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A momentary flash of insight into that great abyss, the "progressive" mind

"I don't think you know it yet, but you have won," Glenn Beck tells viewers this afternoon, understandably gloating a bit at the collectivist navel-gazing left's continuing incomprehension of this "predominantly white" "Restoring America" thing that went off without a hitch — not a scrap of litter left behind for others to pick up — on Saturday (above). "They believe in the Liberation Theology of oppressor and victim. You don't. You don't have self-pity," he added. "The top GOP leaders in Washington need to prove that they are worthy of it. The Third Great Awakening is what it's all about, and you are living history."

"From within her effete elitist bubble Arianna Huffington preaches open-mindedness," we twittered awhile ago in a momentary flash of insight into that great abyss, the "progressive" mind. The words of Yale President Rick Levin's welcome speech to her daughter's class of incoming freshmen —  boilerplate to this tragic-view tea partier's tempered ears — had touched something deep within the dense utopian thicket of Mrs. Huffington's narrative-spinning apparatus, leading her to conflate Glenn Beck and President Obama in a grand unified theory about "the Hunger for Purpose in Times of Transition." Apparently unaware that "diversity" on campus is code for color of skin rather than content of character, she gushed:

Levin pointed out how the students "come from all 50 states and 58 nations" and urged them (and their parents) to go "entirely outside the range of your past experience," and "stretch yourself." "If the friends you make here are exclusively those who come from backgrounds just like your own and went to high schools just like your own," he said, "you will have forfeited half the value of a Yale education. Seek out friends with different histories and different interests; you will find that you learn the most from the people least like you."

As long as you toe the pc party line, of course. Diversity of world views need not apply. From there the HuffPo poobah-ette stumbled unwittingly into an embryonic if inchoate premonition of subsidiarian federalism:

"It's becoming clearer by the day that whatever 'good life' the country is going to have in the future, it's not going to be delivered by consumption — and, in the foreseeable future, it is unlikely to be delivered by Washington. The new "good life" will have to be "reasoned together" by all of us and forged together in our own communities and in our own families. As Obama said in 2006, "solving these problems will require changes in government policy, but it will also require changes in hearts and a change in minds."

That's where the rest of the country — Obama's "backwoods" tribes of bitter losers who "cling to guns or religion … as a way to explain their frustrations" — have been forever. You just weren't listening, Arianna & Company, including the Northeast Corridor fuddy-duddies of the establishment GOP, who still don't seem to get it. That's why it's a revelation for Arianna to have once been blind but now she sees:

"The challenge is to imagine a politics that takes moral and spiritual questions seriously," says Sandel, "but brings them to bear on broad economic and civic concerns, not only on sex and abortion." Justice, he writes, "is not only about the right way to distribute things. It is also about the right way to value things."

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

Alaska's Joe Miller faces the nation: A poster boy for anti-establishment Republicans?

"Fortunately, passionate Americans tend to find each other," writes our North Pole correspondent [!], self-described "Agriculture's Copywriter" Pete Alexion, an Alaskan oner who — like Sarah Palin and ourselves — is not amused with Beltway GOP poobahs' apparent meddling in our 49th state's primary election. Here's Pete's story and his take on purported attempts by the NRSC to throw the people's choice, darkhorse senatorial candidate Joe Miller, under the bus to clear the way for Dear Leader Lisa Murkowski's unimpeded seigneural reign:

A favorite quote among war veterans — "For those who have fought for it, freedom has a taste the protected will never know" — can never be explained and is only understood by those who have felt it firsthand.

But once that feeling becomes firmly entrenched in your soul, it becomes a flame that can never be extinguished. Joe Miller and I share that flame.

Like many Americans, I too was somewhat naive about the slow erosion of our Constitutional freedoms and rights. I knew it was happening, but it was difficult to accept. After twenty years in the United States Army Infantry, of which four of those years were in combat and hot zones, I walked away with the erroneous presumptions that I've earned and safeguarded my rights through the fulfillment of honorable service to my country, and it was time for me to enjoy those rights.

"But I was smug and wrong. Most of the previous threats were insignificant, compared to what we now face," says Pete, his thoughts and feelings resonating with our own:

Again, like many Americans, we've become a sleeping giant who has awoken. The members of this giant are willing to sacrifice everything — absolutely everything, including the ultimate sacrifice — to regain our Constitutional rights, just as our Founding Fathers sacrificed. But how do you overcome privileged royalty in a civilized manner? With a belief and the undying passion behind that belief. Although most Americans have the belief, they simply can't muster enough passion. Pity. Fortunately, passionate Americans tend to find each other.

