sisu

I'm you: Elizabeth Warren channels Christine O'Donnell

"So maybe if I tell you a little about myself, it will explain something about why I'm running for the United States Senate," says Soros-backed "everywoman" — and method actress extraordinaire — Elizabeth Warren in an all-about-little-old-me video at her campaign website.

"My mom and dad worked really hard. My dad sold carpeting, and then fencing, and ended up as a maintenance man. When I was in junior high he had a heart attack, and we lost our car," lip-biting Scott Brown challenger Elizabeth Warren (above) — her voice breaking — explains "why she'll fight for Massachusetts' working families in the United States Senate." A self-made millionaire, Harvard Law School professor and author of President Obama's Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, limousine liberal Warren has taken a page from last year's Delaware Republican primary Tea Party winner Christine O'Donnell's playbook. Warren's subliminal message to the weak-minded among us looking for a savior? "I'm you." And apparently it's working:

Democratic Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren released her second video advertisement on Monday, which portrays her as a “gutsy” political outsider with “fresh ideas” …

Various people in the ad describe her as an “everyday kind of person,” someone with “everyone’s best interest at heart,” a “strong voice for the middle class,” and “tough.”

And this:

Poll: Elizabeth Warren soars 7 up over Scott Brown.

"I'm not a witch. I'm nothing you've heard. I'm you."

You can't fool all of the people all of the time, but in Massachusetts you can come close. Check out the body language of Democrat establishment pick for the former "Kennedy Seat" Elizabeth Warren (left) and much-ridiculed grassroots Tea Party challenger Christine O'Donnell (right), who beat the Republican establishment pick in the primary but lost in the general last year: The coy, tilted head, the earnest, moist eyes, the pursed lips that seek to soothe. And the words:

O'Donnell: "None of us can be happy with what we see all around us: Politicians who think spending, trading favors and backroom deals are the way to stay in office. I'll go to Washington and do what you'd do.

Warren: "I want there to be a level playing field. I want small businesses, I want families to have a real chance. I want Washington to not to be on the side with the big corporations, but to be on their side."

Cosmic convergence? Or just a cynical, poll-tested Democrat establishment ploy to restore the "Kennedy Seat" to its rightful owners?

Update: Good advice from Chris Bennett in the comments:

"Cosmic convergence"? Or witchcraft? Let's put Warren in the dunking chair, just to be sure.

Update II: Burn, baby, burn:

“Karl Rove is not telling the truth, and I think anyone who is not telling the truth shouldn’t be running ads in this race," she told the Herald. Warren has said she supports negative ads from outside groups so long as they are telling the truth, while U.S. Sen. Scott Brown has said he believes all outside groups should stay out of the race.”  

We're not amused with Scott Brown's disingenuous dismissal of "outside groups," by the way. If it weren't for the disintermediating social-media nationalization of his 2010 special election, Democrat establishment candidate Martha Coakley would be our junior senator today.

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Cloven Not Crested.

"People>F>Frank, Barney" says New York Times

Poor Barney Frank, yoked to sisu and Patterico's Pontifications, among others, in the bowels of the New York Times "Topics" pages under "People>F>Frank, Barney":

We don't know how the Times decides which "Headlines Around the Web" get paired with their people-in-the-news bio pages, but whoever it is has a sense of humor. We notice Scott Brown's in there, but Sean Bielat, Frank's dashing young challenger for the "People's Seat" of MA District 4, hasn't made the list. That may change after November 2. Speaking of change, Barney doesn't want the focus to be on him and his record, so he's trying to change the subject, but Sean's not letting him get away with that any more. Click here to help Sean and the people of Massachusetts and the nation say Bye Bye Barney.

Scrollnote. Barney's controversy-free blurb on the "Topics" page sounds like it was written by a staffer, but scroll down the page and you'll find more dark humor, with Ashley Parker's amusing Times article on the making of filmmaker Ladd Ehlinger's latest masterpiece — "The Barney Shuffle" — "Behind the Scenes as Barney Frank's Rival Films an Ad" topping the list.

Update: Michelle Malkin Buzzworthy link!

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

Who knew Barney Frank could be this much fun?

