Why Did the Santorum Campaign Leak Its Strategy Memo to Liberal Media First?

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Before I wrote this post, I checked to make sure that I hadn’t somehow missed an e-mail from the Santorum campaign, which I hadn’t. And I haven’t missed any phone calls from them, either. So how to explain why they would have released an important strategy memo to Politico, rather than sending it to me, or to some other conservative journalist?

By 9 a.m., the Santorum campaign had also already provided the memo to Zeke Miller at BuzzFeed, who headlined his story:

Santorum Concedes: He Can’t
Win The Nomination Outright

. . . which I’m reasonably sure isn’t the spin the Santorum campaign had in mind when they gave Miller the memo, but then again I’m not sure what the Santorum campaign had in mind, because while they keep sending me press releases, they never reply to my e-mails or return my phone calls.

But they’re getting paid to run the campaign, and if they don’t think they need to return my calls, who am I to question their judgment? It’s not like I know anything about “media strategy” or stuff like that . . .

UPDATE: Ed Morrissey at Hot Air:

Zeke Miller gets a Santorum campaign strategy memo that outlines their argument that Mitt Romney isn’t as far ahead as some believe, and that Santorum will pull together the disaffected conservatives that show up in Tampa . . .

Hey, Ed, you endorsed Rick Santorum in February, right? How come you’re not as angry as I am about the fact that you’re having to read about this memo at BuzzFeed? And while we’re at it, Michelle Malkin endorsed Santorum in January — why didn’t the campaign send the memo to her?

The point I’m trying to get at is, this isn’t just about me getting scooped. Yes, the Future U.S. Ambassador to Vanuatu does have feelings, and they can be hurt. But why would the Santorum campaign pimp-slap the entirety of conservative New Media like this, including major bloggers who have endorsed Santorum?

For that matter, why didn’t the Santorum campaign release this memo to Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity or Mark Levin? I’m mystified.

UPDATE II: Lisa Graas didn’t get the strategy memo, either — and she was the one who first got me to cover Rick Santorum back in August in Iowa, when Politico wouldn’t give Santorum the time of day and Zeke Miller would have said, “Rick Who?”

Blogger Shocked — Shocked! — to Learn That John McCain Would Employ Backstabbing GOP Campaign Operative

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Of course, John McCain is a man who has long cherished backstabbing as a fundamental principle of his political career, and yet R.D. Brewer at Ace of Spades HQ is nonetheless surprised by the perverse pride that the McCain campaign’s “chief strategist” Steve Schmidt takes in having helped destroy the GOP’s chances in 2008:

“For me and the experience I had on this campaign is that there are worse things than losing,” Schmidt said. When he was asked to spell that out, he said, “When a result happens that puts someone who’s not prepared to be president on the ticket, that’s a bad result. I think the notion of Sarah Palin being president of the United States is something that frightens me, frankly. And I played a part in that. And I played a part in that because we were fueled by ambition to win.”

Hey, Steve: You were paid to do a job. Who paid you? Republican donors, that’s who. Doesn’t it seem like maybe you had an obligation to the people paying the bills to, y’know, elect a Republican?

But as the old saying goes, never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence. Therefore, anyone who wishes to believe that Steve Schmidt wasn’t actively trying to help elect Barack Obama in 2008 should instead believe that Schmidt is an incompetent idiot who’s just trying to scapegoat Sarah Palin in order to exempt himself from responsibility for defeat.

It wouldn’t take a lot to be a better vice president than Joe Biden.

It would take a lot to be a more selfish a–hole than John McCain, but Steve Schmidt seems to be trying his best.

‘Alabama Deserves Better’

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A congressman under investigation for insider trading? Suspected of enriching himself in office? Say it ain’t so, Spencer Bachus!

The New York Times reports:

In Alabama, Representative Spencer Bachus, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, is squaring off against State Senator Scott Beason, an architect of Alabama’s tough illegal immigration bill, who is running as the “true conservative” in the race. But two other challengers are also in the race, and Mr. Beason has to hold Mr. Bachus, a much better-funded House veteran, to below 50 percent of the vote to force a runoff April 24.

Voter ID, Eric Holder and the Increasingly Partisan Nature of ‘Civil Rights’

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In case you haven’t figured it out by now, “civil rights” has become a code phrase for “whatever Democrats want,” so that anyone who disagrees with Democrats is said to be “anti-civil rights.” Case in point, the Texas voter ID law:

The Justice Department’s civil rights division on Monday objected to a new photo ID requirement for voters in Texas because many Hispanic voters lack state-issued identification.