Joe Miller, who is a fellow war veteran, and I met at a gun show, which is fitting, considering our passion in preserving our Second Amendment right. After shaking the man's hand and looking dead in his eyes, I knew he was an honorable man with the right intentions and respect for our Nation. I drew the exact same conclusion the first time I met Sarah Palin. Handshakes and the window to a person's soul can't be faked. I've also met both Frank and Lisa Murkowski, shook their hands and looked into their eyes. I saw and felt absolutely no honor or respect for God and Country. None whatsoever. Unfortunately, all they could convey was their deep seated convictions of being Alaska's royalty.

"You seem to be, or could be, a kind of poster boy for these anti-establishment Republicans who are giving the Republican establishment such a run this year," Face the Nation's Bob Schieffer introduced darkhorse candidate for the "Murkowski Seat" Joe Miller this morning. There are grownups in the room. Listen and enjoy.

"Flash forward to Joe's declaration of candidacy," continues Pete Alexion:

I couldn't bear the thought of him going it alone. In short order, I put my own business on the back burner, accepted the negative cash flow as a necessary evil, and went to work as a full-time, unpaid volunteer for the Joe Miller for U.S. Senate Campaign. It was and still is the right thing to do.

Few thought we could win a primary with the political experience of a volunteer staff that could be crammed into a thimble. But passion is extremely visible. In four short months, a group of rank amateurs took an unheard-of candidate with no money in the war chest from a 100% spread in the polls to neck 'n' neck to a seeming victor in the primary. We made too many mistakes to count, and were often ridiculed for our bumbling and embarrassing errors, but considering our lack of experience, those mistakes, which were highlighted by our liberal opponent and her leftist media, are shadowed by the huge mistake America is currently enduring. Alaskans and all of America started to pay attention.

"Think about that for a moment. We're not professional campaigners and we're promoting an unknown candidate who has never held a political office. Common folk can accomplish anything with the right attitude, belief and passion":

Unfortunately, royalty doesn't accept defeat easily. It's too embarrassing for the privileged class to lose, so the gloves come off at any cost, to include degrading themselves with mud slinging, lawyers who hold a grudge against the common voter, and potential ship jumping. Both candidate and volunteer supporters were not immune to unethical and unfounded attacks. What's worse is that it continues after the polls closed.

As the absentee ballots are counted, we have only speculation on the final outcome and a take-home message to go on. America needs to take a hard look at what the Joe Miller for U.S. Senate Campaign accomplished with few resources. It was a truly grassroots campaign that made her citizens sit up and take notice. Win or lose, the momentum needs to continue.

"War is an ugly thing but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse," Pete concludes:

A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

Every state in the Union needs to find its own Joe Miller and stand beside him or her, for however long it takes.

"Passionate Americans tend to find each other." We hear you, Pete.

Update: Trending on Memeorandum.

Update II: Michelle Malkin "Buzzworthy" link!

Update III: Doug Ross @ Journal links.

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

I have a dream … and a nightmare

”Watch behind you; remember you’re just a man!” Victor Davis Hanson tried to warn Barack Obama on the eve of his "I Am the Dream" acceptance speech at Mile High Stadium in Denver (above) two years ago on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have a Dream" speech.

"But perhaps the greatest consideration is Obama’s Hellenic hubris, which is different than simple arrogance," wrote Victor Davis Hanson in late August of 2008 with rare insight into the character of the man who would become our 44th President. First a few words from the great military historian and then our own reading of the entrails, the dream and the nightmare of our blogtitle. Here's Hanson back then:

Hubris is a sort of fit, a haughtiness steeped in delusions of grandeur and divinity that takes over a weak individual, and soon encourages recklessness and overreaching (atê), all culminating in ruin and divine retribution (nemesis).

Go figure: Obama/Oedipus goes to Berlin. There he speaks in front of a grandiose Victory Column commemorating Prussian arrogance … He reviews American sins … Meanwhile an Ethel in Tulare turns on the TV and sees thousands of Europeans (who habitually make fun of her country) applaud Obama — and makes the logical assumption that they apparently think he is one of them, rather than one of us.

Next, drunk with pride, Obama thinks that such a losing paradigm (again, really a warning from the gods) apparently was not only successful, but will work again in Denver. So he transfers his speech to an outdoor forum, where tens of thousands of raving fans can watch him apotheosize in front of a faux Doric temple and accept nomination.

