The RNC Now Approves Of The January 6th Capitol Riot

The Republican National Committee has discarded its last shred of decency and morality. In a recent move to censure two of their own, they called the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6th just "ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse". It seems that desecrating our Capitol Building and attacking the police are supported by them -- as long as its done by right-wingers.

The following op-ed is by Hayes Brown at MSNBC.com: 

The Republican National Committee on Friday approved an astounding resolution that all but expressly condoned the attack on the U.S. Capitol last year. In doing so, it’s given up any pretense that the party stands in opposition to the violence that then-President Donald Trump inspired.

The resolution in question is focused specifically on censuring Reps. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and Liz Cheney of Wyoming for their participation in the House Jan. 6 committee’s work. The fact that the censure was happening at all was the focus of reporting leading up to Friday’s RNC vote, given that the resolution was originally meant to expel the two from the party entirely.

But in reading the resolution’s language laying out Cheney's and Kinzinger’s supposed crimes against the party, one clause jumps out:

WHEREAS , Representatives Cheney and Kinzinger are participating in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse, and they are both utilizing their past professed political affiliation to mask Democrat abuse of prosecutorial power for partisan purposes…

That phrase — “ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse” — is chilling to read for anyone who understands what happened Jan. 6 last year. It goes beyond just defending Trump or faulting the apostates in question with defying party gospel. It sanctions and indeed sanctifies the actions of the rioters and insurrectionists who wanted to see the results of a legitimate election overturned.

It’s not a shock that this rhetoric exists; we’ve seen it for months now. Whether it’s involved calling the rioters who smashed their way into the building “tourists” or calling those charged “political prisoners” and the conditions they have faced in jail “inhumane,” members of the right-wing have consistently downplayed the severity of the attack. In turn, that has involved finding an alternate reason for the prosecutions and investigations — namely, that this is yet another, as they frame it, Democratic attack against Trump’s political fortunes.

That fiction has been hypocritical when coming from the Republican members of Congress who feared for their lives Jan. 6. It’s been cynical when spouted by Fox News hosts and other conservative media figures who warned Trump about the danger of the mob he was fomenting. But now it’s been endorsed directly by the party itself. The Republican Party is on the record as being pro-Jan. 6.

RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel used a similar phrase when talking to reporters about the censure Thursday. MSNBC’s Steve Benen wondered ahead of Friday’s vote if she was referring to the fake electors who cast invalid Electoral College votes last year. Several of them, including an elderly friend of McDaniel’s, were recently subpoenaed to testify before the Jan. 6 committee.

That may be the case for McDaniel specifically. But the language of the RNC’s resolution lacks any such context or clarity. Instead, it is the venture that Trump embarked on after the 2020 election as a whole that is dismissed as par for the course in politics — from the Trump campaign’s efforts to cause confusion during the electoral count to the attacks on Capitol police officers on the day of the assault. There is no hedging to be found in its defense of “ordinary citizens.”

There’s no concern to be discerned from this resolution for Trump’s recent floating of the idea of pardons for participants in the Jan. 6 attack. Nor the clear indications that Trump is willing to rally these “ordinary citizens” into engaging in more political violence on his own behalf. As The New York Times reported, the resolution was adopted “without discussion and almost without dissent.”

No matter what McDaniel says as far as her own justification, these are the words as they were written and approved by the Republican Party. There’s nothing to conclude except that should the events of Jan. 6 repeat themselves, there is no “political discourse” that the GOP will not stand behind and endorse.

Trump Is Using The Republican Party As His Piggy Bank

The main thing Trump did while in office was to use his position to increase his wealth. That didn't stop when he was booted from the White House by voters. His grifting continues, and it looks like he is using the GOP as his person piggy bank.

Consider the following by Ja'han Jones at MSNBC.com:

The Republican Party has been all in on Donald Trump's grift for years now. But new reporting suggests the party is funneling more money to the former president than previously known.

The Washington Post reported Thursday that the Republican National Committee agreed this summer to pay up to $1.6 million to help Trump — a self-proclaimed rich man — fight investigations into conduct that largely preceded his time in office. The New York Times confirmed the report later Thursday.

The money is meant to help Trump beat back a civil probe of Trump’s business by New York Attorney General Letitia James as well as a criminal investigation into his business by James and Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance.

