Just A Grunt's blog

The RNC continues to bemoan the fact that it is having difficulty raising money in a manner that can approach what the DNC does, and what they continue to fail to grasp is that conservatives of tired of the RNC taking the donations they receive and funneling it into a select number of campaigns, normally incumbents, who no longer if they ever embodied conservative values. The rank and file conservative who used to be a Republican but today can just as well be classified as a Blue Dog Democrat, appears to have made the decision that sending money to the giant slush fund of the RNC is not the answer and in fact we are seeing more and more campaign contributions being targeted directly to certain candidates at all levels.

First off is this story of a candidate for governor of North Carolina, Pat McCrory, who is getting donations, and sizable ones at that from outside the state.

$100,000 James Barksdale, Ridgeland, Miss.; former CEO of Netscape

$50,000 Bruce Rauner, Winnetka, Ill.; chairman of GTCR Golden Rauner LLC., a private equity and venture capital firm

$50,000 Gary Heavin, Waco, Texas; CEO, Curves International

$25,000 Peter Coors, Golden, Colo.; chairman, Coors Brewing Co

These big influxes of cash were directed to a PAC called The Republicans Governors Association.

And then there is the case of William Russell, one of the slate of candidates from the Iraq Veterans for Congress, who is putting up a serious challenge to John Murtha in Pennyslvania (PA-12) this year. He is out raising Murtha in some categories by a margin of almost 6 to 1. There is no doubt the further in to the campaign cycle we get, that Murtha will get a huge infusion of cash from somewhere, because the liberals cannot afford to lose such an outspoken critic of the military who has managed to shape the rules of engagement that have been imposed onto our soldiers fighting the war, and a enemy sympathizer who has falsely charged service members with crimes forcing them to defend themselves in court rather then defending the American people on a battlefield. Did I mention that I really hate Murtha and I hope William Russell kick his butt?

So is this the future for Republican candidates? I think so, and the primary reason is because there is so much anger in conservative circles against the current crop of politicians wearing the Republican label, but who no longer support the conservative principles. I, and many like me, are tired of the Arlen Specters, Chuck Hagels and others who spend more time pandering to liberals who scream like babies, instead of swatting them on the backside like they deserve.

Carl Mumpower, running for congress in NC-11, has put his conservative principals front and center and made it a cornerstone of his campaign. The incumbent in this race is Heath Shuler (D). Look at the lack of PAC money for Mumpower to challenge Shuler.
Mumpower has started a campaign within the Republican candidates in NC to sign on to his pledge of conservative values, which has galvanized the conservatives in North Carolina, yet look at how far behind he is in funds compared to Heath. Now how is it a guy who appears to be a leader of the conservative movement in NC is not able to getting any national funds from the party that claims to represent conservative values?

For yet another example of where conservatives are supporting a candidate who is getting no support from any of the national Republican groups you need look no further then the race in the GA-13 district. David Scott is the Dem incumbent and Deborah Honeycutt is the Republican challenger. Take a look at the fundraising numbers and sources.
The Dem is getting all of his money from PAC's and Dr Honeycutt is getting the vast majority of hers from private donations. The national Republican PAC's refuse to battle for seats they consider unwinnable. The national Republican party has lost it's stomach for a fight.

So the Dems like to talk about grassroots operations, and while they have a bit more experience at such operations, it does appear that the conservatives are finally starting to get off their collective butts, and trying to get some candidates who represent them and their values and quit relying on any national group to do it. The RNC no longer speaks for the vast majority of Republicans, and instead just seem to be devoted to protecting the jobs of anybody currently in office instead of supporting candidates who epitomize conservative values.

My advice to everybody. Find candidates across the country who are challenging the Dems, who are running on conservative principles, and donate to their campaigns. I have just listed 3 congressional seats and one governorship that Republicans could take over from the Dems, in a year when everybody says the Republican brand is tainted so bad as to not be embraced, here are at least 4 examples of when it is done correctly, we can pose just as big a threat to the Dems as they pose to Repubs.

In the Army they have what is known as the 5 paragraph operations order which is used to formulate and conduct a plan for any operation they are going to engage in. Conservatives need to adopt this template in order to emerge victorious in the current political climate in America. There is no denying the success that our military experiences, so as they say in corporate America it is time to adapt these best practices to the conservative movement.
All operations begin with the issuing of the operations order. It succinctly outlines the who, what, where and how of any mission. The five elements are Situation, Mission, Execution, Service Support, and Command and Signal (Control). Here is the operations order for conservatives, and like all plans it is always subject to changing and updating based on the most current intelligence. I am keeping my op order to the main 5 paragraph, but there is additional areas under each main section that can be expanded upon, but let's take this one step at a time and concentrate on the basics.

1. Situation
   a) Enemy Forces - Liberals, Progressives, environmental activists, activist judges, mainstream media, and Congress.
   b) Friendly Forces - Talk radio, conservative bloggers, and conservative think tanks.

