media lizzy & friends

Nice profile!

This morning I had the distinct honor, and pleasure of talking with an old friend – Virginia’s Attorney General Bob McDonnell.  He’s running for Governor this year, and with no Republican opposition – he’s focusing on the needs of Virginians.  We cover the gamut: terrorism, Obama, the USS Cole, Virginia’s deep connections to the military, the economy, justice – and his record as a prosecutor, legislator, and as Attorney General.  His accomplishments have received wide, bipartisan support – and he’s made the Old Dominion a better place to live. 

Listen HERE.  He’s tested, ready, and the best man for the job.

—Media Lizzy

Hello all,

For any of you Democrats or political junkies out there, I wish you the best of luck securing your inaugural tickets for President-Elect Obama’s ceremony. While Mr. Obama deserves his celebration, I hope Democrats realize that all eyes will be on them – that pictures and stories of over the top and super extravagant parties during this period of economic distress will do little more than cement the already rapidly growing speculation that the much celebrated element of “change” will be anything but.

I saw this article this morning on Washington Post about Virginia businessman and philanthropist Earl Stafford’s purchase of a $1 million “build-a-ball” package offered by the J.W. Marriott in DC. If I was an adviser to the Obama Transition Committee, I’d hope that a visit by Mr. & Mrs. Obama to this event would be placed high on the consideration list. Stafford will be hosting a “ball for the disadvantaged.”

Having been part of inaugural fundraising in the past and knowing the kind of celebrations that go on, I hope Obama will honor his campaign commitment to be the voice for the unrepresented, disenfranchised and disadvantaged.

And that’s a ‘dern nice hotel too!

-OxyChaz

Hello all,

A few hours ago, I received a comical e-mail from our esteemed chairman of the RNC, Mike Duncan. Republican “leaders” from across the nation Republicans nationwide hailing the victory of Senator Saxby Chambiliss’ reelection efforts. The most entertaining line reads “this victory is also the first step in our efforts to rebuild our Party from the grassroots up.” Excuse me? The massive screw-ups at the NRSC resulted in this mess to begin with – this should NOT have been a contested race to begin with.

As usual, the leadership of the Republican Party is completely clueless in terms of trying to figure out how to proceed from here. The Georgia race was a hangover from November – everybody knows that.

There are two main issues that the Party needs to deal with moving forward:
1.) How to refashion the Party to be successful in the future
2.) How to act as the minority in the upcoming Obama Administration.

Issue 1 is a long discussion.

Issue 2? Well, I’d suggest reading an article that Fred Barnes wrote for the Weekly Standard titled “Put on a Happy Face: The Republican Challenge”. Take a look.

One thing is for sure – Republicans are going to have to learn how to work with the Democrats in the White House and in leadership in Congress – and it’s just not being cooperative – it’s getting something done too. As Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) says, “We’ve got to be happy warriors. We’ve got to stop being the angry white guy party.”

I, for one, am going to put on my viking helmet and slap on a smile.

-OxyChaz

They are also uneducated, out of step with the rest of the country, to be pitied, isolated, suffering in the area of “jobs, education and development”, ideologically aligned with the old Confederacy, at odds with the values of the rest of the country, and are getting what they deserve because they won’t “… get with the right program.” Hat tip to Dan Cleary for making sure I was aware of this.

Or you could ask Dwight Lewis at The Tennessean. Lewis learned all this in a phone interview with “… David A. Bositis, senior political analyst for the Washington-based Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies …” He felt it true and significant enough to share it with all of us. The Tennessean evidently agreed with him. Why publish his lunacy otherwise?

The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies is a misleading name for the group. Per Lewis, the politics and economy the JCPES finds worthy of studying are those “… of concern to African-Americans and other people of color …” The picture at their site includes pictures of Asians and Hispanics. However, reading through the headlines on their site, the only people of color mentioned are either Blacks or African Americans. There is one vague reference to “America’s minorities.”

