Murkowski’s OK, but O’Donnell is a Villainess?

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Let’s get this straight. Christine O’Donnell actually won her primary. But Karl Rove began actively campaigning for the Democrat in Delaware the day after O’Donnell won, when there was no other GOP candidate to back, when the voters had already decided, and blaming her for supposedly squandering a GOP Senate majority.

Lisa Murkowski lost her primary. Yet she is running as a write-in candidate, for no reason she can publicly justify. She is a spoiler who is likely to cause the loss of a GOP Senate seat.

Yet where is the full-throated assault on Lisa Murkowski by the GOP leadership?

You will never hear it. She has since then been reaching out to lobbyists and telling Alaskans that she will keep her committee positions, which means she is colluding with the GOP Senate leadership. They would prefer Murkowski, but they would rather have a Democrat than have Joe Miller.

The Combine wants to stop anyone who threatens the game.

UPDATE: A very knowledgeable friend admonished me, saying I was unfair to Karl Rove, and that he had not yet spoken about Murkowski, and would probably oppose her write-in campaign. This turned out to be correct. Even more, Rove has indeed spoken on it, and has called the Murkowski effort “sad and sorry,” and opposed it forcefully. OK. Credit where it is due on this one. Subotai, whose comment I previously quoted, and I both got it wrong about Rove re: Murkowski.

Let’s see how the GOP leadership handles the next few weeks. They do not have the trust of many people who should be their base. George Bush lost me with his second inaugural speech, in January 2005, which was totally detached from reality. But I did not project that onto the entire GOP. For all its (serious) defects, it was my party, if push came to shove. But in the last few months I have lost 47 years of thinking of the GOP as “us” and started thinking of it as “them.”

I hope that changes.

UPDATE II: Karl Rove should have said, “well, the voters have spoken, and the Republicans have a candidate and I support that candidate. This is an unusual election year, and people are very energized, and they decided to bet on a long shot, and do things the hard way. We’ll see how it works out. Ms. O’Donnell has a steep hill to climb, but I wish her well. I have worked on a few campaigns myself, and I would be happy to chat with her.”

How the Hell hard would that have been?

25 thoughts on “Murkowski’s OK, but O’Donnell is a Villainess?”

  1. Rove didn’t even wait for the next day to hamstring O’Donnell, he was disgracing himself publicly before she even gave her acceptance speech.

  3. It’s a simple question that every member of the GOP should ask their Republican Senator. Will they raise the subject and vote to strip Murkowski of her committee positions now that she is running against a Republican candidate?

  4. Rove called Murkowski’s write-in campaign “sad and sorry” on Chris Wallace’s show this morning. He also said she can’t possibly win.

  5. He also said she can’t possibly win.

    hey karl the rover a 3 way race might get the dem elected in a sure team r state unlike del.

  7. Let’s see how the GOP leadership handles the next few weeks.

    Well, for one thing, they’re sidling up to earmarks again.

    That’s a hint.

  9. Where is Madame LaFarge when we need her? Is she getting all this into the knitting? This attitude of “Murkowski’s OK, but O’Donnell is a Villainess?” is a real problem. The GOP must surely have lots of trash on Coons in Delaware, but the party insiders, are more than happy to repeat O’Donnell can’t win. What is their malfunction? And the supposedly conservatives are now ready to wobble on earmarks?

    Actually, a “Madame LaFarge is Watching” web site would be excellent. We could include the likes of Rove. In his interviews he said “Well, I am an analyst and have to give my professional opinion.”, and wouldn’t back down from declaring Coons the Delaware general election winner. Ok Karl, be an analyst or a conservative in the middle of an important fight. Why don’t you go join Juan Williams and have a I’m-more-pompous-and-know-it-all-than-you girl fight?

  10. I think that anytime O’Donnell is asked about the “witchcraft” video by a leftist journalist (sorry for the redundancy), that she should just smile and say, “You know, if you’d like to hang out with Beelzebub for an afternoon, I could probably find a way to contact some old high school friends for you. Or would you like to talk about something that’s actually connected to reality?”

  11. “Let’s see how the GOP leadership handles the next few weeks. They do not have the trust of many people who should be their base.”

    The only way the leadership of the Party will change is if . . . more conservatives come “into” the Party itself and vote in new leadership.

