Sam Berninger is running for City Council in Pittsburgh and for the first time in 70 years, a Republican, and a conservative one at that, has a chance to win. We really could use your help though, because the election is now in its final two weeks with the election on May17th. We could use your help in two ways.
1. Donate. Help us have the money to be competitive, even $5 or $10 will help IMMENSELY!! Please donate today it will make a difference.
2. Get-Out-The-Vote Calls. If you are interested in making Get Out The Vote calls on Monday, May 16th or Monday, May 17th for us please drop me an email at mark@savethegop.com.

Fact One: The CRNC broke its constitution to send paid field reps to North Carolina to campaign for McHenry
Fact Two: McHenry threatened CR Chairman to select Gourley delegates

Gotta love the corruption that is just eminanting from the black hole that is the souls of the CR folks. It is time to roast some people and I have to think Congressman McHenry is high up on that list:
Washington Office
224 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
phone: 202-225-2576
fax: 202-225-0316 District Office
Physical:
87-A 4th Street NW
Hickory, NC 28603

Mailing:
P.O. Box 1830
Hickory, NC 28603
phone: 828-327-6100
fax: 828-327-8311

STATE NEWS SOURCES:

Charlotte Observer
Raleigh News & Observer - (Politics)
Winston-Salem Journal

Musings of a New York College Republican has a good post on the upcoming factionalization of the CRNC. The whole site is well worth checking out, especially the posts on recent guerilla activism by CRs at UAlbany and RPI.

This ‘blog has to be the scariest thing I’ve ever seen.

Full Disclosure: I am in Hanoi, it is damn hot, I am cranky and have to write enough reports to overdose an 80 hour workaholic. But other than that I am in a great mood, I am in Hanoi after all.

Anyone who reads NRO knows who Meghan Cox Gurdon is. Hell, I hardly ever read her articles and I know the name. I find her prose difficult to read, mostly because I can never figure out what the article is about until the last paragraph. Recently however she wrote an article with a title that piqued my interest and actually indicated what was contained behind her link. I find it extremely frustrating to have to click on a link and have to start reading just to find the topic I am reading. It’s always a crapshoot with Mrs. Gurdon because sometimes you get a great article that really cuts up some cultural/political issue and sometimes you get a page full of quotes from five year olds that are somehow applied to the most unrelated things.

Example (please note this is a parody):

“Mommy I have mustard on my teddy bear,” Paris announces.

“I just wanted to give Mr. Cuddles some food,” protests Molly.

The geo-political dynamic at work between the two Koreas leaves much to be desired but I wonder if Kim Jong-Il has considered what a mustard stain on your teddy bear can do to harmony in a household.

Now I understand Mrs. Gurdon writes for a specific target audience: women who are common-sense conservatives who have children and are trying to relate their lives as housewives and mothers to the rest of the world. Since I am not a woman, have no children that I know of (just kidding Mom and Dad), and don’t run a household I also understand why Mrs. Gurdon’s writing and I have a hard time being friends. I understand why NRO has her, and I imagine that her work is very popular.

Ok, all that being said, she has just made a serious attempt at a more serious article . . . and then fumbled it. As you can imagine from the title her article was about China, and I have some issues with the Sino-related content. Click to continue »

Don’t look now, but President Bush actually had some intelligent things to say on foreign policy, specifically the sordid late-WWII dealings at Yalta.

For those who don’t know, the photo, which apparently some “clever” Canadian photographer who thought it would be funny to use trick perspective to put President Bush in the place of Joseph Stalin in the famous picture from the Yalta conference. I got it from Alvin Tostig, who is currently hyperventilating over the success of the Princeton Filibuster (he’s a fan).

