MASON CONSERVATIVE

Happy Thanksgiving

I'll be back on monday, heading up to Buffalo to visit some fam.  In the meantime, enjoy one of the baddest-ass songs out there.  "Prayer" by Disturbed:

The Shield: Series Finale

Anyone who knows me knows that I am addicted to any cop/mob tv  show/movie.  So last night was the series finale of the best cop drama ever on television:  The Shield.  

And I must say, it was perhaps the best last episode of a show I've ever seen.

• Vic gets away . . . but looses everything
• Acevedo fulfills his destiny
• Shane's total destruction
• Ronnie pays the price for blind loyalty
• Dutch and Claudette stand vindicated

What was missing in the finales for shows like The Sopranos and Seinfeld was here.  Closure.  Satisfaction.  The idea that you have seen a full story from beginning to end.  Questions remain of course, like just where was Vic going when he left his office with a pistol tucked in his belt?

Overall, the star of the show - for me, he always has been - is Walton Goggins as Shane Vendrell.  The end of his character, the sadism of what he did to his family and himself yet somehow you believed that he was partially justified.  His acting was so good, you could see and feel his anguish and you were sort of wondering if he would do it but thinking, "nah, he couldn't."  I have never been truly shocked by a television, totally sucked in and literally had my breath taken away from me.  But with Shane and the way it ended for him . . . unbelievable.

Another fabulous performer is CCH Pounder, who played Det. Claudette Wymms.  Through the entire series, every character had some evil in it, every character was a shade of gray.  There was a struggle inside, a willingness to cross the line . . . even Dutch.  But Claudette managed to always be honest, always the good guy.  Swirling in slime, deciet, and betrayal . . . from Acevedo to Mackey to Shane to Kavanaugh . . . she was always the voice of the true cop, of the law.  Her performance was mesmorizing . . . her dogged pursuit of Vic and Shane, her loyalty to Dutch . . . it was brilliant.

I'm only sad that the show is over.

Thank god for Sons of Anarchy.

I'm Sticking With Jeff Frederick

And I don't say that in a vacuum either.  I fully understand that there were serious problems between RPV and the McCain Campaign, I fully understand that RPV is about four years behind the DPV in terms of organization, technology, and message.  It has been very hard dealing with the fact that a Democrat won Virginia's 13 electoral votes.  But in the end, a presidential campaign is more about the candidate than a state party machinery.  It helps to have a better state organization, but there are a lot of Bush voters who broke for Obama this year and Jeff Frederick had nothing to with that.  He was not responsible for McCain's awkward lurches from Goldwaterian conservative to pragmatic centrist over and over.  He was not responsible for McCain's deep mishandling of the economic downturn.

Many are throwing Jeff's words back in his face when he talked about John Hager's minimum tenure and how little he accomplished as Chairman.  I say its apples and oranges.  Hager oversaw a state election, over which he carries a lot of influence in terms of organization, candidate recruitment, money allocation, and fundraising in general.  Jeff hasn't had that run yet.  This year will be his test, 2009.  I will withhold judgement until then.

As is, I firmly support Jeff and am proud of my vote to put him in his job.  Personally, with the people that are criticizing him, it makes me want to support him even more.  Lobbyists and the "hey lets me more like Democrats" crowd are not the people I want in charge of the state party.

Katon Dawson - Mark Sanford's Stalking Horse

Its never too early to start thinking about 2012, especially if you are planning on running.  I have no doubt that South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford will be throwing his hat in the ring, something that I would encourage.  Governor Sanford has been an outstanding governor a conservative leader.  Which makes the move of South Carolina GOP Chairman Katon Dawson's entry in the race for GOP Chairman all the more interesting.  Should Dawson be successful, it could be the first major victory for Sanford - placing an instate ally and friend atop the GOP.  Sanford's term ends in two years, leaving him two full and free years to run.  

Should be fun to watch.

VA-5: Should Virgil Goode Get A Second Chance?

