RNC Chairman Tells Holder to Investigate Obama over Fundraising Video

Not sure how much traction this one is going to get but RNC Chairman Reince Priebus will certainly ingratiate himself with the Tea Party by going on offense like this. Priebus has sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, demanding that the details behind Barack Obama's fundraising video be investigated and that there may have been a federal crime committed. The charge, levied by Preibus, is that it is illegal to solicit political contributions from where Obama was seen in the video.

Via Jake Tapper at ABC News:

The Republican National Committee has asked the Justice Department to investigate what it calls a matter of “grave concern:” President Obama’s appearance in a campaign video filmed inside the White House.

“If President Obama recorded the video in the Map Room, then it appears he has committed a crime under federal law,” RNC chairman Reince Priebus wrote in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder.

The letter attempts to revive an issue Republicans first raised weeks ago but that has failed to gain much attention or traction. Many good government groups and independent legal experts have dismissed the claims.

Still, Priebus says Obama’s use of a “place of official government business” to solicit political contributions is against the law, and that all money collected in response to the video should be returned. He stopped short of calling for the appointment of a special counsel.

The odds of Eric Holder responding to the Priebus LETTER are not even worth considering. They are zero. Nonetheless, Holder's got quite a few problems to deal with these days and if this helps his department become even further overwhelmed, so be it.

This is also a good precedent for the RNC to set. The Tea Party is tired of a reluctance to fight. As long as this is an honest attempt to do so, it will be appreciated, regardless of the outcome.

Hopefully, Boehner and McConnell are paying attention because the Tea Party wants to see similar fight in them.

h/t Drudge

DSCC Responds to Letter from the Kochs About Request for Donations

You can put this one squarely in the 'doubling down' column. Earlier this week, Koch enterprises - the entity most demonized by left wing thugs during the Wisconsin protests - received a voicemail from Democratic Senatorial Committee Chair, Patty Murray (D-WA) in which Murray asked for a five figure donation. The Koch brothers then sent a letter to DSCC inquiring as to why it would be asking them for money in light of their obvious contempt for all things Koch. More on that HERE.

Instead of apologizing or even simply ignoring the letter, thereby giving the Kochs the last word over a faux pas of the DSCC's own doing, DSCC Executive Director Guy Cecil decided instead to double down by blaming the request on a 'staff error' (nothing like throwing your subordinates under the bus) while taking a few more cheap shots, even closing the letter with one via P.S. Here is the letter:

Dear Phil:

Thank you for your genuine, heartfelt concern about our recent solicitation and your request for clarification. Indeed, the form letter and follow-up solicitation you received was a staff error.

However, the bigger and more troubling mistake is the long political history of your employer, the Koch Brothers. As a (former?) Democrat, perhaps your time would be better spent looking into their efforts to privatize Social Security or their opposition to expanding the children’s health insurance program. Or maybe, you can post a list of all of the anonymous contributions they have made to right-wing smear campaigns across the country. If you’d like to share voicemails from all the shady groups asking you for millions of dollars, we’d happily listen to those as well.

So, I write to make it clear that your invitation was an error and has been rescinded.

Sincerely,

Guy Cecil
Executive Director
Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee

P.S.: I was impressed how quickly you responded, given how often you must be on the phone with Governor Walker of Wisconsin.

Can you believe this level of immaturity coming from the head of a major political party's campaign committee? I know, I know. We are talking Democrats but we're talking pre-pubescent behavior here.

h/t Weasel Zippers

Democrat Senator Leaves Message for Koch Brothers: Donate to Democrats

If anyone has been demonized by the Democrats' Alinsky-style tactics more than the Koch brothers this year, you'd be hard-pressed to find them. The word 'Koch' was used as a punchline in countless sound bites and on multiple protests signs during the Wisconsin protests. MSNBC has the word in its random rotation of entities to slander and malign. Imagine their surprise when they received a voicemail from Democrat Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) in her capacity as Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) chair, asking for a five-figure campaign contribution.

First up, the voicemail message. CLICK HERE to listen.

You knew the Koch brothers would respond to that. Here is the letter, taken from the Koch Industries website:

Dear Senator Murray:

For many months now, your colleagues in the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee leadership have engaged in a series of disparagements and ad hominem attacks about us, apparently as part of a concerted political and fundraising strategy. Just recently, Senator Reid wrote in a DSCC fundraising letter that Republicans are trying to “force through their extreme agenda faster than you can say ‘Koch Brothers.’”

So you can imagine my chagrin when I got a letter from you on June 17 asking us to make five-figure contributions to the DSCC. You followed that up with a voicemail* indicating that, if we contributed heavily enough, we would garner an invitation to join you and other Democratic leaders at a retreat in Kiawah Island this September.

I’m hoping you can help me understand the intent of your request because it’s hard not to conclude that DSCC politics have become so cynical that you actually expect people whom you routinely denounce to give DSCC money.

It is troubling that private citizens taking part in the discourse have become the targets of White House and DSCC fundraising missives, and we would certainly encourage you to rethink that approach. Ultimately, I expect voters will see through that and will weigh the issues on the merits alone. But in the meantime, if you could provide me some insight on what exactly you are asking of us and why, I would be most grateful.

Sincerely,
Philip Ellender
President, Government & Public Affairs
Koch Companies Public Sector, LLC

Gotta say. That's one heckuva strategy. I urge and encourage you to give it a shot. Ingratiate yourself to someone by slandering them incessantly and then ask for their support.

