I should have gone away these few days of the CPAC conference in a deep sea diving bell. CPAC has been a disappointing spectacle to watch from afar, in more than one way.
I can’t tell you what it’s done for others, but for me it’s been a real downer, notwithstanding a few good speeches. I didn’t feel this way last year; maybe I have a lower tolerance level now for watching the D.C. prima donnas in action.
Anne’s on the scene, so I’ll be interested to get her take, but to me it looks like mostly the same clique of DC establishment people feting themselves for being in the club.
For now, I’ll give you Pat Caddell, via Michael Patrick Leahy, Caddell Unloads on ‘Racketeering’ GOP Consultants:
“I blame the donors who allow themselves to be played for marks. I blame the people in the grassroots for allowing themselves to be played for suckers….It’s time to stop being marks. It’s time to stop being suckers. It’s time for you people to get real,” he told the audience that included two top Republican consultants.
Caddell stole the show as a panelist in the breakout session titled “Should We Shoot All the Consultants Now?” He spoke with a fire and passion that electrified the room. When the session began the large room was half filled, but as word spread of the fireworks going on inside, the audience streamed in. By the end, it was standing room only….
“When you have the Chief of Staff of the Republican National Committee and the political director of the Romney campaign, and their two companies get $150 million at the end of the campaign for the ‘fantastic’ get-out-the-vote program…some of this borders on RICO [the 1970 Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act] violations,” Caddell told the crowd. “It’s all self dealing going on. I think it works on the RICO thing. They’re in the business of lining their pockets.”
“The Republican Party,” Caddell continued, “is in the grips of what I call the CLEC–the consultant, lobbyist, and establishment complex.” Caddell described CLEC as a self serving interconnected network of individuals and organizations interested in preserving their own power far more than they’re interested in winning elections….
Caddell predicted that the Republican Party, unless it became the anti-establishment, anti-Washington party, would become extinct, like the 19th century Whig Party. “These people [in the consulting-lobbying-establishment complex] are doing business for themselves. They are a part of the Washington establishment. These people don’t want to have change.”
The 2010 takeover of Congress by the Republicans, Caddell said, “was not engineered by the Washington Republican establishment. They [the establishment] then took that victory and threw it away.”
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The ever increasing sharia compliance is what keeps me disinterested in CPAC.
Rush has been all over the Caddell speech this morning.
This needs to be CAREFULLY analyzed, and taken to heart for all the merit in it.
Especially the part about how the Dems play for the jugular and we wimp out.
I say we give as good as we get and not worry about the argument that we’re “better than they are” manners wise–in a gunfight, second place is not where I want to be!
Responding in kind is not descending to their level. It’s returning fire.
Descending to their level is pushing the progressive agenda and regulating everyday life.
Conservatives have always been tough-minded warriors who are in it to win it, but Republicans just want to be junior partners in the power-sharing agreement of the ruling class. Our problems on the Right are due to complacency just as often as they are due as cowardice.
Same argument as before.
I AM a jugular cutter.
I will never lie. I will never Bork anyone. I will not be them.
It seems the rebel Democrats may be the best friends conservatives have. 🙂
How about a coalition building panel? Or is that the worst idea ever? I for one find it mind boggling that people seem to act as if there is no common interest between “left” and “right”. That’s a stupid myth that should be put down permanently
Caddell pretty much nailed it.
The only statement he made that baffled me was in response to a question about why he, a Democrat, would be offering advice to Republicans. His answer was that he wasn’t a fan of Obama.
Well, what about Pelosi and Reid, is he a fan of theirs?
If you are “not a fan of Obama”, then why are you still a Democrat? The radical left is fully in control of the Democrat agenda. If you are not on board with them, why are you a Democrat?
Why was Bob Novak?
“Nailed it” … close but no cigar.
Caddell only got as far as the first layer.
All of DC is in it for themselves, not for the country.
And it’s bipartisan.
Unfortunately, Republicans often only see Democrats acting this way, but it’s both parties and all parties, including the Communists.
Given Caddell’s critique of the GOP he may not want to join a party that is this inept.
