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…
Good ‘ole Tom Monaghan. If the name of one of Brownback’s senior advisers seems familiar, think “30 minutes or it’s free” or “Get the door, it’s Domino’s!”. Yep, the billionaire that once owned Domino’s pizza is also an extreme evangelical Catholic and thus a fervent Brownback supporter.
You might have heard Monaghan’s name in the news recently regarding the university he is building in the middle of the Florida swamps. Ave Maria will be a planned community around the Catholic University of the same name. That, however, is not what made the news. A huge uproar occurred when it was reported that Monaghan will not allow any form of contraceptives to be sold in his town.
Kudos to the first reporter who asks Brownback, “Do you agree with your close adviser Tom Monaghan that all contraceptives should be banned?”
If Brownback has advisers like this now, imagine what his cabinet could be like in 2 years…
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.
Thankfully, Senator Sam Brownback is working hard to help the padded potty seat industry:
Just a week after introducing a wealth of shoe-friendly bills that would make Imelda Marcos proud, Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) has turned his attention to toilet training.
Last Thursday, Brownback introduced three measures to suspend the duties on “padded potty seats,” “traveler padded-potty seats” and “contoured padded-infant potty seats.” That oughtta cover it.
Spokesman Brian Hart said the amendments were introduced for the benefit of Mommy’s Helper, a business in Wichita, Kan.
Whew. I was worried. Thank goodness Brownback made that deft legislative maneuver.
It seems Senator Sam Brownback is taking Mark Parkinson’s defection to the Democratic party pretty hard:
“I feel personally betrayed by Mark,” said Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan.
“The fact of the matter is Kansas is a center-right state, and that’s where most people are most ideologically comfortable,” Brownback said. “We’re a high-tax state, and most people don’t like that. We believe in a lot of traditional things like marriage — the union of a man and a woman.”
He added: “A vast majority of Kansans, that’s where they are.”
I can just imagine Brownback stewing. It is his brand of extremist religious conservatism that is driving away the moderates. I’m sure in Senator Brownback’s fantasy land, everyone will want to be a conservative republican once they’ve seen the light. Well, Mark Parkinson has “seen the light” and he ran as fast as he could in the other direction.
While I missed this during the madness of last week’s final exams, I should note that Senator Sam Brownback’s broadcast indecency bill passed with unanimous consent.
This bill will mandate a tenfold inrease for fines levied by the FCC for indecent content broadcast by networks.
This bill still needs to be reconciled with a harsher House bill that would also levie fines on the performers or actors that made the indecent remark or act.