    The only people “in” the Party are precinct committeemen. Called ward captain in some states. Registered Republicans are just that and only that. They are ineligible to vote in the internal party elections. The ONLY Republicans who can vote in the Party leadership elections are the “card carrying members” of the Party, the precinct committeemen. In Arizona, where I live, and am one, there’s one precinct committeemen per 125 registered Republicans or majority portion of 125. In my precinct there are 8 precinct committeemen slots and all 8 are filled. Under Arizona’s system, precince committeemen are elected every two years by the precinct committemen in their precinct. To become one, one must get no more than 10 signatures (number varies depending upon the relative number of registered Republicans in your precinct) on a ballot petition form.

    Here’s the kicker. In 2008, OVER TWO-THIRDS of these slots were VACANT in AZ. Nationwide, on average, in every state, about HALF are vacant. And they are split ideologically about 50-50 between conservatives and moderates. If conservatives would flood into the Party and fill up the approximately 200,000 vacancies, that ratio would go to 75-25 in favor of conservatives. And, the Party would go from half strength to full strength.

    Why won’t the current Party leaders and incumbents tell you this? BECAUSE THEY ARE TERRIFIED CONSERVATIVES WILL DO IT AND TOSS THEM OUT, TOO. The highest priority of an incumbent, even the “conservative” Republican incumbents, is to stay in power. Even the conservatives are afraid someone like LTC Allen West or Marco Rubio would come along in their district and beat them in the all-important, traditionally-very-low-turnout primary elections. Like what happened to Bob Bennett in Utah, where the tea partiers and 9.12-ers and other grass roots conservatives flooded into the precinct ranks.

    Every state has a different system. I explain this Neighborhood Precinct Committeeman Strategy here:

    http://www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com

    It’s working in Arizona. In one election cycle we’ve gone, in Maricopa County, to having less than 31.8 per cent of our PC slots filled (1,989 PCs) to over 50 per cent.

    This is the answer. It’s basic American civics. I can’t guaranteed that if we do this, we’ll save our country, but I think we will. But I do know this. If we don’t take back control of the Republican Party from the moderates, we will lose our country.

    For Liberty,
    Cold Warrior

  12. Eh… I think the Dark Lord Rove just realize now serious the Tea Partiers are about backing small-government fiscal conservatives, who are equally immune to either the seductive music of the social conservatives or the get-along-to-go-along RINOs. He (and other conventional GOP upper echelon types) were diddy-bopping along, thinking of the Tea Partiers as just another voting block to be milked for votes and contributions to the usual RINO tools – and now he has realized that no, the Tea Partiers have designs on the GOP, designs incongruent with his assumptions and plans. No wonder he looked as if he had just discovered a roach in his breakfast taco.

  13. So, let me get this straight, the establishment Republicans and MSM are worked up that O’Donnell dated a male satanic witch when she was young?

    So what!

    The hypocritical snobbery going on about O’Donnell is amazing. That piece of work Maureen Dowd calling someone else – anyone else – a witch is simply magnificent irony.

    Would it be better for Dowd if the “satanic witch” O’Donnell dated were a lesbian?

    Heck, a few friends I know actually *married* a witch once and are still cursed with family court orders, lawyer bills and a dozen years of alimony payments.

    Most of us would not be here today if it were not for a young woman’s bad choices in men.

    O’Donnell — “Vote for the Witch, Its Important!”

  14. Dear Lexington Green: NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE reports that McConnell has accepted LM’s resignation from “leadership posts” without saying anything about committee posts. So that is something. Not much. The real test of LM will come should Miller win. Will LM resign early so Governor Parnell could appoint Miller and give him a marginal head start on seniority? That will be an interesting test, with a likely disappointing result?

    Sincerely yours,
    Gregory Koster

  15. i have target lock, i am not taking any more readings, karl is behind me and forgotten and unheard. nothing he says, nothing krauthammer says, nothing the msm says, will change my course.

    “take the shot luke!”

  16. I will credit Rove with one, fairly mild, statement against Murkowski, with no mention of her causing the Republicans to lose the chance at a majority. This is in contrast to multiple raving frenzies on national TV attacking Christine O’Donnell. Plus appearing in print with only a little less spittle flying around.

