Gop

Even before all the facts are out, the Republican National Committee is trying to link Barack Obama to Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was arrested today for allegedly trying to sell off Obama’s Senate seat to the highest bidder. The Hill reports that the GOP’s email to reporters included “laudatory remarks the president-elect has made [...]

Burnin’ up the internet this morning is an interview by Orlando Fox news anchor Barbara West and Joe Biden, who had to endure some positively Bachmannesque questioning. West, who is married to a GOP media consultant, is now the subject of a petition seeking an apology. Best exchange:
West: How is Sen. Obama not being a [...]

The Minnesota GOP is sending out a mailer attacking Barack Obama for his alleged “close ties to domestic terrorist” William Ayers. But at first glance it appears that the t-word is being applied to Obama: just above the mailing panel is the Democrat’s name and face, his head turned to the left. Near his mouth is a quote, attributed only to the New York Times. “I don’t regret setting bombs. I feel we didn’t do enough.”

CQ Politics — which has called the charge “so wrong it’s pants-on-fire wrong” — reports that Republicans in Virginia are sending out the same mailers.

On a day that Minneapolis mayor R.T. Rybak and St. Paul mayor Chris Coleman declare the RNC a “great success” (”nothing burned!”), we look back at the best of the RNC, including real-life delegate quotes, police ineptitude, nonsensical signs, and bird porn. Oh, my!

Last time the Republicans had a national convention, New York-based designers Thomas Fuchs and Felix Sockwell couldn’t pass up a chance to protest — only they did so in a medium they’re comfortable with: They reinvented the GOP elephant in 100 different ways. Sockwell distributed the logos — a Pepsi-sponsored GOP elephant, a trunk transformed into a gun aimed back at a soldier’s head, a pachyderm turned into a hunch-backed man with a cane — in a bicycle rickshaw throughout New York.

With another convention in the wings, I contacted the artists to see if they had any updates to their self-published book, GOP 100: Deconstructing Dumbo. While they said the book is still fresh four years later and doesn’t necessarily need updating, they had one: a retitled piece showing an elephant in prison stripes (reminiscent of this year’s convention logo). It’s now called “Larry Craig.”

With the Twin Cities set to host massive protests, an influx of media and thousands of Republicans and supporters, local corporate media are looking to fuel fears that things could get out of control. One activist group being targeted — they say, unfairly — is anarchists. They state that their plans do not include violence [...]

The UpTake has produced a remarkable video on the Minnesota Republican Party’s growing intolerance of videobloggers, who are repeatedly getting tossed out of party events or told not to film. Beginning with citizen journalist Gavin Sullivan getting indelicately removed from the District 42B convention, the piece reports that GOP events in the Sixth Congressional District [...]

Friday morning at the Humphrey Institute, former congressman, now lobbyist and big-time Republican insider Vin Weber gave an outstanding overview of the state of conservatism, focusing largely on the race for the Republican nomination for president.

Weber is the best I know at promoting his (Republican) side and his (conservative) cause without denying the obvious or [...]

An emailed request for supportive letters to the editor appears not to have elicited much support for embattled U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn.

Since Heidi Frederickson, Bachmann’s press secretary, requested support in a possibly illegal email last week, only one letter to the editor has been published in a local newspaper.  And the letter-writer has ties [...]

The St. Paul Pioneer Press sought out a Republican party official and blogger as a voice against a bill working its way through the state legislature.  But in quoting the official, the Pioneer Press failed to note that his blog has included questionable and potentially insensitive statements regarding the bill in question.

The bill, House File [...]