"Martin Luther King, Jr. chose the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to deliver his audacious message of hope, 'I Have a Dream,' August 28, 1963, exactly 45 years ago tomorrow, when the nation's first major-party black presidential candidate will give his acceptance speech from the podium of a set designer's mini-version of the Great Emancipator's memorial set in a football field," we captioned this image in our post "Obama has a dream" two years back.

So how's Hanson's Obama/Oedipus doing two years later? Sheltered from accountability by an enabling commentariat throughout the presidential campaign and on into the first year and many months of his incumbency, the Leader of the Free World may be puzzled to find himself now with an ominous approval index rating of -14. On Wednesday, during a family vacation on Martha's Vineyard, "a fleet of fishermen gathered 'to protest his destructive eco-policies.'" Don't they realize he knows better than you what's best for you?

Photo caption of our August 29, 2008 post "It's a girl?" the day after Barack Obama's acceptance speech at Mile High Stadium (top photo): "I think [John McCain's] going to evolve into eventually supporting ANWAR," Sarah Palin told Larry Kudlow (above) recently, adding that "Obama is way off on all of that." Watch and listen here, and see what you think. She's Governor of Alaska, a mother of five and only 44 years old — younger than Obama! — and John McCain is rumored to want her for VP. Like Aldo Cella and Elisson, John McCain knows what women like.

Meanwhile, in the wake of two years — and counting! — of unrelenting persecution by that same commentariat, Mama Grizzly Sarah "Don't retreat, instead RELOAD!" Palin has emerged stronger than ever, the President's most persistent and effectual gadfly, first among equals of our Tea Party rabble in arms disintermediating the powers that be and their allies in the legacy media via the internet, Fox News and on-the-ground appearances. Everything she says or does goes viral online and in the gateway media, who can't resist documenting her every move, if only to snark. We don't know President Obama's plans for this 47th anniversary of MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech, but Palin celebrated with Glenn Beck and a multitude of "God's almost chosen people" — as Lincoln called this nation of believers in America's exceptionalism — for Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally at the Lincoln Memorial this morning in a salute to "the good things in America."

"They tell me there are at least 1,000 people here, quipped a joyously weeping Glenn Beck as he mounted the stage at his "Restoring Honor" rally at the Lincoln Memorial this morning. "We are humbled that you are here … Something is happening in this country. America is turning back to God." "This isn't a political rally, its more of an old-time religious camp meeting," twittered political commentator Matt Lewis, who should have known better. As twitterfriend WooHooYoo notes, it's "by design." Beck himself had referred to the event on his Fox News show the other day as the latest iteration of the All-American tradition of "Great Awakenings." There's a bit of Elmer Gantry in Beck's style, and we did have a fleeting "Omigod moment" when he asked the happy crowd to whip out their mobile phones and dial "SOWF944" to text a $10 donation to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation. But the difference is that Beck really believes in what he's selling.

Googling old blogposts to gather material for this post, we stumbled upon a fascinating fact that led us to an insight of literally Proverbially Biblical proportions.

The fact: John McCain launched Sarah Palin onto the national stage on August 29, 2008, the very day following Barack Obama's acceptance speech.

The Biblical Proverb (13:24 King James Version): He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.

The insight: Like the indulgent parent or the nanny state itself, the effete elites of our political and cultural institutions who enabled Barack Obama's rise by failing to properly vet him are complicit in creating a Mewling Infant President incapable of taking responsibility for his own actions. It's always Bush's fault, or, more recently, the "professional left's" fault.

Extra points for correct answer: By our logic do effete elites who chastened Sarah Palin all these years actually "loveth" her "betimes"?

"We must not fundamentally transform America as some would want. We must fundamentally restore her honor," a luminous Sarah Palin told the tens — possibly hundreds — of thousands of devotees at today's "Restoring Honor" gathering.

Hence our title, "I have a dream … and a nightmare," a play on Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" and Myron Magnet's brilliant analysis of the unintended consequences — infantilization of our fellow citizens — of the welfare state, The Dream and the Nightmare. As we blogged half a decade ago, "It does not take into account the psychology of people."

Update: Melissa Clouthier at Liberty Pundits delights with "Glenn Beck Rally: Restoring Honor, Annoying Lefties." The aerial shot will take your breath away:

Lots of people, hundreds of thousands of them showed up for the Restoring Honor rally at the Lincoln Memorial. The bitter clingers keep showing up.

