GOP

Steele Responds To Losing Member Of Press Shop

Christina Bellantoni | November 23, 2009, 5:05PM

RNC chairman Michael Steele

Republican National Committee communications director Trevor Francis is leaving the party's press shop after a yearlong stint working for chairman Mike Steele.

Steele's response: "Trevor took a hiatus from a very successful private sector career to give service to the Republican Party this year. Trevor's talents will be missed at the RNC. We have accomplished a great deal in the year he was here. He worked tirelessly, as did the whole team, on the victories in Virginia and his home state of New Jersey."

The Washington Post's Chris Cillizza first reported the departure and he suggests it could mean there's some "turmoil" at the party.

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Barack Obama

Fear Factor: The Four Ways Republicans Say Obama Will Kill You Now

Evan McMorris-Santoro | November 20, 2009, 11:45AM

Nidal Hasan, Pres. Obama, Khalid Sheik Mohammed

It's been a week since Attorney General Eric Holder announced that five terror suspects will be transferred from Guantanamo Bay to New York City to face trial. There are still a lot of questions to be answered about logistics, and it will likely be months before the first suspect sets foot in a federal courtroom.

Republicans have already told us what's going to happen, though: If you let President Obama have his way, you will die.

The GOP has returned to a familiar line on Obama and national security in the days since Holder's announcement. It's time to be afraid again, they say, hearkening back to the days of duct tape and Orange alerts even some Republicans thought they left behind on Election Day 2008.

So grab an assault rifle and keep the phone number for Operation TIPS close -- here are the four ways Republicans say Obama is putting your life at risk.

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Fundraising

RNC Touts Grassroots Cash: Raised $8.7M, Spent $7.9M In October

Christina Bellantoni | November 19, 2009, 8:58AM

RNC Chair Michael Steele

The Republican National Committee announced this morning they raised $8.79 million in October, an off-election year record.

The haul comes after the party captured two governorships and as they are attempting to make gains in 2010.

The RNC said they had $11.2 million cash on hand and no debt. Last month they reported $18.9 million cash on hand, so doing the math, they spent $7.9 million in October.

The party says they "averaged 2,543 new donors per day in October and had an average contribution of $32," with more than 1 million active donors by the end of the month.

"As of November 11th, the RNC has already broken its own record of new donors in an off year, with 305,000 new donors so far in 2009," the party said in a release.

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Guantanamo Bay

Conservatives Say Gitmo Detainees Would Be Fine In IL Prison, Warn GOP Of 'Scaremongering'

Christina Bellantoni | November 16, 2009, 10:19AM

President of The American Conservative Union David Keene, frmr House Rep./Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr, and Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist

Three prominent conservatives warned in a joint statement against Republican "scaremongering" on Guantanamo Bay detainees, saying the prison in Thomson, Illinois would be fine to handle them.

Former Republican Congressman and Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr, David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union and Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, have teamed up to urge the Gitmo detainees be taken to the U.S.

"The scaremongering about these issues should stop," Barr, Keene and Norquist wrote.

"Civilian federal courts are the proper forum for terrorism cases," they wrote. "Civilian prisons are the safe, cost effective and appropriate venue to hold persons in federal courts."

"Likewise the federal prison system has proven itself fully capable of safely holding literally hundreds of convicted terrorists with no threat or danger to the surrounding community," they wrote. "We are confident that the government can preserve national security without resorting to sweeping and radical departures from an American constitutional tradition that has served us effectively for over two centuries."

Read the full letter here.

Alan Grayson

Why Does The GOP Not Want Their Current Candidate Against Grayson?

Eric Kleefeld | November 12, 2009, 6:12PM

FL-08 Candidate Armando Gutierrez (R) and Rep. Alan Grayson (D)

The Republican efforts to find a candidate against the fiery liberal Democrat Alan Grayson continue -- with a focus on finding someone else besides the current de facto frontrunner, 28-year old real estate developer Armando Gutierrez. So what exactly is their problem with him?

Gutierrez, who comes from a politically well-connected family in the Miami Cuban community, has picked up some decent endorsements so far, including Rep. Tom Rooney (R-FL), several state legislators, and George P. Bush, the son of former Gov. Jeb Bush. However, other candidates could still get in -- state Rep. Kurt Kelly says he might get in if nobody better opts for it, and Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty, who previously shied away from the race, now says he's staying out "for now."