This is the environment in which Bositis’ claims must be evaluated. And what is Bositis’ basis for making such outrageous claims? It’s his analysis of who voted for John McCain and who voted for Barack Obama. He has lots of high sounding analysis. I’ll save you some time. Anyone who voted for John McCain is all of those things in the opening paragraph. Anyone who voted for Barack Obama is not.

No word on the character of Barr, Baldwin and Nader voters. Words fail to describe how offensive Bositis’ words are, or should be, to every man or woman who supported a candidate OBO, “Other than Barack Obama.” Obviously, however, Lewis, Bositis and presumably some of their readers and supporters believe this tripe. I would point out the position of Lewis and Bositis are, on their face, far more racist and divisive than that of any of John McCain’s supporters of any color. Except, I must be wrong. It’s not possible for Blacks to be racist. Jesse Jackson himself told us so.

When people criticize me for declaring Barack Obama is not my President, I’ll take comfort in knowing that he is not mine, although he is Mr. Lewis’ President and he is Mr. Bositis’ President. To all you who want to claim Barack as your own, enjoy their company. Barack forged a coalition he greatly desired to get him elected. It contains a great many fine people who mistakenly believe in the untested, unproven promise of Barack. It also contains a great many craven, twisted racists such as Mr. Lewis and Mr. Bositis. Their bile and ignorance, passed off as lofty and intellectual analysis, is rubbish if for no other reason than it fails to address the rationale for McCain voters elsewhere. That such thinking might be indicative of the actual change and hope we’ll see as opposed the empty rhetoric Obama offered ought to terrify Americans.

Men like Lewis and Bositis are destroying Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream of integration. They are callously dividing our nation along racial lines for purposes I cannot fathom. How any sane and educated individual in 2008 can believe, let alone put into print in what should be respectable publications, the notion that millions of Americans may legitimately be labled racist and backward based solely on the vote they cast is beyond outrageous.

I’ve read it in a score of places in the last 48 hours. I cannot help but repeat it here. It’s going to be a long 4 years …

Blue Collar Muse

Happy Friday all,

As both I and Media Lizzy have opined, California’s Proposition 8 ballot initiative (a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage) was a huge step back for gays & lesbians, civil rights in general, and an embarrassing black eye for America (again). On November 4th, Proposition 8 passed by a small majority and thus gay marriages, which have been going on for some time now in California, became illegal. This Proposition has eliminated the rights of gays & lesbians to marry.

To say that gays & lesbians are disappointed would be a gross understatement. Click here, here and here to view some of the pictures and videos from the last two nights. There have been near-riots in both Los Angeles and San Francisco.

There are two main issues at hand when discussing the passage of this proposition. First is the role of the Mormon Church in this, and secondly is the issue of Barak Obama’s election and the people who came out to support him.

The Yes on 8 (support of the ban) raised about $25 million, and about $20 million has been identified as coming at the behest of the Mormon Church. This enormous and lopsided amount coming from one identifiable entity has raised the very serious question about the “church’s” role in this election, and whether moral and legal boundaries were crossed in their advocacy and support of the initiative. Several petitions and websites have been started to launch a campaign into investigating this, and attempting to revoke the IRS’s not-for-profit status of the Mormon church because of their heavy politicking.

The second overriding issue is the very serious questioning of the role of Barak Obama’s campaign to turnout large numbers of minority voters across the nation, and the way it might have affected Prop 8. President-elect Obama had stated that while he did not agree with the notion of gay marriage, he believed that a constitutionally mandated state ban on it was wrong, and thus came out against Prop 8. Many in the GLBT community feel extremely betrayed by Obama and his election. To say that the GLBT political establishment was supportive of Obama would be an understatement as well. Gays & Lesbians were working overtime to mobilize the key constituencies in California to vote for Obama. And what happened?

Well, according to many exit polls here in CA, this is what happened to Prop 8

- White voters voted against the ban, overall

- Hispanic voters were split about half and half

- Black voters supported the ban by about a 70% margin

Yeah…you can connect the dots there.

