Allen West: 'Governed by your inferiors'

In a letter to his supporters, retired Army Lt. Col. Allen West quotes Plato -- "One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors" -- and talks about the problem of "impostors" in politics:

We are all quite familiar with the Bernie Madoff case which devastated many people here in South Florida, quite a few in Florida Congressional district 22. So many people placed their trust in what we now know was an elaborate “ponzi scheme”. The life savings of countless individuals was lost.
Just recently we have experienced another such case in the Ft Lauderdale area with a local lawyer named Scott Rothstein. The dollar amounts are not in the same strata as Madoff, only $1Billion, but that is still a pretty substantial number. One would think that we would be more attuned after the realization of what Madoff had executed.
But on an even greater scale we see the future and legacy of our Republic being stolen away by those who truly are our inferiors, impostors. . . .

Read the whole thing. You can also visit the Allen West campaign site. I first interviewed Col. West last year for the American Spectator. Given my notorious Hayekian tendencies, I was a fan as soon as the colonel started quoting Frederic Bastiat.

Last year's failure of the NRCC to spot West as a potential superstar -- they actually tried to recruit other candidates to run against him in the FL22 primary in 2008 -- was a harbinger of the problems that subsequently developed in NY23 this year. Small wonder that West singled out Doug Hoffman for praise:

The candidacy of Doug Hoffman in NY-23 portends the direction the elections of 2010, a true conservative providing an answer to the wasteful, arrogant spending of the Democrats in charge of Congress.

Fortunately, the NRCC has now awakened to the "Go West" phenomenon, so maybe things are moving in the right direction.

(Cross-posted at Hot Air Greenroom.)

Bizarre news from Washington, D.C.

Sources tell me that a flock of ravens -- hundreds of them -- have taken up roost at 320 First Street, SE. The big black birds are said to be menacing passersby, causing a foul stench with their malodorous droppings, and startling schoolchildren who come to Capitol Hill for field trips.

The weirdest thing -- and this is a rumor so disturbing that I wouldn't pass it along if it didn't come from a source who has previously been proven reliable -- is that these scary ravens are croaking something that sounds an awful lot like, "Guy! Guy! Guy! "

Furthermore, congressional staffers tell me they noticed in late July that some of these ravens built a nest in the window of 2233 Rayburn House Office Building, and that when the eggs recently hatched, the baby birds were heard to chirp, "Pete! Pete! Pete!"

NY23: Dan Riehl on GOP bungling -- did NRCC staff put the fix in for Dede? UPDATE: Mike Long's Reaction

UPDATE 1:50 p.m.: Mike Long, chairman of the New York Conservative Party, said he had not seen Dan Riehl's report, but in a brief telephone interview said he would not be surprised by Tom Reynold's involvement in the Scozzafava pick.

Long said he had been told that at least one NRCC staffer was present at the meeting where Scozzafava was picked by NYGOP. As for the general bungling by which the ACORN-endorsed liberal was selected as the nominee, Chairman Long said of New York Republicans: "It they stood up for principles, [the Conservative Party] would have been out of business a long time ago."

PREVIOUSLY: Dan says he's got the lowdown on who screwed the pooch in this key New York congressional election. He quotes Michael Patrick Leahey's excellent account of the role played by New York Republicans, including Assemblywoman Janet Duprey. However, Dan kept digging and says it goes further up the ladder:

Duprey certainly deserves plenty of blame according to my sources, [but] the more important claim is not that the NRCC delegated the decision to local Republicans like Duprey, as Newt [Gingrich] would insist, instead they deferred to an old line power broker, former NRCC Chair and former NY Representative Tom Reynolds. They insist NRCC Executive Director, Guy Harrison, or his aides, were on the ground to sheppard [Dede] Scozzafava through the allegedly open process from selection to finish, regardless of polls, or how local Republicans felt. The NRCC in the person of Reynolds thought they knew better than that and them. . . .

