With only 16 days remaining before the new national face of the Republican party is elected, the anonymous emails, whispers and rumors are getting out of control. This national election might be turning into a circus.
In just a couple of weeks, 168 elected members of the Republican National Committee will make the most important vote of their RNC experience. All of the candidates are vigorously seeking votes by flying or driving to most of the states to meet the three voters in that state. Three candidates either fly their own aircraft or have rented jets. No one is spending less than six figures. 

With just a few days left to campaign RNC members are afflicted with low level, almost juvenile antonymous hit pieces.

January 8 marked the first of a series of unsigned hit pieces. When you see the by-line entitled as "Dawsonswhitemansparty@gmail.com" you know it’s going to be nasty. The South Carolina state chairman is a hearty foe of the RNC national headquarters. He has attracted national support. But the folks demonizing him are concentrating their fire of Dawson’s membership to one club that he quit a year ago. 

Twenty four hours later, Ken Blackwell was struck by another hidden gmail account, this one not so cleverly entitled "conservativesforanewmajority@gmail.com" hitting Blackwell as being "dangerously incompetent" . Blackwell is criticized for campaigning for Steve Forbes. Then the flier attacked Blackwell for losing the Governorship (when Ken battled the corrupt Taft machine which ruined the Republican brand in Ohio. )

Both pieces used similar fonts and headliners. Not too creative or original.

January 10, Michael Steele sends me "Michael Steele: Unacceptable." Well it turns out this email was not sent by Michael, but very likely the same gang who beat up Dawson and Blackwell.  It came from "michaelsteelunacceptable@gmail.com."   His flaw was joining a Republican group that he left last year. The other flaw was not raising enough money for GOPAC. The truth is GOPAC was idle until Steele turned it around and raised $8 million in 2008 alone. 

As I eagerly await my next hit piece there are two viable candidates left. I figure that last guy standing who if not attacked is either a co-conspirator or duplicitous.

The answer came shortly the next day on Sunday — with an email from "anuzislosingsupport@gmail.com."  The anonymous author is self described. Saul Anuzis is one of the most articulate state chairs who has a national conservative following. 

Since January 11, nothing about Chairman Mike Duncan.

Either the incumbent’s managers had a hand or not. At the very least, the Chairman ought to call out the connivers and denounce them. 

At the very start of our Republic we enjoyed a tradition of tough political attacks. But in Jefferson’s era the hit material was of a much higher caliber. The phrasing was imaginative and bold. The arguments were exciting. 

Probably the candidate suffering the most is the one not attacked. If this is the best his troops can muster, that alone should disqualify him. It’s these tired old campaign tricks that has alienated too many voters. Millions of conservatives are demanding a brand and leadership change. 

That will begin with the election of a new RNC Chairman.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 15th, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.