Sandy Hook

Sandy Hook

Thursday, March 04, 2010

RNC uses fear, deceit, contempt and a heap of stupidity


What happens when a 72-page hard bound copy of a confidential fund-raising document is found in the lobby of a luxury hotel in Florida? The finance arm of the GOP gets caught with their pants down and it's not a pretty sight.

The presentation, delivered by RNC Finance Director Rob Bickhart to top donors and big money raisers, displays "an  air of disdain for the party’s donors that is usually confined to the barroom conversations of political operatives."

Politico writes, "Manipulating donors with crude caricatures and playing on their fears is hardly unique to Republicans or to the RNC – Democrats raised millions off George W. Bush in similar terms – but rarely is it practiced in such cartoonish terms."

Under Michael Steele, "the RNC has shifted toward a reliance on small donors, but the document reveals extensive, confidential details of the strategy for luring wealthy checkwriters, which range from luxury retreats in California wine country to tickets to a professional fight in Las Vegas."

The RNC reacted with alarm to a question about it Wednesday, emailing major donors to warn them of a reporter’s question, and distancing Steele from its contents.

“The document was used for a fundraising presentation Chairman Steele did not attend, nor had he seen the document,” RNC Communications Director Doug Heye said in an email. “Fundraising documents are often controversial.



“Obviously, the Chairman disagrees with the language and finds the use of such imagery to be unacceptable. It will not be used by the Republican National Committee – in any capacity – in the future,” Heye said.

So, why take the time to draw it up and then have the stupidity to present it to major donors?

The presentation targets two groups of fundraisers.

For small donors, described as "Viscerel Giving," cultivate fear and extreme negative feelings toward the Obama Administration. "Reactionary."

Major donors come under the heading "Calculated Giving" - "Peer to Peer Pressure" and "Ego-driven."

A major Republican donor described the state of the RNC’s relationship with major donors as “disastrous,” with veteran givers beginning to abandon the committee, which is becoming increasingly reliant on small donors.


16 comments:

  1. They are just a bunch of scum sucking.....

    They have to resort to fear and scare tactics cuz they have no ideas, no agenda. They are irrelevant.

    Where are the major donors going, who are they gonna give to???

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  2. Snicker. What kind of dumbass even takes something like that into a public place like a hotel lobby, never mind leaves it there? Somebody's getting flogged in the dungeon underneath GOP headquarters right now.

    This may not hurt them as much with their donors as we'd hope -- people support what they support even if they don't like the individuals involved -- but if this is an indicator of the GOP's general level of competence these days.....

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  3. They have no vision. They have no plan. All that they offer is fear:

    Fear of the big, black Bolshevik Boogie Man in the White House.

    http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com

    Tom Degan

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  4. From the Republican Campaign Manual: "The only thing we have is fear itself"

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  5. You beat me. I have this story sitting in One Note for tomorrow's articles. The GOP does have a legitimate reason for tactics like these. It's the only thing they have.

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  6. I posted on this earlier today. More proof of the lack of ideas and solutions from the GOP. If that's all they've got; they've got nuthin'.

    Good post Leslie.

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  7. TC: You gotta be fast to get ahead of Shaw and me. ; )

    Actually, I just commented at her place that Steele, in an interview, said that this was unfortunate. So, I ask: because they shouldn't have done it or because they were caught?

    Thanks for coming by everyone. I enjoy your visits.

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  8. “The document was used for a fundraising presentation Chairman Steele did not attend, nor had he seen the document,”

    Of course he didn't. They never do, be they CEOs, the POTUS (Dick Nixon comes to mind), or RNC Chairman. Shenanigans come to light...deny, deny, deny. Which of course answers tnlib's question...because they got caught.

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  9. I just LOVE that it got left on a table in a hotel. WE all know what a bunch of raving idiots, but it's stuff like this that just confirms it, over and over and over again.

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  10. Other than the break-in itself, does it not remind you of the bungling Watergate player. Go for it and then deny it?

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  11. I-753: “This may not hurt them as much with their donors as we'd hope -- people support what they support even if they don't like the individuals involved -- but if this is an indicator of the GOP's general level of competence these days.....”

    A little insight as to WHY: I sent the Politico article to ALL on my email list, many of whom are Republicans. Not one Republican responded in any way to the article. It’s my guess they just deleted it without reading. They deem anything of this sort as left-wing propaganda despite the facts or the source. And, I’m certain Fox News didn’t give this expose ample coverage.

    You know what P.T. Barnum said, and Karl Rove, in his new book, calls Democrats “hypocritical.”

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  12. If all you can do is criticize and have no ideas other than fear, what's left? The R's took us to the brink of the abyss and don't have a clue how to get us out of the danger.

    The fact that anyone remains in the elephant party just shows what ignorant voters we are burdened with.

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  13. I gave up a long time ago on sending my conservative relatives anything about the GOP, even if from a conservative source like Politico. Ten-to-one, they've never heard of it and think it's a socialist rag. People are going to believe what they "want" to believe, whether it's true or not.

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  14. Sue said it well. One potential weakness of Republicans is that for a long time they've had little positive to offer. The closest they came was with the Contract on America, which was positive in the minds of government haters, social and religious conservatives and resenters. Funny thing about that, though, was that when they got power, Republicans didn't enact or follow through on the contract. That should've been the tipoff.

    The hard core Republican base doesn't care about genuinely positive, helpful programs and policies. They want to exert power and control, and stick it to their political enemies every way they can.

    What's hopeful now for Democrats and liberals is that Republicans made such a mess of things, people can't afford to go along with their nonsense any more. They need real, helpful solutions to huge problems, and the GOP has only fearmongering, naysaying, politics of personal destruction and their stale talking points to offer.

    I hope this PR debacle helps reinforce that in the minds of a whole lot of independents, especially the ones who usually identify with and vote for Republicans.

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  15. Actually, for the base, this is not a PR debacle...

    The base is saying, "HELL, YES I FEAR....."

    The PR debacle actually was a set up to get the document out in the MSM....

    When have the republicans used anything other than FEAR? But by leaking it this way they get the MSM to focus on it and all of sudden the republican support amongst the citizens will increase...

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