The Anti-Sam Brownback Blog

It seems being fellow Kansans doesn’t count for much when it comes to running for president. Robert Novak reports in his latest column:

Invitations to Tuesday’s [McCain] event were sent by Trent Lott, the newly elected Senate minority whip. Over coffee, Lott and Sen. Pat Roberts pushed McCain, though neither previously was seen as a McCainiac. They were not for McCain in 2000, and neither were the assembled party activists.

A second surprise at the coffee hour was the appearance at Lott’s side of Roberts, even though his fellow Kansas senator, Sam Brownback, also is running for president. Roberts noted that in his Tuesday remarks, but asserted McCain is the right man in the right place at the right time. Lott said much the same thing, while conceding policy disagreements with McCain (notably global warming).

This could make for some interesting plane rides to and from Washington next year.

Almost:

“OK. I’m Sam Brownback. That’s B-R-O-W-N-B …”

Standing before a TV camera Tuesday for his first local media interview since launching a presidential exploratory committee, Sen. Sam Brownback answered a reporter’s request that he spell his name.

Iowans such as Linda Rydak, a Cedar Rapids waitress, acknowledged, “I’d be lying if I told you that I’ve ever heard of Sam Brownback.”

The entire Kansas City Star article is pretty funny.

According to the Des Moines Register, it’s all about the money:

His message to Linn County Republicans attending a campaign kickoff fundraiser at the Longbranch Best Western in Cedar Rapids was that Republicans can learn lessons from a national tide toward Democrats in the 2006 midterm elections.

“The Republican base is a fiscal restraint base,” he said. “That didn’t get done.”

Yep, I’m sure fiscal restraint ranked real high on public opinion polls right before the election. If I remember correctly, there was something about a war in there as well…

Nothing new here for regular readers of TheAntiSam, but a good summation of Brownback’s closest advisers:

* David Kensinger: Kensinger has been with Brownback since his first race — for the House in 1994. Kensinger served as Brownback’s chief of staff for a time and has also done stints at Wirthlin Worldwide, a Republican polling firm, and as executive director at GOPAC. He now has his own consulting firm based in Topeka.

* Rob Wasinger: Brownback’s current chief of staff, Wasinger is moving over to help lead the presidential exploratory committee. Wasinger has been with Brownback for a decade, serving a variety of roles including understudy to Kensinger. Wasinger also worked for former Kansas Gov. Bill Graves (R) and Rep. Jerry Moran (R).

* Paul Wilson: Wilson is a partner in the media consulting firm of Wilson Grand Communications, which has long handled Brownback’s television advertising. The firm has also done work for Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts and, more recently, the ill-fated Senate bid of Rep. Katherine Harris in Florida.

* Tom Monaghan: The founder of Domino’s Pizza, Monaghan is a major force within the evangelical movement. He was one of a handful of supporters named to Brownback’s exploratory advisory committee and will likely play a lead role in the fundraising operation that the senator will put in place for a national race.

Over the last year, I’ve had several people tell me strange things about Rob Wasinger. I’ve never written about them because I don’t want to traffic in pure rumor. However, if anyone else out their has information on Rob, or any other Brownback advisers, I would love to hear about it.

As part of my service to society, I subscribe to a number of unsavory email lists. One of them is the James Dobson founded Focus on the Family’s “CitizenLink”. This particular email condenses the day’s news and filters it through a conservative lens.

With Senator Brownback being a staunch religious conservative, I thought his presidential announcement would have been front and center on this evening’s email. However, there is nary a mention of him or his announced quest to become President. Has Focus on the Family forgotten on of their most loyal supporters in Congress? Perhaps they have already pledged their support to another candidate who is more electable. Or maybe they just think he is crazy.

As of tonight, the CitizenLink website also has no mention of Brownback.

As many media outlets have pointed out, Senator Sam Brownback’s quixotic quest for the Presidency has officially begun. On the day he files the paperwork to begin an exploratory committee, I would like to point out what I think Brownback hopes to accomplish. A later post will describe how I think his candidacy will end up.

Senator Brownback hopes to tap into the conservative activists who feel voters rejected republicans in November because they strayed too far from their conservative roots. The right-wing blogosphere has brought some of that sentiment to light, but Brownback hopes that more early voters will flock to his unapologetic conservative stances.

Brownback will cast himself as the “true” conservative of the field. He will attack McCain and Giuliani as liberals in disguise. Romney will be attacked for being a Mormon, though not in public. Huckabee, should he decide to get in the race, would be a very similar candidate and would probably be attacked for his lack of international experience.

Senator Brownback’s ideal scenario would involve an under-the-radar Iowa grassroots operation run through the evangelical churches and the Iowa pro-life organizations. He would hope to be many caucus goer’s second choice, and could cut deals with other smaller candidates to trade votes if one or the other can’t make the minimum. Even with his conservative credentials, Brownback can’t hope for a win. Second place would be a bombshell, third place would be the goal and would still shock the pundits.

Coming out of an Iowa shocker, Brownback would skip New Hampshire and focus on South Carolina. Here, second place would be a necessity.

After South Carolina, Brownback would start cozying up to the front-runner. Assuming the poll leader is more moderate than him, Brownback would start to build the case that picking him for Vice President would soothe the nerves of the ultra-conservative base and add a compassionate international twist to the ticket.

Best case scenario: Vice President Brownback. Check back tomorrow for my prediction of what will actually happen.

Side note: My absence for the last couple of months was not motivated by a lack of disdain for a Brownback Presidency. Rather, I was on the staff of a campaign which did not want my views confused with those of the candidate. Thank you for your encouraging emails.

A dirty little secret of the republican party leadership is that many of them see Christian Conservatives as a distasteful, uneducated and uncouth constituency. The party leadership uses them during election season and then brushes them aside when it comes to making policy. The New York Times reports today that some Conservative Christian leaders are none too happy about this trend and are considering sitting out this fall’s midterm election:

“There is a growing feeling among conservatives that the only way to cure the problem is for Republicans to lose the Congressional elections this fall,” said Richard Viguerie, a conservative direct-mail pioneer.

“I can’t tell you how much anger there is at the Republican leadership,” Mr. Viguerie said. “I have never seen anything like it.”

What will the GOP leadership do? It’s anyone’s guess.

However, it is exactly this sort of anger and disaffection that Senator Sam Brownback is attempting to tap into for a presidential run in 2008. I may think Brownback is crazy and dangerous, but I have never doubted his religious convictions. Brownback is a true believer, and for better or worse, generally speaks his mind.

The Christian right could be looking for such a chosen son in 2008 if they are not sufficiently wooed by the GOP this cycle…

Senator Sam Brownback will speak tomorrow at the “War on Christians” conference that begins today in Washington DC.  The conference organizer described it as:

“This conference is the first to explore every aspect of the War on Christians. But we won’t just complain. We’ll offer a strategy for Christians to fight back and ultimately win the culture war and reclaim America.”

Scarborough continued: “The Republican Party often takes the Values Vote for granted. They court us as elections approach and forget us as soon as they’re over. And we fall into line. Well, I’m here to tell you that those days are rapidly drawing to a close.”

Also of note is that they appear to be planning a 2008 straw poll.  Maybe Brownback can pull more than the 1.5 percent he drew at the SRLC.

More details tomorrow after his speach.

In fact, he will be the “featured” speaker at the convention to be held on April 1st.

Why?  I have no clue.