Update II: Michelle Malkin "Buzzworthy" link!

Update III: Stacy McCain links!

Sissy Willis has some relevant thoughts on Obama’s “Hellenistic hubris” and links Melissa Clouthier.

Update IV: Twitterpal Jimmie of The Sundries Shack links:

As Sissy Willis reminds us, we are not infants and Beck does us the courtesy of not treating us as such.

Update V: Drudge top billing next day: "BECK HAS A DREAM."

Update VI: Dan links with "The Emotionally And Politically Bankrupt Left Was Not Happy Today."

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

GOP powers that be are sowing the seeds of their own destruction

"There's something happening here. The anti-establishment protest song has been turned on its head as Tea Partiers find their voice," we captioned this image of Sarah in our post "Give to strategic small-government candidates, not parties" back in October of 2009: "People speaking their minds/Getting so much resistance from behind/What a field-day for the heat/A thousand people in the street/Singing songs and carrying signs …" (Cover image of October 2008 "quickie paperback satire" Terminatrix,  co-authored by top Harper-Collins Editor Adam Bellow (Saul's boy), who most recently worked on Sarah Palin's forthcoming blockbuster autobiography Going Rogue).

"It's as if Rob Jesmer, the NRSC's Executive Director, is a Tea Party saboteur, intentionally destroying the NRSC," twittered Erick Erickson around ten last evening in a eureka moment that set off a tsunami of retweeting:

I think I like the NRSC. Because of their incompetence, we're blessed with Rubio, Toomey, Paul, Buck, Angle, Lee, and now Miller.

And now Miller, indeed. The darkhorse candidate's likely win — to be determined after absentee ballots are counted starting next week — caught incumbent Senator Lisa Murkowski and the effete elites of the NRSC off guard in Tuesday's Alaska primary. Shellshocked, Murkowski "lawyered up" in anticipation of the NRSC's doing whatever it took to assure the final count went her way. The will of the people was never on the table. As Johnny Rocco said in Key Largo (h/t TheRealMirCat on Twitter)":

How many of these guys in office owe everything to me? I made them.

Unfortunately for the Johnny Roccos of the GOP, the old way of doing business isn't working anymore. It happened in the Massachusetts special election that sent Mr. Brown to Washington, and it's happening again. The national GOP is being disintermediated via the Internet. No wonder they're upset. The people's choice, Joe Miller — endorsed by Sarah Palin and with major funding from the Tea Party Express — is battle ready:

Joe Miller … accused the National Republican Senatorial Committee of "meddling" in the contest while charging that his opponent was trying to "pull an Al Franken."

Speaking with Fox Business Network, Miller referred to reports that Murkowski had sought legal counsel from the national committee as the state prepares to count thousands of absentee ballots that could decide the race.

Miller said his campaign would have volunteers on the ground as well to ensure nothing improper happens. Echoing his message from the campaign, he portrayed any potential ballot dispute as one of the Washington establishment against real Alaskans.

"The Tea Party is about overthrowing the establishment," Rush told his listeners Wednesday:

You have to understand here: [Murkowski] is a ruling class Republican, and it's just like you didn't understand why Bush would endorse Specter — you didn't understand why the Republican Party would endorse Specter — over Pat Toomey? Politics is politics. It is a business; it has requirements. Lisa Murkowski is the Republican.

Click here to support Joe Miller.

Update: Michelle Malkin "Buzzworthy" link!

Update II: Trending on Memeorandum.

Update III: Instalanche! See also Dan's totally awesome exclusive linked in the same Glenn Reynolds post:

Related: Betrayal: AK GOP HQ Phone Banked For Murkowski On Election Day. “There are additional reasons why we may soon see what amounts to a civil war within the GOP in Alaska, one that could easily spill over nationally, infuriating the Republican base if the establishment attempts to steal this election for Murkowski. And Murkowski will do the GOP brand no good among the grassroots if she pulls a Sorry Charlie Crist and opts for another route.”

Update IV: ShrinkWrapped offers the talking cure:

Read the whole thing; it may be the most illuminating post of the summer.

Maybe we should start charging by the hour?

Update V: Stacy links!

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

As Alaska goes, so goes the nation?