That’s all part of the Trump experience, you see: paying for him and his family of delinquents to fend off legal challenges while they pantomime opulence. 

"The RNC’s Executive Committee approved paying for certain legal expenses that relate to politically motivated legal proceedings waged against President Trump," GOP spokeswoman Emma Vaughn told the Post. “As a leader of our party, defending President Trump and his record of achievement is critical to the GOP."

That sounds a lot like, “I wasn’t robbed, I wanted the thief to have my wallet.” Nonetheless, dig further into the Post's story and you’ll find a hint of truth from unnamed GOP officials: They’re absolutely frightened about potentially being on Trump’s bad side. 

From the Post:  

Republican Party officials say privately that Trump is the biggest fundraising draw for the party, and they want to keep him in their good graces ahead of the 2022 midterms and 2024 presidential election. RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel regularly talks to Trump, according to Trump advisers, and has in the past warned him against starting a third party. She has managed to keep close ties with him as other advisers have burned out.

Republican Party officials seem completely sold on the idea of being Trump's personal bank — whether it's out of loyalty, fear or both.

Trump's Supporters Don't Believe A "Blue Wave" Happening

The chart above shows the results of a new Public Opinion Strategies Poll -- done between August 29th and September 2nd of a national sample of 800 registered voters, with a 3.5 point margin of error. The poll was commissioned by the Republican National Committee.

The poll is worrying to Republican leaders, because they think it could suppress their voter turnout. While every poll is predicting a very good chance of Democrats taking control of the House of Representatives (and most political pundits agreeing with that), the Republicans need their voters to turn out in large numbers -- if not to win, to at least mitigate the predicted damage to their party in the upcoming election.

But Trump has told his base that there is no "Blue Wave'. He says there will be a "Red Wave" instead, and Republicans will do very well in the 2018 elections. And, to the horror of GOP leaders, it looks like many Republicans believe him.

The GOP poll shows that 50% of all Republican voters think they will retain control of the House, while an equal 50% think the Democrats will win control. But among voters who strongly approve of Trump, only 37% think the Democrats will win control while 57% think Republicans will retain control -- a gap of 20 points.

Will Trump's strongest supporters show up at the polls -- with him not on the ballot and being convinced the GOP has it in the bag? Republican leaders are afraid too many will stay at home.

RNC Bows To Ultra-Right On Immigration

It looks like the Republican National Committee has given up on the idea of real immigration reform. After the last election, they realized that they needed to reach out to more minorities. Some of their leaders decided a good way to do that would be to support immigration reform -- an issue important to most in the Hispanic community (which is the fastest growing demographic in the United States, by far).

Unfortunately for that party, most in the GOP's base didn't like that idea. They still seem to think they can return to a country ruled by white male christians, and since that is the view of the base it has become the view of congressional Republicans. While a rather onerous immigration reform bill, with a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, was able to pass in the Senate -- it did so mainly because of Democrats, with more than twice as many Republicans voting against it than voting for it.

Now that bill rests in the GOP-dominated House of Representatives, where it is as good as dead. House Republican leadership has refused to allow any vote on the senate bill. Instead, they have only taken action on increased border security -- despite the fact that there are more undocumented immigrants leaving the U.S. than entering it, that the Homeland Security Department has already given our border security its top rating, and that we already spend more on border security than on all other federal law enforcement.

The truth is that more border security is not needed. What's needed is a path to citizenship for those who wish to stay in this country. But the congressional GOP has decided to play to the irrational bigoted fears of their teabagger base instead of trying to pass real immigration reform.

And those RNC leaders who thought the party should reach out to Hispanics have now given up that hope, and joined the bigots in their party. The RNC recently passed a resolution calling on congressional Republicans to pass "immigration reform". But the reform they are calling for does not include any path to citizenship, and it would force the "Dreamers" (those brought here as children and who grew up in the U.S.) to reapply every five years (and prove they had a job or risk deportation). Their "reform" is just more border security nonsense.

This will just insure that the Democrats will get most Hispanic votes in the next couple of elections. This move by the RNC says clearly that they no longer care about reaching out to Hispanic voters. That may or may not hurt them in 2014 (depending on turnout), but it certainly will in 2016.

