Some Ron Paulers Join The Dark Side

MC was gobsmacked to learn that several rather high profile Ron Paul supporters have endorsed Tony Sutton for Chair of the RPM. MC knows Nate Hansen, Nick Quade and Grant Cermak a little and likes them all as people who work hard and aren't afraid to get involved. MC has been a consistent supporter of them, and others who supported Dr. Paul, and we are not about to change now. Full disclosure: MC was never on board with Dr. Paul's thinking in foreign policy. Certainly, though, his critique of American foreign policy deserves to be heard. (Candidly though, MC has heard it all before from Pat Buchanan) Dr. Paul's economic analysis has always struck us as cogent and, given the events of late, prescient.

What MC does not understand is the reasoning behind a public endorsement of one of their chief tormentors in the party. The text of the letter announcing their support is below. Left unsaid in this letter is the reasoning for such a manifest change. Have they sold out? Seems too pat to MC and we know them to have strong principles. They have often taken arrows from a party that did not trust them. What, then, would cause them to endorse Tony Sutton given their previous experiences?

At least one of the signers below also supports Michael Brodkorb for Deputy Chair. Call it change MC can't believe in.

MC understands that the rest of the Ron Paul community is not pleased with their support of the Old Guard's designated heir to the ruinous Ron Carey years. MC does not speak for the Campaign for Liberty although we count its members as friends and allies. Many people have come to MC to ask what is going on with respect to this endorsement. MC is publishing this post in an attempt to answer that question.

Comments, please.




Friday, May 29, 2009

Dear Republican Friend,

We write today to encourage you to support Tony Sutton for State Chair of the Republican Party of Minnesota.

As relatively new activists to the Party we have gotten to know Tony over the last several months and believe that he is the best prepared candidate to unite our Party, re-build our brand of limited-government optimism and win elections in 2010.

We are faced with new challenges that come with new opportunities. The battle lines have been drawn and the nature of this battle can be most clearly summarized as increasing command and control of the population versus individual liberty. Where Democrats and other leftists have never seen a new law, government power, tax or other oppressive intrusion that they find unacceptable, our party is experiencing a re-invigoration of one of its old and sometimes forgotten cornerstones: individual liberty. Whether you are a long time party leader or a new activist sharing these values, our country needs you and our party needs you.

A few folks are skeptical about Tony Sutton, and cite his long-time party involvement as a black eye rather than a feather in his cap. Tony Sutton was not chair of the Republican Party in 2007 and 2008; he was the Secretary/Treasurer. He did not have the executive privilege to make the decisions some folks thought should have been made over the past few years. However, the job history, service and character of this man are very important when considering him for the position of State Party Chair.

Tony became involved in Republican politics as a young man in Hibbing in the 1980s. He later moved to the Twin Cities and was involved with the Republican Party of Minnesota in varying capacities until 1998 when he became Executive Director of the State Party. Under Tony's direction, this party took back the majority in the State Legislature. Tony has pounded signs and broken bread with activists all over this State. After serving as Executive Director, he went on to serve as Deputy State Auditor under Pat Anderson. In this capacity, Tony garnered the respect of his colleagues and a deeper understanding of the operations of state, local and municipal governments. Tony has rounded out his experience by running a successful business in a very competitive market sector. He is the CEO of Baja Sol Restaurants, a company with nearly 300 employees and numerous franchises. He resides in Inver Grove Heights with his wife Bridget, and their four children.

Tony is an affable, kind, hard-working and caring individual. If someone tells you otherwise, they have probably not spent much time with him. In order to implement our conservative liberty agenda, we need to win elections. Winning elections is certainly about ideology and ideas. But at a practical level, it is also about running and managing campaigns successfully, which requires experience - and Tony has this experience. Tony has a proven track record of successful organizing, raising capital and funds, list development, management, and marketing and that will move us significantly toward victory.

In 1978, two years after Jimmy Carter took office, Minnesota Republicans picked up a net 37 seats in the Minnesota House of Representatives. If we are to have a chance at accomplishing a similar feat we must have someone of Tony's skill-set and experience at the helm.

Tony is a successful organizer, experienced leader, conservative activist and decent man. We hope you join us in supporting him for State Chair. Thank you for your time and let's take our State and Country back together!


Nathan Hansen, CD Deputy Chair/State Central Delegate

Corey Sax, BPOU Chair/State Central Delegate

Grant Cermak, CD Vice Chair/State Central Delegate

Tristan Tieso, BPOU Deputy Treasurer/State Central Delegate

Tony Vandemark, BPOU Officer/State Central Alternate

Nick Quade, CD Vice Chair/State Central Delegate

P.S. To join Tony's campaign, please go to his website at www.tonyforchair.com. You can also find him on Facebook (http://tinyurl.com/tonysgroup) or follow him on Twitter (www.twitter.com/agsutton).

Paid for by Tony Sutton for Chair, 2922 Upper 55th Street, Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota 55076 651.772.4426 | tony@tonyforchair.com | unsubscribe

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

MC has been greatly amused by the wide range of reactions to the mere posting of some State Central delegates email addresses less than 24 hours ago. Some applauded, seeing, correctly, that the posting was meant to break the back of the few party hacks who hand out the list to favored allies. Those hacks also prevent other State Central delegates from contacting each other. Why do we allow this to happen? Others saw the logic but suggested posting in ways that prevented spam bots from harvesting them; these people were MC's favorite because they both "got it" but wanted to minimize any downsides. Last were the over the top anal-retentive types MC fully expects to see as walk-ons in the sequel to "Fargo." Good grief people: get over yourselves. You're not that important and if a stray spam email ruins your day you might want to think about getting a life.