Read the whole thing. It took three ballots for Scozzafava to secure the nomination, and I'd heard rumors of favor-swapping and arm-twisting. The suggestion that NRCC staff -- the hired help, as it were -- were involved in putting the fix in for Dede will enrage people, although it shouldn't really be surprising.

UPDATE: Dan Riehl has received a denial from the NRCC, Daniel Patrick Leahey is following up at TCOT, and I've linked it over at the American Spectator. Meanwhile, RNC Chairman Michael Steele is still backing Scozzafava.

UPDATE II: Not directly related, but Dana Loesch at Dump Dede gives a link to my American Spectator column, "Do You Believe in Miracles?"

Transparency is the secret of Rule 2 -- bloggers openly and shamelessly linking each other, unlike the opaque behind-the-scene wheeling and dealing of GOP Establishment operatives.

UPDATE III: And speaking of shamelessness, I'm once again soliciting contributions to the Shoe Leather Fund for my next trip up to cover NY23. Thanks to Bill Quick, Nathan in Missouri, Jeff in Walla Walla, Wash., Bryce in Oregon, Richard in Lancaster, Michael in Santa Clarita, Mr. and Mrs. Belvedere (?) and Brett in New South Wales, Australia (!) who've already kicked in today.

Every contribution -- $2, $5, $10, $20, $50 -- to help fund my on-the-road reporting is deeply appreciated. Jimmie Bise has said I rattle the tip jar until my teeth hurt, but there's no shame in my game. It's not charity, it's fee-for service. This is Old School in the New Media. We're eliminating the middleman, you see, creating a direct nexus with the readers. You foot the bill, I hit the road.

Isn't capitalism a beautiful thing?

UPDATE 3 p.m. ET: Political Byline dubs it "NY23Gate."

Conservative Doug Hoffman slams Scozzafava in guest-blog at Malkin

The Conservative Party candidate in NY-23 whacks that RINO right between her beady little eyes:

I don’t think conservatives will be fooled. The more they learn about Dede Scozzafava, the worse she does in the polls. And the more they learn about my campaign, the better we do.
We can win this thing, but we're up against limited time and an awful RNC and NRCC decision to support a liberal candidate.
Well, if the Republican Party wants to declare war against conservatives, I'm going to fight on the side of conservatives.
If you want to join my fight, I need you. We need money and we need volunteers – boots on the ground. If you can help, go to my website and sign up. Then show up.
It’s time for conservatives to show the Republican establishment who's in charge.

Not just "yes," sir, but "Hell, yes!"

Trust me: Very Important People might make this The Mother Of All Showdowns with the RINO sellouts in the GOP Establishment. Lipstick, baby.

Full background on this crucial campaign at The American Spectator. I'm planning to travel to upstate New York in the coming week to cover the final push toward the Nov. 3 election. But before you hit my tip jar, be sure you hit Doug Hoffman's tip jar first.

Letter to NRCC Chairman:NOT ONE RED CENT!

As previously announced here, Not One Red Cent will boycott the House Republican campaign committee until the Waxman-Markey Eight are repudiated. I've just posted my message to NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions:

It has become increasingly obvious of late that some Republicans have been in Washington too long. None of the eight GOP House members who voted for Waxman-Markey will be re-elected. They will either retire from the House, be defeated in next year's Republican primaries, or suffer well-deserved defeat on November 2, 2001. Therefore, every penny that the NRCC spends to support the re-election of the Waxman-Markey Eight is wasted money that could be used more effectively to support Republican challengers.
The NRCC must announce a policy of non-support for the Waxman-Markey Eight, or else NRCC fund-raising letters will go directly into the garbage cans of every previous grassroots GOP donor who is tired of seeing his contributions wasted to support nominal "Republicans" that repeatedly betray party principles. . . .

Please read the whole thing, and hit the tip jar to help support the Not One Red Cent blog. Of course, pixels are cheap, but determined persistence ought to be worth something.