Republicans Still In Financial Trouble

The Republican National Committee (RNC) has a new chairman (Reince Priebus) but it looks like their financial problems continue to plague them. The former chairman, Michael Steele, had proved to be a failure at both raising and spending party funds, and had left the party at least $21 million in debt after the recent elections. This marked the first time the RNC, which has been very good at fund-raising in the past, entered a new electoral period that deeply in debt.

The party had hoped that removing Steele from his leadership position would spur donations and help them to climb out of debt. So far that isn't happening. The party was able to raise $5.2 million in February, but they spent $5.3 in that month (slightly more than a million of which was spent to pay down the debt). But they still finished the month with the same amount of debt -- $21 million. That's because they found about a million in debt they weren't aware of. They finished February with $2.1 million in the bank.

Meanwhile the Democratic National Committee (DNC) is not only in better financial shape, but continues to outraise the RNC in political donations. The DNC raised $7.1 million in February -- about $1.9 million more than the RNC. They spent $5.7 during the month ($1 million of which was to repay debt). They finished the month with $17.9 million of debt and currently have $10.5 million in the bank.

If the Democrats are going to be able to compete in the 2012 elections they need to keep out-raising the Republicans. That's because many corporate moguls (like the Koch brothers) have shown they are willing to spend big money to help the Republicans. This corporate spending gives the Republicans a big money edge, even though the RNC seems unable to get a handle on its financial problems.

Republicans Dump Their "Token" Chairman

After they were trounced in the 2008 election, the Republicans decided they needed to do something to give them the appearance of a broader-based party than they really are.   They wanted to be viewed as a party of more than just white people (like the Democrats).   To accomplish this they went out and found an African-American, Michael Steele (pictured), and installed him as the chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Of course it didn't change the make-up of the party or encourage minorities to join the party. They are still the party of whites.   And after their successful effort in the 2010 elections, mainly due to the ultra-white teabaggers who were energized to vote (while many others weren't), the Republicans decided they no longer needed their "token" black -- who wasn't liked or appreciated by the teabaggers anyway.

Yesterday the Republican National Committee (RNC) chose their new leader -- an ultra-right-wing white man.   It took seven rounds of voting to pick their new chairman.   Steele finally saw the writing-on-the-wall after the fourth ballot, and dropped out of the race saying,   "It's very clear that the party wants to do something different."   The new chairman is Reince Priebus, a lawyer from Wisconsin (and bigwig in the party in that state).

The party has failed in keeping up with the Democrats in donations in the last couple of years, and the party now enters the next electoral cycle with more than a $20 million debt (the first time in years they have started an electoral cycle in debt).   Some will credit Steele's failure to spur donations to the party as the reason for his failure to be re-elected, but I don't think so.

Priebus was Steel's right-hand man for most of his tenure and many Republicans, like Connecticut Party chairman Chris Healy, consider Priebus to be at least partly responsible for the party's problems in the recent past.   The truth is that the election of Priebus does not mean a significant change of direction for the party (or an enhanced ability to raise funds).   They simply replaced a black face with a white one.   But maybe that's all they wanted to do.

Republicans Want New Leader - Palin Maybe ?

After the Democrats successfully got an African-American elected president of the United States in 2008, the Republicans decided they needed a token African-American themselves to try and convince Americans they aren't an all-white party (which of course they really are).   They didn't have a lot to choose from, but they finally came up with Michael Steele -- and the choice has been an unmitigated disaster.

Not only was their racist teabagger base unhappy with the choice, but Steele turned out to be pretty incompetent.   He was good at spending the party's money but not very good at raising funds for the party.   In fact, when the last election rolled around they didn't even have the money to mount a proper GOTV effort.   They were just lucky that the recession was still raging and the voters were unhappy with the weak effort of Democrats to control it.

Now they are going into the next election cycle deeply in debt.   This is a new experience for Republicans, who usually start a new election cycle with a few million in the bank.   It had been reported that the party was $15 million in debt, but that was wrong.   They now believe they are somewhere between $20 and $25 million in debt, and one RNC member estimates it'll cost a couple of million more just to keep their headquarters open until January (when they elect a new chairman).

