Greedy, Gutless & Short-Sighted: Only Magic WORD$ Get the Attention of Today's GOP

Do you want to contact the RNC or your elected representatives and actually get their attention? If so, Dinah Lord has discovered how to do it.

The background to this story is that I went bonkers when Jack Murtha got on Hardball claiming that Al Qaeda in Iraq is unrelated to bin Laden's Al Qaeda, that Iraq is in a state of civil war, that General Petraeus is lying to America, and that Petraeus did not brief Congress during his recent visit. It was utter insanity. Yet not a single elected representative from the Republican Party said word one in response. Such lack of communication has aleady mortally wounded the Republican Party, and may well result in a withdrawal from Iraq come September, if not sooner.

In my post about Murtha's Hardball performance, I suggested that we need to contact the RNC and our elected representatives and ask them to please, for God's sake, respond to Murtha.

I sent off e-mails to my elected officials and the RNC. No response.

Dinah Lord e-mails the RNC. She gets a response promising to bring the matter to the attention of RNC Chairman that day.

So what was the difference between her communication and mine?

Here is Dinah's e-mail to the RNC:

Until someone stands up and takes the gloves off to address the lies and misinformation Jack Murtha is spreading I will not be donating a single, solitary dime to any 2008 election campaigns.

Who among the Congress, Senate, Cabinet, Administration, RNC will stand up and turn the tide of Democratic spin.

I beg of you - get involved. Fight back. Somebody please.

Then stand back and watch your poll numbers improve.

Here's a good place to start. Jack Murtha's appearance on Hardball where he outright lies about General Petraeus and no one says a word about it

.
The only material difference between Dinah's e-mail and mine was her statement: "I will not be donating a single, solitary dime to any 2008 election campaigns."

This establishes two points. One, the substanive ideas that any single voter might wish to share with the RNC and their elected representatives matter far less then the $ub$tance underlying those ideas. Thus, to get the attention of one's elected representatives and the RNC, threaten not to donate money to election campaigns.

Two, our Republican party, once the home to Ronald Regan and the folks who stood for the principles embodied in the Contract With America, is largely no more. While a good portion of such folks remain in the party's rank and file, as leaders we have Trent Lott, Jerry Lewis, Ted Stevens and, until recently, Duke Cunningham. It is utterly disgusting. Unfortunately, even this incredlbly cynical and unprincipled crowd now in office appear the only viable alternative to the suicadal far left contolling the Democratic Party.

Update: Pete Hoekstra, ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, responded to my e-mail without the necessity of invoking campaign contributions. He is one of ten.

Thank you for contacting my office about the current situation in Iraq.

There is no doubt that al-Qaeda is playing a role in Iraq. In 2005, al-Qaeda leader, al-Zawahiri, outlined their strategy and cited their top priority for what they openly call the "Jihad in Iraq." The first stage is to "Expel the Americans from Iraq." Their second goal, according to al-Zawahiri, is to "Establish an Islamic authority...then develop it and support it until it achieves the level of a caliphate." In other words, they want to get rid of the U.S. Military so that they can place Iraq in the hands of militant, murderous jihadists.

Once they have accomplished their mission and America has disengaged them in Iraq, these ruthless jihadists will have safe haven in which to continue plotting against us, and frankly we know what they are capable of as demonstrated most recently in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Algeria and Morocco. I will continue to say this whenever and to whomever will listen.

Congress needs to continue encouraging open and robust debate about its policy concerning Iraq and the broader war against radical Islam because there are no easy answers or solutions. It will be a long and difficult struggle that will require the United States work on a broad number of fronts to succeed.

Again, thank you for contacting me.

Pete