It seems that, barring a recount miracle, Virgil Goode has lost his race for reelection.  That brings us to the question, should Goode get another shot at a seat that should be safe R territory?  Its not that Goode isn't a great conservative - he is - but he seems to have an ability to piss everyone off.  How did he lose this race?

Project NOVA Update

I wrote before about the need for the Republican Party of Virginia to take a stand in 2009 and field strong candidates in five specific Northern Virginia House of Delegate districts.  First of all, I have to amend this to make is six, I forgot about Del. Steve Shannon's district.  So we have six districts to look at- 32, 35, 37, 41, 51, and 67

Up until new, we have had two candidates step up and take these guys on so far.  But this past week Fairfax County GOP Chairman Jim Hyland resigned from his office so he could also step forward again and run in Shannon's now open 35th district.  We are half-way home!  

32nd:  David Poisson

35th:  Steve Shannon - Jim Hyland

37th:  David Bulova

41st:  Dave Marsden - Brett Coffee

51st:  Paul Nichols

67th:  Chuck Caputo - Jim LeMunyon

Three to go.  I would like to see Lynn Chapman give Poisson another run, he did very well only losing by just over 1,000 votes.  As for Bulova, my favorite candidate would be Steve Stombres who is impressive, experienced in legislative affairs, and put together an impressive camapaign for city council.  Best of all, he won't shy away from partisanship like other candidates in the city might.  In the 51st, the logical choice is Julie Lucas who kept a high profile in 2008 running the Team Sarah outfit in Virginia.  

Never again should be not run candidates for the sake of keeping turnout low for other races.  Its foolish.  Its these races that will build the local grassroots that will eventually meld together into a statewide coalition to put this state back in the red.

The Importance Of Bob McDonnell

In what was otherwise a completely ridiculous list (No Palin?  No Steele?  No Hensarling?  No DeMint?), Chris Cillizza's has nailed it when he put Bob McDonnell No. 5 on the list.  And its not because McDonnell has any sort of national name, but because of what this governor's race means in 2009.  Bob McDonnell is our last vanguard, and if he fails we have to sit around for three long years and stew on the fact we have all our three statewides with a D after their name.

5. Bob McDonnell: McDonnell, Virginia's attorney general, will be the Republican standard-bearer in the Commonwealth's gubernatorial race in 2009. Off-year statewide elections are always looked to by the two parties as litmus tests for how each side is doing, and the fact that this campaign will take place in the purple state of Virginia makes McDonnell all the more important. If he wins, it will be seen as a sign that the Republican party is alive and well and living in Virginia. If he loses, he'll join the Jerry Kilgore Hall of Fame.

This hinges on a lot of things.  First of all, the McDonnell campaign must adapt to the new math of Virginia.  What has happened statewide since 2001 is Republicans believing that Virginia is a Republican state.  Folks, its just not.  Its a 48-48 state, with 2% up for grabs, and the McDonnell campaign needs to operate with the 2008 math, not the 2000 math.  We are the underdog and we need to build a brand new organization from the ground up.  That means in the next six months McDonnell needs to use his money and time to rebuild a brand new Republican organization.  The old rules are off, so McDonnell needs to create new ones.  I think that McDonnell has the skill and the team to make this happen.  I have heard and seen assurances that they understand what they are up against.

The past elections have been a rewind of the previous.  In both 1993 and 1997, our candidates had the pulse of the Commonwealth, and addressed those concerns by articulating conservative message that applied to those concerns.  Its really not that hard.  But in 2001, 2005, and again in 2006 our statewide candidates assumed they would win based on early polling and played prevent defense.  When the hardworking Democrat candidates caught up to them, they panicked and made stupid and panicky decisions that lose us elections.  There was never a full game plan, a beginning to end strategy that both Warner and Kaine had.  It was hang on for dear life until we cross the finish line.  Luckily, McDonnell has the pleasure of having those campaigns to look back on.  

