Happy Hour Discurso

Today's opining on the public discourse.

Tom DeLay needs moolah for his wanna-be Move-on.org scheme:

Disgraced former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay has been making noises for a couple of years now about creating his own MoveOn.org-for-the-right activist group, which presumably would offer him a vehicle for, well, whatever it is DeLay does. Last November, he made it official, launching the “Coalition for a Conservative Majority.”

Since then, the group has had a real impact by … well, there was the one time it …. the CCM certainly made a splash when the group …. OK, no one’s heard a word from DeLay’s outfit since it started begging for cash last year. But Bob Novak reported today that DeLay is still
out there, pushing his little group, and imploring right-wing activists to send him a check.

[snip]

DeLay, who has endorsed John McCain after expressing misgivings, takes positions to the right of the Republican presidential candidate in his fund-raising appeal. DeLay asks: ”Are you concerned by the growing evidence that there are powerful forces inside our government and out who are quietly moving to have America absorbed into a globalist style ‘North American Union’ with Canada and Mexico?”

Yes, this is what DeLay has been reduced to. The former House Majority Leader wants people to believe — as Tom Tancredo, Lou Dobbs, and Ron Paul fear — that U.S. borders will be dissolved and we’ll have one big continental country. But if unhinged conservatives send the former exterminator a check, DeLay will step up to take on the “powerful forces inside our government.”

Yeah, right. This is how the right envisions grassroots movements: one big, powerful pol comes up with an idea, and then starts begging funds with ridiculous conspiracy theories. Brilliant. I think they're a little unclear on the concept of a "grass-roots movement." And when you send out a man as discredited as DeLay with hat in hand, well, is it any wonder his pet project has failed to make any impact at all?

And in other scared-shitless Republicon news, Carpetbagger reports that the "tie Dems to Obama" meme has been abandoned in favor of "tell local people you give two shits about them - in other words, lie" meme:

Now, conservative candidates are being urged to follow a very different tack.

A new playbook for House Republicans urges them to run essentially as independents, showing empathy for voters, emphasizing local issues and ignoring many traditional party campaign practices. [emphasis added]

The advice for House candidates is part of an effort to minimize Republican losses in a year when voters are exasperated by the economy, the Iraq war and President Bush:

“Encourage Republican candidates to establish themselves in a personal manner, emphasizing local issues whenever possible.”

The playbook added that Republican candidates should “develop an issues matrix that is different than in years past.” The party lost its special elections in the spring because its candidates failed to successfully establish “themselves and their local brand in contrast to the negative perception of the national GOP.”

So what they're trying to do is take a few quick steps away from the national GOP. It's equivalent to a teenager trying to walk far enough away from a parent to pretend that they're in no way associated with the remarkable dweeb who happens to be walking in the same direction. Cute, aren't they?

CB also noticed how allergic Republicons have become to the party name:

It’s striking, though, to see the advice in action. In some instances, Republicans no longer even want to tell voters which party they belong to.

Eric Kleefeld had a report from Washington state, where some statewide Republican candidates are running “without that pesky R-word next to their names.”

This was made possible by the recent adoption of a new electoral system for the state, known as “Top-Two.” All candidates will run on the same ballot, and the top two will go to a runoff election, regardless of party. The tricky part is that each candidate will get to choose the party label next to their name.

All of this means a Republican can list himself as something else — and one of the two candidates even acknowledged to us that he’s doing so precisely because he knows the GOP brand is lethal.

Dino Rossi, the 2004 Republican nominee for governor, is choosing to run as “GOP Party” for his second try. Then there’s Curt Fackler, the county Republican chairman in their stronghold area of Spokane County — he’s running for insurance commissioner as an independent, or “No Party Preference”! [emphasis added]

When even Republicons in Republicon strongholds have to say, "What me, a Republican? No! Really, I'm not! I'm an... um... independent!" you know the brand is in the deepest of deep shit.

Dana is pleased.

Drinks are on me tonight.