sisu

Will Sarah Palin endorse Scott Brown?

"Naming Sarah Palin as Man of the Year is the only logical conclusion to a year when Americans who petitioned their government for a redress of grievances were smeared as 'un-American' by the people who are temporarily in charge," Don Surber explained this morning, speaking for all of us outside-the-Beltway tea-party types out here who have had enough of being told by our betters what's best for us and having unwanted big-government initiatives rammed down our throats.

"I noticed in my blog stats that someone from Weymouth Wrentham (Thanks to publius in the comments for correction) [where Scott Brown lives] was googling 'sarah palin endorsed scott brown?'" we wrote Scott Brown on Facebook this afternoon:

Don't know if that was you or one of your people, but it's a good question, which I have been thinking about a lot myself. I agree with Don Surber that Palin is the "Man of the Year." My own thoughts on the subject in my latest blogpost, "Cojones with Lipstick."

Am sure your campaign has considered the possibility, weighing the pros and cons carefully. For my part, I encourage you to seek Palin's support. She is DYNAMITE!!! and much loved by red staters like me behind enemy lines here in Massachusetts, not to mention the vast army of tea party people across the nation. Her charisma and common-sense understanding of how the world works are totally energizing. If you haven't already, I urge you to read Going Rogue. Let's ROLL!!!!!

Supported by the Bay State GOP — although reportedly given a comparatively paltry sum by the national Republican Senatorial Committee — Brown may be playing it safe, preferring not to rock the boat in his challenge to same-old, same-old Democrat shoe-in candidate Martha Coakley. We've been encouraged by his embrace of the "41st Senator to stop Obamacare" meme but still don't know. Does Scott Brown have the "manliness" — In the conservative Harvard gadfly Harvey Mansfield sense — to challenge the status quo? Mansfield explains:

Manly men defend their turf, just as other male mammals do. The analogy to animals obviously suggests something animalistic about manliness. But manliness is specifically human as well. Manly men defend not just their turf but their country. Manliness is best shown in war, the defense of one’s country at its most difficult and dangerous. In Greek, the word for manliness, andreia, is also the word for courage.

Palin's got andreia. As we wrote in a post on the topic back in March of 2006:

Looking at the geopolitical landscape out there, we'd be inclined to say Professor Mansfield's definition of manliness is expansive enough to include all creatures great and small, female and male, from bower birds and peacocks to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf — the new President of Liberia who sat proudly with the Leader of the Free World in the Oval Office this afternoon — to the Muslim woman word warriors like Irshad Manji and Ayaan Hirsi Ali who are just saying no to those who would put them in their place.

No one's going to put Scott Brown in his place. He will decide. What's it going to be, Senator Brown?

Update: Stat surge thanks to link in Michelle Malkin's "Buzzworthy" column.

Cojones with Lipstick

"Obama is way off base on all that," Alaska Gov Sarah Palin told Larry Kudlow in June of 2008, adding "I think those politicians who don't understand that we need more domestic supply of energy flowin' into our hungry markets, you know, they're living in la-la land." We featured the above still from the interview in "It's a girl," our very first ever Palin post two months later on August 29. The blogosphere that day was abuzz with rumors the authentic American original from Wasilla would be named John McCain's running mate. The announcement came before we'd finished our post. We were smitten with her charisma and common-sense understanding of how the world works. See "Sarah get your gun" for all 50 — now 51! — of our cogitations on the woman Don Surber has just named "Man of the Year."

"In the pantheon of people who stood up this year for that which is right, no one else stood taller or looked better," writes Don Surber, explaining his pitch-perfect pick of Sarah Palin as "Man of the Year." She's been our "Man of the Year" ever since that day back in August of 2008 when she emerged, Athena-like, from John McCain's Zeus's brow. Here's Surber:

She endured the most and came to symbolize the majority of American citizens who are stunned by the attempt to rapidly dismantle this great nation of ours and transform it into another Euro-weenie socialist country that apologizes for trying to save the rest of the world over the years.

The cynic in me said I should honor the person most responsible for reviving the conservative movement — Barack Obama. His arrogance and over-reach gave people pause. The plunder of the treasury in February caused even apolitical people to question his true motives. His slide to 44% approval among voters came lightning quick and we all know that thunder follows lightning. But conservatives make lousy cynics …

Naming Sarah Palin as Man of the Year is the only logical conclusion to a year when Americans who petitioned their government for a redress of grievances were smeared as “un-American” by the people who are temporarily in charge.

