The “one and only true party of the people” hoping to “rebuild…from the grassroots up,” according to an email from its new chairman Michael Steele, seems to be having trouble doing anything differently from the old GOP party. At least if the latest fund raising letter from Steele, charging “liberal Democrat comedian Al Franken” as “stealing Norm Coleman’s U.S. Senate seat in Minnesota,” is any indication.
On the same day that former Senator Coleman rested his so-far failed case in his election contest in St. Paul against apparent Senator-elect Al Franken, the new GOP chair sent a missive to supporters, begging for money, using the same old failed tactics of the RNC of old; namely, lying to supporters about facts, offering specious, unsupported allegations of Democrats “stealing” elections (despite all evidence to the contrary), making liberal use of the word “liberal,” and referring to Democratic party members as “Democrat” party members.
Steele’s shameless email (posted in full at the end of this article) echoes the RNC’s so-far failed conspiracy-theory strategy to “win” the Senate seat, as previously used by the Coleman camp, the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee (RSCC), the Republican National Lawyer’s Association (RNLA), and GOP propagandists from Hannity to Rush to the wingnut blogosphere which dutifully repeat all of their tin-foil hattery, and/or supply it to them in the first place…
Steele now joins the nation’s most prominent Rightwing whacko sore-losers who have been flogging baseless conspiracy theories and fully-debunked claims about Franken’s victory, ever since it became apparent last year that their man was likely voted the loser in his bid to retain the U.S. Senate seat in MN.
The RSCC itself created a conspiracy blog last year after the election, specifically to repost unsupported propaganda, and allegations from around the web, charging that Franken was in the process of “stealing” the MN election. That embarrassing website, once found at MinnesotaRecount.com has been replaced with a page claiming the site to be “Temporary Unavailable” for the last several months, ever since Coleman’s contest began.
Last month, on the same day that Franken saw a major victory in the trial, the previously-respectable-ish RNLA said goodbye to any remaining shred of credibility it may have once had, and sent out an hysterical fund raising email, similar to Steele’s, alleging Franken had faced a “major setback in the courts” and was now “desperate…to steal a seat in the United States Senate.”
All of that, even as Coleman’s own team was busted by the election contest court for having doctored evidence on Day 1 of the trial, withholding notes from Franken’s team and, just last Friday, having been discovered to have hidden both emails and a witness from the opposition in gross violation of all basic litigation tenets.
“As you may know, Norm Coleman won re-election on November 4th by 215 votes,” writes Steele, with a straight face, in yesterday’s email, referring to the uncertified, incomplete Election Night machine tabulation of MN’s ballots. “But a subsequent recount — tainted with inconsistencies and improperly counted ballots — awarded a temporary 225-vote margin to Franken.”
He fails to mention what the “tainted inconsistencies” and “improperly counted ballots” were in the state’s extraordinarily transparent post-election hand-count of some 2.9 paper ballots, the accurate counting of which was as agreed to by both Coleman and Franken’s own legal teams before the trial phase began.
According to the GOP’s Wingnut-in-Chief Steele (if you don’t count Limbaugh), the election results, following an orderly, fully-transparent hand-count (presided over by 5 multi-partisan state officials), and the subsequent election contest (presided over by three bi-partisan judges selected by the Republican Supreme Court chief justice in MN), amounts to little more than an “outrageous power grab by Al Franken and Harry Reid,” which “must not stand.”
The democratic process of the majority of voters having apparently selected Franken over Coleman is a “tragic injustice,” charges Steele, as he begs for money for the GOP, before describing the “gutter campaign tactics and shady legal maneuverings of the Left Wing” who “don’t fight fair, and [will] stop at nothing to consolidate the power they crave.”
The irony, as usual with these guys, speaks for itself.
Steele’s March 2nd, 2009 email to GOP.com members follows in full below…
To: [redacted for privacy] Subject: Unfinished Business
Dear [retracted for privacy],
As you know, my mission as the new Chairman of the Republican National Committee is to rebuild our party from the grassroots up – using new technology to spread our conservative message and remind voters that our party is the one and only true party of the people.
