NRSC Uses Left-Wing Race Attack Against GOP Senate Challenger Chris McDaniel

Posted on | April 5, 2014 | 97 Comments

You know the Republican Establishment is getting desperate when they stoop to cheap guilt-by-association smears in a GOP primary.

That’s National Republican Senatorial Committee “strategist” Brad Dayspring tweeting out a story from (wait for it) Talking Points Memo that is one of the flimsiest guilt-by-association attacks in the history of flimsy guilt-by-association attacks. A moment’s scrutiny of that story is sufficient to glean the relevant facts: Some grassroots folks in Mississippi scheduled a “Firearms Freedom Day” rally for May 17.

You may ask: “How grassroots is it?”

The flyer for the event is printed in Comic Sans.

Go read the flyer and you will see that, listed among the various Tea Party groups, pro-gun organizations, state senators and country music singers, is “Pace Conferederate Depot.” This is a vendor of such merchandise as Confederate flag T-shirts and bumper stickers whose proprietor, Brian Pace, also happens to be some kind of segregationist. Because the flyer also listed Tea Party-backed Senate challenger Chris McDaniel as the “keynote speaker” for the rally, this tidbit of information about Pace was highlighted by a Republican blog associated with incumbent Sen. Thad Cochran. That was immediately picked up by Talking Points Memo, which played it as Another Scary Republican Racism Scandal. Once you get past the breathless liberal hype — “ZOMG! Confederates! In Mississippi!” — you realize there’s nothing to the story. Somebody asked McDaniel to speak at a gun-rights rally, as one of his supporters, state Sen. Melanie Sojourner, told TPM:

“There were several Second Amendment groups that were planning different events and we’re both very strong Second Amendment supporters and so there were several events that were planned and it was basically just kind of the discussion was ‘well when you get some things done and scheduled let us know’ but there was never any confirmation on exact events or what was happening.”

Organizers of the rally issued a statement on Facebook saying, “When a vendor asks to set up and sell lawful merchandise at one of our events, we don’t run a background check into their personal lives. That’s not our business.” The attempt to turn this into a scandal is like saying that if a candidate campaigns at a county fair, he thereby endorses every rip-off carnival game at the fair.

But this is what’s being promoted on Twitter by an official of the National Republican Senatorial Committee as part of the GOP establishment’s desperate effort to rescue Thad Cochran, who is 76 years old and has been in office since Jimmy Carter was president. With just eight weeks to go until the June 3 primary, Chris McDaniel’s campaign is surging:

Tea Party’s McDaniel Boosted
by Polls in Miss. Senate Race

Levin: “McDaniel is a great guy, a great candidate.”

Tea party momentum builds around McDaniel
in Mississippi GOP Senate primary

Three Polls, Three Days: McDaniel Leads
Cochran Among Republicans, Conservatives

Chris McDaniel has been endorsed by Mark Levin, Sarah Palin, Citizens United, Club for Growth, FreedomWorks, the Madison Project, Tea Party Express and many more leading individuals and organizations of the conservative grassroots: Central Mississippi Tea Party, Gulf Coast Tea Party, Hattiesburg Tea Party, Leflore/Carroll Tea Party, Meridian Tea Party, South Mississippi Tea Party, The Mississippi Tea Party, Tupelo Tea Party and Vicksburg Tea Party. McDaniel also has endorsements from state Sen. Angela Hill, state Sen. Billy Hudson, state Sen. Chris Massey, state Sen. David Parker, state Sen. Michael Watson, state Sen. Philip Gandy, and state Sen. Tony Smith.

What all those endorsements represent, in total, is the effective infrastructure of a winning campaign. Chris McDaniel has the on-the-ground resources necessary to win this primary — and the GOP Establishment knows it. That’s why you see the NRSC forced to play the race card, pushing a left-wing smear against a young Republican leader, in a desperate attempt to halt McDaniel’s insurgent momentum.

Are you going to let them get away with this? Or are you going to fight back? I say, war to the knife, knife to the hilt.

CHRIS McDANIEL for U.S. SENATE
It’s Time for a Change

UPDATE: Linked by R.D. Brewer as a sidebar headline at Ace of Spades HQ — thanks! — and welcome, Instapundit readers!

