Overreaching ... 11-01-05 ... the political tide in DC began to turn.

www.mullings.com ^ | Wednesday November 2, 2005

[InvisibleChurch]

* Yesterday Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid demanded that the Senate go into closed session to demand a report to follow up on a 2004 Senate Intelligence Committee investigation on what the CIA knew or didn't know in the run-up to the Iraq war. * Invoking Senate Rule 21 he forced a closed session of the US Senate to "demand, on behalf of the American people why these investigations aren't being conducted." * For the record Rule 21 reads:

On a motion made and seconded to close the doors of the Senate, on the discussion of any business which may, in the opinion of a Senator, require secrecy, the Presiding Officer shall direct the galleries to be cleared; and during the discussion of such motion the doors shall remain closed. * Thus there was no vote needed - majority or otherwise. Reid cooked this up as a publicity stunt and it worked. It made all the morning papers.

* But a stunt is a stunt. It is not policy. Even NBC's top correspondent, Andrea Mitchell said that the Senate Democrats were being "disingenuous" because Senate Democrats had plenty of time - before, during, and since to have raised these questions. And they didn't have the guts do it. * Even more amazing? Newsweek's Howard Fineman agreed with her. * This is part of an organized effort on behalf of Democrats to overcome their extreme distress of last week when US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald declined to indict anyone on the original charge of leaking Valerie Plame's name. * Nevertheless the Dems are running all over town telling anyone with a notebook or a tape recorder - including children walking to school with backpacks and grownups walking along K Street with iPods - that this is, or should be, all about WMDs or lack of them. * On Monday, reporters were giddily looking forward to Scooter Libby's trial when, they had convinced themselves, Vice President Dick Cheney would be forced to testify. * In a series of phone calls I was happy to dampen their spirits by making the following points:

1. Fitzgerald said the Libby indictment was about lying, not about WMDs

2. Any trial is going to focus solely on lying, not WMDs 3. If a trial takes place, and if VP Cheney testifies, the questioning is not going to be conducted by Larry King taking questions from reporters * On the Judge Alito front, the Democrats immediately overreached there as well. They circulated a memo claiming, in effect, that as a US Attorney, he went easy on an Italian mafia prosecution. * Chris Matthews, like Andrea Mitchell and Howard Fineman not known as an apologist for Republican causes, immediately reacted with fury, calling the memo a "pretty disgusting document," and saying it was "amazingly bad politics." * Remember the early days of the campaign against now-Chief Justice John Roberts? Remember how the National Abortion Rights Action League ran an ad which was so mean and misleading that it had to be withdrawn within hours?

* Same thing's going on here. With the same result. Judge Samuel Alito is going to be confirmed. He is a thoughtful, intelligent, extraordinarily experienced jurist. * If Republicans learned anything in the Monica scandal it was this: Overreaching is seriously punished by voters as soon as they detect it. * Mark November 1, 2005 on your calendar. It will turn out to be the date that the political tide in Washington began to turn. -- END --

Copyright ©2005 Richard A. Galen

[Skeeve14]

"That report showed that much of the WMD intelligence was from Clinton days"

That would actually be bad for the GOP. That would show that they didn't have "new" intelligence prior to going in and depended on old information to justify the invasion.

I don't think they would be happy to have that released. It would also show that the CIA didn't a single person on the ground in Iraq, but relied entirely on foreign intelligence sources.

[jaaakemm]

2 Boobs Squared ..... nuf said.

[devolve]

         

[reformedliberal]

The problem w/the RNC and the Senatorial Committee is that they will not read, record or pay any attention to us when we explain our donations or our lack of them. They will cash the check, send more solicitations and use the money against conservatives, or at least to support moderates they think can win, just as they have done to date.

After months of explaining my lack of response in writing and in detail to the phone solicitors, I got another one just last week. I told him we were conservatives and he just laughed. I asked if this was a solicitation for donations or a poll. He said it was a *special* fundraiser. I told him that we donated to individuals directly and that they needed to stand up to the Democrats, do something substantial about illegal immigration and support Republicans who will vote for more oil and gas drilling and refineries before asking me for any more money. Silence, then I thanked him and hung up.

I have no doubt I will get yet more mail and calls soon.

