Morton Blackwell Endorses Saul Anuzis for RNC Chairman

Morton Blackwell, Virginia's National Committeeman, longtime conservative leader, and founder of the Leadership Institute has endorsed Saul Anuzis for RNC Chairman. Blackwell describes Anuzis as a commonsense conservative with a record of winning in blue states who will give us the leadership necessary to win in 2012.

"Saul Anuzis will be a Chairman who will, once again, inspire the confidence of our grassroots activists, attract top talent to the RNC, revitalize fundraising from our small and large donors, and focus on the organizational nuts and bolts of a ground game that delivers our message and our voters to the polls.

Saul has excellent relationships across the country with social, economic and foreign policy conservatives. He worked successfully with Tea Party activists in Michigan who became a vital part of the winning coalition. He will build this same coalition nationally. Saul will provide the essential leadership to run and manage the RNC and put together a winning team and game plan to facilitate our wins in 2012."

Saul Anuzis for RNC Chairman

Saul Anuzis is running for chairman. He will bring the leadership the RNC so badly needs.

Think about your own state. Did some terrific Republican candidate work their hearts out, yet fall short by a handful of votes on Election Day? Now ask yourself: if the RNC had properly funded the Victory program in your state, would that candidate have been a winner? Would that candidate have benefited from a robust 72-hour program with ground troops sweeping in for the final weekend?

Would Keith Fimian have won if we had a fully funded victory program?

What do we do with Michael Steele…? UPDATES

After the California sex club incident, and then Steele using the race card on television, many Republicans and Conservatives are at a loss of what to do with him. Do we kick him out? Force him to resign? Let him stay – as he has insisted on doing? Make a scene?

In my opinion, Erick Erickson from RedState nails it here -

"I did not support Michael Steele for Chairman of the Republican Party, but was perfectly happy to give him a chance to prove himself. That all pretty much went out the window the moment he decided to start throwing the race card around against Republicans when feeling threatened.

If Michael Steele left tomorrow, I would not cry. As it stands now, the RNC under Michael Steele has raised a massive amount of money and spent a massive amount of money. There will not be much if any to hand over to state parties by November for the various victory funds.

That said, the GOP won in New Jersey, Virginia, and Massachusetts, draining resources along the way. If we are going to blame Michael Steele for all the bad, we should at least charitably credit him for the good too.

Were Michael Steele to leave the RNC tomorrow, what really would have changed? The incestuous culture of consultants will still be there sucking the same money from the building.

The narrative will shift to the GOP throwing out the black man. Steele would become the sympathetic victim at the hands of evil racist Republicans who really always wanted that racist country clubber from South Carolina to be Chairman anyway.

It serves no good purpose to try to oust Michael Steele right now. A two-thirds vote would be required. The votes aren't there. The process would be ugly and would be a distraction. Steele could in various ways use RNC dollars to defend himself instead of beat the Democrats. The Democrats would use the opportunity to smear the GOP even more. Pursuit of removal would be folly.

At the end of the day, though, it is not all Michael Steele's fault. A lot of the blame for things these days is being foisted up by a press all too happy to highlight Republican problems and ignore Democrat problems. Some of what is happening is within Steele's control and some of it is not. The Democrats and some Republicans have happily peddled the story about Michael Steele's incompetent management, some because of very real concerns, but some to distraction from other issues.

Here we are in April, more than a year after his election, having the same debate we had before his election — from spendthrift ways to management skills to consultants milking the RNC. All of the present problems derive from known knowns. Were the RNC leadership to replace him it would be because they are embarrassed, not because they have all of a sudden grown wiser.

And this is the Achilles heel of the whole GOP structure right now. From the Chairman of the Party to the Congressional leadership, we have in place a bunch of people who led us out of power who will lead us back into power. Sure, Steele was not there, but those he has surrounded himself with and who advise him and take donor money were as much a part of the problem as the congressional guys.

With the exception of the top of the House leadership, there is little indication that any lessons were ever learned regarding the Republican defeats of 2006 and 2008. If the GOP wins big in 2010 it will be in spite of themselves — but they'll take it, use it, and abuse it.

Again — it is April of 2010. The election is less than seven months away. We go into the election with the army we have, not the one we would prefer. We go with Michael Steele and Mitch McConnell and the rest, so suck it up and deal with it.

Don't like it? Join me in beating them in the primaries. Then we can talk."

UPDATE 9:29am: Politico reports

Republican National Committee Chief of Staff Ken McKay resigned Monday, becoming the highest-ranking official to depart the committee after revelations that the national party spent nearly $2,000 at California sex club.

McKay's departure in turn prompted one of RNC Chairman Michael Steele's closest advisers to cut ties to the party – an indication that a full-scale bloodletting is under way at the troubled committee.

It should be interesting to see where it goes from here…

Tony Perkins: Don't Give Money to the RNC

Citing concerns about the recent use of RNC spent $2,000.00 at a depraved club near Los Angeles, Tony Perkins (head of the Family Research Council) told people not to donate to the RNC. In the letter he expressed his dissapointment that the RNC is happy about their use of Ted Olson for their campaign finance lawsuit. Ted Olson is also fighting hard in California to overturn Prop 8. Mark DeMoss has already closed his checkbook to the RNC after problems earlier this year.

GOP congressional leaders seem to be disenchanted with the current RNC leadership as well. The RNC is having a hard time with fundraising already. If Michael Steele can't fundraise and work with the congressional leadership, why is he chairman again?

(I am not advocating removing Michael Steel from chairman, just curious what the answer to that question is.)