And still the people rose up … She is of them — a hockey mom who is naive, unsophisticated and learning just how rotted from within America’s political system has become.

As we said in Surber's comments, "Cojones with lipstick!"

Sending some cash up north to send Mr. Brown to Washington

Sarah loves Rick loves Sarah. "I love Sarah Palin," Texas Gov Rick Perry told the Wall Street Journal last summer." I love her positions, I think she was a good governor … I want her to be engaged in this rebuilding of the Republican Party … She is substantially more the face of this country than some other people who might want to be the face of the Republican Party. To me she's the face of America." When old-girl-network Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison challenged Perry for the governorship, Gov Palin endorsed her Texas counterpart. Above shaking hands at the Republican Governors Association Conference last year.

"Cookin' breakfast here in Alabama, but sending some cash up North … If I can help, you can too!! Let's send Mr. Brown to Washington!" writes second-grade teacher Mrs. Hall in the comments of Legal Insurrection's "GOP Abandons Scott Brown, But We're Not":

As reported by Jules Crittenden, the national GOP has all but abandoned Scott Brown in his bid for Ted Kennedy's Senate seat in the January 19 special election … Coakley, on the other hand, is getting solid Democratic fundraising backing.

In addition to me, other bloggers, including SISU and Jumping in Pools, and Twitterers, such as NorsU, have been sounding the alarm that Brown needs some help. He is a solid fiscal conservative, and electing him may be all it takes to stop Obamacare since the final votes in the Senate likely will take place after January 19.

Brown is going to have to do it on his own, with the help of social media advocates [Tea Party types like us and that Alabama schoolteacher!] …

Ed Morrissey at HotAir is onto the issue: "Where is the national GOP in the Massachusetts special election?"

It appears the national GOP is out to lunch. What's a lover of the Shining City Upon a Hill to do? Hope is not a strategy, but we hope The Hill's Bernie Quigley is right when he headlines "2010 rising karma: Palin, Perry, Romney, William Daley. Palin will be nominee." A few tasty tidbits from this delicious essay:

Sarah Palin: She was seen from the very beginning as a rising star — a cultural awakener similar to Andrew Jackson — bringing a whole new cultural paradigm to the political process; a new heartland spirit of individualism and self reliance as per Emerson and Barry Goldwater. The widespread, deep and immediate hysteria in the MSM was a sure indication that she was a threat to the old temple and would be a vital new force in the rising century …

Rick Perry: “I love Sarah Palin,” Perry said in a recent Wall Street Journal interview. The Tea Party movement has found wide support this past year. Recently 41 percent chose it over Democrat or Republican. Texas governor Perry was the first to stand publicly with it and he has not backed down. The influential conservative marketer Richard Viguerie of the Reagan-era Christian Coalition supports this movement but has lamented that this “Constitutional moment” has no leader. Perry is the leader, and his status will rise with this movement. The Conservative Party initiatives at NY 23 and the huge Republican victory in Virginia’s governor’s race reflect this new paradigm …

The main question going into 2012 is who will Palin pick for running mate, Perry or Romney?

"A whole new cultural paradigm to the political process." That must be what's gotten armchair activists like ourselves — who'd never done anything much political but gripe and moan on the blog and maybe write a few letters to the editor — to get up out of that armchair last March and April, Tea Party signs in hand, to tell the powers that be that we are "as mad as hell and aren't going to take this any more."

Update: Dan Riehl links with "Saving Scott Brown." Thanks, buddy.

Update II: Feeling the buzz in Michelle Malkin's "Buzzworthy." Good for the stats!

Update III: Instalanche! Could anything be cooler than disintermediating* a bunch of old fuddy-duddies via the Internet? Thanks for the link, Professor, and for your concise, terse, pithy way with words.

Update IV: "Outstanding," writes Scott Brown himself in a message on Facebook:

We have been getting a ton of donations from GA. I believe there is a radio talkshow host that keeps talking about this race.

Disintermediate at will!

Update V: "It's up to the people now," says The Barrister at Maggie's. Thanks for the link!