Find a clear message that resonates and hammer away.  McDonnell has six months to find and hone it.

But its not totally on him.  We as activists at the grassroots level must help him.  We too have gotten a bit spoiled, waiting around for a certain candidate just to our liking to emerge or we won't do much.  But McDonnell is our guy now, and its up to the activists to get out and work for him.

The Swan Song

Barack Obama's election seemed to indicate the era of the Clintons was over.  Now that Hilary Clinton has accepted the post of Secretary of State, its clear that she knows she will never be president.  Being in the US Senate was simply a means to an end, and with that end now gone there is no reason to go on.

The Secretary of State can be a powerful position, but it has not been in a long time.  Its where elder statesmen go to die, with the possible exception of Condilezza Rice.  But America's last great secretary was George Schultz, and that was a long time ago.  Its become harder and harder because diplomacy now flows out of the White House and, really, the defense department.  But the most powerful everyday practitioner of foreign policy is the national security advisor, and nobody should know that more than Clinton, because her husband's presidency was perhaps the epitome of White House-run foreign policy.  

I'm not sure what Hilary Clinton hopes to gain here?  Her foreign policy experience is limited to most auxilary roles in her husbands administration and her Senate tenure.  She's a unity candidate, like they use to do back before the turn of the century when secretary of state went to a party elder who usually had run for the presidency a couple times ( see James Blaine, Thomas Bayard, and John Sherman).  But in the end, it spells the Clinton's total surrender of the Democrat Party to Barack Obama.  And I suppose it was her only move.  Obama's overwhelming coattails and his electoral victory were enough to stamp him the unquestioned leader.  There will be no "wings" of the party any more.  Hilary Clinton will serve as Secretary of State for four years, she will travel the world, work on treaties and peace negotiations, and she will do her best to advise the president.  But she will be working for his policy, not hers.  The real power will flow through the White House and the Senate Foreign Relations committee.

My prediction?  American Foreign policy will be run by Barack Obama, Joe Biden, James Jones, and John Kerry.  Hilary will get a seat at the table, but in the end will become Obama's chief international spokeswomen.  

Is Dan Lungren The Answer?

A long time conservative congresman and former California Attorney General, is Rep. Dan Lungren (R-CA) the man that should replace the amiable yet hapless John Boehner as House minority leader?  Why is it that this party keeps reelecting leadership that clearly isn't working?  Blunt and Putnam saw the writing on the wall, why doesn't Boehner?  

America, Meet Your NEW White House Counsel

His name is Greg Craig, and here is the sterling record that recomends his to be the executive branch's top lawyer:

In the early 1980s, [Craig] was an attorney for John Hinckley, the man who shot President Reagan and three others. Craig helped put together an insanity defense that led to Hinckley’s acquittal. Nine years later, he advised Ted Kennedy in the Palm Beach rape case involving the senator and his nephew, William Kennedy Smith. ...

Craig orchestrated a 1984 [Senate] hearing for Kennedy on alleged human-rights abuses committed by Nicaragua’s rebels, the Contras. He worked with groups closely tied to the Sandinista regime to find witnesses for the forum, which led to a round of anti-contra news coverage in the U.S. Soon afterward, however, Joshua Muravchik, currently of the American Enterprise Institute, exposed a fraud: The most compelling witnesses — three Miskito Indians — had been served up by the Sandinistas.

And a fourth participant, Father Alfredo Gundrum, an American priest living in Nicaragua, had been asked to play the role of honest broker — to place the testimony “into some kind of perspective,” as Kennedy put it. Gundrum, described as “totally apolitical” in background material distributed by Kennedy’s staff, told of how the Contras launched vicious raids on Indian villages “almost every day.” Yet Gundrum had been the subject of a San Francisco newspaper article just one month before the hearing. He was photographed standing before his church with a Soviet-made rifle in his hands and quoted as saying, “To me it was a day of grace the day the Sandinistas took over, and I really mean it.

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Thats hope and change, friends!