"I'm sorry. Can I finish the sentence? … On what planet do you spend most of your time? … You're not going to see the collapse that you see when people talk about a bubble." No need to make this stuff up. Filmmaker extraordinaire Ladd Ehrlinger — auteur of the viral internet masterpiece "Young Mattie Fein" — uses Barney Frank's own bluster for script and voiceover in Sean Bielat's fun and funny new internet ad, The Barney Shuffle, launched via Twitter a couple of hours ago. Unlike Barney, "I don't need to dance around the issues," says Sean. "I'm running for Congress, and I approve this ad." We laughed out loud and found ourselves all smiles. If you approve, click here to contribute to Sean's campaign for the win.

Who knew Barney Frank could be this much fun? Thanks to the Tea Party tsunami that's got incumbents of both parties nationwide looking over their shoulders, together with the throw-the-bums-out momentum of our own Brown Revolution, the power-besotted fuddy-duddy of Massachusetts District 4 is running scared.

There's nothing like seeing your name in print. There we were on the front page of the online Boston Herald this morning, quoted in the lead story, "Tea Party revels in Barney Frank's money woes." Repeat after Glenn Reynolds: "Don't get cocky, don't get cocky, don't get cocky …"

The latest poll, just out this evening from WPRI, shows the incumbent with a 12-point lead, 49 to 37, with 12 percent undecided. Nervewracking, but as someone out there said today, even if we don't manage to dislodge the current occupant from the "People's Seat" of District 4, a message has been sent, and for the first time in decades, Barney Frank is listening.

Update: Forgot to mention that Sarah Palin includes our man Sean in her "More Great Candidates to Support this November" list on Facebook today:

Sean is a businessman, Marine veteran, and young father, and he is running against an ethically-challenged liberal icon who opposed reform of Fannie & Freddie before the meltdown.

Update II: Michelle Malkin Buzzworthy link!

Update III: Instalanche! That should be good for viral-video sales.

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

"Help! I'm going down." A desperate Barney Frank calls in the big guns?

The caption from our post-election November 2008 post "Bloviating, grandstanding, bullying political hacks with little to no understanding" resonates in this election year of our new resolve to throw the bums out: "There's something seriously wrong with an America that constantly re-elects people who all but laugh in your face while squandering taxpayer money. It isn't even real money to them," observes Dan Riehl re Barney Frank's latest comment about "spending your money" for a Detroit bailout: "There's no downside to trying." Barney Frank, above, in a CNBC "Closing Bell" interview October 20 tells Maria Bartiromo "I think there are a lot of rich people out there whom we can tax at a point down the road and recover some of this money."

"There are rumors that Barney Frank, concerned about Sean Bielat’s insurgency in the 4th District, has asked Obama [who'll be stumping for Gov. Duval Patrick at the Hynes Convention Center at noon Saturday] to make an appearance in the Newton area" this weekend, writes a hyped Stacy McCain, who's on the ground here in Eastern Massachusetts getting the scoop in partnership with our own Bay State beat reporter Peter Ingemi, aka Da Tech Guy. Listen to the dynamic duo's interview of Sean Bielat at his Newton headquarters, give to Sean's Bye Bye Barney moneybomb early and often, and finally, please consider hitting the tip jar for Pete and Stacy's Have-Fedoras-Will-Travel Road Trip. Now a few thoughts on where we've been and where we've come to as we prepare for the final GOTV push — See Ace of Spades HQ for more — on the eve of this portentous election.

As a member of the Army of Davids who blogged our heart out to restore the "Kennedy Seat" back to the "People's Seat" in the special election last January that sent Mr. Brown to Washington, we're totally energized by our supremely qualified prospective citizen legislator Sean Bielat's campaign to restore the "Barney Frank Seat" back to its rightful owners.

By the time we discovered Sean's "Retire Barney" campaign at the April 2010 Boston Tea Party on the Common, we'd gotten into the habit of giving to "strategic small-government candidates, not parties." Thinking strategically, we skipped over "our own far less powerful MA 8 District Rep. Michael Capuano to go straight for the jugular of the man who did so much to precipitate the nation's current economic woes," as we wrote a couple of months back.

It's all about disintermediating the powers that be via the internet and every other medium out there, from blogging and twittering and social networking on Facebook to beat reporting à la Fedora, knocking on doors and phonebanking from campaign HQ or from home. This new kind of grassroots campaigning is shaking up the establishment of both parties in what we love to call "term limits by other means."