Why do Hispanic voters in Texas “lack state-issued identification”?

No drivers license? No passport? Nothing?

Is it cynical — or perhaps even racist — to suggest that many Hispanics in Texas don’t have ID because they are illegal immigrants and, as such, are not actually legal voters? Are Republicans just a bunch of xenophobic bigots for suspecting that Democrats oppose voter ID laws because they hope to use the votes of illegal aliens (or other methods of vote fraud) to elect Democrats?

Isn’t the Justice Department’s entire rationale for opposing the Texas voter ID law an extension of the belief that the partisan interests of the Democratic Party are coterminous with “civil rights”? Democrats actually believe they have the right to win elections, even by blatantly illegal means, and so any measure that might prevent ineligible people from voting is a violation of “civil rights.”

Now you know why “corrupt Democrat” is redundant: No honest person would ever get involved in the Democratic Party.

ADDENDUM: Doesn’t this show why “critical race theory” is relevant?

 

Expectations, Inc.

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Ed Morrissey on tomorrow’s primaries in Alabama and Mississippi:

Gingrich really needs to win both states to remain in the race, or split them with Santorum at worst case. If Romney wins in Alabama, he can claim to have won in every part of the country, while Gingrich can’t even claim to have won all of the Southern states that he feels is his natural base.

Ed suggests that the Rick Perry VP trial balloon was an attempt by the Gingrich campaign to boost Newt’s support with “very conservative” voters, many of whom once supported Perry.

Given the relative paucity of polling data, the evident closeness of the race, and the level of volatility, it is very difficult to make any prediction beyond “too close to call.”

We know that late-deciding voters are highly suggestible and subject to bandwagon appeals to vote for the candidate they perceive to be the eventual winner. That factor favors Romney, and if it weren’t for the fact that Santorum is being hit with negative ads from every direction (including the pro-Gingrich “super PAC” radio ads I first heard two weeks ago in Michigan), I’d be tempted to predict a third-place finish for Gingrich in both Mississippi and Alabama.

Because there is no way Newt can actually win the nomination, I’d say a vote for Gingrich is a vote for Romney, except that keeping Newt in the race might, by some unforeseen future turn of events, result in Romney being deprived of a majority of delegates going into the convention. Every delegate Romney doesn’t win — no matter whether the delegate is for Gingrich, Rick Santorum or Ron Paul — increases the possibility of a non-Romney candidate getting the nomination in that political wet dream, the “brokered convention.”

“Brokered convention” is, like “beautiful nymphomaniac,” too much of a fantasy to be believed. Political journalists dream of brokered conventions the way teenage boys dream of smokin’ hot babes who just can’t get enough, but in all honesty, which one are we more likely to encounter in Tampa in August?

Yeah: Tampa’s going to be crawling with sex-crazed hotties, except they’ll all be hookers whose ability to simulate erotic enthusiasm is a requirement of their profession. Nevertheless, there will certainly be GOP convention delegates willing to pay for that kind of fantasy-fulfillment action, although it’s highly improbable the delegates will then be so gracious as to fulfill the “brokered convention” fantasies that excite the press corps.

Michael Steele is just teasing us with this “brokered convention” talk, and I’m resisting it the way Republican primary voters are resisting Mitt Romney: Sure, they would like to believe he’s really conservative, just like a GOP delegate might wish to believe that hooker in Tampa is really hot for him — the fulfillment of his adolescent fantasy — but the motives seem rather suspicious.

However, this is not to say that there is no such thing as a beautiful nymphomaniac. After all, I married one. But I’m not sure that has any relevance to the GOP presidential nomination campaign.

UPDATE: King Shamus fears the fantasy:

The fear of a brokered convention forcing the party to put up a weak candidate against President Obama is too horrible for many GOPers to even contemplate.

Look, Shamus: If you think there’s a chance of the GOP putting up a strong candidate, could you please explain that to Karl Rove? Because Karl keeps going on TV to tell millions of Fox News viewers that Mitt Romney’s got this thing locked up.

The possibility that a brokered convention could result in Republicans nominating a weaker candidate than Romney is something that hadn’t crossed my mind. Now that you mention it, though, I suppose Jon Huntsman might be available . . . 

