The Political Dogfight

Preserve the Filibuster and Preserve the Founders Intent

Today, in a beautifully written and researched article, Kimberly Krautter, makes the best historical case yet for preserving the filibuster and the Balance of Powers as imagined by the Founding Fathers, George Washington, James Madison and others.

Please read: We Need a Few Good Statesmen at The Body Politic

Ms. Krautter confirms, by historical analysis, my contention that this is an attack on The Constitution and The Balance of Powers and has little or nothing to do with Appeals Courts Judges. They are merely the tool. Ms. Krautter has it nailed to the wall.

[Yeah, I'm supposed to be unplugged but this was just too good to pass up. I'll be out of Net capability in about an hour. See ya in a few days. FIGHT!]

The Fight Heats Up....and I gotta Unplug for a week or so

The Big Dog is about as fried as a person can get. I've shoved myself into this unpaid political operative role, either full-time or nearly so, for over 2 years now. Two years...that's a long time.

And it's been nearly 15 years since I pulled the plug on computers and my cel. SO...given that I've had two heart attacks in those same two years, and never missed a stroke (especially during the primary) due to my stubborn Irish nature, I'm taking a couple of weeks off with one week completely unplugged.

I'm right now in Tucson, Arizona. Tonight I will be in Silver City, New Mexico and Monday on a New Mexico ranch at about 8000ft that's five miles in off the nearest county highway. And they don't even have electricity much less broadband internet. I hope the altitude doesn't kick me around so badly I have to come back down. I never did rehab right. I was just too damn busy trying to get good men elected...then trying to convince the world through The Insurgent Political Campaign that there was a way to fight back and not have to wait for The Party to show the way.

From the Ranch I head to Santa Fe, New Mexico. I will check in from there. Talk to you in a week or less. Keep the Faith. And Never stop fighting....

Santorum Disgraces Himself and Dishonors The Senate

And today Senator Rick Santorum crossed the line in the sand:
"What the Democrats are doing is the equivalent of Adolf Hitler in 1942 saying, 'I'm in Paris. How dare you invade me. How dare you bomb my city? It's mine.' This is no more the rule of the senate than it was the rule of the senate before not to filibuster."

-- Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), quoted on the Senate floor

We need hear no more from this man who would dishonor the Senate floor with this kind of rhetoric. If I had been there, regardless of Senate tradition of civility, he would have been challenged from the floor instantly.! No one makes such an incendiary comparison of me, my positions or my Party to Adolf Hitler, as he had just done, and remains on his feet unchallenged.

He has disgraced himself, his party and his office. He must resign from Republican leadership. Thanks to many for this story and let it be know that The Political Dogfight's readers call for his resignation from leadership at least...if not from his office!

NOW is The Time! The Tyranny of The Majority is Coming

This is about The Tyranny of The Majority....The Nuclear Option

The Majority, of either party, without checks can unite with a WH of the same Party and, with these actions that invalidate the checks and balances of Senate and Congressional tradition, and unite the Executive and the Legislative!

With that accomplished then the Judiciary becomes available for seeding with Lifetime appointments that will change the course of jurisprudence and unite the New Lifetime Appointees with the Executive and the Legislative.

That accomplished it is only a matter of time before the same scenario can be played with members of the Supreme Court! And that is the Ultimate Lifetime Appointment that will shred the Constitution.

That is the goal, Ladies and Gentleman. Not simple political advantage...not the appointees...not the overturning of Senate tradition....it's the OVERTURNING OF THE CONSTITUTION! And they are doing it in such a way that it will be hard to overcome.

Now is the time we face the most serious threat to the Constitution in our lifetimes.

Now is the time to fight like Meat Eating Democratic Dawgs! Fight like you've never fought. These sons-of-bitches are trying to screw with our Constitution! Screw Politics...but this is about our National Identity and Our Future. As a nation we are being attacked from within! FIGHT!

The Nuclear Option Response You can Have in an Instant!

If Frist thinks he can trigger the Nuclear Option without INSTANT RESPONSE from us, the U.S. Citizens that think the Senate operates just fine thank you, he's wrong. A new technology is playing now and it's two types and YOU, dear reader, can help with the first. From SwingState;

In preparation for the GOP's nuclear attack on the Senate, netroots activists are signing up to get a text-message alert on their cell phones. Immediately, an army of Democrats will be rushing to computers to wage politics online. The backlash will be the largest rapid response ever. Bloggers and those with email lists will lead as Generals on the post-modern battlefield as our message spreads instantly...in every state. Before Americans see what happens on the news, they are going to learn about it from their family and friends and neighbors. Unfiltered message distribution...in real-time.