And now there's an even easier way to put your money where your mouth is, the Election Day Tea Party Cash-for-Candidates program (h/t DanRiehl) that kicked off yesterday and ends at midnight tonight. Scroll down for our man Sean Bielat, #49. As Dan says:

If the cash is going directly to the candidates for any organization, then it sounds like a good idea. I think the trending is away from giving to orgs … to candidates directly. And it's probaby how it should be.

Update: Goomp — a thrifty Old Yankee who lives Down East! — in the comments:

Sounds right to me. Check is in the mail for you to give where it helps the most.

Update II: Michelle Malkin Buzzworthy link!

Update III: Mary Katharine Ham at Hot Air! links:

NRCC to spend money on Sean Bielat's campaign against Barney Frank?

Frank hasn’t faced substantial competition in 30 years, and now he faces a young, Harvard-grad Marine who builds robots that save U.S. troops from IEDs. Scott Brown won the district narrowly, giving the Brown grassroots hope and turning them into Bielat evangelists.

Update IV: Stacy McCain links:

Sissy Willis says Barney Frank is going down. NTTAWWT.

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

Massachusetts Democrats: "This one-party thing isn't working out"

"Campaigns win elections, and events influence campaigns. When a congressman’s wife pleads guilty to a federal felony charge, my friends, that is an event," writes Stacy McCain, who's come up with a catchy new re-election slogan for MA-6 Rep. John Tierney: "Married to the Mob." Above, 1996 file photo of Tierney and "his then-girlfriend, and now wife, Patrice Tierney." (AP) Click here to support Tierney challenger Bill Hudak.

"Maybe Scott Brown Wasn't an Outlier," headlines RCP, linking James Antle's "RedBay State" at The American Spectator:

A strange wind is blowing in Massachusetts. Or maybe it's a red tide. Just over the past few weeks, there have been signs that the Democratic Party cannot necessarily take the homeland of Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, and Michael Dukakis for granted.

We'd caught the scent of that strange wind on the ground here in Taxachusetts way back in mid-January, as reported in our post "Chelsea Democrat for Scott Brown: "This one-party thing isn't working out":

Waiting for the phone-banking operation to get rolling, we fell to chatting with… a union man who thinks for himself: "When I was younger I voted with whatever candidate the union was backing [always the Democrat], but as I got older, I started thinking more independently and became aware during the last few years that union leaders don't care about helping the individual, just about helping themselves."

Now comes Congressman John Tierney's wife, convicted in a federal tax-fraud case. The story's all over the local papers, the blogs and the airwaves. Even local NPR affiliate WBUR had to face the rising red tide this morning. Tuck reports:

They interviewed three people from District 6. One was business as usual, pro Tierney, but the other two were disgusted.

A Newburyport machinist echoed our own electrician's disillusionment of last winter:

He said he was tired of career politicians and the corruption of this one-party state. He'd voted mostly Democrcat in the past, but this time he was going to vote Republican.

"Rep. John F. Tierney lying to a cat," we captioned this murky image taken inside Newburyport Town Hall during the Essex County Tea Party and Rally March 28, 2009, in our post "It looked like the politician had figured out pretty quickly which raised hands to call on."

Back to that RCP headline: Maybe Scott Brown wasn't an outlier? As we wrote in our midsummer post "Sissy Willis, Scott Brown doesn't want to hear from you," putting our disappointment in Brown's voting record into perspective:

The "Massachusetts Miracle" served as a catalyst to break up the incumbent logjam, promising "term limits by other means" in local and national elections this spring and come November.

We've been supporting strategic small-government candidates across the Commonwealth and beyond at least since October of last year. As our readers know, we spared Chelsea's small-potatoes MA-8 Rep. Michael Capuano this year to focus our social-networking skills on Sean Bielat's campaign to "Retire Barney" Frank. Please join us now in supporting Tierney challenger Bill Hudak. Check out his qualifications at Johnny-on-the-Spot blog/twitterbuddy Da Tech Guy's Blog, then click here to help restore "The People's Seat" of MA-6 to a genuine representative of "we the people." As Jeff S. wrote in the comments to our post "All local politics is national?" last winter:

All politics is still local — but now local is as big as the internet.

