after today. Who knows, after what happens today the White House might be hiring.

You guys have a great day. I know I will.

Oh, and here is the online job application site for Wal-Mart. They helped you guys out with the Obamacare push. Maybe now they'll hire you.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

Stopping Sarah Palin

Much has been made of this story about Republicans attacking Sarah Palin and trying to stop her.

There have been some ferocious denials today about it. Many would-be 2012 candidates have denounced it, etc.

Here are the facts: there is a significant, though small contingent of heavily anti-Palin forces at the upper echelons of the Establishment GOP in Washington.

A good number of them are actually Hill staffers already beginning to pick a side with 2012 campaigns and using press contacts to savage Palin. There is also a goodly portion of people within existing campaign infrastructures. Largely these hits are done at the staff level and sometimes without knowledge of the candidates themselves so they won't have to dirty their hands.

If you want to find out who some of the loudest anti-Palin voices are, in another year or so start checking for House and Senate staffers who have left to work on 2012 campaigns.

Now that you have the facts, here is what you need to know about these same people: they largely despise the tea party movement. They loath Jim DeMint too, but view Palin as easier to pick on. They think the issues being advanced by small government types are ridiculous. They do not like Sarah Palin because they think (a) she is not very bright and (b) she is not 'grounded' in the ways of the political world of Washington.

In reality, these people loath Sarah Palin because she is standing up to them, the policies these people have long advocated and Palin opposes have contributed to the mess we are in, and Sarah Palin and the candidates she is backing have largely been kicking their asses to kingdom come.

Between those attacking Palin and Palin, I'm with Palin.