*Disintermediation. n. Withdrawal of funds from intermediary financial institutions, such as banks and savings and loan associations, in order to invest in instruments yielding a higher return.

Scott Brown: I could be the 41st Senator to stop Obamacare

Is Massachusetts GOP senatorial candidate Scott Brown finally getting it? The Tea Party Movement, with its growing arsenal of media and social networking tools, including talk radio, Twitter and Facebook, could help propel him onto the national stage as a major player "knocking down the Dems ahead of schedule," as Right Klik colorfully headlines a link-rich blogpost. We were encouraged to see the Bay State Senator's tweet (above) picking up on Bill Kristol's suggestion last week — blogged here yesterday — that Brown's senate race be framed as a "referendum on Obamacare." As the Boston Globe reported this afternoon, "Brown blasted his Democratic rival in the US Senate race today for her support of a national health care plan that Brown says would raise taxes and fees on Massachusetts residents and businesses without providing any benefits":

"I could be the 41st senator that could stop the Obama proposal that's being pushed right now through Congress," Brown… said at a news conference in the state Republican Party's headquarters in downtown Boston. "I could stop it and they could bring it back to the drawing board."

Put your ear to the rail. There's something big coming down the track. "That buzz is back," writes Kathleen Baker in the Denver Conservative Examiner, echoing talk radio host Dana Loesch's sense that "this could be even bigger than Scozzafava with the right amount of support. Here's Baker:

This time online activists are chattering about two more special elections, one in Florida and the other in Massachusetts. Whether or not this online dialogue will bring about the same type of attention as the NY-23 race is too early to be determined. However, it does deserve some consideration …

Brown, a Massachusetts state senator, is the candidate receiving the attention online. He is different than Hoffman in that he has the support of both the established GOP and Tea Party activists, one hundred of which showed up to support the opening of his Hopedale office today.

Angela Lash, a well-known liberty activist from Pennsylvania who supports both Lynch and Brown, is actively promoting these two candidates online. She said, “I try to find and work for the best candidates who will adhere to our Founding Principles. If a candidate believes, as our Founders did, that society benefits most when people are the most free, which means by necessity a limited government, then that candidate will get my support.”

We clicked over to Lash's Twitter page, where she's twittering up a storm of support for Scott Brown. An example of how she's spreading the word:

Outside of Mass? 3 Action Items You Can Do: Join the American Brigade

We just re-tweeted [to our non-twittering readers, that means you copy and paste someone's tweet and republish it so that all of your own followers can read it] one of Lash's tweets and already have been retweeted by someone new to us, Jana Ken  — whom we're now following — another big Brown supporter who's helping spread the word within and beyond the Commonwealth's borders. One of her latest:

American Patriots in Massachusetts...On January 19th, Please Save America and Save US from the DEM Super Majority by voting 4 ScottBrown

One thing leads to another, and if you're lucky, the thing goes viral and you're off to the races. This just in over the email transom: A note from Brown Brigade's Laura Goodspeed to the members of "Phone Calls for Scott Brown"

LET'S GET TO WORK NOW!

We've never done phone banking before, but there's a Scott Brown regional office just north up the pike from here, and, as Walt Kelly famously wrote, "Now is the time for all good men to come to."

Update: "We may be about to witness one of the biggest upsets in Massachusetts electoral history," writes freshly energized New Hampshire blogger Tom Bowler of Libertarian Leanings. Thanks for the linky love, old friend! Check out his further thoughts in the comments.

Is it "pointless to try to reform" the Massachusetts GOP?

"If only we taught our children the all-too-human facts of our own history, they might be more critical of the ahistorical hysteria fed to them daily by an agenda-driven press," we emailed Senate Historian Dick Baker three years back in a brief and delightful exchange about the caning of Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner by a South Carolina Representative in opposition to the Senator's anti-slavery campaign in the heated political climate of pre-Civil-War America. (Caning of Senator Charles Sumner, May, 1856, NY Public Library collection)

"It's pointless to try to reform this outfit. Instead, a write-in campaign should be started,"  writes Former Republican in the comments to our previous post, "Let's make Scott Brown's Senate race a 'referendum on Obamacare'":

The Massachusetts Republican establishment has a long history of conceding the majority of elections in return for a small but significant slice of the patronage and an agreement to allow a few dunderhead hereditary Republicans to run unopposed for the state legislature.