Update: Michelle Malkin Buzzworthy link!

Update II: Stacy links and gets a Memeorandum thread of his own!

Update III: Doug Ross links with an ironic twist (You had to be there):

We need real journalists on the case, not these fakes like Robert Stacy McCain. We need men like Dan Rather and Katie Couric and Bob Saget, for heaven's sakes.

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

Dan Riehl's advice to bloggers: "Instead of just ranting about it"

莎拉裴琳準備2012年選總統? (Is Palin gunning for 2012?)

"Shorter or quicker is better, imo," says alpha blogger Dan Riehl of The Riehl World — Full disclosure: We co-blog there at Dan's discretion — in one of his longer, more extended blogposts, "A Post For New, Or Striving Bloggers." Check it out for some good advice if you're just jumping into the 'sphere. Setting the scene:

When I heard Gloria Allred mention Mark Van Der Hout in her interview with Mark Levin, it was a name I didn't know, one not previously affiliated with the story. So, I went to Google and started looking into him. That the housekeeper's immigration lawyer is a card-carrying Leftist activist, precisely the type to want to help Brown, advances the story as a likely partisan election smear. No so-called journalists bothered even looking into him at the time, if they even heard his name.

Going for the jugular:

Bloggers are limited in resources, but there are hundreds of news stories breaking every day, many of them with facts and personalities that present tangents for exploring to expand the story, instead of just ranting about it, or offering your special brand of insight, no matter how clever or witty you might think it is.

"Offering your special brand of insight, no matter how clever or witty you might think it is"? That one hit a bit of a nerve here till we remembered that's where we live. We're not about to be cowed by such dissing. Take it or leave it. Fun to participate in breaking news, as we did peripherally via Twitter yesterday with Stacy McCain's scooping the Todd Palin/Joe Miller pseudo spat. Among our proudest accomplishments have been those moments — blogging, twittering and on the ground — when we've been disintermediating the powers that be by promoting fresh, new candidates to facilitate "term limits by other means," from Scott Brown's retaking of "The People's Seat" last year onward and upward to our stout-hearted support this election season of Sean Bielat's RetireBarney.com campaign. No one's better than Dan at what he does, but that notwithstanding, we're a lumper, not a splitter, and our stock in trade is making connections between/among things normally seen as separate. Perfect example from Joshua Rothkopf's excellent review of "The Social Network" the other day where the author got it almost right:

… sparkling dialogue, thorny situations, soulful performances, and an unusually open-ended and relevant engagement with a major social issue of the day: how we (dis)connect.

Good as far as he went, but that "major social issue of the day" is hardly confined to our day. It's one of the great good-vs-evil über themes of human nature and human history — "the importance of being noticed" — that we are forever flogging here. Unfortunately, all too many people haven't a clue. Meghan McCain comes to mind.

Update: Michelle Malkin Buzzworthy link!

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

Sean Bielat's "Retire Barney" campaign goes viral

"Then join hand in hand, brave Americans all! By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall!” The words of John Dickinson's "The Liberty Song, first published in the Boston Gazette July 18, 1768, resonate in this Revolutionary Election Season of 2010. Above, uniting they hang, "three young harvest mice link tails while sitting on a branch." Update: How could we have forgotten Ben Franklin's timeless "We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately"? (BIOSPHOTO / SPECIALIST STOCK / BARCROFT MEDIA)

"Let's go viral and retire Barney!" says filmmaker Greg Joyce in the comments of Ace's rousing endorsement of our man Sean Bielat to restore "The People's Seat" of Massachusetts Congressional District Four. Ace wins Best in Show for what commenter alexthechick names "A campaign slogan for the ages":

When he's not killing terrorists, he's building fuckin' robots.

Ace doesn't mince words. It's easy to see why his fans can never get enough. This is good for Sean Bielat, and it's good for the people of Massachusetts and beyond. He's got 99 commenters — and counting! — trending strongly FTW. Our own dear blogbud Neo jumped into the fray yesterday afternoon with a moneybomb of her own. Her commenter Hangtown Bob speaks for all of us tea partying warriors out here in the Army of Davids disintermediating the powers that be on the ground and via the internet:

YES!!!! Good going, Neo! This is our power. Nationalize these local elections. Today, I am contributing to Angle, O’Donnell, and Bielat.

