The Anti-Sam Brownback Blog

During a speech to a conservative Christian radio group, Brownback told them:

“We win when we engage,” he told more than 800 people attending the Bott Radio Network’s annual Christmas party. “We lose when we sit back.”

The Bott network offers Christian programming on 39 radio station across the United States, including the Kansas City area.

Brownback, a Republican considering a run for the presidency in 2008, called abortion and gay marriage key issues that the nation needs to debate.

“We are winning this fight on life,” he said, referring to the abortion debate.

Yeah, the American people sure agree with you Sam. Except of course for those liberal pinko commie bastards in South Dakota. They must have been smoking pot in their VW’s while sipping a latte - just before voting in November to strike down the abortion ban that the Republican State House tried to force on them. Yeah, South Dakota. Real liberals.

Keep dreaming Senator.

In a post on the KC Buzz Blog, Dave Helling mentioned the following from a Brownback press conference:

Brownback says as his name recognition grows, so will fundraising for his campaign. December isn’t a good month to raise money, he told reporters.

In other words, Senator Sam Brownback’s end of the year fundraising report is going to be dismal. When you start massaging expectations this early, you know things are looking grim. The report cut off date is December 31, 2006 and the filing date is January 31, 2007. Methinks Brownback’s staff won’t have too much trouble preparing the report.

Anyone have any guesses as to Brownback’s total raised (not including his transfer from the PAC) and his Cash on Hand (COH)?

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.

So it turns out that Mitt Romney, back in the 1990’s, thought gays and lesbians were people entitled to rights and representation. While that doesn’t sound like a big deal to mainstream America, the extemists that make up the republican presidential primary are less than pleased.

Yesterday in Iowa, Senator Sam Brownback was asked about Romney’s one time support of gay rights. He punted the question:

Asked if favoring gay rights would doom a candidate in the GOP primary season, Brownback said: “I don’t know about that. I mean, where are you on taxes? The base of the party is issue-oriented and issue-driven, so those are significant things.”

Brownback said it’s far too early to dismiss candidates because of their views on volatile issues such as gay rights.

“We are way, way early in this process, so I wouldn’t rule anybody out or in at this point in time,” said Brownback.

Sure, this fits with the “compassionate” bit that Brownback is trying to play, but he has to attack, attack, attack if he hopes to have any chance at the nomination. Brownback needs to rile his backwards, extremist and bigoted voters into a frenzy of delusion that he could ever become President.

Ducking out of a chance to criticize another candidate who holds more liberal views is no way to stage a come-from-behind victory.

In presidential politics, the term “Whale” refers to the biggest of the big donors. Since they are limited by campaign finance laws from giving more than $2100 to a candidate, they bundle their donation with those of their rich friends. On the republican side, President Bush named these fundraisers pioneers ($100,000) and rangers($200,000).

The Washington Post reports that John McCain and Mitt Romney are competing for these pioneers and rangers at a frantic pace. It also notes:

Other potential 2008 GOP candidates, including former House speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.), Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, and Sens. Sam Brownback (Kan.) and Chuck Hagel (Neb.), are far behind in the pursuit of these fundraising big shots.

This is Brownback’s biggest weakness. At a certain point, it all comes down to money. He has never had to raise very much for his senate races and his lack of a high profile will hamper finding new donors. It remains to be seen whether the evangelical base that supports him with prayers will also support him with their wallets.

Brownback’s campaign staff has previously stated that they expect Iowa to be do or die for fundraising. If he does surprisingly well in Iowa, the money could come in. But running in Iowa isn’t cheap, and he will have to have a decent chunk of change in order to even be competitive.

Appearing on Fox News, Senator Sam Brownback seemed to be fed up with the pace of the war in Iraq:

BROWNBACK: And we’ve invested nearly 3,000 American lives, precious lives to each and every one of us in this country. I — I think the American public has been pretty patient. And I think we’ve been quite patient. It’s time to move forward.

WALLACE: But let me — I don’t want to put words in your mouth, Senator Brownback, and I’m sure I won’t, but I get the sense that you’re getting a little close to jumping ship on the president’s policy.

BROWNBACK: I’m not — I’m not jumping ship. I just think it’s time that we really put pressure on the situation. And we’ve been very patient with this, and we’ve invested a lot.

This is a gutsy strategy which could pay off big for him in Republican primary.

A comment on an earlier post questioned whether I was supporting Brownback’s Iraq policy. I don’t feel that I know enough about the situation in Iraq to endorse a specific course of action. However, I can tell that the current course of action is not working, and that we need change. I think Brownback can tap into Republican frustration with the war, especially it’s high cost, and could differentiate himself from the field.

According to the AP:

On another issue sure to be central to his would-be campaign, Brownback said the country is finally serious about taking the steps to reduce its dependence on foreign oil.

As part of a broader energy plan, the senator said he would be willing to consider changing his position on fuel economy standards to require automakers to make vehicles that go farther on a gallon of gas. Brownback has opposed a raise in the so-called CAFE standards but said he would support one as long as it wasn’t too steep to endanger the U.S. auto industry while it is at financial risk.

Not a position that will win him votes in Michigan, but when mixed with a large helping of ethanol worship I’m sure it will go over fine in Iowa.

In a dramatic departure from the rank and file GOP talking points on Iraq, Senator Sam Brownback is advocating a partitioning of Iraq by religious lines in order to quell the never-ending violence that is plaguing the country. The AP reports:

“We are not willing to impose a military solution in Iraq. The Iraqis, I don’t believe, are going to be capable of imposing a military solution. Therefore, you must get to some form of political equilibrium in Iraq. And by that I think you may end up having to have a Kurdish, a Sunni, a Shiite area, and Baghdad being a federal capital. Hopefully you can maintain it in one country,” he said.

This is exactly the kind of risk that Senator Sam Brownback will need to take if he is going to be competetive in the republican primary for President. While John McCain wants to throw more troops at the problem and Romney doesn’t have a clue what he wants to do, Brownback is coming out with a tough solution that just may resonate with the republican primary voters.

Another striking piece of the equation is Senator Brownback’s choice of words when describing a good outcome:

Therefore, you must get to some form of political equilibrium in Iraq.

So now mere equilibrium is a success. The sad part is, equilibrium is likely the best case scenario.

I’ll leave the implementation problems for a later post, but Brownback is certainly going to keep his press run going with this new proposal.

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.