UPDATE: Welcome Ed Driscoll readers. For the benefit of the uninitiated, perhaps I should explain the theory of organizational dynamics that informs my attitude toward Republican "leadership."

I am an ex-Democrat, so I have extensive experience in getting screwed over and backstabbed by clueless losers. And I've been a conservative journalist in Washington since 1997 so . . . ditto.

As I've said eleventy-zillion times, if you volunteer to be a doormat, don't complain about the footprints on your back. If you desire to retain your self-respect and dignity, you must retain sufficent independence to be willing to say, "That's it. No more. I quit. You've f***ed me over once too often."

This is not merely a principle of political life, but is of universal application in human affairs. For example, if you allow your spouse to abuse and betray you without fear of repercussions, you are as responsible for the consequences as the person who abuses and betrays you. My wife has my respect and loyalty, which she reciprocates insofar as I am deserving of her respect and loyalty. Which is to say, she trusts me about as far as she can throw me. Mrs. Other McCain's beauty is exceeded only by her wisdom.

After Friday night's Smittypalooza, several of us went out for hamburgers at a tavern near Dupont Circle. Our table was next to a group of three young people, two guys and a girl. Overhearing some remark one of them made -- he was from Alabama -- I struck up a jocular conversation. This conversation eventually disclosed that the three were "just friends," and that in fact the Alabamian among them was an intern of the supervision of the lady who (as someone else at our table subsequently remarked) as nearly as amused by my jokes as I was.

Sensing that my intentions might be misinterpreted, I found an opportunity to mention Mrs. Other McCain, to praise her virtues, and to add that we have six children. And if the point needed further emphasis I found an appropriate occasion to repeat one of my favorite sayings: "She's got a kitchen drawer full of knives, and I've got to sleep sometime."

There is truth in humor, and the same principle applies to any situation where your self-chosen loyalty is involved. I've been a University of Alabama Crimson Tide fan since I was a gamete swimming in a desperate effort to become a zygote. I can hardly conceive being anything but a 'Bama fan. Yet if the folks in Tuscaloosa should ever betray that loyalty, they would find me an implacable foe.

My loyalty to the Democratic Party was similarly hereditary. My parents would have been horrified if, in 1959, they had imagined one of their offspring might eventually vote Republican. Yet the Democrats, knowing this, took shameless advantage of that loyalty. These repeated betrayals were for years excused by me in the same way that a battered wife excuses her husband's brutality. Hell's bells, I voted for Mondale!

Then came the day that my Democratic congressman, George "Buddy" Darden, voted for the fateful legislative travesty that I recall as "The Great Gun Grab of 1994." On that day, the Democratic Party forever forfeited any further claim to my loyalty. On the first Tuesday in November of that year, I cast my first vote ever for a Republican congressional candidate -- some obscure Marietta lawyer named Barr -- thus joining the majority consensus that it was time that Mr. Darden returned to the private sector.

F*** you, Buddy Darden. And f*** you, Democrats. What part of "From My Cold Dead Hands" is so hard to understand?

Once burned, twice shy, and I could never be as blindly loyal to the Republicans as I once was to the Democrats. That kind of loyalty is for chumps. Being a partisan chump is an invitation to political rape. (Ask gay Democrats how that feels. Or ask some of the Christian conservatives who made the mistake of trusting Ralph Reed. If I ever own an outhouse, I'll name it in Reed's honor.)

Politicians will respect their constituents only if they fear their constituents. George "Buddy" Darden once thought he could screw me over without consequence, and learned otherwise in short order. Ralph Reed holds no elective office, nor will he ever. Mene mene tekel upharsin.

When the perfidious Catiline conspired to subvert the Roman republic, Cicero exposed the traitor:

Quo usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra? quam diu etiam furor iste tuus nos eludet? quem ad finem sese effrenata iactabit audacia? . . . Patere tua consilia non sentis, constrictam iam horum omnium scientia teneri coniurationem tuam non vides? . . .
O tempora, o mores! Senatus haec intellegit. Consul videt; hic tamen vivit.