A Republican source told us that local GOPers aren't accepting Gutierrez, due to youth and inexperience, and the fact that he is seen as having moved into the Orlando district from Miami to buy the nomination. "A lot of people think you need an adult to contrast with Alan Grayson's childish behavior," the source said. "So let's be honest, Armando Gutierrez is 28 years old, and doesn't have much of a résumé in terms of creating jobs or influencing public policy or anything like that."

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Health Care

GOP Sees 2010 Window, Gloat That Dems Who Opposed Health Care Will Take Dual Heat

Christina Bellantoni | November 11, 2009, 5:38PM

(Top, L-R), Rep. Boucher (D-VA), Rep. Shuler (D-NC), Rep. Ross (D-AR). (Bottom, L-R), Rep. Altmire (D-PA), Rep. Nye (D-VA), Rep. Tanner (D-TN)

Much like Sen. Blanche Lincoln and Sen. Ben Nelson, looks like the 39 Democrats voting against the House health care bill Saturday are getting squeezed from both sides.

We've been writing about all the left-leaning campaigns going after Democrats on health care, and plenty of efforts to hit Republicans as party of "no."

TPMDC has been chatting with Republicans who want to pick off vulnerable House Democrats in 2010 and they (not surprisingly) are pleased as punch by the internal warfare.

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FL-SEN

Charlie Crist's Congressman Refuses To Endorse Him

Evan McMorris-Santoro | November 10, 2009, 10:47AM

Rep. C.W. "Bill" Young (R-FL), Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R)

Gov. Charlie Crist may have the backing of the national GOP establishment in the Florida Republican senate primary, but the man who personally represents Crist in Washington isn't ready to add his name to the list of Republicans who say he'd make a better candidate than Marco Rubio.

Rep. C.W. "Bill" Young represents Crist's home district in Pinellas County, near Tampa Bay. When the St. Petersburg Times caught up with him at a Rubio speech yesterday, he stayed mum on the GOP civil war that's grabbing headlines across the country.

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Blanche Lincoln

RNC To Blanche Lincoln: Don't Make Us Turn You Into John Kerry

Evan McMorris-Santoro | November 9, 2009, 3:30PM

Sen. Blance Lincoln (D-AR) and Sen. John Kerry (D-MA)

As the full focus of the health care debate shifts to the Senate, the GOP has a tough job targeting nervous moderate Democrats. The easy part is taking advantage of Democratic Party rifts. Explaining the rules of parliamentary procedure? That's hard.

To help, the RNC has turned to a tried-and-true method of shrinking complicated Senate protocol into convenient take-home size. In a new web video out today, the RNC tells health care reform fence-sitter Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) that unless she votes with the Republicans on cloture, they'll do to her what they did to John Kerry.

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GOP

RNC Distributes 'Obama Agenda' Push Poll To Raise Money

Evan McMorris-Santoro | November 6, 2009, 4:38PM

Republican Party Logo

The RNC recently sent out a fundraising letter that includes a "survey" about President Obama's "agenda" that the Washington Post is calling a dishonest push poll.

"Are you in favor of reinstituting the military draft, as Democrats in Congress have proposed?" one question on the 15-question survey reads.

TPM obtained a copy of "2009 Obama Agenda Survey" sent to one Kansas voter. Read it here.

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Tea Party

GOP Members Of Congress To Join Bachmann's Event Today

Evan McMorris-Santoro | November 5, 2009, 8:10AM

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN)

Politico snagged an email from the RNC Republican Study Committee last night revealing that the GOP caucus in Congress will be joining Rep. Michele Bachmann's (R-MN) Tea Party event on Capitol Hill today.

RNCRepublican Study Committee communications director Brendan Buck sent the email, which tells GOP congressional aides to expect somewhere between 1,000 and 10,000 health care reform protesters today. Buck also calls on the aides to send their members to the Capitol Steps for the event hosted by Michele Bachmann at noon. But Buck offered a word of warning about the gathering of speakers and protesters, too.