Even in “uber-liberal” Los Angeles County, the marriage ban passed. Many in the GLBT Obama campaign are feeling extremely betrayed – as almost 1.5 MILLION people who voted for Barak Obama ALSO voted for the ban. The anger and frustration is so thick that people literally cannot contain themselves – hence why you’re seeing people out marching on the streets for 2 nights in a row now.

Some other disturbing trends…

California voters approved a statewide ballot measure that would mandate that poultry farmers who use cages to contain their livestock let the animals out of their cages for a set amount of hours a day. California voters also rejected a ballot measure that would require minors to give notification to their parents or other parental authority if they were going to have an abortion.

So let’s get this straight…the chickens get the right to have free-time from their cages and 16 year olds don’t have to tell an adult that they’re having an abortion, but gays getting married is just too much? The f*ing Fosters Farms chickens got more rights out of this election than the gays did! Who is a voter who votes to let a 16 year old have an abortion without telling an adult but votes against gay marriage??? I just don’t get it.

I don’t really know what to predict going forward, but there are a LOT of pissed off gays out here in the west. I don’t know what will happen, but in some ways, this whole incident just woke up a sleeping giant. The money & talent in the gay community is unmatched – look for some kind of coordinated response. Either there will be a revolution, or we’ll have to wait another 10 years for a run at marriage equality.

-OxyChaz

Hello all,

As we move into 48 hours after November election, people’s heads are starting to come out of the fog and really look back at what has been one of the most raucous and monumental elections in recent history. Today as I unpacked my bags from my Vegas GOTV deployment, I really had a chance to take stock at what this election meant, for me and the country.

It’s clear that the major issue in this election was change – change in the economy, change in policy and in the posture that this nation takes towards itself and other nations.

Senator Obama’s election is truly a historic moment – as a person “of youth”, something like 66% of people who voted under 30 voted for the Senator from Illinois. In Los Angeles county, something like 82% of registered voters turned out at the polls – something totally awe inspiring for someone who traditionally sees turnout percentages in the 30’s.

One thing is clear, the Republicans were taken to task for failing to instill the reform they were originally elected to make. The era of the 1994 Republican Revolution is now dead.

So what does that mean? We’re now in uncharted waters. As a Republican fundraiser, media talking-head and strategist myself, I am looking around to see what might be in store for our Party, and I’m not really seeing anything I like. It’s the same old crowd vieing for control in the impending vacuum.

One of the mantras that I try to get my clients to believe in that this game is not about “thinking ahead of the curve”, it’s thinking “beyond” the curve. Really taking a sober look at what this country is about and the direction its heading, and then developing a plan that will use our principles of limited government, individual responsibility and rights to shape an agenda – and then following through with it.

The Republican Party doesn’t need to rebuild with remnants of the past…Reagan…Gingrich, etc. It’s time to use our principles (not “return to them”) to chart a new course for the Party and the conservative movement in this nation and then elect people who will adhere to that.

The question now remains who will those leaders be? How will the Party be funded, and how will the Party work with the new Administration to ensure that we don’t get steamrolled in the process? Good questions – and unfortunately I don’t have the answers yet.

As I’ve said before, change just for the sake of change is dangerous – but principled change can be one of the most important elements in engaging a new generation of conservatives that believe in our message, but not in our practice of them.

And that’s the biggest loss our Republican Party suffered in this election – we lost the trust of those who believe our message, but not in our execution. It will be our mission now to re-articulate those values, find people who truly represent them and provide a better plan than those who have just been elected to office.

The race for 2010 begins now – and there is not a day to waste.

-OxyChaz

Tuesday night, Barack Obama spoke to a waiting country and a wondering world. Found in his words are a myriad reasons to reject what he stands for. The election is over and Obama is President. Some say the healing must now begin and we must unite behind Barack. Obama himself appealed “…to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn — I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your President too.”

I say, Obama will be the President; but he will never be my President. Obama wants what he is unwilling to give. To get the job, Obama divided us. Now on the job, he yearns for unity’s strength. But leopards don’t change their spots. As he ran, so will he govern. I will not be a party to that.

