LIVE AT FIVE – 11.05.10

That the GOP won the House is some kind of miracle, considering the total ineptitude of Pete Sessions and his crew of bumbling dingbats at the NRCC. Renee Ellmers beat Bob Etheridge in North Carolina. Now the Democrat is asking for a recount and Ellmers has gone public with the fact that the NRCC is MIA:

Months ago, I went to Washington and asked the National Republican Congressional Committee and many conservative leaders to help my campaign. Many conservative groups – like the Susan B. Anthony List, Concerned Women of America, Freedom Works, and Sarah Palin’s Sarah PAC all helped, but the NRCC declined. Later, they did support other campaigns in North Carolina – which, unfortunately, lost – but we never received their support. In fact, their spokesman told the press “that the campaign wasn’t ready for prime time” – which actually made it even harder for us to raise money. So, I am doubtful we will get support from the NRCC to help with the expense of the recount.

I’m still remembering that August phone conversation with the NRCC staffer who was all, “Van Tran! Van Tran!” Forty-two freaking percent.

Notice that the bumbling dingbats at GOP-HQ are now telling the New York Times that everything happened because of them and their genius strategy. Excuse me while I quote myself:

Pete Sessions should have been stripped of his chairmanship the day after Dede Scozzafava endorsed Bill Owens. If there were still any old-fashioned justice in the world, Pete Sessions would have been horsewhipped and stomped to death by the House Republican Caucus, his head carried through the streets atop a pike, and his mutilated headless corpse fed to dogs.

Ellmers is seeking contributions to help fight Etheridge’s attempt to steal back the seat he lost.

Hat tips to Noisy Room and Beregond, more at Politico, Weasel Zippers, Gateway Pundit and Memeorandum.

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers! And thanks to Joan in Georgia, Stephen in Texas, Charlie in Oregon, Joel in Nebraska, Mike in St. Cloud, and Guy in New York who responded to my earlier appeal for the Shoe Leather Fund.

UPDATE II: Dan Riehl cuts to the bone:

I’ve just gotten word from the RNC, they are supporting her recount effort with $10,000. How many balls does the NRCC have to drop before we realize they aren’t bad jugglers, they’re a bunch of clowns! They didn’t spend a dime to get her elected, blowing it on losing causes in NC. Maybe she didn’t hire the right consultants?

Bingo. Maybe if Ellmers had hired Tandy Harrison . . .

Category: Election, North Carolina, Renee Ellmers

Now We Must Govern

Posted on | November 4, 2010 | 8 Comments

by Smitty

This afternoon I sat in on a conference call hosted by Kibbe & Co. that answered the all-important question: What Then Follows (WTF)? Looming large in the discussion was their Benchmark Study, authored by Dr. Frank Luntz.

Substantial American majorities support an agenda that:

Balances the budget through meaningful spending reductions (70% support)

Eliminates earmarks and wasteful spending (69% support)

Prevents looming tax increases on all Americans (61% support)

Instills constitutionally accountable government (60% support)

Rolls back and replaces the government takeover of healthcare (54% support)

Guess what? These and additional broadly supported policies are the exact terms of the
“Contract FROM America,” drafted from the bottom up and voted on by Tea Partiers across the
country. It’s a Contract that grassroots activists have used to hold candidates accountable throughout
2010… and will continue to use to hold Washington accountable far beyond.
Point by point, issue by issue, Americans across the political spectrum support the Tea Party
movement. The overwhelming results of our benchmark study could not be clearer:
The Tea Party is NOT an “extremist segment of American politics.”
The Tea Party IS America.