2. Mission - Establish the conservative values our Founding Fathers espoused, make our government responsive to the people, elect people to office who uphold these principles, develop a viable program for communicating conservative principles by relating these values to Americans by deeds and not words alone. Establish a climate whereby conservative ideals are not something to be suppressed but rather embraced.

3. Execution
   a) Concept of the operation
      1) Scheme of Maneuver -  Break out of our comfort zone of relying on those methods of communication we have firmly established such as talk radio and blogging, which take advantage of the more critical thinking skills, and expand into the visual market using 21st century technology. Make better use of TV, movies and video to capture the attention of Americans.
      2) Formation - Mass all available conservatives and began to be a face to the American public, not as a counter point but as voice speaking as one.
      3) Route - Most direct since enemy resistance is strong across the entire front. Flanking maneuvers while they might be good for the small unit fight must be brought back to the main effort once any pockets of resistance are overcome.
      4) Tactical Mission to Subordinate Units - Confront the progressive movement at every opportunity. Use persuasion at first, but make use of all available examples and resources which demonstrate positive proof of how conservative values and principles improve their lives.

4. Service Support
   a) We must rely on each other. In the initial stages most support from come from internal resources and what we get from terrain we advance across. With each success we gain access to more resources to sustain the operation.

5. Command and Control
   a) At this time no overall commander has been determined for this mission, however we will be relying on small unit leaders everywhere to coordinate with the units to their left and right to maintain a solid front while engaging in the small unit actions.

Granted this is a very rudimentary operations order and people are certainly welcome to expand upon it and refine it, but at this point in time I feel it is important for conservatives to develop a focus, create a starting point, and have a clearly defined and communicated goal.
Only by conducting a sober and concise evaluation of where we are in the public arena can we move forward in an honest and concerted effort. This all hinges on the individual soldiers, meaning you, having confidence in your mission, are aware of the goal, and can go about your efforts, not with reticence, but with bold, unflinching, and decisive action.
In closing I offer this document, from American Solutions, a program started by Newt Gingrich, which explains in greater detail the intermediate objectives that must be accomplished in order for the bigger mission to succeed.

Why not? Maybe it is time for the southern states GOP party to finally say enough with the national Republican party? It has already become apparent that when it comes to launching any sort of attack of the Messiah apparent Obama that it is the southern states GOP committees that are carrying the water. Whether it was the ad in North Carolina or Tennessee, it has been the state GOP groups who have done it only to be criticized by McCain and his campaign group.

It is said the GOP can't win without the south, and so far the national party seems to have turned not only a deaf ear but even turned it's back on the very part of the country they consider to have in the bag. Now with the announcement of Bob Barr launching a presidential bid there are even nasty rumors that Georgia may be in play.
I think it is time for the southern states, whom are supposed to be so important to the Republicans winning, not only spoke up more but started demanding that the the national organization start listening to us.

The southern states have the clout and in fact they could even turn the GOP convention into an uproar by not only not having their electorates cast their votes for McCain but even put forth a different candidate. I know what everybody is saying, the primary elections are over and everybody has voted. Everybody has voted but nobody is listening. They allowed Iowa and New Hampshire set the tone. Here are the primary results for the southern states when we had a full slate of candidates. Source is the Fox News Political Tracker.

GA
Huckabee  326,069
McCain    303,639
Romney    289,737

SC
McCain    143,224
Huckabee  128,908
Thompson   67,897
Romney     64,970

AL
Huckabee  230,608
McCain    210,989
Romney    103,295

TN
Huckabee  189,443
McCain    174,763
Romney    129,722

MO
McCain    194,304
Huckabee  185,627
Romney    172,564

If you add it all up Huckabee comes out the winner. I did not include all the southern states merely because candidates were dropping out and the poll results reflect that skewing along with lower turnouts for the Republicans as the list of candidates got smaller.

Let me say from the outset that Huckabee was not my man either, but rather Thompson was, however out of the final 3, McCain, Huckabee, Romney, I would be in the Romney camp. Support for Huckabee would be difficult, in my opinion, because he ran too much as a pastor and not enough as a politician concerned about the issues.

So while it sounds like I ain't happy about none of the contenders on the Republican side, I do think the southern states would be better representated by somebody other then McCain.

What I am proposing however, is that instead of our continual whining about how the Republican party no longer represents our values and views on issues, let's do something. The southern states have enough pull to make McCain come back to the right.

It might be time to send him a message that he can't ignore by raining on his parade at the convention. Does he still have enough delegates in his pocket to pull off the nomination? Of course, but by expressing a very open and public display of discontent in the way the Republican party is moving it just might make other folks take notice.

People in this country who also feel the Republican politicians no longer speak for them and might be motivated to look into their local races and instead of continuing to send the same old tired hacks back to congress get some fresh blood in there. Conservatives of all stripes may be uplifted enough to make their voices heard.
The south may indeed have to do it again, secede, but this time from the party who claims to need us so much but return so little to us. I don't mean earmarks, either.

Originally posted on Jammie Wearing Fool