The commenter's words ring all too true for us in the wake of the recent unpleasantness at the local Newburyport Republican Club Christmas Party. Having become aware of the Northshore Boston bedroom-community group at our very first ever Tea Party last March here behind enemy lines in Taxachusetts, we assumed there would be, as our imail correspondent and partner in crime put it, "a great meeting in the catacombs" with a tea-party equivalent of the early Christians' drawing in the dirt of the sign of the fish:

Instead I found glad-handing self-promotion among the men in suits and ties while the women were relegated to discussing what's for dinner and toys for tots.

We had been led to believe that Scott Brown himself would be there, but the party's choice was a no-show, preferring to schmooze with perhaps a more influential group of men in suits somewhere in the western part of the state that night. We gave Scott Brown a piece of our mind via this blog, Facebook and Twitter, but all we got back was a form letter telling potential supporters like us that the big guy was "too busy running for Senate" to "be more personal." So. About that write-in campaign for the Kennedy seat? Who would you nominate? We tried to come up with a starter list, but no one came to mind. As Tuck said, anyone we might want to have represent us inside the Beltway probably wouldn't want to run. Any takers?

This just in from Jim Murray in the comments to that previous post:

The grand old party of good old boys think they can continue business as usual and the tea party crowd will jump on board. Sorry, Charlie. It isn't going to happen.

Yup. Mad as Hell, and we aren't going to take it anymore.

Let's make Scott Brown's Senate race a "referendum on Obamacare"

GOP candidates like Scott Brown, who's running in a special election to be held January 19 for the Kennedy seat here in Massachusetts, and their handlers, need to think outside the box, say Dana Loesch, Bill Kristol and tea partiers like us. We wrote about the trouble with Brown's campaign here the other day in "Too busy to be personal? That is so not where tea partiers like us are today." Above, Goomp's Purrky thinks INSIDE the box Christmas eve Down East.

"Yes, yes, all politics are local. Except when they’re not, like in the case of being a deciding vote on fauxcare" writes "blogger, talk radio host, smart aleck" Dana Loesch, daring Bay State GOP candidate Scott Brown to get up off his old-think Republican arse and turn his sleepy senatorial campaign against Taxachusetts-as-usual Democratic candidate Martha Coakley into a real horse race:

As I mentioned on air last week, this could be even bigger than Scozzafava with the right amount of support. While Scozzafava was a stand against the establishment within the GOP, this is a fight against national socialism flown under the guise of health care.

Bill Kristol, cited by Loesch, agrees:

But someone might want to commission a poll in Massachusetts to see what might happen if the Senate race could be made a referendum on Obamacare. Brown and Coakley debated … and they clashed on the health care bill. But so far as I can tell, Brown didn’t emphasize that by electing him, the voters of Massachusetts have a chance to save the country from Obamacare. What if there were a massive independent expenditure that made that point?

As we blogged the other day, Brown's handlers don't seem to have a clue about how you engage today's newly activist tea-partiers. On the other hand, conservative commenters in this neck of the woods say Brown could win if he stopped playing by the old rules and started using the new social networking tools to engage his opponent and potential supporters in unexpected ways. As our own Jules Crittenden wrote last week, "Brown also needs to tap into the energy that drew thousands of angry Massachusetts voters to Boston Common last Tax Day." Kristol's proposed Senate race as "referendum on Obamacare" might be just what the doctor ordered.

Update: Instalanche! Thank you, Professor Reynolds.

Update II: "Scott Brown has an 'old-think Republican arse' because he's an old-think Republican," writes Night Ranger in the comments:

You don't magically become an outside-the-box, "rogue," go-for-the jugular candidate. He is what he is and that's what the establishment in MA wanted - oatmeal!

Lots more thoughtful comments coming in even as we write. Good stuff!

Update III: "Is Scott Brown Missing The Clue Train? asks blog buddy Dan Riehl.

