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Can They Stop Him?

By John Fredericks

The GOP establishment loathes him. The Romney camp disavowed him. The state Party disowned him. The House Caucus dismissed him.

But who can stop him?

Georgia U.S. Rep. Paul Broun, M.D. (R-GA/10th) is poised to announce his official bid for the U.S. Senate on Wednesday in Atlanta.

Dr. Broun, one of the most unabashedly outspoken deficit hawks in Congress, is a take no prisoners, straight talking conservative that the GOP establishment loathes.

Last month, Broun was part of a secret faction that covertly attempted a spirited coup to oust House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH).

When the attempted power bounce fell apart, Broun declined to vote for Boehner’s re-election as Speaker, instead nominating Florida Rep. Allen West –even though West lost his bid for re-election in November 2012 and was no longer a member of Congress.

Boehner reportedly wants him out of the House. Broun apparently agrees, and will soon punch a one-way ticket to the Senate.

Broun’s dedicated following is fueled by a fierce fervent-like appeal to grass-roots conservatives in Central Georgia. The professional punditry class in every campaign has universally underestimated the firebrand conservative’s electoral potency since his first upset victory in a 2007 special election.

The physician’s vote strength lies in the more rural enclaves of central, southern and northern Georgia — well outside the fabled I-285 Atlanta Perimeter.

Broun is expected to face a plethora of well-known and better funded Republican candidates for the open senate seat of Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), who is retiring after two-terms.

Rove, Rove Go Away, Don’t Come Back Another Day

Tea Party Patriots, the nation’s largest tea party organization, blasted Karl Rove’s attempt to control local and state primaries with his new Washington insider group that suggests it will pick the winning and losing candidates in local races. The group announced in a New York Times exclusive on Sunday they preferred more moderate GOP candidates and admonished the Tea Party for the GOP’s recent political demise, especially in the U.S. Senate.

“Karl Rove blew hundreds of millions on losing candidates in 2012 and now he’s hitting up donors to give to a new entity that presumes to pick winners and losers in local Republican races,” said Jenny Beth Martin, National Coordinator of Tea Party Patriots.

“Instead of returning to conservative principles, Rove and the consultant class are pouring millions into picking off conservative leaders. Watering down conservative ideas is not a winning strategy.

“It was Karl Rove’s big government policies in the Bush Administration that led to the skyrocketing government spending and the economic disaster the country now finds itself in. Now, he expects top donors to invest in his project. Now, he presumes to tell Americans who they should vote for in primaries, when his own track record is not one of success,” Martin added.

“The Tea Party and the conservative movement stand on principles based on the founder’s vision of limited government. The consultant class has been on the wrong side of history and it is time for conservatives to wake-up and stop funding their sabotage of conservatism.”

Rove’s super PAC spent an estimated $127 million on behalf of the failed Romney for President campaign in 2012.

Snyder VS. Saslaw – Round 2

In a new, statewide radio ad released Tuesday by the Pete Snyder for Lt. Gov. campaign (R), top Senate Democrat Dick Saslaw is reminding Virginians that Snyder is an outsider, and not part of Richmond’s “broken political culture.”

The ad, titled “Never Heard of Him,” will run on conservative talk radio throughout the Commonwealth, and features Saslaw telling this radio host on the air that he has “never heard of” Pete Snyder.

“When it comes to reminding Virginians that Pete is an outsider and not part of Richmond’s broken political culture, we couldn’t ask for a better messenger than liberal career politician Dick Saslaw,” said Snyder spokesman Chris Bond. “There’s a good reason why career politicians and Richmond insiders like Saslaw don’t know Pete Snyder—until now. That’s because Pete’s not one of them, and he’s here to shake up politics-as-usual with real, conservative solutions, not to join their insider club.”

Snyder launched the first campaign ad of 2013 last month — taking Saslaw to task for threatening to squash Gov. Bob McDonnell’s (R-VA) transportation reform legislation in retaliation for what Saslaw called the Republicans’ “sneaky” and “underhanded” attempt to ram through a state senate redistricting bill that benefited Republican state senate incumbents.


John Fredericks is syndicated radio talk show host in Virginia and can be heard M-F 6-9 a.m. on WTNT –AM 730 & 102.9FM in D.C., WLEE AM 990 in Richmond, WHKT AM 1650 in Tidewater and WBRG AM 1050 & 104.5 FM in Lynchburg – Roanoke or streaming online at www.thejohnfredericksshow.com