"Tea Party candidate Joe Miller 'credited the support of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for his lead. 'I'm absolutely certain that was pivotal, he said,'" reported the Anchorage Daily News yesterday and this morning, as incumbent Alaska Senator Lisa Murkoswki (above) watched her "sure-win" segue into "possible upset" and now "verge of stunning upset." Read Palin's Facebook endorsement here.

"SissyWillis We're having a Scott Brown sequel! even better :) … 'Historic night,'" twittered WooHooYoo in the first tweet to greet us early morning. Scrolling through our "Favorites" column, we were delighted and enlightened to discover our betters had stayed up all night with their eyes wide open while Sissy slept.

"So what sign did the mainstream media miss about @JoeWMiller and the #AKSEN race that would've given us a hint of this?" twittered Politico reporter Dave Catanese in the wee hours as Ace of Spades HQ called it just after midnight for Palin-endorsed challenger Joe Miller in Alaska's "classic underdog" Republican senatorial primary. A more prudent Dan Riehl, willing to declare only "Miller on Verge of Stunning Upset Over Murkowski, called it for truthiness in the Journolist-weakened legacy media's failure to believe their lying eyes:

@davecatanese no offense, maybe some 2 busy undermining Palin and TP to notice, perhaps? #AKSEN

They see what they want to see. Ace nails it:

Slate: Joe Miller's Embarrassing Defeat …

In fairness, there was some polling showing Miller behind. But … This was an article written to describe what the author wished to happen, and what the intended audience joined him in wishing with all their hearts would happen.

Earlier tonight, someone called The Politico's claim of insurgents (again: by that they meant Tea Party favorites) failing so disastrously a case of spin.

I don't even think it's spin. Spin is when you know you're lying. These guys aren't lying.

They're wish-casting. They are not telling you any sort of objective reasonable assessment of likelihood; they are just telling you what their shriveled black hearts wish would happen.

"The results were a major upset in a race in which Murkowski held large advantages in name recognition and money," reports the WaPo's Chris Cillizza:

Miller had spent less than $200,000 as of early August, compared with more than $1.4 million for Murkowski.

But the "tea party"- backed Miller was boosted by an endorsement from Murkowski's longtime foe, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R), as well as a controversial ballot measure, Proposition 2, that would require doctors to inform parents in order for a teenage girl to undergo an abortion. The measure appeared to be turning out conservative-leaning voters in record numbers.

If Murkowski is defeated, she will follow Sens. Bob Bennet (R-Utah) and Arlen Specter (D-Pa.), both of whom were defeated in intraparty battles earlier this year. A Miller win would also be a major boon for Palin, who endorsed four other candidates in Tuesday's primaries, all of whom had won or were on track to win.

Examining the entrails of the twittersphere this morning, we discovered Tammy Bruce had been up all night virtually cavorting with "the boys" — Dan, Ace and Stacy McCain, whose blow-by-blow insider report is a must read — and has the last word on Ace's "wish-casters":

You know evil is gonna be in a bad mood tomorrow so we must get some sleep to properly stare it down.

Update: Instalanche! Sorry about that, Professor:

TEA PARTY CANDIDATE beats Murkowski in Alaska. [Oops — ahead, but not beating so far. Sorry — posted this on my first cup of coffee and misread.]

Update II: Michelle Malkin "Buzzworthy" link!

Update III: After his second cup the Professor has a fun update:

Jim Treacher twists the knife.

Update IV: Top story on Memeorandum.

Update V: Cubachi links. Be sure to check out outraged kitteh plucked from soccer field.

Update VI: Dave Weigel weighs in.

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

"Go Sean Bielat! If I could vote for you, I would"

THE TWO SEANS. Catch Sean Bielat (left) — Barney Frank challenger for "The People's Seat" of Massachusetts District 4 — tonight on Hannity at 9.

"As a red-state tea partier behind enemy lines here in deep-blue Taxachusetts, I like what you're saying about fiscal responsibility, limited government, free markets and other Contract from America aspirations," we wrote Barney Frank challenger Sean Bielat last week, "So let me skip the 'what' and focus on the 'how.'" Here are the five questions and answers of our email interview with one of the "rising stars in the resurgent Massachusetts Republican party" (Earlier phone interview here):

1. Sissy Willis: How will you win? Your primary opponent Earl Sholley is no doubt unelectable in the general, but could he damage your candidacy with dirty tricks? Please discuss your strategy for winning the September 14 primary.

