Forbes and Wolf to be “targeted” by the DNC
Politico is reporting that two of Virginia’s U.S. Reps. J. Randy Forbes (R-4) and Frank Wolf (R-10) will be targeted by Obama’s Organizing for America and the Democratic National Committee for their votes against the government takeover of health care.
Purportedly this is a quid pro quo by Democrats over RNC moves on House Democrats.
At this time, the “targeting” is just direct mail and, perhaps, advertising; it has not turned into candidate recruitment. Forbes, according to opensecrets.org, has no challenger, and Wolf was already being challenged by Democrats Richard Anthony and Patrick Lewis and Republican Jim Trautz.
“These are folks in districts that voted for the President, and where insurance reform is not only needed, but also politically popular. By not only voting against the needs of their constituents, but also their desire to reform the perverse health insurance system – and to do it for purely political purposes – these Republicans have put a giant target on their back. They made a disastrous choice and they will reap the consequences of that choice,” said DNC National Press Secretary Hari Sevugan in an email.
The 4th and 10th also overwhelmingly voted for the GOP ticket in 2009 (62-38 and 61-39 respectively for McDonnell).
Bring it, DNC.
Category: Campaigns and Elections
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Since Organizing for America is targeting Forbes and Wolf, will they target Nye, too? After all, he not only voted against Obama’s health care bill, but the stimulus package, the budget, and cap-and-trade.
Thanks J.R. This is Mark Fedeli, CM and Comm Director for Jim Trautz. I find this a very intriguing development. Frank Wolf has made the right choice for VA-10 and for America in opposing the government takeover of health care. But one thing that will be important in our campaign with Frank will be the hard reality of insider politics that most people in the growing grassroots conservative movement are concerned about.
In other words, we need to be asking ourselves the hard questions: Is there any accuracy in the left’s claim that the GOP is beholden to the insurance companies rather than the American people? To the degree the GOP has been compromised in its allegiance to big donors and special interests, well, that is an abrogation of responsibility. “The consent of the governed” is bedrock authority in our Declaration of Independence, and if that GOP leadership is going to effectively respond to the left’s attacks, we must be humble and open enough to admit any compromises.
For those of us who make our living in the marketplace and are not interested in being career politicians, there is an easy way to trace the source of these kinds of problems: Follow the money.
We need to keep having this discussion–where does the money trail from certain special interests lead to existing GOP representatives, and how have these representatives voted and inserted certain earmarks to represent these money interests, rather than the wishes of the voters? When we follow the money in this way, I think we’ll see a picture that is out of step with “the consent of the governed.”
Now, I have not had the time, energy, and resources to do this in full just yet, so I am hopeful that at a minimum we can use this campaign and now the tools of Internet communications to have this discussion from the grassroots up, while also involving trusted subject matter experts to inform the passions of a disturbed voter base and keep us on track. There are perils of people go too far in response to government overreach, however unconstitutional and even unjust as government takeover of healthcare and other areas of society may be.
This makes our challenge clear–there must be a full light-of-day exposure of the GOP’s compromises. And as the grassroots rises up to call out our elected representatives, we must restrain ourselves with a measured resolve and an awareness we are the ones that send incumbents back into office 93% of the time–which only maximizes the temptation to compromise by men and women who would otherwise probably be very honorable people. We have not served them well.
And there is the matter of self-righteousness, which we all know is alive and well in the Republican base–especially from those of us who believe there is objective morality and society needs to rest on it to survive. Whether it is also alive on the left is immaterial–we are the ones positing the rightness–even the righteousness of our principles. We have a higher standard, and sadly many of us have taken to looking down our noses at our fellow citizens on the left.
And the profiteers of division have made a killing on our self-righteousness.
As long the grassroots is disenfranchised, disengaged, disdainful, the attacks of the left will resonate with many in America who have yet to see the need for liberty and Constitutionally-constrained government as we see it.