Category: Election, Mississippi, Republicans, Senate

Comments

97 Responses to “NRSC Uses Left-Wing Race Attack Against GOP Senate Challenger Chris McDaniel”

DaveO
April 5th, 2014 @ 12:25 pm

The TEA Party can do great service by first reminding the GOP that it can sit out the next three elections at the national level and focus solely on city, county and state elections. Zero money, zero GOTV activism on behalf of the national party. Second, by carrying out the threat. Preibus and the money men can kiss each other’s asses while the Dems win at the national level. If the GOP wants the TEA Party back, it will make concessions: complete overhaul of the national party’s professional staff based on a proven (by deeds) ideological litmus test. At this point, whether the Dems win or the GOP wins, America and its citizens lose. Working within the system is a money-wasting, losing proposition for capitalists, liberty lovers, and anyone who seeks independence.
Carla Shellenberger
April 5th, 2014 @ 12:47 pm

Thank you for standing up for Chris! He’s the future for Republicans in MS. Once we get “Pork Barrel’ Cochran out of office we’ll start working to unseat Walker as well!
Dave R
April 5th, 2014 @ 1:19 pm

People who take their toys and go home when they don’t get everything they want (both among the ‘establishment’ and movement conservatives) have already cost the GOP the white house at least in 2012 (2008 may have been a lost cause) and several senate seats. It’s time to stop doing that.
Art Deco
April 5th, 2014 @ 1:36 pm

Cochran was elected to Congress in 1972 during the Nixon Administration; it was during the Carter Administration he moved to the upper chamber. He practiced law for seven years before that. His shtick is that as the ranking Republican on the Agriculture Committee, he can bring home more bon bons for Mississippi. Rent-seeker and proud of it. Presumably, he has better manners than Ted Stevens, was never a Klan organizer like Robert Byrd, and would not grope you in the elevator like Strom Thurmond. He’s just bound and determined to stay in Congress until they wheel him out.

Regrettably, McDaniel is a lawyer, having practiced for 16 years. He was in radio broadcasting for a few years as well. He did not run for public office until he was 36 and at 42 has never been a f/t public official. That part is agreeable.
Art Deco
April 5th, 2014 @ 1:44 pm

http://www.linkedin.com/in/bdayspring

Dayspring, age 36, is a Capitol Hill lifer. Congressional aide, party official, trade association official / lobbyist, that’s what he does.

—

What goes through these people’s heads? Say their guy loses the primary. Do they want the opposition to pick up this bilge and run with it?

I should note that in New York, it is unlawful for party officials to disburse party funds on behalf of a candidate in a primary. We can check, but I think as a matter of practice the state chairman &c. do not comment publicly on primary contests bar when you have a petition insurgent.
wGraves
April 5th, 2014 @ 2:02 pm

The Eleventh Commandment (Ronald Reagan): “Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.” Uh, short memories?
Mississippi Conservative Daily | Race Attack Against Chris McDaniel Crushed
April 5th, 2014 @ 2:02 pm

[…] NRSC Uses Left-Wing Race Attack Against GOP Senate Challenger Chris McDaniel […]
JadedByPolitics
April 5th, 2014 @ 2:07 pm

Why I am starting to get the impression that the GOP wants to be a minority Party.
Rob Crawford
April 5th, 2014 @ 2:09 pm

ISTR this is Daysprings MO — and I think people need to cut the NSRC off until he’s not just fired, but disgraced.
Quartermaster
April 5th, 2014 @ 2:22 pm

Then it’s time to overhaul the GOP and fix it. Otherwise, look forward to more of the same.
Quartermaster
April 5th, 2014 @ 2:24 pm

They don’t. But the GOPe would rather be a minority party than to pass the torch onto people that stand 4-square against what they have spent their political lives doing – rent seeking.
Quartermaster
April 5th, 2014 @ 2:25 pm

The GOPe never took that to heart. Reagan made the statement because the way he had been treated by the party establishment. They hated his guts.
The Daley Gator | You know, establishment Republicans really ought to go after Democrats, and not smear good Republicans!
April 5th, 2014 @ 2:34 pm