MONEY BOMBS FOR ALL!

We were thrilled to learn that one of our heroes in the War on Terror, John Bolton — the man whose mustache repels bullets — has joined our ranks in a GOTV effort to enlist grassroots support for key House races, including Sean Bielat's:

"I joined the Election Day Tea Party project because — perhaps more than at any other in my lifetime — the results of this election cycle will determine the future of the United States as the leader of the Free World," said Ambassador John Bolton. "Election Day Tea Party is a great way for people to become involved in a substantial, productive way, no matter where you are in the country" …

Medina added, "By adopting one — or all — of these 50 challengers, volunteers from anywhere in the country can help. For instance, people can make phone calls for their candidate of choice, donate directly to them, or travel to the district to help with get-out-the-vote efforts."

When was the tipping point? We're not sure about Bolton & Company, but in our blogging neck of the woods, Neo draws back the curtain:

Yes, I saw Ace's post, which is great because he's got a LOT of traffic — I think something like 75K hits a day.

As for how I heard about Sean's candidacy — I'm not sure, had probably seen things earlier and not paid too much attention. But I believe it was when Glenn linked it the other day.

It was one of those Instapundit links that may have slipped under people's radar, because it didn't emphasize Sean's name or anything about him really. You had to follow the link to get what was happening. Then of course I went to your blog to see what you'd written a while ago, because I figured you had and I'd missed it. And searched a few others. And then I wrote my own.

I'm surprised this hasn't gotten more traction. But maybe it will now. Scott Brown didn't catch on till the last few weeks [as Professor Jacobson pointed out in his masterful "They Also Called Scott Brown A Non-Serious Exremist" this morning].

Indeed. Click here to help Retire Barney!

Note: They're bringing in the big guns: This just in over the transom as we're about to go to press: An "RNC Victory 2010" letter from Mama Grizzly Sarah Palin herself. 'Course we've kind of gotten into the habit of giving to strategic small-government candidates, not parties.

Update: Ace links! Thanks, big guy.

Update II: Trending on Memeorandum.

Update III: Our friend Gerard Van Der Leun's spanking new Rightnetwork links:

Sean Bielat: Ex-Marine Gunning for Barney Frank's Job.

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

Tea Party Power: "The question is which is to be master"

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less … The question is which is to be master … that’s all.” The Obama Administration's Orwellian/Emanuelian "rebranding" of the discredited "global warming" as "global climate disruption" comes to mind. (Life Magazine cover of Humpty Dumpty by Maxfield Parrish, March 17, 1921)

"Lotsa Tea Party energy in the air," we twittered Sistah Grizzly Angela Lash this morning, attempting a quick analysis — with "had a great fall" syntax — of the political landscape in "140 characters or less":

All the GOP's fuddy duddies and all the Journolista's men couldn't put the establishment together again!

On a mission to retake the hill and reignite the lights of the Shining City, the "almost chosen people" of our Army of Davids have been gaining ground, disintermediating the powers that be using every medium, old and new, to make our voices heard. The "Krauthammer-Rove Axis of Disdain" was stunned this week to find themselves blinking in the headlights of the onrushing narrative of Sarah Palin and the Tea Party Express. Cubachi has the animation and a nice twist to the irony of "reporters" halfway around the world getting the scoop on Christine O'Donnell and the Delaware upset:

Taiwanese animators have another funny video about the Delaware elections, the main players, and the establishment’s reaction. If only American news [could] be this humorous. Actually, we have MSNBC for that. Although they seem to be unintentionally facetious in their reportage.

A prescient bit of "commentary" from that Taiwanese animation:

The Democrats are happy about the infighting.

But could the Tea Party take them by surprise as well?

Are you listening, MSM? Probably not. The legacy media continue to hear what they want to hear and spin what the Son of Journolist wants them to spin. CNN Senior Political Analyst Gloria Borger's "analysis" last night [h/t News Busters] was typically tendentiously clueless:

The main Republican contenders [Borger's term for the establishment candidates who've been falling under the Tea Party train of late] have got to figure out a way to capture the enthusiasm of the Tea Party voters, without, in a general election, looking like they're captives of the Tea Party voters, and it's going to be a very difficult thing for someone to do because the Tea Party demands you to be ideologically pure, to a certain degree.

