MASON CONSERVATIVE

"But he was a mediocre senator . . ."

Corey Stewart pulls no punches when talking about George Allen's record as a senator today on NewsChannel 8.  Stewart is banking on what I've been talking about for awhile now, that Allen's record as a senator wasn't outstanding and if had been he would have been reelected.  People are so mad about the Maccaca nonsense that they forgot that there were very real vulnerabilities for Allen under the surface and Maccaca was just a moment that allowed people to reevaluate him.  2010 proved there is new blood rising in the party and there is no reason to turn back to the years that cost us power so soon after we got it back.

UPDATE:  Stewart isn't backing off his assertion of Allen even after Bob McDonnell (sort of) leapt to Allen's defense.  I mean, the quote from McDonnell is kind of funny because in defending Allen it almost proves Corey's point:

I served with him in the legislature when he was governor. He was the most dynamic governor of the modern age. I think he was an exceptional governor. He was a very good senator."

This is basically what Stewart was saying anyways . . . great governor, "meh" senator.  Exceptional versus good.  I mean, even Allen seems to assert this too.  Ever since he lost, he's insisted on being called Gov. Allen instead of Sen. Allen, as if he wanted people to remember him as the former and not the latter.  Anyways, here is what Stewart said today after the Post contacted him about McDonnell's comment:

"They're old friends,'' Stewart said. "George Allen has a lot of old friends. It's not Bob McDonnell who chooses the next senator from Virginia. It's the electorate. ... And they have already decided Allen had a mediocre term as senator. He needs to move on."

Look, I know a lot of people are going to be put off by this, but it reminds me of what Keith Fimian had to do when Pat Herrity jumped in.  Everyone and their moms who were elected officials immediatly supported Pat, which is fine.  But don't be surprised when the other person in that race fights back and throws some elbows.  They have too.  I can already see certain folks out there bemoaning Stewart for this comment against McDonnell when he's essentially right.  The last time George Allen was a US senator, he was fired from that job.  But if he is going to run, and I think he is, he needs to assert himself and not let everyone pile on and take all of his oxygen.  He has to fight, becasue in as much as the fix can be in in this race, it is.  The reason plainly that Bob Marshall supports a primary this time around was because he was convinced if he ran they would steal it from him.  Most people who think they run the Republican Party here want George Allen to be the nominee.  So Stewart needs to fight those off and I think he is. 

Spike Williams Kick Off Set For Jan.29th

I take notice when a candidate gets both Pat Herrity and Corey Stewart.  I won't lie and say I haven't been apart of some of the divisios in the local party, but I chose a side and what's done is done.  But now we can see what we need to move forward and I think Spike Williams is an excellent candidate and I hope to hell he stays in the 33rd Senate district.  Its mostly Loudoun County but I just don't see how Dick Black or Patricia Phillips beats Mark Herring.  I think under perfect circumstances Black can, but Herring is a strong incumbent with statewide ambitions.  I'm not endorsing anyone yet because the senate district lines have yet to be drawn but Spike is a great candidate for wherever he ends up. 

Here are the details.

Think About This When They Say Tea Party Is All White

So much for the racist right-wing tea partiers that hate minorities.

Overall, the clear majority of minorities in Congress are Democrats. But the numbers above reflect an inconvenient reality that, even with their much more diverse caucus, Democrats face similar challenges as Republicans in recruiting, nominating and electing minority candidates to statewide office and in suburban and rural districts that are majority-white. The vast majority of Congressional Black Caucus and Congressional Hispanic Caucus members hail from urban districts where it doesn't require a crossover vote to win, or represent gerrymandered seats designed to elect a minority member of Congress. They are markedly more liberal than the average Democrat, no less the average voter, making it more difficult for them to successfully mount a statewide campaign.

Its interesting to compare this with the Democrats, who used federally enforced majority minority districts to build diversity in their caucus.  How many actual minority Democrats represent diverse districts that includes all races and creeds?  That would be seven, outlined in the article.  The interesting point is that when the GOP does recruit minority candidates they move up faster in leadership because the party has been tagged with the old white label and is keenly aware its need to change that.  And what is also interesting is that minority Republican candidates tend to be very conservative as well . . . Labrador won his primary in Idaho moving to the right, Scott did as well, Rubio of course, and you can't get more right wing than Allen West.  The new governors are outsider-conservatives like Nikki Haley and Susana Martinez. 

So while there is a liberal perception being forced on us that the Tea Party is just an angry mob of white people angry at a black president, the reality is much different.  While some think the Tea Party is a dumbing down of America, its quite the opposite.  While the haters want to define the Tea Party with Christine O'Donnell, its true stars are people like Marco Rubio and Rand Paul - keen and thoughtful men who are probably smarter than the professorial president that sits above us all dictating what we can do with our own money and lives. 

Tea Party candidates will win when they run like Rubio and Haley and Paul, conservatives who are thoughtful of government's rightful place in our lives.  The bombast of the Palins, O'Donnells, and Angles are a part of it; but the true Tea Party candidates are smart men and women, and its an ideolog that has appealed to minorities more than any other form of Republicanism.