But don’t worry about it, Shamus. All this talk about a “brokered convention” is one of three things:

  1. Liberals messing with our heads by suggesting that the Republican Party is about to collapse in ruins;
  2. Mitt Romney’s supporters threatening us with a nightmare scenario if we don’t vote for Mitt; or
  3. Political reporters talking about their fantasy the way some bloggers talk about Christina Hendricks.

Uh . . . NTTAWWT.

That Popular #OccupyResoluteDesk

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by Smitty

Via The Hill, North Dakota Governor Dalrymple sends his love, emphasis mine:

“The second reason we are on the wrong track is that the Federal government is killing energy development with overly burdensome regulations. The best example of this is the Keystone XL pipeline which the Obama Administration will not allow to be built. The State of North Dakota is currently experiencing an oil boom in the Bakken formation. We have doubled our oil production in the last four years and are about to become the second largest oil producing state behind only Texas. But we cannot effectively market our crude oil domestically without a large North-South pipeline. North Dakota oil producers were scheduled to feed the Keystone pipeline with 100,000 barrels of crude oil per day. Now we will not be able to supply the choice American markets because President Obama says he needs more time to study Keystone. The fact is he has had over three years to study this issue. Congress should step in and pass Senator Hoeven’s measure which would authorize the Keystone project. It’s the common sense thing to do.”

It’s almost as though the governor thinks #OccupyResoluteDesk should cut into his golf time to, you know, do his job or something.
Via Left Coast Rebel:

With the filing of H. CON. RES. 107 by Rep Walter Jones (R-NC) impeachment proceedings against Barry have begun. The resolution brought forth by Rep Jones asserts that “President Pull-Ups” abused his power when he involved the US in military actions in Libya last year.

I don’t think that this will get much traction. Impeaching the President during an election year is going to be a precedent no one wants to set. Also, Drool Bucket Reid over in the Senate is no more going to try an impeachment than he is going to work on a budget.
Speaking of the Senate, more of #OccupyResoluteDesk’s strategy for keeping Reid in place and well-supplied with spit stands revealed. Obama is sending his clone to run for the Virginia seat being vacated by James Webb. If Reid is a drool bucket, then Timmy Kaine is a small, dented spittoon.

Update: linked by Temple of Mut.

What America Really Needs Today: Meghan McCain Talking About Her Boobs

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There are many important news stories I could be blogging about today. The latest polls show a statistical dead heat in the Alabama and Mississippi GOP presidential primaries. Greece has officially defaulted on its debt. Israel has reportedly delayed a military strike on Iran.

My ego tells me that there are thousands of readers checking their RSS feeds waiting to learn the answer to the question: “What will Stacy say about these breaking news developments?”

Yet I am a highly-skilled news industry professional, which is why I must suppress my narcissistic impulse to share my personal opinions on these topics, in order to give readers what they really want: Meghan McCain talking about her breasts.

“I’m not super skinny, I have large breasts, I know, they’re real, I can’t do anything about it, and like the Internet just has this really weird reaction to my body … I’ve seen a therapist about it. … I don’t really need people in politics or people sort of a little bit older to understand me or like me because there’s enough college students that seem to like me, and that’s all I really care about.”

So while I struggle against my egotistical delusion that you might be interested in my personal opinions about the Greek economy or the Republican presidential campaign, Cousin Meghan has no such dilemma: She knows exactly why you’re interested in her, and she’s making the most of it.

Power

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by Smitty

This is the unifying theme of the Ruling Class: acquisition, excercise, and retention of political power, at the expense of the individual. This post is me thinking out loud about how the Ruling Class views the populace.
Existence, in brief
Consider the human existential situation. We have to start with the individual before discussing the group. No one doubts the existence of our bodies, male and female, possessed of body, mind, and, arguably, ‘soul’.
The body is an emotional ‘bag of meat’, as Olbermann put it. Instincts, reaction, hormones, all mashed up together.
Things become quickly ambiguous past that. The mind is a fine tool; the pinnacle of creation according to Ayn Rand. And the soul may have some catalytic effect on the maturation and health of the body and mind. However, religion is within the scope of this essay insofar as it can become a tool or obstacle to power.
Taking the body, mind and soul together, we can related them to Maslow’s hierarchy. Continue reading Power →