Well as this post from CRSpin makes clear, there is every intention of stripping the following states of their credentials:

Alabama
Alaska
Arkansas
Colorado
Florida
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Kansas
Kentucky
Nebraska
New Hampshire
New Mexico
New York
Vermont
Washington
West Virginia
Wyoming

I must get going but all I have to say is that as the parliamentarian points out they are correct by the letter of the constitution, but if this ends up happening I believe it will be pretty much the end for a coherent CRNC. Eric Hoplins term will be known as the one that caused “the big split” or something along those lines. People are likely to sue and counter-CRNC federations to form, this will be an utter disaster for BOTH sides. Again I plead to find some compromise, because if this goes through with the arbitrator and the credentials committee doesn’t unanimously re-instate those delegates, well… I don’t expect the CRNC to survive it. Even usually level headed people I talked to are ready to bring down the house over this, and surely the RNC won’t like the fact that about 1/3rd of the country doesn’t officially have a College Republican Federation. I suspect Mehlman will have to step in to stop this whole process if it goes nuclear.

Unfortunately the CRNC blog-o-sphere has really gone wild with speculation regarding the CRNC Credentials Committee- going so far as to suggest a CR civil war will possibly develop. We have obtained a great deal of verified and tangible information regarding this speculation and will be posting it very soon. Check back for more.

Tangible evidence good. I hope it shows everything is on the up and up, which I am sure it will. I still will have fun attending the meeting which constitutionally must be open too the public.

Let me get to the obvious point here:
There are those in this organization who will use it and abuse it for their own personal goals and who care very little about the actual goal of the organization. The CRNC is a giant joke to most people in the movement that I’ve talked to because “its college kids playin real politics with no responsiblity.” Its time for that to change.

Brian Mazanec and Shuy and the CRVets either obviously believe that Gourley will change the CRNC for the better (or atleast keep it from falling apart) or they have been bought off by Hoplin. Knowing them I doubt they’ve been bought off, so obviously there is a legitimate concern about the future of the organization on both sides and there are souless careerists on both sides.

That being said, I think it is obvious from those not caught up in the Hoplin spin machine how bad things in the CRNC really are. Let us recap.
1. Organization spent 80%+ on fundraising
2. Sent dozens of field reps to a North Carolina primary in direct violation of the constitution
3. Oversaw an inhouse fundraising program that used the same devious tactics of RDI
4. Harrasment of dissenting chairs and College Republicans
5. A terrible public image resulting in numerous press stories about the “immoral” CRNC
6. Connections with Jack Abramoff
7. Strange accounting practices concerning funneling money to Minnesota that still have not been answered
8. A website that is wayyy behind the times
9. A ridiculous culture of silence within the CRNC that prevented any kind of reform
10. Oh and the fact that they renewed RDI’s contact before they ended, oh and AFTER it hit the press
11. Bungling of the Social Security issue from a grassroots stand point (which in their defense is hard when there is a CRNC election going on, but come on atleast SOMETHING could be done)
12. Abused their fundraising house list likely resulting in the loss of many repeat donors
13. Terrible ability to communicate to members what is actually going on in the CRNC, for example, if the credentials meeting is totally legit, why no statement, why on a Tuesday when less can come, why done without Corrine’s knowledge, why? I mean I am willing to concede they mean no harm, but if so then you are forced to conclude they are totally inept from a PR point of view, because you would want to make the meeting look as friendly and open as possible not like a secret meeting of fight club. (though a Hoplin v. Centinello fight would be fairly amusing)

Eric Hoplin: #1 Rule of the CRNC, Don’t talk about the CRNC!

Positives For HoplinCo:
1. A FieldRep program, which is mixed in its record, good things for sure but real reforms could make it better
2. No one has gone to jail… yet.

So, why do we want to re-elect these fools again? Even if not totally corrupt, which I think the evidence at least points to the fact they are, then they don’t deserve another term due to continued bungling of this whole situation. Oh yeah that’s right Don Hoplin annoited Paul Gourley so we’re all supposed to shut up and sit down unless “we hurt the party.” Well if Paul Gourley wins I will recognize him as the Chair of the CRNC and will work to make the CRNC stronger, but you better believe I will also spend it every day hounding them for transparency, honesty, and a full-and-complete audit of all the CRNCs funds. In short, I will be their worst nightmare, because I actually want the CRNC to be accountable to chapters, which I know is a RADICAL, RADICAL idea.

I mean when I mentioned this to a state chair who shall remain nameless they responded that in fact the CRNC is meant as a club for the State Chairs not for the general membership. He was being serious. We should be mad.