"Ideogically pure" is an old-think concept, Ms. Borger. As we twittered Mary Katharine Ham last evening in response to her latest Weekly Standard column, subheaded "Can't all us grizzlies get along?":

I agree sexism is not at issue. My objections in wild twitter nights have been [assertions of] litmus-test straw men.

As I blogged awhile back, those litmus tests or wedge issues are SO yesterday in the clarifying light of The Brown Revolution. [We trust the Values Voter Summiteers now meeting in DC will agree.]

Tea Partiers are focusing on larger issues: Limited government, fiscal responsibility, free markets. Big tent includes Indies & some Dems, BUT …

The powers that be — Rove & Co — don't like being disintermediated by new combos of old & new media.

This just in from Cubachi as we're about to go to "press":

Surprise! Mark Halperin gets it right about the tea parties, Palin.

Can they hear us now?

Update: Dan links in a robust, must-read declaration of our independence:

The message should be, in my opinion, this great growing influence in American politics, often best put in terms of a Tea Party movement, does not demand purity. It does not demand perfection. It demands a healthy respect for our Constitution and a willingness to have and support common sense values and policies which will pull America back from what has been a long, slow slide toward European socialism since the end of the Reagan era …

And we should continue to fight on no matter what the outcome, or challenges that lie ahead. Now, only we can put America back together, again. And we must do just that, not only for ourselves, but for generations of Americans still to come.

Update II: Cubachi links!

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

Delaware primary: Ruling Class vs Country Class

"Yes, that’s Christine O’Donnell beside the pool at the fabulous Venetian Resort Hotel. And, no, she wasn’t wearing a bikini. She did, however, agree to wear the famous fedora I borrowed from Da Tech Guy," Stacy McCain captioned the video of his interview last summer with the tea party favorite vying for Delaware's "Biden Seat" in a primary battle that has pitched Republican against Republican in a bitter clash of Ruling Class vs Country Class, establishment vs outsider (see below).

"This has been a complete out-of-state operation … It's not been a local campaign. It's not had local donations," keened Delaware Rep. Mike Castle as it began to dawn upon him that someone had changed the rules in the "closer-than-expected GOP Senate primary he's locked in against tea party favorite Christine O'Donnell": 

Castle, who last faced a primary election challenger in 1992, said the six-figure sums pumped into the state by the Tea Party Express, and the recent endorsements of O'Donnell by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, prove that his opposition is being powered by out-of-state forces.

And he's right. The usual suspects among the Northeast Corridor fuddy-duddy community were tut-tutting, The Right Scoop had the video, and 140-or-fewer-character reports like Rich Lowry's tweet about Charles Krauthammer's latest oracular pronouncement on Special Report were lighting up the 'sphere late afternoon:

charles k on palin and demint endorsements of o'donnell: "destructive, capricious, irresponsible"

Either you were for the party-sanctioned left-leaning candidate or you were flaunting (thanks to ms docweasel in the comments at RWV for the usage correction) flouting Bill Buckley's caveat about electability. The old-boys network's narrative of choice: A limited-government conservative could never win the general in deep-blue Delaware. How then to explain the fact that presumably limited-government candidate O'Donnell had been good enough for the GOP establishment in previous elections? Again, electability was the excuse for rewarding the faithful soldier and throwing the less-seasoned candidate under the bus with their "Nuts and Sluts" offensive. But the tea partiers weren't buying. We'd begun sending our dollars not to the RNC or NRSC or NRCC but to strategic small-government candidates both here in Taxachusetts and beyond, including Christine O'Donnell. Now, with lessons learned and skills acquired in earlier skirmishes of what we like to call The Brown Revolution, political outsiders were once again disintermediating the powers that be on the ground and via the internet. The poor old fuddy-duddies didn't know what hit them. As Steve Schippert twittered metaphorically:

The Republican Establishment has dug a protective moat around Castle. The problem is, we can swim.

Update: Michelle Malkin "Buzzworthy" link!

Update II: Trending on Memeorandum.

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.