Hic tamen vivit. But not for long, eh? The Waxman-Markey Eight have signed the death warrants of their political careers, and friends of the republic must be vigilant to expose anyone who aids this act of treachery.

Blame the NRCC

The Waxman-Markey Monstrosity From Hell That Will Destroy the American Economy passed the House by a vote of 219-212 last night while I was attending the inaugural Smittypalooza.

If only four votes had gone the other way, the monstrosity would have been defeated by a 216-215 vote. Therefore, it is entirely appropriate that Michelle Malkin has named the eight Republicans who voted for it. And I've got four words for the National Republican Congressional Committee:

Not One Red Cent.

We've already said Not One Red Cent for the National Republican Senatorial Committee because Sen. John Cornyn and the NRSC betrayed the GOP grassroots in Florida. Now, add the NRCC to the list.

What's the point of giving money to the national party if, on key votes, Republican members of the House are indistinguishable from Nancy Pelosi?

Why give money to the campaign committee whose job is to re-elect these RINO sellouts?

• Mary Bono Mack, California
• Mike Castle, Delaware
• Mark Kirk, Illinois
• John McHugh, New York
• Frank LoBiondo, New Jersey
• Leonard Lance, New Jersey
• Dave Reichert, Washington
• Chris Smith, New Jersey

Unless and until all eight of these swine announce their retirements -- or are defeated in next year's primaries -- I say the grassroots answer to the NRCC should be NOT ONE RED CENT!

Who's with me?

UPDATE: Michelle Malkin links. In the comments, my moderate Republican friend Joe Marier argues:

NJ Republicans in danger of getting redistricted out don't vote against the AFL-CIO, and neither do aspiring Senators in Delaware and Illinois.
Final challenge: name the 8 seats you will take back in exchange for those.
Let these eight get beat by Club For Growth-backed primary challengers, and figure the GOP would still win at least half of the subsequent general elections.

The belief that there is some sort of political security for blue-state Republicans in parroting Sierra Club propaganda and trying to buddy up to the AFL-CIO is akin to the college boy's belief that he can score with a Women's Studies major by espousing feminist cant. In all likelihood, she's a lesbian, but even if she weren't, why on earth would she be interested in the kind of guy who blabbers on about feminism?

Stop, thief!

Republican officials say they've caught a swindler at their congressional campaign committee:

The former treasurer for the National Republican Congressional Committee diverted hundreds of thousands of dollars -- and possibly as much as $1 million -- of the organization's funds into his personal accounts, GOP officials said yesterday, describing an alleged scheme that could become one of the largest political frauds in recent history.
For at least four years, Christopher J. Ward, who is under investigation by the FBI, allegedly used wire transfers to funnel money out of NRCC coffers and into other political committee accounts he controlled as treasurer, NRCC leaders and lawyers said in their first public statement since they turned the matter over to the FBI six weeks ago.
"The evidence we have today indicated we have been deceived and betrayed for a number of years by a highly respected and trusted individual," said Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), the NRCC chairman.

Who is this Ward character, and how did he become so "highly respected and trusted"? Did nobody at NRCC notice that their treasurer was living a little too large?

This isn't petty cash we're talking about. According to the NRCC's own public report, at the end of the year 2006, the coffers were nearly $1 million light; as of Jan. 31 of this year, accounts were short $740,000.

Inevitably in these kinds of cases, there will be either a trial or a plea-bargain hearing, at which point the newspapers will report a long list of stuff the perp bought with his swindled loot. It will be interesting to see what Ward got from looting the NRCC treasury.

All of this is merely alleged fraud and embezzlement, I hasten to add. But with the FBI involved and the NRCC issuing public statements, things don't look good for Ward.