A better example of liberal logic you will not find.

h/t Hot Air

Former ACORN Leader to Head Obama's Reelection Campaign

The man who holds the equivalent of the job Karl Rove held in the Bush administration is apparently leaving that gig to head up Organizing For America (OFA) so he can work on Obama's reelection campaign. Patrick Gaspard is apparently a seasoned Alinsky-ite as well. The gall here is palpable though. As Republicans in the House consider mixed seating at Tuesday's State of the Union speech in order to demonstrate civility, Obama taps a guy who used to lead an organization that's already proven to be thoroughly corrupt, to coordinate his reelection efforts.

Via Matthew Vadum at the Daily Caller:

Gaspard comes from the same world of radical left-wing community organizing that shaped Barack Obama. Gaspard is well schooled in the brutal, street-smart organizing tactics taught by the late Saul Alinsky, author of Rules for Radicals. He’s the hatchet man Obama sent to New York over a year ago to strong-arm then-Gov. David Paterson into dropping his reelection campaign. As executive director running the DNC’s day-to-day operations Gaspard will oversee Organizing for America, a project of the DNC supposedly modeled on Alinskyite organizing principles. (Former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine will remain as general chairman of the DNC.)

Born in the Democratic Republic of Congo to Haitian parents, very little is known about this Rasputin-like power behind the throne. Gaspard shuns publicity and is extremely reluctant to speak to the media on the record. Look him up on Nexis and you will find virtually nothing about this otherwise influential counselor to the leader of the free world.

But his colleagues hold him in high esteem. “Patrick is the best political mind of his generation in New York and maybe the nation,” according to Kevin Sheekey, a lieutenant of New York mayor Michael Bloomberg. “I wouldn’t dispute that,” added David Axelrod, a senior advisor in the Obama White House.

Gaspard came to the White House from ACORN’s favorite labor organization, Service Employees International Union. (SEIU Locals 100 and 880 were until recently official affiliates of ACORN.) He had been executive vice president for political and legislative affairs for SEIU Local 1199 United Healthcare Workers East, which claims to be the largest union local on the planet “representing more than 300,000 members and retirees in New York, Maryland, the District of Columbia and Massachusetts.”

Gaspard was previously revealed to be political director for ACORN’s New York branch. Although the source of this information, ACORN founder Wade Rathke, has since feigned senility and claimed he was mistaken, other evidence points to Gaspard’s involvement with the nation’s most notorious activist group.

Read it all.

VIDEO: KARL ROVE DRESSES DOWN, PADDLES BOB SCHIEFFER

To say that Karl Rove's appearance on CBS' Face the Nation was a case of guest dressing down host and paddling him for eight minutes comes as close to not being a metaphor as you can get. In fact, the only thing Karl Rove didn't say that he should have was, 'Is that the best you can do, Bob?' Try as he might, Schieffer could not get around the blatant hypocrisy when he attempted to call Rove on the matter of unnamed contributors. Rove continued to bring it back to the lack of outrage when the left does it.

Instead of acknowledging the point, Schieffer kept wanting to go back to 'the original question.' I didn't think there was anything left of the mask on the liberal media but Schieffer pulled off another layer with this blatantly biased line of questioning.

Rove almost - note, I said 'almost' - redeems himself for the treatment he gave Christine O'Donnell.



h/t Hapblog

CITIZENS UNITED CASE GETS TWO SHOTS IN THE ARM

When the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 this past January in favor of Citizens United against the FEC, Barack Obama didn't like it much. He voiced his displeasure directly at the Supreme Court Justices during the State of the Union. The argument that seemed to resonate with a majority of the public was that the ruling enabled big corporate interests, both foreign and domestic, to significantly alter elections.

That's not what this case was about........AT ALL. And there is a reason that Barack Obama is concerned. Politico reports that Obama is making campaign finance a huge issue this spring.

Aides say that with the momentum from the most complex domestic bill to pass Congress in 45 years, Obama now will push Congress to close campaign-finance loopholes opened by the Citizens United case…

People need to start asking why he is so concerned about this.

In any event, Obama's fight to render the Citizens United decision null and void took two significant blows on Friday. The New York Times reported:

WASHINGTON — Two federal courts here issued decisions on Friday addressing the impact of Citizens United, January’s big Supreme Court campaign finance ruling, on a new issue — whether the government may constitutionally restrict the size of contributions to groups that spend money to support political candidates.

One court said that individual contributions to advocacy groups known as 527s may not be limited. Another said that contributions to political parties can, though it said it was aware the resulting playing field might not be a level one.

Stephen M. Hoersting, a lawyer for the winning side in the first case, said the ruling represented a logical and welcome extension of Citizens United.

“The court affirmed,” Mr. Hoersting said in a statement, “that groups of passionate individuals, like billionaires — and corporations and unions after Citizens United — have the right to spend without limit to independently advocate for or against federal candidates.”

It would appear that the "loopholes" Obama is so concerned about closing seem to be getting closed without his help or intervention. Something else is afoot here. People need to step back and really take a look at why Mr. Obama might be so sensitive on this subject.

At the heart of the Citizens United case and why it was brought is a documentary film that was produced by a nonprofit organization which was subsequently not permitted to be advertised or marketed because of McCain Feingold. Citizens United produced a film called, Hillary: The Movie.

It was incredibly damaging to Hillary as her primary with Obama was starting to kick into gear in early 2008. With all of the baggage in Obama's past, a similar documentary about him could make Hillary look like a piker. Couple that with the fact that November 2010 has the makings of November 1994 on steroids. Obama is very concerned about groups like Citizens United tapping into that Tea Party anger and creating a buzz across the nation about a documentary that could do great political damage to not only Obama but to the entire Democratic party.

If Obama was so concerned about loopholes, he might look at those two decisions in New York on March 26th as evidence they're getting closed without him. I think it's safe to say he's not happy with either decision.

h/t to Special Guests