Sean Bielat: We have a clear path to victory in November. The key is going to be activating supporters and raising the money we need to get our message out. Barney is going to have plenty of funding from the entrenched special interests he protects from his powerful seat in Washington. We have to generate a lot of enthusiasm from regular folks who are fed up with the way Washington works. We're going to make sure to explain that Barney has been a big part of why our economy collapsed in the first place, and why we continue to have trouble creating jobs. From pushing Fannie and Freddie to make bad loans and blocking reform of those companies, to bailing out Wall Street executives and pushing our country deeper into debt, there are a lot of reasons for people to join our campaign to oust Barney from office. We're not overlooking the primary, but by focusing on what we need to do to defeat Barney and making a forceful case that our campaign can win in November, we'll do just fine on September 14th.

2. Sissy: How about the general election? Polls suggest a majority of Massachusetts voters are ready for what I call "term limits by other means," and anecdotally we've all heard stories of life-long Democrats and others who are beginning to wake up to the deleterious effects of the Democrats' big-government power grabs. The Brown Revolution has certainly been an inspiration for fresh new candidates within the Bay State and beyond, but among many of Brown's supporters, his voting record has taken the sheen off the golden boy's image. What is your strategy vis-à-vis Brown to distinguish your own path from the direction his incumbency has taken? Please discuss Brown's influence on your own candidacy and how any past or current association with our junior senator could be a negative.

Sean: It's great that Sen. Brown won the Fourth District. It means that people in the Fourth aren't afraid to support Republicans and that there is a significant number of people out there who are fed up with entrenched politicians who support policies that have a lasting negative effect on our families. But I'm not Scott Brown and we're running our own campaign. For example, I would not have supported the Dodd-Frank Financial Regulation Bill. It's not difficult to find people in and out of state who would like to see Barney Frank head for early retirement. He has been central to many of the problems that caused and exacerbated the economic collapse. We're getting that message far and wide and have been successful attracting volunteers and financial support. We're going to continue to reach out to people seven days a week through social media, mainstream media, events, door-to-door, mail and phone calls.

3. Sissy: Conservatives are energized this year, but even with an army of enthusiastic voters marching to your tune, what about the usual Democrat Machine voter fraud and thuggery — dead voters, hired union goons and such that were in evidence during the Brown/Coakley battle? As with the primary, how will you counter dirty tricks in the general election?

Sean: We are going to have a very aggressive Get Out the Vote effort both for the primary and the general. My belief is that a good ground game will beat party hacks and dirty tricks. We'll have poll watchers and other volunteers monitoring what's going on for us. At the end of the day, whatever dirty tricks are played, it won't have an effect on the outcome.

4. Sissy: How will you raise the funds necessary to be competitive with an opponent some would say is "too big to fail"? In a Huffington Post article published last February you were quoted as saying "If I'm not getting support from outside Massachusetts, it's not going to happen." Please comment on your fundraising strategy and other issues brought up in this excerpt from the article:

"As a powerful chairman, Frank has access to a nearly limitless supply of campaign cash. In the past, Frank has shared that wealth with candidates in tight races. Bielat says he met with the National Republican Congressional Committee this week and pitched his candidacy to them. By the end of the meeting, he says, they were very receptive, and he may end up in the Young Guns program … 'If nothing else, I should get national support so that he has to keep that money in the district.'"

Sean: We're not expecting to beat Barney in fundraising, but we are going to be very competitive. Again, there are a lot of people willing to help and, now that Barney will have his first viable challenger in two decades, I think we have a great opportunity to tap into that. People have a swift and visceral reaction to how out-of-touch Washington is. Barney Frank is in the middle of all that, and people are attracted to a campaign like ours that can win.

5. Sissy: You were quoted in the HuffPo article as saying you have "one key advantage on the campaign trail that most GOP candidates can't count on: Barney Frank." In fact, it was your campaign slogan "RetireBarney.com" that first attracted me and others to your candidacy. As the longest-serving House member of the Massachusetts delegation, Frank has accumulated a political lifetime of egregious "accomplishments," the most significant being, perhaps, his role in facilitating and then covering up the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac scam. His cameo in the Republican Study Committee's rousing campaign video "Those Voices Don't Speak for the Rest of us" says it all: "Give us more power." How will your campaign take advantage of the new media to spread the word?