Convention Day One

Today was honestly fairly boring. the convention convened shortly after 2:00 and we heard from Bob Whitman, Bob Goodlatte, and the chairmen of the CRFV and YRFV. Lauren Giere (daughter of state central member from the 8th district Mike Giere) sang a beautiful rendition of the national anthem. The only votes that took place were on the rules and the temporary chair for the convention. There was no contest on either issue. The rules were approved unammended, and Kay Cole James was elected without opposition by voice vote as chairman of the convention.

I finished the day off by helping put Cuccinelli literature on all the chairs, and then went over to the Cuccinelli Hospitality Suite and had some delicious homemade Cuccinelli canolis.

I also had the opportunity to view the Executive Committee meeting, State Central roundtable, and rules committee meeting. It was nice to beable to watch the internal workings of our party. The Executive Committee was interesting because their was some confusion as to whether or not I could watch. Mike Thomas kindly let me in and I watched until they needed to go into executive session. I don't think they are used to other people watching them.

The other highlight is the fact that the RNC has already sent almost 30 staff to Virginia to help out with all the elections this November. These energetic young political veterans will be a huge asset to the effort this year and will also help run the 14 campaign offices that will be opening up across the commonwealth soon.

Hopefully tomorrow runs smoothly and there aren't any questions about credentials or voting. I plan on voting for Bolling, Cuccinelli, and Stanley. My confidence of them winning is in that order as well. If Bollign loses it will be one of the most unexpected upsets in political history. I am very confident Cuccinelli will win, though maybe Foster will sneak through. The chairmans race is a complete tossup as it is only three weeks old. Last year the chairman candidate with all the establishment endorsements lost overwhelmingly. While Bill Stanley does not have Frederick's name recognition, a lot of people are upset about what happened in April. Hopefully tomorrow delegates will realize they want a chairman who is elected by them and not selected by the executive committee, and vote accordingly.

Tomorrow should be an interesting and fun day, and after it is all over it is on to winning in November. The convention starts tomorrow at 10:00 am. Be sure to come early to the Leigh St. entrance to pick up your credentials.

Jonathan Krohn: Young Conservative Speaks at CPAC

Jonathan Krohn is a 13 year old homeschooler who is making a name for himself in conservative circles. He just recently published a book entitled Defining Conservativism. He wrote the book because he believes that their is a lot of confusion over what the term "conservative" means.

His short definition is

What is a Conservative? Since this is what we are going to discuss in-depth
in the book, I will give you the basic definition of a Conservative. A
Conservative is someone who believes in
1. Life
2. Personal Responsibility
3. Less Government .
4. The Founding Principles
These are the basic principles of Conservatism, but they each require an
individual in-depth analysis.

Jonathan also spoke at CPAC briefly. He didn't take on Obama, or even former President Bush. He didn't take on the fiscal conservatives or the social conservative, but simply gave a very clear explanation of what it means to be a conservative. A number of people have joked about this person as a future RNC Chair, U.S. President, or other elected official. While no one knows what political office this young man will hold, if you watch the video it is very clear that he has a bright future ahead of him.

Online GOP Tech Summit Needs & Invites You!

Bill Smith, Editor, ARRA News Service: The RNC Transition Team established working groups in six specific issue areas to further refine the ideas put forth at the GOP Tech Summit and to push the conversation to the next level. Ultimately, there will be a Republican user-generated report produced that we'll present to Chairman Steele and his team for their review and implementation as they see fit.

::: We can't do it alone. We need your help. :::
Join the discussion, on how the party can best embrace (and keep motivated) the grassroots and keep the CONSERVATIVE VOICE strong, at the GOP Tech Summit website.

Over the next seven days -- if you have an idea -- please share it. If you have a comment on another idea put forth, dig in. Let us heed the challenge put forth by Chairman Steele and leave no stone unturned. We are listening. I hope you'll be a part of this Revolution.
::: If you join us in this effort; then invite me as a friend :::

"I Have Not Yet Begun to Fight"

For the past three years I have been wondering why the GOP has refused to play offense. As a party we have had to think about minimizing losses heading into election day instead of talking about which key Democrat Senator or Congressman we will knockout this time. There is now nolonger a single Republican in New England, and in the last presidential race key Republican states went Democrat while we were unable to flip a single Democrat state red.

For someone wanting to stop playing political defense, I was inspired and encouraged when I ran across a new movement called Rebuild the Party. Rebuild the Party is a new movement advocating a proposal set forth by a number of young political operatives lead by Patrick Ruffini on what the Republican Party needs to be doing to set itself up for 2010 and 2012. Those working on the project realized that we blew it on so many levels this election: fundraising, voter contact, organization, volunteer organization, use of technology, voter registration, etc, etc, etc... It then lays out a 10 Point Plan detailing what the next RNC Chair should do, and how to do it.

While introducing the website to his readers only days after the election, Patrick Ruffini said of the group who created Rebuild the Party,

"We challenge the idea that the Internet is more than a fun little add-on or that it's enough to prove you "get it" by setting up a Twitter account. The Obama campaign proved that the Internet is so much more than that: it is a serious platform for transforming literally everything about how your campaign is run, from media to fundraising to field."

After Obama used the internet to his avantage throughout his campaign, Republicans must stop sayign they don't know how to use the internet. They need to get out and embrace the internet and find new and creative ways to use the internet. Patrick Ruffini and the folks involved with Rebuild the Party understand the need to use the internet to it's fullest capacity, as well as fundamentally restructuring the GOP and rebuilding it from the ground up.

Please go to Rebuild the Party, endorse the plan, and hopefully the next RNC Chair will embrace the plan and do what it takes to get this party back on the right track.