Sunday, March 21, 2010
The GOP 3 Year Pledge
Posted by: Duane R. Patterson at 10:45 PM

Like you, I watched with disgust and dismay as the Democrats in the House of Representatives joined hands, jumped off the cliff, and saddled the next several generations of Americans with trillions of dollars of new debt, and ensured that unless defeated in court, or defunded by future Congresses, the American health care system, the greatest such system in the world, will never again be as great as it is today.

Like you, I am shaking with anger that the Democratic Party did not listen to their constituents. In fact, Democratic leadership was defiant enough this morning, they stuck their collective thumb in the eye of the protesters gathered at the Capitol, walking the gauntlet from the Cannon office building to the House of Representatives as though the Obamacare vote is some modern day civil rights march. Make no mistake about it. For the last 15 months, the health care debate has never been about rights, it has never been about coverage, and it has never been about reducing cost. Obamacare is solely about the government’s acquisition of power, and to exercise control over a facet of life in which every American will have to participate sooner or later.

So where do we go from here? First, I want to recognize and thank the Democrats who did not vote for this monstrosity. But in my book, they are still part of the problem. From this day forward, I will not be convinced that there is such a thing as a moderate Democrat. Regardless of how they may have voted today, all of these Democrats voted in their own caucus to elect Nancy Pelosi as Speaker. They voted to make Steny Hoyer the Majority Leader. They chose to put Louise “Deem-‘N-Pass” Slaughter in as chair of the House Rules Committee. They stood by Charles Rangel as chair of Ways And Means until ethical lapses became so glaring, Rangel had to step down. In short, the reason the vote took place today is because the so-called moderate Democrats put the leadership in place to make it so.

There was a lot of damage done to the Republic today, but that damage can be minimized or undone if the activism of the American people continues. Therefore,

I pledge that for the next three years, ending on March 20, 2013, I will spend at least part of my day, six days a week, working to replace Democrats at all levels of state and federal government with Republicans.

I will support the Republican nominee, regardless of my preference in the primary, in all of the House, Senate, and statewide campaigns in 2010. I will also work to elect the Republican presidential nominee, regardless of my primary preference, in 2012. I will not make the mistake again of allowing my apathy lead to a second term of Barack Obama.

I will not be deterred if the Republican Party isn’t unanimous on every issue in the next three years. I understand there will be disappointments in the months and years ahead, probably several of them. But those disappointments pale in comparison to the arrogance and recklessness shown by the Democratic Party.

I will contact my county Republican headquarters, and ask how I can best help this fall. I will stay in touch with them right through the 2012 presidential campaign. I will walk precincts, make phone calls, e-mail, use social media, whatever it takes to remove the Democrats from the halls of power.

I will resist the temptation of the third party movement, and instead encourage the Tea Party activists and independents to give the Republicans one more chance at leadership.

I will work to bring a Republican governor and Republican legislatures in my state. Redistricting will begin next year after the results of the Census, and Republicans drawing the new Congressional lines will make regaining power easier.

I will especially take an active interest in state attorney general races, like John Eastman in California, www.eastmanforag.com, as it will be up to the state AG’s to engage in the legal battle on which Obamacare will next have to be fought.

I will make an effort to win back the 18-25 year olds who are now feeling buyer’s remorse at having voted for hope and change in 2008. They are disillusioned with what they’ve seen, they’re now open to reason, and I will more actively engage with this generation to convince them that their home should be in the Republican Party.

My pledge to the Republican party is a three year pledge with a firm expiration date. If enough Americans take the pledge, on March 20, 2013, we will find ourselves with a Republican-controlled House and Senate, a Republican in the White House, and more Republicans controlling the state houses. By that time, we will be able to judge whether the Republicans have learned from the Democrats’ mistakes, or merely repeated them.

If the Republicans employ the principles they espouse now in the minority – limited government, reduced government spending, easing the tax and regulatory burden that is stifling business and job growth, and a robust foreign policy based on strength, not weakness, the country will be better off with them in leadership. But may God have mercy on their souls if they take the trust the American people have invested in them for the next three years and become just as corrupt, power hungry and deaf to the will of the American people as the Democrats.

I urge you to join me in this pledge.

Sunday, March 21, 2010
What To Do Next
Posted by: Hugh Hewitt at 11:00 PM

Even as the votes are cast, opponents of Obamacare and the serial assaults on the Constitution it embodies both in the substance of its provisions and the methods used to advance it have to realize that the only solution is repeal, and the only path to repeal is a GOP majority in the House.

If you are genuinely angry or afraid or both, then mark today with the first of many contributions to the Republican National Congressional Committee, which has been transforming itself into an effective and very focused organization in the last two months. It is time to give up any lingering resentment over the squandering of the GOP majorities, and to focus on the future. Start with a contribution symbolic of the commitment to the repeal of the deals today, and do it online here.

From the NRCC I'd like to see a target list of Democrats, ranked in tiers of ten races, from "must vulnerable" to "most secure" based on the voting history and present polling data on the district. The new activists don't want to sit on their hands until the fall, but want to start organizing and focusing their efforts now. Congressional Democrats have gone all in for the president's radical agenda, and the NRCC ought to recognize the desire of the newly activated and the re-energized to do more than send a check though those checks matter. Just point to November's targets, and a great deal of preparatory work will get done between now and the emergence of nominees.

Monday, March 22, 2010
What To Do Next, Part 2
Posted by: Hugh Hewitt at 9:15 AM

My Washington Examiner column this morning picks up on the points of the post below: The National Republican Congressional Committee is the best place to register your disgust with the substance and the process of Obamacare.

You can contribute to the NRCC online here.

The key to what I hope will be the NRCC's accountability project will be the evaluation of Democratic incumbents on the basis of their electoral vulnerability and their votes on five key issues:

1. Did the incumbent vote for Nancy Pelosi for House speaker?
2. Did the incumbent vote for the "stimulus" package?
3. Did the incumbent vote for "cap-and-tax"?
4. Did the incumbent vote for Obamacare?
5. Did the incumbent vote to protect the assault on the Constitution known as the "deem scheme" or "Slaughter Solution" when it was first challenged March 18 by Rep. Parker Griffith?

Every Congressional campaign across the country ought to be driven by the incumbent's voting record on these issues. Three strikes and you're out is a great measurement tool, though even one vote for Nancy Pelosi ought to be enough to decide the issue for any rational voter.

What ought to follow the identification of the November target list of up to 75 House Democrats is the self-organization of activist communities devoted to the retirement of those Pelosi-supporters. GOP nominees won't emerge in many of those districts for months yet, but activist communities can organize online and prepare the groundwork now for the fall campaign.

The repeal of this awful deal will only occur with a Republican majority in the House. Conservatives who sniff at party politics, libertarians and other third party attention grabbers, even Tea Party activists who like to denounce both parties are now confronted with the hard fact that every minute not spent working to elect a GOP majority is an investment in making Obamacare permanent. Voters have only two choices: the forward creep of socialized medicine or a GOP majority.

Seniors especially have to realize that the massive cuts of Medicare are now in rolling out.
The only way to sop the ravaging of Medicare is the repeal of the deal, and the only way to do that is via a GOP majority.

The cost of this clarity has been extraordinarily high, but the repeal of Obamcare and the ouster of Pelosi from the Speaker's chair and the forced retirement of Harry Reid and a bunch of other Democratic senators with him will make November's vote a historic one.

To which I am adding Zack Space of Ohio on the basis of his support for the "Slaughter solution."
This may get refined over the next week or so, but activism and candidate support should be limited to opponents of someone on this list.

See updates at Hugh Hewitt's Blog

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