Lessons from email gate (a friend of MC sent an email in which someone had characterized this flap as such; doesn't take much in a moribund Minnesota Republican Party, does it?):

1. Your email is not private. Emails are given out routinely but usually to the favored few. This is what was at stake when MC posted the emails.

2. Why does it take a mistake by a candidate for Deputy Chair to have people realize how difficult it is for us to talk to each other? What is wrong with us that we find that normal?

3. The email list of State Central delegates and alternates is NOT a trade secret no matter how pathetically the current leadership may try to assert that in order to bully critics into silence. MC was threatened with just such a lawsuit merely for contacting them! We stood them down and no lawsuit was commenced (pity: think of the video depositions we would have posted here!). So forgive us if we think the spam whiners strike us as, well, whiners. We understand the point but many were creepily baby-ish about it. Back under your rocks with you!

4. If you do not want to be contacted by other Minnesota Republicans you should not be a delegate or an alternate. What's the point? To bark on cue from the Old Guard? We've had quite enough of that, thank you.

5. What will be done about the State Central Committee staying in touch with itself when we meet June 13th? MC does not think itself crazy for wanting elemental democracy in our party. We can both protect the super-sensitive types while allowing contact amongst the rest of us.

6. The email addresses in the post below have been deleted. We have distributed them to enough people that State Central delegates may actually be contacted by activists. Scary!

7. Commence feeling foolish. You know who you are.

State Central Delegates Email Addresses

MC, which knows something about the weirdness with which the RPM treats these things, has come into possession--unsolicited, thank you--of a partial list of what we believe to be current (read: June 13th) delegates to the State Central Committee. We list them below for the benefit of the wider conservative Minnesota public. MC believes such email addresses ought to be easily available to activists and agree with what Drew Emmer had to say on this topic here: Go Ask Alice

Herewith, your servants:

[see post above regarding email addresses previously posted here]

Netanyahu On Iran: It Is Us Or No One

Click on the title of this post to read the Prime Minister's remarks in an interview with Haaretz. Supporters of Israel know it must likely go it alone against the Islamo-fascists in Tehran. MC considers this a source of shame for the civilized world.

Heh

Hat tip: Jennette G! (click on image to enlarge)

The Case Against Sotomayor

Obama picks a Supreme Court justice based solely on gender and ethnicity. Such are our times. Click on the title of this post to read Jeffrey Rosen's article from The New Republic several weeks ago. MC has watched Judge Sotomayor's remarks upon being introduced by the President. Color us unimpressed, which will likely be her tenure on the Supreme Court, unimpressive.

President Pretentious & Self-Absorbed

MC isn't the only one to have noticed the President's infatuation with, well, himself! Click on the title of this post to read our friends at The Weekly Standard comment on the same subject. We think it is going to get very old very fast. At least we can hope.

In Which We Loathe David Brooks

The insufferable David Brooks reviews Simon Schama's latest book "The American Future" in today's New York Times Review of Books. In a stunning display of his tedious writing style, combined with avoidance of subject matter, Brooks tells the reader nothing about the author, his prior books nor, really, whether the book accomplishes what it sets out to do. Yes, many of us know Schama and his work. Many other readers may not and this hardly makes them uninformed or uneducated. Yet the review shows nothing so much as the vapidness of Brooks's thought. Conservatives listen to him why? Click on the title of this post to read David's review and make up your own mind.

The Eternal City

The blogging half (cough) of MC is off to Rome today so posting will be even lighter than usual unless Her Highness deigns to comment on whatever suits her fancy. Moi? I'm in Rome and the rest of you are not. Poda.

Liz Cheney 2012?

Liz Cheney appears on Mornin' Joe and destroys the foolish MSNBC anchors who gang up to take her on. Click on the title of this post to see an astonishing tour de force in defending enhanced interrogation techniques and the prior administration's war on terror which kept us safe for the last 7 1/2 years. Kudos Liz!

Parsing The Pontiff

MC is religious. We believe. We just don't fight about it. Click on the title of this post to read George Weigel's piece about what Benedict XVI faces as he flies into the Middle East and Israel.

Israel Today, The West Tomorrow.

MC tends not to fret in public. Yet we admit to fretting about the welfare of Israel and its citizens. We hope Mark Steyn (no, not Jewish) is wrong but click on the title of this post to read his latest.

Spengler: Confessions Of A Coward

Exhausted by the hoi polloi. Figure it out yourselves. Sing me Spanish Techno. Click on this post to learn more.

The Enigma Of Arrival*

A dear friend of MC's is leaving for Rome shortly. He's probably too young to know much about Joni Mitchell. He'd do well to make her acquaintance. The lyrics below speak for themselves, although LL should listen to the song in its entirety.

Maybe I’ll go to Amsterdam

Or maybe I’ll go to Rome
And rent me a grand piano and put some flowers ’round my room

But let’s not talk about fare-thee-wells now
The night is a starry dome.
And they’re playin’ that scratchy rock and roll
Beneath the mantle of the moon.

*Apologies to VS Naipaul

Margaret Thatcher 30 Years Ago Today

Thirty years ago today Maggie Thatcher took up residence at 10 Downing Street. It is difficult to overstate her importance. The always superb John O'Sullivan makes the case that she halted Great Britain's decline. Click on the title of this post to read him.

In Defense Of Shoes

OK, look. Small potatoes: things that don't amount to much. Now it's Michelle Obama's sneakers? Not so long ago it was John McCain's Ferragamo shoes. Do the media, left and right, think we're so stupid that we don't realize people who make it this far can buy very very expensive shoes? Are we the mob being told to eat cake? MC doesn't think so and wishes everyone would buy the most expensive shoes they can afford. For the economy's sake, of course! The Edina half of MC is fond of Jimmy Choo. The St. Paul part is fine with Ferragamo. Both halves of MC prefer black, naturlich.