The question now is whether they'll have to borrow even more money just to stay open.   Treasurer Randy Pullen hopes not.   He says,   "I don't think we will borrow more money.   However, that would be up to the Budget and Executive committees.   At some point, key vendors need to be paid."

Steele said a few weeks ago that he will be seeking re-election as the RNC chairman, but that was before everyone knew just how bad their financial situation had become.   I doubt that there is any chance of his re-election now.   Several candidates have stepped forward wanting the job.   They are all far right-wingers and would not change the direction of the party, and it remains to be seen if they can raise money better than Steele has done.   They are all white though, and that could help with the party's base (and major contributors).

But that is not good enough for the teabaggers in the party.   They don't just want a competent fundraiser -- they want a real trash-talker and someone who will steer the party far out to the right-wing fringe.   Some are even calling for the job to be given to the quitter from Alaska -- Sarah Palin.   Judson Phillips, leader of the Tea Party Nation and organizer of the failed teabagger convention in Tennessee, is pleading for Palin to run for the RNC chairmanship.   In an open letter to Palin he said:

"We need you as Chairman of the RNC. You have shown in the past no hesitation to take on the establishment. You did it in Alaska. If we end up with establishment control of the GOP and their support for an establishment candidate in 2012, Obama and the socialists will have won. An establishment candidate will not work to repeal Obamacare and the other programs Obama, Pelosi and Reid have put in place. We need someone who will put conservatives in control of the party apparatus, not RINOs. [...]

Finally, you are a superstar. You have an unbelievable ability to light up a crowd and to raise money. Both of which the Republican Party needs. Something is really wrong with the GOP when the RNC cannot fund a get out the vote campaign for mid-term elections. The GOP needs a conservative who can raise money and energize the troops. You are the only one out there with these unique talents."

I doubt that Palin will try for the job, or accept it if it's offered.   She's making too much money as a celebrity to want a real job, especially one that would require some real work to get the party out of debt.   Besides, she's going to run for president, and being RNC chairman would complicate that.

But I wish they could talk her into it.   If they thought Steele was incompetent (and he was), they'll be unpleasantly surprised to see how much more incompetent Palin would be in the job.   It would be the nicest gift the Republicans could give to Democrats (short of making her their presidential nominee).

Republicans Ready To Oust Their "Token"

After their sweeping defeat in the 2008 election it looked as though the Republican Party was in serious trouble.   They had not only lost the presidency, but also radically outnumbered in both Houses of Congress.   In New England, the birthplace of the Republican Party, they didn't have a single House representative.   Things looked very dim.

Even though they were still a party made up 99% of white people, they decided they needed a "token" to make it look like they could appeal to people of all colors and races.   They chose  Michael Steele to be that token and made him the chairman of the Republican Party.   They thought this would destroy that image of being only the party of whites (while whites would maintain control of the party behind the scenes).

That didn't work out too well for them.   Steele was a weak leader and looked much of the time like a buffoon or a puppet.   In addition, he mismanaged party funds and proved inept as raising new money for the party.   For the first time in many years, the Democrats raised and spent more money (in 2010) than did the Republicans.   The only thing that saved the Republicans in 2010 was voter anger at Democratic failure to control the recession, and huge amounts of money being spent by right-wing organizations and corporate groups.

But if you will notice, these right-wing groups did not give the money to the Republicans to spend.   They spent it themselves rather than put it into the hands of Michael Steele -- very probably because they had no faith that Steele would spend it wisely, since he was chosen to be a token and not a leader.

And they were probably right to do that.   Going into the next presidential cycle, the Republican Party is worse off financially than they have been in a long time.   One of Steele's aides just resigned his position and let the cat out of the bag.   The Republican Party has a $15 million line of credit, and it is currently maxed out.   They go into this next election cycle $15 million in debt.

In comparison, the Republicans have entered the last two presidential cycles with positive cash balances -- $4.8 million in 2002 and $3.1 million in 2006.   In addition, the Republicans found in the last couple of years that electing a token as party head didn't work nearly as well for them as tapping into the racism and resentment of their base toward having a black president.

What all this means is that Steele's days as RNC chairman will end soon.   He already has opponents and some RNC members are actively campaigning against him.   The Republican leadership in Congress would also like to see him replaced.   Steele is as good as gone.