Obama’s speech text is here. The video is here. Please read it before reading my comments.

When Obama “wonders if the dream of our founders is alive”, I remember what those Founders wrote. They were “dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” Obama believes some men are more equal than others. When advocating for nonexisent rights or for granting more rights to some than to me, he will be the President, but not my President.

When Obama says he wants to “… renew this nation’s promise … to restore prosperity … to reclaim the American Dream …”; when he speaks of “remaking this nation” I must ask, when was the promise broken and by whom; who stole our prosperity; who moved the American Dream out of reach of everyday Americans and who pulled down our nation that it needs to be remade? For a century, it has been the ideological allies of Barack Obama who have done so. When raising our taxes, curtailing our liberty, weakening the defense of our country and bankrupting our businesses and Economy – Obama will be the President, but not my President.

When Obama says his Presidency was launched in “the living rooms of Concord” and financed “by working men and women who dug into what little savings they had to give … to this cause” I marvel at his deception. When he enters the Oval Office it will complete a journey begun in the living room of William Ayers’ and which traveled a path financed by thousands of people Obama will not identify, many of whom are not even Americans. He will enter the office of the President, but not my President.

When Obama says “… the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime …” and references our military and families worried about tomorrow, I recoil in horror from the cavalier exploitation of those about whom he is ignorant. My son is in the military he will command and I have four more children at home to care for. When he sends my son into harm’s way but threatens not to support him while there; when he takes money for which I labor and which I need to support my family to give to families he decides need it more he will be the President, but not my President.

When Obama calls for “a new spirit of patriotism”, I struggle to find something wrong with the old one. When Obama gives away our sovereignty and national interests to our enemies and those who would weaken us he will be the President, but not my President.

When Obama calls for us to “look after not only ourselves, but each other” and to believe “that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers” I marvel at his hypocrisy. Under the old spirit of “service and responsibility” he would replace, Americans were the most generous and industrious people on earth. When Obama decides who it is I must sacrifice for and brings suffering to Main Street via higher taxes for the Wall Street Bailout he will be the President, but not my President.

Obama’s words are empty. His promise is hollow. His dreams are nightmares. To be my President, he must deny everything he confesses to believe in. He must repudiate his stated policies. He must realize the paradise he seeks is found in the principles and promises of others. As the President, he may invoke the imagery of Lincoln, King and Kennedy but his appeal to their memory defiles their legacy.

He says he will be my President. But he will not because he cannot. To expect me to believe otherwise insults me. And that, too, is something my President would not do.

Blue Collar Muse

Senator Barack Obama is poised to take Ohio, and with the addition of California’s juggernaut 55 electoral college votes – that closes the deal for Obama.

So… maybe the networks won’t call the race.  But I will.  (and so did Mark Halperin)

Senator Barack Hussein Obama will be the 44th President of the United States.

—Media Lizzy

UPDATE 3:

Republican Incumbent Jim Inhofe wins reelection in North Dakota

UPDATE 2:

Alabama Republican Incumbent Senator Jeff Sessions wins reelection.

George Republican US Senator Saxby Chambliss wins reelection, earning more than 50% of the vote – thus avoiding a runoff election on December 2.

Democrats Kerry (MA) – Biden (DE) – Pryor (AR) – Durbin (IL) – Rockefeller (WV) and Lautenberg (NJ) all held their seats.

US Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee held his seat for reelection.

UPDATE: Dems currently have 3 pickups – 54 seats in the US Senate

Incumbent Republican US Senator John Sununu has been defeated by Democrat former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen.

Senator Susan Collins has won reelection in Maine, defeating Democrat Tom Allen.

Senator Elizabeth Dole lost a bitter, bitter race for her re-election to Democrat Kay Hagan.  This is a big loss for the GOP – and it makes Obama’s bid for North Carolina in his presidential race much easier.

With Virginia Democrat pickup Mark Warner in Virginia, the Dems have picked up two US Senate seats so far – with lots more on the table for them tonight.

—Media Lizzy