THAT is what this is really all about, is it not? It’s about having a vision for America that openly deals with its past compromises and moral failings–chiefly slavery, abortion, and the treatment of the oppressed–and yet to regain our greatness through individual and economic liberty. Simply put, the government cannot lead in this. That falls to we the people, and if we do not do this–if we do not cast a superior vision for our friends across the ideological spectrum–they will be easy prey for the easy path of government doing everything that we must do for ourselves. Liberty is the harder path, but it is the only one suitable to humanity “endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights.”
There are many who are not yet awakened to the dark realities of a nation dependent on our government, but that is exactly where government takeover of health care will take us. There should be no doubt about it. BUT, if the leaders in the GOP are beholden to special interests, can they really make the case? Again, that’s why this falls to us–and that is precisely why my friend Jim Trautz is running for office.
We believe the grassroots movement is a recognition that both parties have compromised “the consent of the governed” and have chosen to align themselves with different core constituencies. This movement is about “we the people” turning the page on that culture of compromise. This begins with the acknowledgment that we have been part of the problem. We have been too disengaged and self-focused not to hold our representatives accountable to date, and not to see why many of our fellow citizens really think government takeover is better.
So, our campaign comes with a dose of humility and soberness at the enormity of the challenging questions before us all–how do we wrest control of our house from those leaders who are compromised and in the pockets of certain donors and special interests? How do we determine what specific agendas are at work through these compromised leaders, so that we can push back against those things that are not in line with our Constitution?
As hard as it may be to look openly and honestly at all this, we have no choice to turn aside from this enormous challenge. For in all this there is a great opportunity. For it is just in these kinds of challenges that deep, lasting unity and true change can come about.
From my view, it is important to note that all this comes at the end of a generation of deep culture wars across the left and right. Aren’t those ideological conflicts now taking a strange new view? We say that the issues today are no longer about left vs. right as much as they are about up vs. down. And that is a narrative the mainstream media hasn’t been able to (or wanted to) accept yet. This is not about the far right of the GOP, but the bottom of America taking issue with the top.
And who has the moral authority here? If I were in the media and really about the cause of social justice, I’d look at this thing a lot differently. The grassroots is not about pushing any sort of fundamentalist moral regime on America, but about demanding that our representatives support the individual and economic liberty laid down for us in our Constitution–and for which many have laid down their lives because they knew liberty was worth dying for.
Down here, from the grassroots up, we have the moral authority to demand a measure of fiscal responsibility and Constitutional fidelity by our government. Indeed, given the price paid for our liberty, we have a duty to do so. The media needs to embrace this narrative, or they will miss the boat when this thing hits them and their already-teetering business model like a tidal wave.
Let’s be honest…up there, from the top down in the Obama-Reid-Pelosi administration, the cards are on the table. The long arm of the government is on the march. But it has reached too far, and we the people are pushing back. We have the tools of communication to find this out, to discuss it, and to organize in opposition to it as we never could before.
Whether one embraces this view of up vs. down, one must at least admit there is a deep tension gripping America right now, and it is not the same as the left or right Culture Wars given us by our Baby Boomer forebears.
So, coming back full circle–the Jim Trautz campaign is calling for an open, honest debate before all Americans on these fundamental points–because of the present up vs. down tension, this election not mainly about the traditional left vs. right policy discussions about transportation, crime, schools, etc. There is time and place for those debates, but we cannot turn aside from the hand that history–and our own negligence–has dealt us. We have a big fat mess to clean up, and “the consent of the governed” means we the people will have to be the ones to do it.
For those interested in throwing in with us as we attempt to deconstruct this problem and solve it, Jim Trautz and the rest of us in his campaign are eager to get any and all input–from across the ideological spectrum! We mean that. We are not well funded, but that is precisely how we like it. We want the voters to own this campaign, even as we lead the charge. We are committed to Constitutionality in all that we do, and that means all voices need to be heard and fairly represented, within the broad liberty our Founders laid down for us.
God Bless America! May her best days ever be before us and our children,
Sincerely Yours,
Mark Fedeli
mfedeli[at]jimtrautz[dot]com