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Posted at 1:34pm on Jun. 30, 2008 Netrooters Oblivious to Direct Mail basics

OMG! They spent all the $

By krempasky

Every year, we see it again: shrieking, hand-wringing, gloating (?) lefties pointing fingers at Republican direct mail fundraisers. Trouble is, they don't seem to have much idea what they're talking about.

Read On...

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Posted at 9:36am on Jun. 29, 2008 Every Time I Get Lazy...

By krempasky

This has been a busy year for me in many ways - and it's no secret that John McCain didn't exactly inspire me in the primary. Pile all that on top of how damn demoralizing our leaders at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue can be, and I've been feeling remarkably bleh about this election.

That is, until I actually listen to a Barack Obama speech. Seriously, I highly recommend biting your tongue for 30 minutes, and find an actual, full-length speech from the Democratic nominee. Don't rely on some blog quote you saw, don't just sit back and wait for talk radio hosts to digest and soundbite the man - listen to him in his element. (Start here.)

Posted in Archived | Barack Obama — Comments (22) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 2:28pm on May 7, 2008 Winning Isn't Losing

And Politics Ain't Bean Bag

By krempasky

Early in my career, I had the opportunity to work for giants of the conservative movement. First Morton Blackwell, then Richard Viguerie. Both, in their own way, have been absolutely instrumental to the successes conservatives have seen over the past 40 years.

I'm not giving away any state secrets in pointing out that Richard and Morton have very different styles. They're both builders, but when it comes to the art of coalition politics - there's no question in my mind that the advice Morton gives to conservatives (and Republicans) ought to plastered on a lot of walls here at RedState.

15. Don't treat good guys like you treat bad guys.

We get the joke: center-right moderates and conservatives have used each other as punching bags for a long, long time - and we don't presume to settle that particular rift here at RedState. To try would be laughable.

But we DO expect folks to keep your eyes on the prize: stopping the most liberal candidate we've seen in a generation from winning the White House. Make no mistake, Obama isn't "new" or "revolutionary." He's a talented speaker, but he's not a serious leader prepared for dangerous times. This is a guy who called for a worldwide ban on fissile materials, for crying out loud.

More important, when you find yourself getting torqued at the squish who doesn't think campaign finance reform is near-treason or the neanderthal conservative that would rather focus on Terry Schiavo than fixing the immigration problem...take a deep breath. Put down the keyboard. Go get a drink.

So two final requests: stop throwing rocks at folks who ought to be your friends at least some of the time, and if someone calls you a name or beats you up a bit - good grief, grow a thicker skin. Politics ain't beanbag.

Posted in McCain | Miscellanea | Obama | redstate — Comments (60)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 9:59am on Apr. 16, 2008 Bitter is *not* the issue

He does NOT deserve a pass

By krempasky

For more than a week, the controversy surrounding Barack Obama's comments to a weathy group of San Franciscans (possibly the wealthiest, according to Geraghty) has continued. And while, hey - it's great to see controversy on the other guy's side of the field, the real tragedy is how the frame of those comments has been shifted by the coverage.

"Bitter" is terribly easy shorthand to describe the comments. So easy, it's what the media, the Clintons, even some Republicans have focused on. But, let's be clear: bitterness is not the issue. Obama's characterization of religion as a crutch is many times more offensive. Even to me, a lousy Catholic with roots in Western PA.

This isn't about rust belt voters being cranky, frustrated, "feeling left out" or any such garbage. This is about the Great Hope Candidate describing the most important things in people's lives as something disordered, something to flee towards BECAUSE they drew the short NAFTA straw. [insert inappropriate profanity-laden rant] Oh, and if we could only get better jobs and subsidized healthcare, they wouldn't need to rely on such nonsense...

This guy isn't MLK, he's not Ghandi, he's not even RFK. He's McGovern with a better stump speech. And while Hillary isn't qualified to make that case - let's hope Senator McCain is the man to do it.

Posted in 2008 | Obama — Comments (10)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 11:08am on Feb. 27, 2008 Myron Cope, RIP (Double Yoy)

By krempasky

Pittsburgh has lost of its favorite sons.

Posted at 3:12pm on Feb. 15, 2008 As if I could blog any less...

By krempasky

I know, I know...I'm terrible at keeping up with the whole blog thing..but hey, now that I'm planning a wedding being allowed to observe a wedding being planned, that's a much better excuse.

Posted at 2:57pm on Feb. 7, 2008 My $201 for John McCain - where's yours?

It's February 7th. Get it done.

By krempasky

John McCain was not my first choice, but today, on February 7th - he is my best choice. In the past few years, I've hard harsh words for Senator McCain. But today, he is my nominee for President of the United States. And from now on, I will not be anymore critical than Mitt Romney, who ended his campaign a few hours ago with class far too rare in this campaign to date.

I just donated $201 to the McCain for President campaign - not just to support him, but to go on record as such. It's my first donation to a presidential candidate this cycle, and certainly my first ever to Senator McCain. Will you?

In the coming months, it's my responsibility to do my part to stop HilObama. The stakes are too high. What will you do? Will you put a chip on the table? Or two hundred and one of them, even?

Get it done.

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Posted at 2:30pm on Jan. 29, 2008 On Memory Holes and Earpieces

By krempasky

Just an FYI - the RS diary referenced at AmericaBlog here was deleted by the author - not by anyone here at the site, and certainly not anyone connected to a campaign. In short, best we can tell - the accusation made by the diarist prompted the organizer of the event to call, "BS" - and the diarist spiked the whole thing.

Posted at 11:18am on Jan. 25, 2008 SpeechNow vs. FEC

Can we bar lawyers from the FEC? Please?

By krempasky

Odds are, you've not been following the *other* story at the Federal Election Commission (the primary one being the fact that thanks to Democratic incompetence in the Senate, the FEC doesn't have a quorum. Alas) - the direct challenge to speech limits being driven by SpeechNow.org.

But now they've got some good news: the FEC has released a draft opinion (.pdf) as well as a dissent authored by FEC Chairman Dave Mason (.pdf) (as an aside, the only non-lawyer on the Commission, I believe)

On one hand, Mason's excellent dissent would make an excellent approach to regulation, but even if the FEC weren't crippled by Harry Reid, Barack Obama, and company - I'd have a hard time seeing 4 votes for it.

On the other hand - the draft from the General Counsel may well serve SpeechNow even better. As Bob Bauer puts it,

"Having this draft can’t but help SpeechNow at the next stage in this fight. Apart from having dutifully checked with the agency, the organization can show, further, that the agency has little to say of any interest on the subject but confines itself to defending its statutory turf. The draft gives no sense of the stakes of this confrontation: all of the passion, all of the intellectual energy, is found on the other side, where SpeechNow is found. "

The notion that the support and defense of speech in all its forms (nevermind the most precious speech of all, that driving our politics) should have the upper hand is a very welcome thing indeed.

Posted in Archived | FEC | SpeechNow — Comments (0)/ Email this page » / Read More »