The Marshall Plan
By Tim Donner | Monday, January 16th, 2012 | Catch-AllNature, and apparently the 2012 US Senate race in Virginia, abhors a vacuum. So then there were five…again.
Following the recent withdrawal of a certain unnamed candidate from the US Senate race, Delegate Bob Marshall is now entering the fray.
The question everyone seems to be asking is: why? And why so late, just five months before the primary? Does he really think he can win? Is he just trying to bring attention to his aggressive legislative agenda (or perhaps just his personhood bill)? Does he have a personal agenda regarding one or more of the other Senate candidates?
No one knows for sure. Marshall is a famously mercurial personality, defined largely by a limited but passionate group of followers – and equally passionate opponents. One loyalist, herself a delegate candidate, told me during the campaign that she would “walk on her knees” for him. He also froze many potential contributors. In dialing for dollars, I encountered on several occasions funding prospects who were holding out for Bob to come to the altar.
Marshall is often the smartest guy in the room, with an encyclopedic knowledge of legislative protocol and a deep understanding of complex issues. That knowledge is matched by a unshakable commitment to social issues. In fact, Bob said many months ago that he would enter the race only if he perceived insufficient commitment to, and articulation of, the pro-family agenda among the other candidates.
Given that all the other challengers to George Allen are strongly pro-life, one would have to question whether his statement was simply the pretext for a decision he had already made, at least in principle. And history demonstrates that when the economy is the main issue in an election, it is in effect the only issue, or at least the overwhelmingly dominant one. I can testify to the reality that there has been remarkably little interest in social issues among Virginia’s activist conservatives in this election cycle.
Based on my conversations with him, Bob believes he can perform at the same level in a primary as he did in the 2008 convention, when he came within an eyelash of knocking off Jim Gilmore. But primaries are very different animals than conventions, which generally favor more conservative candidates. There is a reason Allen stacked the RPV deck to assure a primary.
Other than the obvious and well-chronicled challenge of qualifying for the ballot, his primary strategy is so far confusing. He told The Hill that Allen’s “record is going to be out of sync with people in the tea party and other conservatives,” and pointed to Allen voting to increase the debt limit and for hate crimes legislation, adding that “that sort of thing will burn the social issue people.” On the other hand, he told Roll Call that his campaign would be about “what I could do vis-à-vis Tim Kaine…I’m not contrasting myself to any Republican candidate.”
At least one other candidate’s campaign has been based primarily on depicting Allen as the embodiment of all that is wrong with the GOP. Republicans must remember that the ultimate goal is to beat Tim Kaine – and his best friend Barack Obama – and while even stark contrasts drawn with the frontrunner are legitimate and instructive, a full-on scorched earth campaign is unwise at best, particularly for candidates who hope to have a future in politics. It is undeniable that Virginia is ground zero for this most important election of our lifetimes, with both parties believing they must win the Commonwealth to control the Senate…and the White House.
One thing seems certain. Marshall’s presence will suck the air out of the room and further divide an already riven tea party base. At the same time, history and my own personal experience have proven that it is extremely difficult to flip the supporters of candidates who entered the race well before you. Even the most rational appeals to people committed to other candidates are ultimately seen by such supporters as requiring an admission that they were wrong. And people simply do not like to admit they were wrong.
In the end, Marshall’s entry might well lead to the withdrawal of one or more of the challengers. And given a level of stature, experience and political accomplishment that far exceeds the other challengers, he will invigorate and dominate conversations (and there have been very few of late) about a primary challenge to the overwhelming favorite.
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About the author
Too radical for the establishment and too establishment for the radicals, Tim is a former candidate for the US Senate and longtime entrepreneur, conservative public policy advocate and broadcast journalist. He founded One Generation Away, an educational and public policy organization, and Horizons Television, which specializes in documentary, educational and promotional video production.