Too busy to be personal? That is so not where tea partiers like us are today

1. Old-style Republican get-out-the-vote campaign tactic: GOP candidate for Kennedy seat here in Taxachusetts Scott Brown — whom we admire, will vote for and have blogged with much enthusiasm here and here — sends out an automated request for us to join his low-key Facebook fan page and invite our friends. In our usual don't-take-us-for-granted style we accepted the invitation but gently chided Brown for not putting in an appearance at a recent Newburyport Republican gathering where rumor had it he would be a surprise guest. "I want to make calls for you," we responded, "Email me." Back came this response:

Thanks, Sissy. Wish I had time to be more personal. Too busy running for Senate. I am sure you understand. Laura Goodspeed is our volunteer coordinator. She give [sic] you the details about when and where the calls are being made.

Too busy to be personal? That is so not where tea partiers like us are today. We want to know that our leaders are listening and believe we have something important to say. If you don't get the new media, your message won't get through. Enter, stage, right, Sarah Palin:

2. Social-media-savvy Republican rapid-response campaign tactic: Alabama Democrat Rep Parker Griffith switches to GOP, and even as Republican establishment types say who does he think he is, and Mo Brooks and Les Philipp gird for primary challenges, Sarah Palin pulls a surprise move, an OODA-loop tactic that might just catch them all off guard. We caught her on Twitter this afternoon with this:

Congratulations Alabama! And all Americans concerned about Capitol Hill's current agenda; Rep Parker Griffith just did the right thing. Welcome.

As we twittered in perhaps wishful-thinking mode this afternoon:

Betcha Sarah Palin will be stumpin' for Griffith before fuddy-duddy Republicans even have a chance to put their pants on.

She's used Facebook and Twitter and the op ed pages of the likes of the WSJ, NY Post and WaPo with consummate skill — not to mention her triumphant book tour deep into the heartland — explaining policy points and cutting off unfair criticisms at the knees before rumors get legs. Up close and personal. Sarah's the one.

I'll drink to that!

It's not all about Instalanches. Roger L. Simon and Stephen Green have floated our boat from time to time.

What could be more delicious than a toast from the divine Vodka Pundit, Stephen Green to our recent post "The GOP's secret weapon: William Shatner" in his "Week in Blogs — The Links!" at Pajamas Media with "Fade away and radiate." PJM's the one who threw us not under but off the bus way back when they went professional, even as Roger L. Simon once lifted our heart with his golden words:

Sissy is one of my favorite bloggers because she is so skilled at moving from the personal and the cultural to the political and back again, something I think often gives a blog its authenticity.

That took us through a lot of hard times, but as Roger himself told Red Eye's Greg Gutfeld last winter:

I'm an intellectual to an extent, so I read things through, but I didn't think things through.

But who can't love the big lug? We adore him. Stephen too. Thanks for the linky love, you handsome devils!

Sugar Plum Fairy meets Queen Nefertiti

Because her fans demand and deserve it, a couple of glam shots of Tiny — as the Sugar Plum Fairy (above) and Queen Nefertiti (below) — captured this afternoon around the house on this sub-zero global-warmenist nightmare of a day here in coastal New England.

Meanwhile, her medical report is excellent. Blood glucose numbers continue to go down, and her weight is going back up as we adjust the dose of insulin for what we believe was a prednisolone-induced diabetic state. What with the frequent vet visits cum blood-taking required to get this thing under control, she's been a real trouper.

Update: More glam shots of all things bright and beautiful at Modulator's Friday Ark #274.

The GOP's secret weapon: William Shatner

The blogosphere and twittersphere are making Captain Kirk and Star Trek allusions, but William Shatner's dueling dance with Sarah Palin on "The Tonight Show" last night was pure Denny Crane, the lovably lecherous lawyer he played in Boston Legal.

"What I give to you, what I share, I do with no one else," William Shatner's Boston Legal character Denny Crane tells fellow lawyer James Spader's Alan Shore in one of their end-of-episode après-ski moments of quiet reflection. "I love you Denny, you are my best friend. I can't imagine going through life without you as my best friend. I'm not going to kiss you however," retorts Spader with just the right blend of earnest yearning and self-deprecating humor:

I don't know whether you know this, but not many men take the time, every day, to have a cigar, glass of scotch, to talk to their best friend. That's not something most men have.

I like to think that what you give to me you do with nobody else. Now that may sound silly to you. But here's what I think is silly, the idea that jealousy or fidelity is reserved for romance.