[…] RS McCain has the story […]
ElizKing
April 5th, 2014 @ 3:09 pm

Uh huh. Did these same folks get all hot and bothered when HALEY BARBOUR spoke at the Blackhawk Rally while running for Governor of Mississippi in 2003? The same Blackhawk Rally run by the Council of Conservative Citizens, which espouses WHITE NATIONALISM and WHITE SEPARATISM? Yeah, nothing but crickets in 2003, Republican Establishment.
Unsooper
April 5th, 2014 @ 3:11 pm

Exactly. Their philosophy is that the Hard Left has already won, so stand for hard Left policies. Anything to keep the old guard in power.
gastorgrab
April 5th, 2014 @ 4:14 pm

Republicans: The ‘other’ Democrat party
John Stephens
April 5th, 2014 @ 4:16 pm

WRONG. The punishment needs to continue until the lesson is learned.
Gahrie
April 5th, 2014 @ 4:25 pm

If this election goes the way I am afraid it will…the GOP attacking the Tea Party and allowing the Democrats to win…it might finally be time to get serious about forming a third party. Remeber, that is how the Republican Party orginally came into being.
I vote for the Constitutional Federalists.
dwduck
April 5th, 2014 @ 5:11 pm

“Minority” party? There’s a joke in there somewhere…
Dartmouth Occupiers, The 1960s Called | Regular Right Guy
April 5th, 2014 @ 5:11 pm

[…] NRSC Uses Left-Wing Race Attack Against GOP Senate Challenger Chris McDaniel […]
Bob Belvedere
April 5th, 2014 @ 5:13 pm

Bring back the NOT ONE RED CENT campaign!
K-Bob
April 5th, 2014 @ 5:44 pm

RDBrewer is an asset of The Machine.

Dude lurks everywhere.
Teddi
April 5th, 2014 @ 5:49 pm

Dem-Lite
Charles Baldwin
April 5th, 2014 @ 5:58 pm

What the Hell is a white nationalist?
nickshaw
April 5th, 2014 @ 6:25 pm

Ya’ got that right, Gastor.
CrassyKnoll
April 5th, 2014 @ 6:31 pm

For the record, who is Dayspring’s immediate boss?
richard mcenroe
April 5th, 2014 @ 6:41 pm

Please advise Mr. Rove of that. Thank you.
Rob Crawford
April 5th, 2014 @ 6:44 pm

They didn’t seem to care about Obama’s ties to the New Black Panther Party, either.
richard mcenroe
April 5th, 2014 @ 6:48 pm

And by the way I have had it UP THE ASS with schmucks telling conservative voters we’re behaving childishly.

WE are the ones paying the taxes.
WE are the ones losing the jobs.
WE are the ones losing the healthcare we chose.
WE are the ones being harrassed by government agencies for our beliefs.
WE are the ones losing our very homes and property to corrupt government agencies.
WE are the ones whose children are being taught to hate us and our values in schools we are forced to pay for.
WE are the one whose children go in harm’s way for this nation regardless.
WE are the ones whose elected leaders tell us flat out they will NOT honor their promises to us and expect us to accept it in silence.

and finally:

WE are the one who, if we ever DO take this country apart, will do not only because of all the aqbove, but because some condescending SCHMUCK told us to eat our shit sandwich and smile once too often.
richard mcenroe
April 5th, 2014 @ 6:49 pm

Just shoot a fax to Reince Priebus, I’m sure he’ll get it to someone who matters.
isabel matos
April 5th, 2014 @ 7:09 pm

W.a.r.
isabel matos
April 5th, 2014 @ 7:10 pm

Help out McDaniel and the rest! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FICajDGyaus
BearNJ
April 5th, 2014 @ 7:12 pm

On point all the way. McConell and his pansy clowns like Dayspring want to go hardcore and “crush” the conservative base but act like Obama’s bitch after election day. What morons.

i would do everything to vote out the losers like McConnell, Boehner, McCarthy. Cantor, Graham and Alexander if I lived in their states or districts,

If they survive their primary conservative challengers to get to the general election I would get payback and vote for the Democrats just to get them out. We would still hold the house but at least we would have cut the head of this snake leadership. They have done enough damage.
Quartermaster
April 5th, 2014 @ 7:14 pm

A person saying things about race that a libtard doesn’t like.
StrangernFiction
April 5th, 2014 @ 7:16 pm