But before we get too far down that road, we’ve got some unfinished business to attend to. Specifically, we’ve got to stop liberal Democrat comedian Al Franken from stealing Norm Coleman’s U.S. Senate seat in Minnesota.
As you may know, Norm Coleman won re-election on November 4th by 215 votes. But a subsequent recount — tainted with inconsistencies and improperly counted ballots — awarded a temporary 225-vote margin to Franken.
As I write to you, Franken and his allies are working feverishly to persuade a panel of judges in Minnesota that certain un-counted ballots must remain un-counted… and deny the one-person, one-vote principle which is the very foundation of our democratic process.
Your immediate financial support of the Coleman for Senate Recount Fund will help us stop this tragic injustice, and I urge you to click here now to help.
As the former Lieutenant Governor of Maryland and candidate for the U.S. Senate, I’m no stranger to the gutter campaign tactics and shady legal maneuverings of the Left Wing. They don’t fight fair, and they’ll stop at nothing to consolidate the power they crave.
This outrageous power grab by Al Franken and Harry Reid must not stand. With Norm Coleman in the Senate protecting taxpayers, it would have been much more difficult for Obama and Reid to get the 60 votes they needed to pass their outrageous, pork-laden stimulus package. And with Norm in the Senate protecting workers, it will be much more difficult for the Democrats to pass “Card-Check” legislation that will prevent the right of workers to cast secret ballots in union elections.
These are but just a few of the reasons why I’m counting on you to support Norm Coleman’s recount fund with the most generous contribution you can make.
Click here to contribute $15, $25 or $35. If you can contribute $50, $100, $500 or more – up to the legal maximum of $2,300 per person – please do so now. Whatever the amount, we need your help to keep a good man doing a fine job for the conservative principles you and I share.
Republicans must once again assert that the opportunities this nation has to offer rests not in government, but in the hands of individuals. Through both our words and our deeds, our party will do just that in the elections to come.
But first, we’ve got some unfinished business from 2008. The power to return Norm Coleman to the U.S. Senate rests in your hands right now, through the click of a mouse and your contribution to the Coleman for Senate Recount Fund.
I look forward to your reply. Help me help Norm, and begin the process of rebuilding our party for 2010 and beyond.
Thanks so much,
Michael Steele
Chairman, Republican National Committee
________________________________________ Republican National Committee | 310 First Street, SE | Washington, D.C. 20003
p: 202.863.8500 | f: 202.863.8820 | e: info@gop.comPaid for by the Republican National Committee,
and authorized by Coleman for Senate ’08.
310 First Street, SE – Washington, D.C. 20003 – (202) 863-8500
www.gop.comCopyright 2008 Republican National Committee
This guy is kooky, and I hate when he’s on Bill Maher, because he blurts everyone else out and doesn’t give them a chance to talk.
Franken has more votes than Coleman. Where is the power grab? I would think the guy who received less votes and was trying to overturn an election, would be described as the one trying a “power grab”.
Guess since he has kissed and made up with rush limpballs, now he has nothin’ better to do than attack al franken.
The repug/neocons worst nightmare – a professional comedian in Congress – in Paul Wellstone’s old seat no less.
If they’d have known it would come to this, they wouldn’t have bumped him off in the first place.
This is the email I just sent out:
Mr. Steele,
I have been impressed with much of the way you have presented yourself and tried to transform the Republican Party into a more relevant force in our political system. When you spoke about understanding why the nation has no reason at all to trust Republicans, I saw a person who showed promise of understanding how fragile trust is, and how hard it is to repair breaches of trust, especially when the breaches have been as massive as they have been the last 8 years. It takes courage for people to admit they have been wrong, if they are sincere about it, and not just using it as a rhetorical device.
I even admired and supported your initial dismissal of Rush Limbaugh and saw it as a refreshing perspective coming from someone in a leadership position, as well as an augur of better things to come.