What does this do in real terms? If you sign up, it sends a message to your cel phone or PDA that tells you the Nuclear Option has been triggered. Embedded in that message is the Senate Phone Number for your State. In most cases you can just hit Reply and tell the Senate Switchboard to connect you to one of your Senators! INSTANTLY....this will all happen INSTANTLY!

Instantly the United State Senate will be flooded with phone calls from Citizen-Constituents telling them to keep the Senate rules intact!

This has never been done before the link is above and here...register your phone and wait for the message and CALL!

Those of us with Blogs will just as instantly start updating the story and liveblogging what we can find on TV and Net news sources. WE WILL BURY THEM IN THEIR OWN PUBLICITY.

These people don't realize the game has changed. We can mobilize in a heartbeat. Be part of that. Please.

John Edwards not only gets a laugh but tells the Truth

From Political Wire:

Bonus Quote of the Day

"Don't listen to Mary Beth Cahill."

-- John Edwards, as quoted in Newsweek, when asked for one lesson he'd learned from the 2004 campaign.

Link 

FundRaising Podcast

The Insurgent Political Campaign today has a podcast/blogcast about Campaign Fundraising with some different views and techniques. What would you expect from the ol' Big Dog? Take a look and listen!

Fundraising Relationships: How?

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[UPDATE: There is a very, very Important Part 2 to the above broadcast!]
If you clicked over to The Insurgent Political Campaign yesterday and listen to the Fundraising Relationship Podcast then do it again today as some very important info has been added in Part 2: The Money Gang. TBD

Col. David Hackworth R.I.P.

Today my heart breaks....and here's his estate's news release....

Col. David H. Hackworth, 1930-2005: Legendary U.S. Army Guerrilla Fighter, Champion of the Ordinary Soldier
Thursday May 5, 1:57 pm ET

NEW YORK, May 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Col. David H. Hackworth, the United States Army's legendary, highly decorated guerrilla fighter and lifelong champion of the doughboy and dogface, groundpounder and grunt, died Wednesday in Mexico. He was 74 years old. The cause of death was a form of cancer now appearing with increasing frequency among Vietnam veterans exposed to the defoliants called Agents Orange and Blue.

Col. Hackworth spent more than half a century on the country's hottest battlefields, first as a soldier, then as a writer, war correspondent and sharp-eyed critic of the Military Industrial Complex and ticket-punching generals he dismissed as Perfumed Princes. He preferred the combat style of World War II and Korean War heroes like James Gavin and Matthew Ridgeway and, during Vietnam, of Hank "The Gunfighter" Emerson and Hal Moore. General Moore, the author of  "We Were Soldiers Once and Young," called him "the Patton of Vietnam" and General Creighton Abrams, the last American commander in that disastrous war, described him as "the best battalion commander I ever saw in the United States Army."

A Political Woman of No Regrets!

Without even knowing whether the politician involved is Democrat or Repubican this is worth passing along from Political Wire:

Senator's Wife Has No Regrets

The wife of New Mexico State Senator Carlos Cisneros is accused of attacking him with a hammer, the Albuquerque Journal reports.

Said Patsy Cisneros: "It was for a damn good reason that I attacked him. He was found with another woman."

Damn.......BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...............
I believe that qualifies, Senator Cisneros, as a 'gotcha'!

Listen The Hell Up! If Karl Rove Says the Same Thing in Terms of Strategy...

[cross-posted from The Insurgent Political Campaign. There is nearly 3 hours of specific campaign material for Campaign in Red Districts and others.]

Look...I have no love for Karl Rove. But the man got the least qualified candidate elected to the Presidency twice! Do you think he might know something about PRACTICAL POLITICS?

Here's a quote today from Political Wire:

 Rove Believes Grassroots Politics is the Future

 Karl Rove believes that 2008 election will usher in a new era in nomination politics, Robert Robb says after interviewing the White House strategist. He thinks the 2008 campaign "might depart from what he describes as the '80s and '90s model, in which candidates parlay national standing and status into the nomination." Instead there will be a "reversion back to what he describes as the '60s model, in which candidates earn support by grassroots, retail politicking."

"If so, the candidates who will ultimately have the inside track aren't necessarily those on the talk shows, but those making connections with party and conservative-cause activists."

What's The Insurgent Political Campaign all about but Retail Politics? He gets it. And what's more he's willing to say so 3 years and 7 months before the next Presidential Election. Do you think that gives us enough notice?

We may despise  Rove's tactics and policies...but he has been successful. We MUST learn from those who have been successful, not those who have been unsuccessful!