Let’s face it. The GOP wins presidential elections when the Democrats nominate doofuses who don’t resonate with the general populace, but when they find people like Clinton or Obama who can connect the Republican elite (consultants)have no clue what to do except to lose gracefully.
Public Servants not a professional political class
It’s a repulsive beast this establishment
The Republican party was formed in the mid 1800’s for the express purpose of ending slavery (and a fat lot of thanks they get from certain people IYKWIMAITTYD). It’s time we thanked them for their good work and moved on.
“To me it looks like mostly the same clique of DC establishment people feting themselves for being in the club.”
Nailed it, Professor. Bang on!
I think Caddell is wedging the door open for action. Good on ‘im!
i think someone may be a bit miffed that Ace of Spades HQ got “Blog of the Year”…
if you want, Professor Jacobson, i can put in a word with Ace to see if he’ll take you on as a cob-loger, and then you too can be a moron. %-)
Hey, Mitt! I didn’t know you frequented Legal Insurrection! Glad you lost!
As a conservative web design/internet marketing junkie I knew the Romney campaign was in trouble when my polite message (pointing out that I was receiving many multiples of the same email) was replied to with a generic form letter simply stating that I would be removed from the list entirely.
Only problem is that I wasn’t removed, and I also wasn’t the only one who experienced this, leading me to believe these ‘consultants’ were trying to pump up their numbers (fake it before you make it, perhaps) or just had no clue how their system worked.
No longer a mark or a sucker, I told the caller from Rubio’s newly formed (?) Victory Fund yesterday NO, No, NO, I will not give another dime to representatives of the GOP who refuse to talk about — much less even be serious about — repealing the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, the sole purpose of which is to infest our nation with third worlder parasites and displace the historic American nation’s people. The caller had the gaul to declare that they need the hispanic vote; what he didn’t realize was that he was also declaring that the base could go suck lemons. The Republican Party is stupid enough to believe they can sell out conservatives and conservative principles and pander to a population whose number one interest in the US is to loot American’s of their wealth and stick it to the white man, for whom they bear a deep resentment. Culture matters, and America’s is being deliberately sabotaged.
So you’re saying that America is a white nation and that hispanics have no place in the conservative/libertarian movement?
Isn’t that basically Obama’s argument?
I’m saying that the nation which was founded by white Europeans is being displaced — by design. Get beyond the political rhetoric and look at the facts.
The NE. Might have been settled by North East Europeans but the SE & South &. West were by the Spanish & those other beings THE. FRENCH.
Founding & settling are 2 words – some land was conquered & some bought. Some were re conquered after trying to get away.
Our system of government was founded largely by white Europeans but our country was settled by religious refugees, convicts, slaves, indentured servants, and laborers from around the world. Our shared “culture” is one of freedom.
Amen.
What is important is not the ethnic background but the culture. When school administrators forbid American flags printed on t-shirts because they say it’s racist, then we have a problem not only with legal or illegal immigrant who is offended by it, but also with the leftist school administration that would cower to that sentiment.
My father was a legal immigrant who was proud of his heritage but he loved this country and wanted to be an American citizen. He was proud and happy when he achieved that goal.
Caddell missed two words.
The Bostonians.
Um…excuse me, but has Pat Caddell not made millions of dollars from political consulting, also?
Hear now the pot blackguarding the kettle.
I have no doubt he’s right, though, having played the game for so long himself.
Pat Caddell got my attention when he described the media as a danger to this country. Speaking to a conservative media outlet shortly after Benghazi he said the media considered themselves a part of all powerful government against the people therefore leaving 300 million Americans unprotected. He noted outlets like the NY Times almost completely ignored Benghazi, the many stories surrounding it, the riots and related deaths in multiple locales. He said failing to aggressively report the news about this event put lives of all Americans in greater danger. Whatever Caddell makes he deserves a raise for speaking honestly about the media. He also said a lot of grassroots people were suckered by the establishment. That goes on to this day.
”It’s all self dealing going on. I think it works on the RICO thing. They’re in the business of lining their pockets.”
Yes Yes Yes YES!
That is all.