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4 Responses to "The Marshall Plan"
One would be hard pressed to find a more cogent or honest assessment of a political nemesis than that of Mr. Donner’s analysis of Bob Marshall. It speaks to the integrity of the man, Donner. Others would do well to emulate that character.
His choice of words, e.g. mercurial, could not be more appropriate to the description of Bob Marshall’s nature. Anyone honest with themselves and sufficiently grounded in the tenets of Republican ideals, would be hard pressed not to be as fascinated with Bob Marshall vis a vis the properties of mercury. And equally relevant is the idea if you treat these properties casually it could kill you.
As to the inexplicably late entry of Marshall I am reminded of the quote, “Time and tide, wait for no man.” In Marshall’s perspective, matters of doing the right thing are not constrained by time.
It is an indictment of the Virginia Republican body politic that the values Bob Marshall humbly represents to us all have become a matter of back-room mockery and denigration amongst these effete elites.
In contrast, America/Virginians are in need of one who will pursue ideas and solutions that surpass the banal and empty rhetoric that has become commonplace in our campaign process.
Russell Kirk and Barry Goldwater would have been proud to stand alongside Bob Marshall as he pursues that which is simply the right thing to do.
As we watch Bob Marshall proceed in this Senate race two well known quotes may help observers keep Marshall’s actions in perspective:
There are no lost causes because there are no gained causes.
Russell Kirk
Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.
Barry Goldwater
Are children with disabilities “nature’s vengeance” and “punishment” against women who have sadly at some point in their lives had an abortion?
Opensecrets.org, 2006 Senate cycle:
Lobbyists: Top Recipients
Top 20 Recipients
Rank Candidate Office Amount
1 Santorum, Rick (R-PA) Senate $496,683
2 Allen, George (R-VA) Senate $360,919
3 Burns, Conrad (R-MT) Senate $277,045
4 Clinton, Hillary (D-NY) Senate $276,874
5 DeWine, Mike (R-OH) Senate $260,054
6 Nelson, Bill (D-FL) Senate $229,770
7 Casey, Bob (D-PA) $219,912
8 Kyl, Jon (R-AZ) Senate $209,794
9 Talent, James M (R-MO) Senate $208,050
10 Nelson, Ben (D-NE) Senate $207,085
11 Murtha, John P (D-PA) House $199,300
12 Menendez, Robert (D-NJ) Senate $198,995
13 DeLay, Tom (R-TX) House $198,200
14 Cardin, Ben (D-MD) House $197,382
15 Lieberman, Joe (I-CT) Senate $189,935
16 Conrad, Kent (D-ND) Senate $185,150
17 Cantwell, Maria (D-WA) Senate $183,765
18 Bonilla, Henry (R-TX) House $181,800
19 Kennedy, Edward M (D-MA)Senate $177,963
20 Steele, Michael (R-MD) $169,425
“It is undeniable that Virginia is ground zero for this most important election of our lifetimes, with both parties believing they must win the Commonwealth to control the Senate…and the White House.”
Never again will I vote for the lesser of two evils. NEVER AGAIN. Doing so is voting for evil. It is impossible for me to understand anyone rationalizing such an act. The political establishment IS the problem. Shall I vote for Alexei Kosygin or Leonid Brezhnev?
If the “parties” choose to present me with such a choice (Romney / Obama, Kaine / Allen), I can promise you I will write in what I truly want. This is the only thing a rational and honest person, knowing that neither “party” has a viable economic plan or truly gives a rat’s butt about my liberty, can do. If this act leads to a victory for the dems, then so be it. The R’s and D’s in the Congress have made their intentions plain; I am able to tell no difference between them on fiscal issues, property rights, personal liberty, or foreign policy.
$1.2 Trillion debt ceiling raise on the immediate horizon; they WILL pass it, trust me.
None of these establishment candidates have the balls or the knowledge to do what is needed to right this state / nation. Romney has Wall Street written all over him, and Allen is the embodiment of the good old boy network that is alive, well, and still in charge in Virginia.
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