DIABLOs (Democrats In All But Label Only)
BearNJ
April 5th, 2014 @ 7:19 pm

They only pull that one out when the conservatives run against them in primaries. Then the big government GOP brings out the long knives. It’s why they savage conservative candidates but go soft vs the Left and Obama in general elections. The GOP moron consultant class hates the conservative base more than they dislike the hard left transformation Democrats. They just want a seat at the table.
shimrod
April 5th, 2014 @ 7:20 pm

These people are in the business of raising money, under the theory that money=votes. I expect they’re all convinced that on the day the GOP actually begins shrinking the govt. the significant campaign money will overwhelmingly swing to the Democrats. Us small govt. folks like to keep our money and our charity goes to more deserving causes than politicians. People who spend big money on politics are looking for more return than being left alone. Convince the big spenders the GOP is out of the rent paying business and kiss the big bucks goodbye. They think they’re realists and we’re all hopelessly naive. Could be they’re right on both counts.
NRSC smears Chris McDaniel as segregationist
April 5th, 2014 @ 7:36 pm

[…] you can to make your opponent as toxic as possible (truth or not.) Problem is, the NRSC idiot who is using these progressive tactics is doing so against conservative Chris McDaniel who is running against big government progressive RINO Thad Cochran for Mississippi Senate. These […]
gearbox123
April 5th, 2014 @ 7:39 pm

National Republican Stupid Committee just punches itself in the groin over and over and over. What next, tweets telling us that Tea Partiers are “racist” because many of them are white?
gearbox123
April 5th, 2014 @ 7:40 pm

As Quartermaster said, then it’s time to fix the GOP or leave it permanently. I’ll be voting in the next election, but not just because some douche has an (R) after their name.
fireandreamitchell
April 5th, 2014 @ 7:41 pm

Rinse Penis and his henchmen need to go away. As bad as Michael Steele was, he was far better than Rinse.
Neil Thompson
April 5th, 2014 @ 7:48 pm

At least this weasel self-identified. I am tired of these guys hiding behind their friends at Politico and sniping at their fellow party members. We need to put a stop to their disgusting behavior..
Pablo
April 5th, 2014 @ 8:21 pm

People need to cut off the NRSC until it’s dead and Cornyn is too.
John Scotus
April 5th, 2014 @ 8:40 pm

Call me an intolerant bigot, but I for one would never support any political candidate who had ever been to an event promoted in Comic Sans.
NRSC race card play against challenger hurts us all
April 5th, 2014 @ 9:15 pm

[…] A tweet on April 3 by Dayspring about McDaniel accused McDaniel of “associat[ing] with white nationalists & segregationists” based on a linked story at Talking Points Memo. (H/t The Other McCain) […]
ghost of hallelujah
April 5th, 2014 @ 9:31 pm

I don’t think the GOP is dying. I think the GOP is dead. It’s one of those deals where when you’re in the middle of the collapse, you don’t realize it’s happening. Only in retrospect does it make sense.

I’m not at all confident that things this rift in America will be resolved via peaceful means (i.e. the ballot box). The Tea Party gave it a go.

Soon it will be time for the next step…
GayPatriot » The Establishment GOP Proves It’s No Better Than the Progressive Left
April 5th, 2014 @ 10:01 pm

[…] A tweet on April 3 by Dayspring about McDaniel accused McDaniel of “associat[ing] with white nationalists & segregationists” based on a linked story at Talking Points Memo. (H/t The Other McCain) […]
Robert W
April 5th, 2014 @ 11:11 pm

I developed a theory a while ago and I think events have born them out. At the national level at least I believe the GOP do not want to win elections. At least not enough to make them a majority. I believe they are happy just being the “also rans”. They get most of the perks but don’t actually have the responsibility of governing. How else can you explain their hostility to the Tea Party? The Tea Party are the ones who could actually put them over the finish line. But governing is, in my opinion, the last thing the party want.
Bettenguy
April 6th, 2014 @ 12:20 am

It doesn’t take a background check to know that Pace Confederate Depot is not a group you want to associate with. Why would you even invite them as an organizer? Their website clearly points out on the first page that they support “white pride”.

Further, if you don’t have enough common sense to avoid an event which would allow such a vendor, you probably don’t belong in the US Senate.
JMc
April 6th, 2014 @ 2:19 am

So “black pride” is okay, but white pride isn’t? I haven’t seen anything bad said on their site.