The Hill Outlines VA-SEN 2012

In bullet points:

• Democrats are pissed Jim Webb can't make his mind up
• Part of Jim Webb's appeal is that he doesn't glad-hand like other pols
• If not Webb, it could be Tim Kaine (who doesn't want to run) or Tom Perriello (who could be dangerous).
• Allen, by getting a primary, is the GOP favorite
• They don't think Marshall or Stewart will do much
• Tom Davis thinks a primary isn't a slam dunk for Allen, saying anything can happen
• They then speculate that Davis will run.

The Fix Looks At GOP 2012

I pretty much agree with every word of this.

Choosing from that bunch, give me Haley Barbour!

What I'm Thankful For

It makes a man walk a little taller when he knows a women loves him and he loves her.  To have found that kind of connection makes you inherently happier, makes things that bothered you before slide off your back now.  Its been a year and two months since I began dating the women who in a short three more months will be my wife.  Ever since she entered my life everything has gotten better, both in work and in personal.  My outlook on life, my hopes and dreams, they don't seem so distant or unreasonable any more.  So while a lot of good things happened this year across the board for me - promotion at work, new friends, Republican wins - none of it means anything without haivng someone to share it with, even when she does agree with my politics!  I love Jessica Lea Laird more than anything in the world and I'm thankful every day she's in my life and she said yes when I got down on my knee on her front porch last January. 

Thought Of The Day On The Primary

It does NOT help George Allen the way the conventional media is portraying it.  First of all, the insiders run convnetions.  What is confusing is that the insiders in Virginia are all very conservative.  Allen has these guys locked up from the old days, but the Tea Party are relatively new activits with no loyalty to Allen or any of these old Republican bulls in State Central.  I think Allen would have run away with a convention because the confusing and insider process of becoming a delegate would help him.  Remember, what will bring Allen down isn't conservaitve or liberal, its a generational dynamic.  Many of us feel he had his time has come and gone and he brings wtith him too much bagage.  In addition, I have a hard time believing Allen is the agent of what the Tea Party has been talking about.

Look at the way Tea Party candidates like Angle, Rubio, Buck, O'Donnell, and others won.  It was by primary!  A primary enables an insurgent candidate to rally new voters in a way a convnetion simply doesn't.  A convnetion is good for a conservative insider against a moderate.  But for a true insurgency?  No.  A primary is not controllable by the party apperatus.  Ask Pat Herrity. 

This is good news for us that want to see a new candidate in 2012 and not a retread, who has baggage, and lost already.  Allen is a conservative, that's not hte issue, but do we go with a rerun?  The man voted for most of the Bush Agenda that put Republicans in many of the problems we just got ourselves out of.  Why on earth would we take such a giant step backwards after all the work moving forward with our new candidates?  The primary is better suited to make sure that doesn't happen.

The Tea Party's Founding Father

Just picked up "Lion of Liberty: Patrick Henry and the Call to a New Nation" by Harlow Giles Unger.  Haven't gotten that far into it, but I must say that Patrick Henry is more and more interesting to me these days, and seemingly more relevent.  He thundered for personal liberty, against overreaching government, and went so far as to take to the hustings and campaign against the Constitution because it lacked a bill of rights.  He was a fearless fighter for limited government and the frontier liberty of the western Virginia hills he came from.  Nothing historical translates 100%, but a modern reexamination of Henry is more provocative given the movement of many in this country that are essentially espousing much of the same rhetoric now. 

Bill Bolling and Bob Marshall Come Out Against Convention Fees

Not only is Bolling against the fees, which would arguably help him more than anyone, but he has come out in favor of a statewide primary for the 2012 US Senate nominations.  Bob Marshall, to my initial shock but then not so much once I remembered he's a terrible fundraiser, also sent an extensive email outlining his views on the fees and how they are not just wrong put potentially unconstitutional and even referred to them as a poll tax.  I wouldn't argue against it.  While I normally follow Cuccinelli lock step, on this issue he's dead wrong.  One of the main arguments for a convnetion is that its cheaper, but to charge folks $50 just to vote for a primary candidate doesn't seem to cheaper to me and really is a poll tax. CORRECTION:  The Cuccinelli camp informed me that perhaps Mr. Marshall is not quite accurate in what he is portraying here.  What they want to do is authorize state central to charge up too $50 per delegate.  Its not a mandatory charge, but instead what they want is a rule allowing state central to do this if they so choose.  And state central is elected by the grassroots so they will have to answer for it if they do do it.  I was under the impression that the $50 fee would be fixed on delegates no matter what.  This would put the onus on state central to decide how to pay for a convention if they chose to have one.  Apparently last years put RPV in the red by tens of thousands of dollars. 

However, I still maintain that conventions aren't the right way to nominate candidates and that any sort of fee that whoever decides to charge will hurt the party because its basically making them, or a campaign, spend money to vote for their candidate.  I don't agree with it at all.  But I did want to make sure that I got accurately exactly what they were asking for.

Below is Marshall's extensive letter:

Palin's World

An unconventional candidate with an unconventional organization.  Whether it can work, who knows, but this is a good look inside the whirlwind Palin operation.