It sounds as though, in contrast to 1992, when the Perot grass-roots energy sort of dissipated, that genuine thought is being given to transitioning political neophytes into seasoned political participants.
So, I’ll be poring over the report. No, I won’t. Towers of Midnight arrived on my doorstep this afternoon. Blogging will be light-ish for a couple of days, until the book is done with me. It’s not even like an earned privilege; this is rather a sad addiction that will only afflict me one more time after this, when the series is ended. Then, the only other fiction threat is George R. R. Martin, who, hopefully, will not succumb to Robert Jordan-ism. That is, dying with an unfinished fantasy epic. No one escapes this world alive, but leaving dangling readers is less than cool.
Get me past this tome, and then small things like the future of the country may regain significance.

Kibbe, you rock.

Category: Freedom Works

Urgent Deadline for the Final Wisdom; Memo From the National Affairs Desk

Posted on | November 4, 2010 | 9 Comments

When I left the cheap motel in Port St. Lucie this morning, my plan had been to swing by and visit relatives near Orlando before heading north toward Atlanta on my way back home. As I drove up I-95, I put in a call to my editor at The American Spectator, to whom I had last spoken at 2:30 a.m. Wednesday when I finally filed my report of Allen West’s victory in Florida’s 22nd District.

“OK, so when’s the deadline for the print edition?” I asked. It’s a monthly magazine and usually the copy deadline for the December-January edition would have been in late October, but I knew they were extending it to include reactions to the Nov. 2 election. Read more

Category: American Spectator, Election, Fear & Loathing on the Way to Florida, Florida, Shoe Leather Fund

Democrats in Denial

Posted on | November 4, 2010 | 7 Comments

Elephants never forget and neither does Vicki McClure Davidson, who reminds us of this Time magazine cover from 2009:

It’s hilarious to read Michael Grunwald’s May 2009 analysis with the benefit of hindsight:

“The [Republican] party’s ideas — about economic issues, social issues and just about everything else — are not popular ideas. They are extremely conservative ideas tarred by association with the extremely unpopular George W. Bush, who helped downsize the party to its extremely conservative base.”

Nancy Pelosi is less popular than smallpox (she never was really popular), and all the smart people who reckoned Democrats could never be beaten by a bunch of extremely extreme extremists — well, somebody forget to tell those darned voters, and so now 60+ House Democrats have joined the growing ranks of the unemployed.

Too bad Barney Frank isn’t among them.

But Michael Grunwald is still collecting a paycheck from Time magazine, because he’s so much smarter than everybody else.

Forget about Time magazine, and instead read Vicki McClure Davidson’s delightful gloat-walk over the flattened corpse of the Democratic Party.

Category: Election, Media Bias

How Not to Deal With Rejection

Posted on | November 4, 2010 | 6 Comments

George Will nails it here:

It is amazing the ingenuity Democrats invest in concocting explanations of voter behavior that erase what voters always care about, and this year more than ever – ideas. This election was a nationwide recoil against Barack Obama’s idea of unlimited government.
The more he denounced Republicans as the party of “no,” the better Republicans did. His denunciations enabled people to support Republicans without embracing them as anything other than impediments to him.

You should read the whole thing. The one thing Obama and the Democrats don’t want to admit to themselves: Voters might be smart enough to realize that liberalism doesn’t work. And another $600 billion in Keynesian “stimulus” from the Fed won’t work, either.

Category: Election

Checkout Time

Posted on | November 4, 2010 | 6 Comments

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Heading north today, after a day of recovering from long-term sleep deprivation. My four most recent datelines at the American Spectator:

Calculating the mileage I drove in those days, including the distance from my home near Hagerstown, Maryland, it comes out to 1,550 miles.

Help get me back home to annoy my wife again. Hit the tip jar.

Category: Fear & Loathing on the Way to Florida, Shoe Leather Fund

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The Other McCain

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LIVE AT FIVE – 11.05.10

Troglopundit Completely Overlooks. . .

Ellmers to NRCC: Thanks for Nothing

Now We Must Govern

Urgent Deadline for the Final Wisdom; Memo From the National Affairs Desk

Democrats in Denial

How Not to Deal With Rejection

Checkout Time

THE FULL METAL JACKET REACH-AROUND AWARD

HIT THE FREAKING TIP JAR!

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