I used to roll my eyes over the FReepers making constant comments on GOP lack of spine. Now, I am simply wary of them. I have seen them sandbag candidates I support right in the middle of a campaign, allowing Finegold's supporters to give huge, public sighs of relief and be able to concentrate on their candidates lower on the ticket (which we defeated due to individual donations and support).

I just do not trust the institutionalized portion of the GOP. I will vote and work and I agree the donks need to be crushed. I just doubt the RNC, et al are the ones who will actually do it. I do not think we can use operant conditioning on them. Until they get out in the real world and send out real organizers who will speak face-to-face with the grass roots base, I will be thankful when they manage to do something right, but I will not support them until they can understand the connection between an action and support.

I worked hard in the last campaign and had some phone time w/some of the career political operatives working for BCO4. These are arrogant careerists who use our time and effort and really think they have better things to do with their time than even be polite or listen to volunteers and donors. We have decided that we will not be complicit in our own abuse and it will take more than anger at donks to change our decision.

But I will not be part of a publically divided base, either, as that just gives aid and comfort to the enemy. We need to work and support individuals who will then at least be aware of who elected them, not give ammo to the donks and not reflexively give the careerists more money with which to be arrogant and neglectful of the people who do the real work in politics.

[samtheman]

We need to work and support individuals who will then at least be aware of who elected them, not give ammo to the donks and not reflexively give the careerists more money with which to be arrogant and neglectful of the people who do the real work in politics.

Good advice.

[BlueMoose]

On a motion made and seconded to close the doors of the Senate, on the discussion of any business which may, in the opinion of a Senator, require secrecy, the Presiding Officer shall direct the galleries to be cleared; and during the discussion of such motion the doors shall remain closed. * Thus there was no vote needed - majority or otherwise. Reid cooked this up as a publicity stunt and it worked. It made all the morning papers.

Lets read rule XXXI

2. All business in the Senate shall be transacted in open session, unless the Senate as provided in rule XXI by a majority vote shall determine that a particular nomination, treaty, or other matter shall be considered in closed executive session, in which case all subsequent proceedings with respect to said nomination, treaty, or other matter shall be kept secret: Provided, That the injunction of secrecy as to the whole or any part of proceedings in closed executive session may be removed on motion adopted by a majority vote of the Senate in closed executive session: Provided further, That any Senator may make public his vote in closed executive session.

Now some one please explain to me why the Republicans allowed a closed Session .

[RushLake]

"They will cash the check, send more solicitations...... After months of explaining my lack of response in writing and in detail to the phone solicitors, I got another one just last week. I told him we were conservatives and he just laughed. I asked if this was a solicitation for donations or a poll. He said it was a *special* fundraiser. I told him that we donated to individuals directly and that they needed to stand up to the Democrats, do something substantial about illegal immigration and support Republicans who will vote for more oil and gas drilling and refineries before asking me for any more money. Silence, then I thanked him and hung up."

I take the same approach. I got one the other night who hung up on me after I respectfully and patiently explained things just as you do. I do take some solace in the post paid envelopes they include with their mail solicitations because I can write the immigration, energy, and spending message on the slip in red before I return it without the check. Perhaps if everyone did that they'd start to get the message.

[reformedliberal]

I cannot count the number of FReepers who already reply in writing on the donation requests and explain in detail when they are called.

They do not read the messages, they simply open the envelopes and look for checks. They do not listen to us on the phone....I have done phone bank work and MAYBE they have a checklist of possible responses, but I doubt it, as this was a solicitation, not a poll.

As my screen name implies and as I have posted several times on FR, I worked on the Left back in the day (1970s). The Left sends out paid organizers to targeted communities that they see as vote banks way before an election. They form ad hoc interest groups, which are then used as pressure groups on issues as elections approach. They look for potential leaders and potential organizers and nurture them. Lots of grass root mentoring goes on and political paybacks, like grants, are used to reinforce the message that the base owes the donks for real personal results. We do not do this.

I could go on and I have said this in writing to the RNC way back in the late 90s. It was ignored. I have repeated this sort of approach, which could easily be incorporated into the strategy Rove used in previous elections. I have tried to do some of this on my own, locally and a couple of times it worked really well, especially with young Christian conservatives. But then I found myself putting out fires begun by operatives in DC who treated carefully nurtured donors and volunteers with public contempt and reluctantly apologized with only grudging participation by the clueless careerists.