Sean: We are already making good use of new media platforms and social media to spread the word, fund raise, attract volunteers and supporters, promote events, and learn about new opportunities. I have a great relationship with our Twitter followers and the number of Facebook friends grows by the hundreds each week. There's still no substitute for retail politicking, looking people in the eye, and shaking their hand. But new media has been very effective in getting people to look at our campaign and what we're all about. Building a robust new media campaign is also key to our fundraising strategy. We need national help with fundraising to help level the playing field. Challengers always face an uphill battle, but a national grassroots base can counter some of Barney Frank's advantage.

Several of our readers from within Massachusetts and beyond have told us they'll be supporting Sean. Fellow Bay Stater Teresa of Technicalities has already sent in a check and had this to say in the comments of our recent post "Barney Frank: Politically fat and campaign lazy?":

Oh I shall have to follow on twitter! Now if only we had a contested election out in our neck of the woods and could have a chance to get rid of McGovern. Maybe there is and I've missed it since I've been working so much. But I'm glad to see someone giving Frank a credible challenge! Go Sean! If I could vote for you, I would.

Update: Maggie's links! Thanks, Bird Dog.

Update II: Michelle Malkin links in her August 30 endorsement of Sean:

Boot Barney Frank: Support GOP challenger Sean Bielat

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

"I am absolutely disgusted with the Democrat party. I've been a Democrat all my life"

"Profiting from the sale of dual-use technology to Iran, Rep. Jane Harman (D-Transylvania) might have gotten away with this monstrous scheme, had it not been for Young Mattie Fein," blogs Stacy McCain, the "world's greatest blogger since blogging was invented over 5,000 years ago" according to filmmaker Ladd Ehlinger, Jr. Click here for Bride of Harmanstein.

"I am absolutely disgusted with the Democrat party. I've been a Democrat all my life. I voted for Scott Brown. It's about time we took this country back. It's what I'm personally calling the Silent Revolution," says a caller to Kevin Whalen's Pundit Review Boston radio show this evening with Sean Bielat and Brad Marston, "two rising stars in the resurgent Massachusetts Republican party," in Kevin's words. The Brown Revolution is arumblin'.

Update: Stacy links!

Update II: Michelle Malkin "Buzzworthy" link!

Update III: Cubachi!

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

Rush Limbaugh is channeling me

The legacy media are looking for love in all the wrong places. Unschooled in history, they are condemned to repeat it. Unskilled in critical analytical debating skills, they are reduced to ad hominem attacks.

"They actually do their work for other journalists and for the regime," said Rush yesterday, going for the jugular — in 140-or-fewer characters — of the dead horse we've been flaying for years with thousands, perhaps 100's of thousands of characters. The narrative of the "legacy" media — aka mainstream media (MSM), MFM [We still don't know what that means, but it's Ace of Spades HQ so who are we to ask?*], "the" news — has nothing to do with the quaint notion of the Fourth Estate's holding the powers that be accountable to the American people. The United States Constitution? Whassat? No. It's all about the deepest psychological need of all, the importance of being noticed by our peers. As we wrote way back in March of 2005, talking mainly about Islamist "sploders" then, "The real issue is, whom do we select as our peers."

Update: "Well, yah," writes our imail correspondent:

If your peers are a**holes, you become an a**hole to fit in.

Update II: Michelle Malkin "Buzzworthy" link!

*Update III: Way cool. This just in from Dr. Spank in the comments at Riehl World View:

MFM = MotherF**king Media.

Update IV: Trending on Memeorandum.

Update V: Instalanche: "A HERD, NOT A PACK"!

Update VI: The Anchoress links!

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

Beautiful kitteh: A palate cleanser

Our Sweet Tiny Pea, the Sunny Sunshine of our life, at age 14 with lots of difficult health issues under her belt — airway disease, diabetes — still enjoys being a cat. Her earnest embrace of life, like that goodwill doggie's, the one who walks erect because she hasn't any forelegs, is an inspiration and a source of joy. Remarkable what the veterinarian's art can do to push back the ravages of time. Only this morning she woke us in the wee hours with a yowling. Rising from our bed and turning on the lights, we discovered her going for the jugular of a large moth. Do moths have jugulars?

Barney Frank: Politically fat and campaign lazy?

"Barney and his colleagues need to go," challenger Sean Bielat told a group of RetireBarney fans at a Constitution Ride Across America rally at the State House yesterday: "Barney Frank's been at the heart of the financial meltdown and the real estate crisis … As a businessman I understand what it takes to create jobs, I understand the need for fiscal responsibility in Washington. As a Marine, I understand that we achieve peace through strength. And as an American I realize that we need to return to our Constitutional values and the idea of citizen legislators."