Steele is making noises like he wants to run for re-election, but the Republicans have already decided they don't need their token anymore.   They were never comfortable with a black man in their leadership anyway, and the financial bungling gives them all the excuse they need to dump him.

More Trouble For Steele And The RNC

It looks like the Republican National Committee (RNC) has gotten itself into trouble again. This time they failed to report much of their debt to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) -- over $7 million worth of debt. Making matters even worse is the fact that the debt may have been intentionally hidden by the leadership of the RNC.

RNC treasurer Randy Pullen filed an amended report with the FEC on Tuesday, saying he had been unaware of the debt. He accused RNC chairman Michael Steele and his chief of staff Michael Leavitt of hiding the debt from him. Pullen said he had discovered $3.3 million of debt from April and another $3.8 million dollars of debt from May.

This could finally be the end for Steele as the RNC chairman. Hiding either contributions or debts from the FEC is considered a serious offense. The Washington Times writes, "Campaign-finance analysts said that simply misreporting fundraising numbers to the FEC can lead to millions of dollars in fines and that criminal charges can be levied if the actions are suspected to be intentional."

It looks like the RNC believes they may be in trouble. They normally let their in-house attorneys handle matters, but this time they have hired heavy-weight attorney and former FEC chairman Michael Toner to represent them. Steele has been hanging on to the chairmanship by his fingernails, but this may be the final straw that pushes him over the edge.

This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. This is the kind of thing that happens when a chairman is chosen for tokenism rather than competence.

New Republican Leader Has Ethics Problems

The Republicans tried to fool Americans a few days ago, when they elected Michael Steele to be the head of the Republican National Committee. By electing an African-American, they were hoping to convince Americans that they are truly a "big tent" party, with a multi-racial membership. But even the most casual glance at the delegates to their last convention shows this to be a lie (Warning: use sunglasses when you look, as the overwhelming whiteness can be blinding.)

Now it looks like the choice of Steele was even worse than just a party membership lie. It seems the African-American chosen by the Republicans has some ethics problems of his own (but in their defense, they didn't have too many African-Americans to choose from).

Steele's former finance chairman, Alan B. Fabian, says Steele used campaign funds from his failed Senate campaign to funnel tens of thousands of dollars into a defunct company owned by Steele's sister. Fabian says the defunct company did no work for the campaign. Fabian provided the information to federal prosecutors.

Steele passed off the accusations as those of a convicted felon trying to reduce his prison time, and said the payments were a legitimate reimbursement of expenses. There are two things wrong with that argument. First, it doesn't look good when your finance chairman gets convicted of a felony and gives evidence against you (because it would do him no good to lie to federal prosecutors), and second, Steele conviently forgot to list what the "reimbursements" were for.

Steele is going to have to do a lot better than that. He needs to verify exactly what work the sister's company did, or explain why that company deserved any reimbursement at all. Otherwise, it just looks like he was using the sister's defunct company to siphon off campaign funds for his personal use. Isn't that against the law?

Surely the Republicans can find a better leader than this dishonest token!

Racism Enters RNC Campaign

Do you have to appeal to racists nowdays to be elected the chairman of the Republican National Committee? It looks like Republican activist Chip Saltsman thinks so. Saltsman, who is the former campaign director for Mike Huckabee (pictured above with Huckabee), is currently a candidate for the position.

During the holiday season, he sent all the RNC members a gift. It was a CD containing the obviously racist song, "Barack the Magic Negro" (sung to the tune of "Puff the Magic Dragon). The song had previously been featured on Rush Limbaugh's radio program.

The Tennessee Republican said, "I think most people recognize political satire when they see it. I think RNC members understand that."

He is right that most people recognize political satire. They also understand when that satire crosses the line into racism, as this particular song does. But the CD's racism doesn't stop with that one song. It also contains a song titled "The Star Spanglish Banner". Why slur only one racial group, when you can include a second?

Must you appeal to the racist element to get a high position in the Republican Party these days? It was once the party of Lincoln -- the party that abolished slavery. Has the Republican Party fallen so far that it is now a haven for racists and purveyor of racist values? If so, that is a bad thing for our country.

To keep our democracy vibrant and alive, America needs at least two strong political parties. But it does not need one of those parties espousing racist views.