Thus I was profoundly disappointed that you almost immediately started backpedaling on your promising and accurate description of Mr. Limbaugh. Your 180 degree reversal on that had all the hallmarks of someone being compelled to change a well-considered position, out of either pressure from a person or persons in a position of power, to whom he is beholden, and/or for whom he is just a front, or someone who is afraid of someone or something unseen. Your switch from a position of courage to cowering was striking, and sad to see.
Then, on top of that, I just came across your email solicitation for the Republican Candidate in the Minnesota Senate Election Contest. I can imagine that you have not had enough time to be able to keep close tabs on those proceedings and might have relied on the input from others in characterizing that contest the way you did. If you did rely on others, I would strongly suggest that you stop listening to them, or in the strongest terms, advise them to get their facts right before they put you in a position to embarrass yourself so much again. If you spoke on your own initiative, then shame on you.
I have had the privilege of watching that election, mandated recount, and subsequent election contest, and can confidently say that the only similarities between what has actually happened in that process and how you described it is in the names of the two candidates.
It is true that at the beginning there was a cacophony of voices crying foul, corruption, malfeasance and misfeasance, fraud, massive error, conspiracy and almost every other imaginable accusation of wrongdoing that could be leveled against the Secretary of State, election officials, the DFL party, the ubiquitous ACORN, and Al Franken. That turmoil continued to be fed during the first couple of months, but over the course of these proceedings these accusations have steadily faded because they were proven almost without exception, save for some relatively innocent and unintentional confusion or errors, to have no foundation whatsoever.
In fact that whole undertaking has been the most sound, transparent, and fair process that I could imagine, in evaluating and resolving the results of this manifestation of the rather messy process we call democracy.
Your characterization of this election and its aftermath not only fails to acknowledge the heroic work done throughout this election, recount, and contest, but undermines and despicably demeans the work, as well as impugns the character, of thousands of volunteer and professional staff who have done their best to be thorough, fair, honest, and diligent in all of their efforts in completing an exercise of democratic process in the best traditions of our great democracy.
You, your colleagues, and your party, and all its associates owe an immediate, abject, profound, and sincere apology to all of the people of Minnesota. Anything less will earn you only contempt and repudiation by all citizens who look for a healthy, responsible, reputable, and admirable alternative to the Democratic Party.
And next time check your facts before you light the bonfires and start the lynching.
What else can we expect. The Repubs always shout that someone else is doing what they are doing. Mr. Brown #4 comment, good letter. But they’ll know you are a liberal enemy of America who wants our President Obama to succeed, and round file it. Now if we could send them 100,000 letters they might pay attention.
How nice that Steele took a break from groveling at the feet of his Massa Limbaugh.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=219518&title=cpac-after-party
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=220240&title=a-party-in-limbaugh
Man, I guess repubs forget that an adult only punishes a child when asked what happened in a bad situation… if they continually lie and won’t eggmit the TRUTH. 🙂
Hypocrisy, lies, faux outrage, the same tired ideas, party before country, obstruction… that’s all they got. If the MSM were even slightly less biased, they’d be less popular and in more disarray then they are now. Leaderless, directionless, and hopeless. They brought it on themselves. Screw ’em.
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CORRECTION : Your commentary states : the subsequent election contest (presided over by three bi-partisan judges selected by the Republican Supreme Court chief justice in MN)
Actually the MN-SC Chief Justice participated in the State Canvassing Board so he reccused himself from selecting the judges. The selection was made by Justice Alan Page who is the only member of the MN-SC that was not appointed by a governor but was elected by the people.
Other than that minor error, a great column.
But even better is Mr. Brown’s letter !
I guess you would. Your campaign distributed flyers that inferred you were a democrat. You distributed flyers that listed you among democrats with a sample ballot. Your campaign had signs that said Democrats for Steele. You took a salary from your campaign funds. You’re being investigated now for possible campaign finance fraud. Yeah… I guess you’d know.