"You can call me Congressman," quipped Barney Frank challenger Sean Bielat when we asked permission to call him "Sean" during a cordial and informative phone interview yesterday. Incumbent Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee since 2007 and enthroned upon the "Frank Seat" (MA-4) for nearly 30 years, has grown politically fat and perhaps campaign lazy after decades in office without a serious opponent. We hear he's been looking over his shoulder, polling the popularity of our man Sean since April, when Bielat's RetireBarney campaign started building up steam. And Barney — May we call you Barney? — has started attacking his challenger by name, the surest sign that he's taking Bielat's candidacy seriously. As Framingham lawyer Robert Snider writes in his excellent PJM piece "Might Barney Frank Lose?":

A primary reason Frank has stayed in office since 1981 is that the Fourth is a carefully gerrymandered district [that] connects the Volvo liberals of Newton and Brookline to the Democratic, blue-collar cities of Fall River and New Bedford. It meanders from the Boston city limits south, all the way to the ocean — overwhelming the intervening leafy bedroom communities like Dover and Lakeville …

A legitimate, Republican candidate — with a modicum of gravitas — has not tested Barney recently …

Electoral history seems to support an inference that the Fourth has an intimidating percentage of registered Democrats, but this is not the case: the current breakdown is 38% Democrat, 11% Republican, and 50% independent. Even in the five Democratic cities, registered Democrats do not outnumber the total of registered Republicans and registered independents. In the special election of 2010, Scott Brown won every one of the bedroom communities and failed to reach 50% only in the four urban cities and Sharon.

Bielat told us he didn't expect to change too many minds among the die-hard Democrats who voted for Coakley in the special election last January, but Scott Brown did win the Fourth overall, and Brown supporters and tea party activists have been signing on as early volunteers. Count us among them! Already 20,000 phone calls have gone out, with 3/4 support among what are called "high-performance" Republicans and unenrolleds (the Massachusetts term for Independents). We protested that from our own experience phonebanking for Brown, voters mostly don't like those calls from strangers, but — like negative campaigning itself — phonebanks work. The campaign is up and running on Facebook and Twitter, which is right up our alley.

But given our junior Senator's disappointing, big-government votes on the jobs and financial reform bills, could the great energizer that is the Brown Revolution be a double-edged sword? We asked Sean in a series of written questions and will publish his more extended, written answers as soon as they become available. For now, consistent with his born-and-bred limited-government, free-market philosophy as expressed on his campaign website (click on "Views"), Bielat assured us he would have voted against the jobs and fin/ed bills and has signed the "Contract from America." As Dick Armey and Matt Kibbe wrote in their WSJ op ed the other day, referring to candidates like Sean Bielat across the nation who have signed the "statement of policy principles generated online by hundreds of thousands of grass-roots activists":

These young legislative entrepreneurs will shift the balance in the next Congress, bringing with them a more serious, adult commitment to responsible, restrained government.

Then there's retail politicking. Our phone interview gave us a taste of our candidate's personal warmth and humor. Commercial fishermen in a coffee shop in "The Whaling City" of New Bedford — where unemployment is over 15% — opened up to Sean. They were onto Barney Frank's role in facilitating the financial meltdown. "What about Fannie Mae?" they wanted to know. We don't know how much retail politicking in distressed blue-collar towns Frank's been doing of late, but his pollsters must have picked up the scent. Today's WSJ explains in "Barney to Fannie: Drop Dead:

Barney Frank has been all over the airwaves this week with a clear and — we never thought we'd say this — perfectly sound message about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: "They should be abolished."

Well, praise be. Two years ago next month, then Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson put the two government-sponsored mortgage-finance giants into conservatorship, and Congressman Frank declared himself pleased that there was a good chance, according to government bean-counters, that the rescue wouldn't cost taxpayers a dime.

To his supporters, Barney Frank's shamelessness may be one of his most endearing qualities. Talking about the failed "stimulus" bill the other day, he confided to a reporter on the record "we're supposed to call it the 'recovery bill,' not 'stimulus.' That's what focus groups tell us." You're out of touch, and you don't speak for the rest of us, Barney. Sean Bielat is listening with his own ears.

More to come in written responses, including Sean Bielat 's strategy to raise the funds necessary to be competitive with an opponent some would say is "too big to fail." And don't miss the two Seans on Hannity next Monday night!

Update: Too much fun: Barney Frank Freddie Fannie Flip video.

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.