    Just six hours ago, Rove was on FOX News continuing his attacks on O’Donnell. Can anyone really believe that there is not someone in authority in the Republican Party who can’t sit down with Rove and tell him that maybe he is being counterproductive, and make it stick? If there is not, it says some really bad things about the nature of the party. If there is, their silence does not say good things about the party.

    I am not insisting that he grovel, or that he become an O’Donnell cheerleader. Simply shutting up a week after his candidate lost would be an improvement. Or maybe, since he is supposed to be the Republican’s genius tactician, he could actually take formal note that there is a Democrat running for the seat and he could maybe say something less than complimentary about him? No? Well I guess that was asking too much.

    The Institutional Republican party is becoming more and more a “them” every day. I still am waiting to see what is done with Murkowski’s committee seats. On another thread elsewhere day before yesterday, an Institutional Republican supporter was recommending a “Night of the Long Knives” against the TEA Party. Granting that probably he really did not understand the import of what he said, still that is likely not all that far out of the mainstream at the RNC.

    I will watch and wait.

    By the way, thank you for the “gold star” on the previous thread. A compliment from one of the Chicago Boyz is indeed a prize.

    Subotai Bahadur

  17. I think this is a most excellent post showing Rove to be a real downer for me personally and apparently many others also…

    Thanks for posting it…

    BTW as you know Obama and the lamestream media have been trying to target Rep. Boehner for everything except the sinking of the Titanic…

    Consider the following from the Washington Examiner replete with links to back up the statements: Pelosi has pocketed nearly twice as much lobbyist cash as Boehner

  19. UPDATE II: Karl Rove should have said, “well, the voters have spoken, and the Republicans have a candidate and I support that candidate. This is an unusual election year, and people are very energized, and they decided to bet on a long shot, and do things the hard way. We’ll see how it works out. Ms. O’Donnell has a steep hill to climb, but I wish her well. I have worked on a few campaigns myself, and I would be happy to chat with her.”

    It’s funny to watch Karl Rove pound home on what a poor candidate he considers Ms. O’Donnell to be when during his tenure as grand political strategist for the Republican Party the party wound up losing fourteen seats (six in 2006 and eight in 2008).

  21. Rove seems more interested in being a kingmaker than in supporting the Republican Party’s attempt to regain a majority in the House and Senate. Did his American Crossroads group funnel money to O’Donnell’s primary opponent? If so, he may be a sore loser due to credibility/prestige issues with donors. Prestige is money in the land of lobbyists/special interest groups. Certainly the reactions from some establishment Republicans following wins by Tea Party candidates supports that “Combine” issue many first heard about on this blog.

  22. Christine O’Donnell can say or do NO wrong. I agree with everything this woman and Sara Palin say. I think they would make a terriffic team running against the establishment in 2012 if that is the way things work out. It is obvious that Obama can’t hold a candle to Christine.

  23. It is now official, the Republican Senate Conference is supporting Murkowski over Joe Miller. They mouth the words, but their actions help her campaign.

    From Associated Press Writer Matt Daly in Washington today:

    …. GOP rules allow any Republican senator to seek her removal by forcing a secret ballot vote of the 41-member caucus, but that is unlikely to happen before the Nov. 2 general election, according to GOP staffers and other observers. There are only a few weeks left in the legislative session, with no action on major bills expected. …

    She keeps her Committee seats, keeps access to the pork that she is using to promise to use to bribe Alaska voters, and run against the duly nominated Republican candidate for Senate; who just happens to be supported by the TEA Party.

    After November 2, there has to be a reckoning.

    Subotai Bahadur

  24. I knew Joe Miller well when he was a West Point cadet. Super bright guy, high integrity, lovely manners. Even back then, he was a fighter and no-quitter, in the good way.

    Too bad Murkowski is a no-quitter in the most graceless way.

  25. Dear Murkowski:

    I’d say you are a scum-bag, but that would be too kind for a “Nazi/Stalinist-type collaborator” like YOU, who essentially says “let’s keep voting ’til I win”.

    Not only is this anti-American and anti-Polish, but anti -“Rights-of-Man”.

    If you really like illegal power [i.e. not emanating from “The People”] so much I’m sure the little tyrant in DC would love to have you too in his harem, as another director-appointee-czar for for his “let’s keep f**king America” reign.

    Congrats!!!!

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