"PLEASE MAKE SURE YOUR BOSS DOES NOT TERM THIS EVENT A 'RALLY," Buck wrote.

Editor's Note: This post has been revised since it was first published.

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Michael Steele

Steele: 'GOP Renaissance Has Begun'...And I Helped

Evan McMorris-Santoro | November 4, 2009, 11:07AM

RNC Chairman Michael Steele

RNC chair Michael Steele bounded up to the podium at his post-election press conference at Republican Party HQ in Washington this morning.

"How's everyone feeling?" he said with a big grin. When the two dozen or so bleary eyed reporters in the audience failed to respond to the question, his grin grew even larger. "That good, huh?"

For the next 30 minutes, Steele raved on about his party's victories last night -- and on his role in making them happen.

"The GOP renaissance has begun," he said, before borrowing a line from President Obama's campaign last year. "This election was not about 'the change we need.' It's about the change the American people want."

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Michael Steele

Steele To Meet The Press Tomorrow

Evan McMorris-Santoro | November 3, 2009, 10:52PM

RNC Chairman Michael Steele

After hopping a plane to New Jersey earlier this evening as returns began to show a victory for Republican governor-elect Chris Christie, RNC chair Michael Steele will head back to the airport to fly back to to D.C. and gloat to the press about his party's dual wins in both New Jersey and Virginia.

Steele will host a 10 a.m. press conference at RNC headquarters in Washington, where he'll talk about tonight's victories (and maybe a defeat, too -- as of this post, the Democratic nominee is still leading in NY-23). The victory lap comes less than a year after Steele began his turbulent tenure as the head of the Republican party, and it's fair to say it will be the first objectively great day for Republicans since President Obama's victory last November. Expect to see a lot of smiles from a lot of tired Republican operatives who won't be getting much sleep tonight.

NY-23

Scozzafava: No Republicans Bothered To Call Me After I Dropped Out

Eric Kleefeld | November 3, 2009, 1:43PM

Former NY-23 House candidate Dede Scozzafava (R)

Dede Scozzafava, the New York state Assemblywoman and former Republican candidate in the NY-23 special election, told the Syracuse Post-Standard about her experience in withdrawing from the race and endorsing Democrat Bill Owens -- and decried the national conservative activists who mobilized against her and in favor of Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman.

Scozzafava said that she received calls from two key New York Democrats, Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Steve Israel, who she says did not ask her for any endorsement but instead simply told her they were sorry for how she'd been treated by the GOP. As for the Republicans, Scozzafava said: "The one thing that wasn't occurring, as the Republicans in Washington were changing their allegiances, no one bothered to call me."

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VA-GOV

GOPers Already Moving On To 'McDonnell 2012' Storyline

Evan McMorris-Santoro | November 3, 2009, 10:01AM

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell

The polls haven't closed on the Virginia gubernatorial race, but already Republicans think they have a future star in their nominee, Bob McDonnell. Columnist Jill Lawrence writes that some in the GOP see McDonnell landing on a national ticket in four or eight years.

From Politics Daily:

John Pitney, a political scientist at Claremont McKenna College and a former Republican aide on Capitol Hill, went further in an e-mail to me -- calling McDonnell "as plausible as anyone else" for president or vice president in 2012.

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NY-23

Boehner: 'Yes,' I Regret Giving Money To Dede Scozzafava

Evan McMorris-Santoro | November 2, 2009, 4:46PM

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH)

The leader of Republicans in the House said today that he regrets backing his party's nominee in the NY-23 special election. At a press conference with reporters on health care this afternoon, House Minority Leader was asked if he regretted his past endorsement and financial support for Dede Scozzafava, the GOP nominee in the race who dropped out over the weekend and endorsed her Democratic rival.

"Yes," Boehner said, flatly.

"This lady clearly has an agenda that's different from that of the Republican Party," he added. "She was out there to promote herself."

Boehner said that like the rest of the GOP establishment, he's turned his allegiances to the Conservative Party candidate in the race, Doug Hoffman. Boehner said he "looks forward to welcoming" Hoffman into the GOP caucus and said he hopes Hoffman beats Democratic nominee Bill Owens tomorrow.

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