Nobody does this schtick better than William Shatner, and now the man who won the hearts and minds of an earlier generation with his Captain Kirk at the helm of the USS Enterprise in Star Trek is back center stage on a television set near you, seducing us and our countrymen with star-billed appearances doing dramatic readings of Sarah Palin's prose on Conan O'Brien's "The Tonight Show" and interviewing Rush Limbaugh on "Shatner's Raw Nerve," a celebrity interview series airing on The Biography Channel. And you don't have to sit around watching O'Brien or have access to The Bio Channel to get the message. Thanks to online social networking, the best of Shatner 3.0 has gone viral, making William Shatner/Denny Crane the GOP's new secret weapon.

The Limbaugh interview turned into a soul-feeding Denny Crane/Alan Shore quiet moment of reflection. So much for Rahm Emanuel & Company's attempts to make Rush the new GOP bogeyman. Meanwhile, Palin beat the pants off Shatner in a joint appearance on "The Tonight Show" last evening. In several appearances last summer, Shatner had mocked Palin as he sat on a stool doing dramatic readings of her 140-character-or-fewer tweets on Twitter. Annoying to Palin fans like us, but nevertheless brilliantly executed, as Hot Air's AllahPundit noted at the time:

These bits are actually less a testament to her goofiness than to the ability of Shatner’s sublime hamminess to make anything funny.

And now — again as seen on Hot Air — Sarah has parried Shatner's thrust and responded with a fatal thrust of her own during a "surprise" appearance doing dramatic readings from Shatner's autobiography. First Shatner entered stage left for a few cherry-picked readings from Going Rogue:

I looked down to see the moose's eyeballs lying in his palm, still warm from the critter's head … I always remind people from outside our state that there's plenty of room for all Alaska's animals, right next to the mashed potatoes … One year, while stalking sheep, I disappeared.

Then Palin entered stage right to playfully mock the mocker:

He remembered the old rule of law enforcement. Of course I understand you robbed that bank because you have no self-esteem. Boom! Taste my night stick … My whole being resonated with the incredible feeling that I was going to go visit with an elephant … and I was going to visit that elephant in my underwear.

Like the moose whose eyeballs lay warm in Palin's father's palm, Shatner/Denny Crane had been bagged. It was small-screen magic, pure late-night-television gold. As the audience erupted in paroxysms of ecstasy, Palin exited stage left arm in arm with her delighted new admirer.

Update: Dan Riehl links with a treat: Shatner's Denny Crane on gun control. Thanks, good friend!

Update II: Woo hoo! Instapundit links with a question: "THE GOP’S SECRET WEAPON: William Shatner?"

Update III: "A huge ovation for Palin — in a pure blue redoubt," writes Machine Gun in the comments:

Give her a few more years of seasoning and she might be an American Thatcher.

You betcha!

Update IV: Little Miss Attila links with a provocative thought:

Shatner: Disloyal to His Fellow Lefties? Or simply smart enough to know which way the wind is blowing?

We loved her commenter ponce's reply:

Shatner is beyond the petty concerns of ordinary mortals.

Update V: DRJ guesting at Patterico's Pontifications links with a Palin-Derangement-Syndrome theory of her own:

What better plan could celebrities like Oprah luck into than garnering sky-high ratings for themselves by hosting Sarah Palin, all while simultaneously building up the one Republican they have convinced themselves could never win?

While you're over at Patterico's, treat yourself to a little "Puppy Love."

Update VI: Shatner has the last word in a Glenn Beck interview cited by Mark in Patterico's comments:

So [Boston Legal's Denny Crane] may be pretending to be crazy. That`s kind of what I`m playing.

Sleepover?

Update VII: "Her increasingly improving ability to withstand ridicule will stand in stark contrast to the self-righteous [Gore]," writes Gay Patriot with a link.

Update VIII: No link, but Legal Insurrection's "Palin's turning point" is a great read. Our favorite quote from coolpillow1111 in the comments:

Palin and Shatner — it was a match made in heaven!

Finally, commenter Jim Treacher's trenchant one-liner about the entertainment media speaks for all of us here on the right side of the aisle:

They've turned her into a symbol for everybody who's ever been helplessly frustrated by the media's left-wing bias.

It's where we live.