We have had donks run as Republicans and get support from State GOP. We had a committed Leftist as head of the local GOP back before the 2000 general election and even when informed, neither the State nor the national GOP did a thing. We have had Party Chairs who had personal agendas that caused them to publicly refuse to work for W during the 2004 general election. No one came to help us deal with these situations, which simply made our local organization a joke at best and a detriment at worst.

They eat our lunch on the local level, at least in my area. Our supporters are leery of being too public, for example, because they work and are usually self-employed and the local donks use economic warfare against us.

CPAC is all well and good, but the opposition does it better, reaches down to local levels better and has support from the donk office holders in the form of grants for administrative salaries in pressure groups or grants such as HUD money to entire small communities. Philosophically, this is not what the Right is about, of course, but it is frustrating to see it work time and again over 35 years and not have something similar for our own side.

I do not know any longer how to get their attention for more than a few minutes, let alone get some real assistance on the local level. In fact, even good conservative candidates at the State level are usually so intent on going where they can reach a large number of voters that they ignore the possibility of getting the same number by being attentive to many smaller areas. In the past 5 years, I have met one GOP candidate for State office who knew how to campaign and build a grass roots base. He did it and won all on his own and even his fellow candidates at the same level (for different seats) never seemed to understand what made one guy a great campaigner while they just stood around like lumps.

Can you tell I am frustrated?? LOL.

[IamConservative]

Interesting the after two years, all Fitz had was an indictment for a Democrat (Libby) lying.

Is there a public roll call on the vote to go back into general session yesterday? Wonder if the vote was 55-45, or if some Dems voted to go back into session? A Dem voet to go back to session would seem to be a vite against invoking rule 21 again.

[misharu]

I am thoroughly disgusted by the latest antics of the Democrats. But it is good to see that thier pals in the MSM are turning on them for thier dirty tricks. I suppose a certain amount of arrogance in the way the press treats liberals and Democrats has creeped into the Senators way of thinking and I hope this totally blows up thier faces in ways they couldn't imagine.

[NonLinear]

Can you find the boobs in this picture?

[Sacajaweau]

This is like the kids acting up when you already have a headache.

And the kids are working hard to make sure that we don't go back to look at Able Danger and how the CIA and FBI relates to 9-11. CLARKE has been missing in action lately. And where the hell is Valerie Plame? In Paris with Jacqueline?, paying off Joe's friends? or setting up another scenario.

[hershey]

Closure of the senate for a secret meeting is a slap in the face to Americans, and most will take it as such. A dumb move on dems part.

[lmailbvmbipfwedu]

IMHO we should clean out the congress and elect adults next time. The difference between congress and the boy scouts is that the boy scouts have adult leadership..........

[Smokin' Joe]

I hope the Dems realize what they've done

Yep! Rung up another winner out of the Vietnam playbook, and tried to 'Agnew' Cheney. Didn't work this time.

[popdonnelly]

It does strike me as odd that you can investigate corruption in Cook County and only return two indictments against Democrats. Not exactly Elliott Ness.

[Mike Darancette]

That would show that they didn't have "new" intelligence prior to going in and depended on old information to justify the invasion.

They may well didn't have much new information refuting the Clinton Position that Iraq was awash in WMD. In the absence of 9-11 I don't think that the WMD in Iraq was actionable.

With the War on Terror hostilities in Iraq became an action in a larger war. The WH should point this out often since the Democrats are succeeding in isolating Iraq as an issue removed from the War on Terror. It is sort of like the MSM reporting only on the European Theater during WWII.

[NonLinear]

Now some one please explain to me why the Republicans allowed a closed Session.

Because by Rule 21, which you quoted, only a motion and second is required to cause the galleries to be cleared and doors closed. Discussion then takes place on the motion.

Rupblicans could end the closed session after such discussion, but could not stop the closing of the session prior to such discussion.

[Grampa Dave]

Excellent.

[Laserman]

It was reported yesterday that the fools over at DU were all excited by the closed door session. I wonder how they feel today after the widely negative reaction, even in their MSM outlets?

I refuse to visit DU, but would love to get e report by those at FR that are willing to check in on them.