CNN: Sarah Palin to team up with Michael Steele at RNC rallies

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CNN's Political Ticker, citing "multiple Republican sources," reports that Gov. Palin and RNC Chairman Michael Steele will join forces next month to hold two fundraising rallies:

The former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee will team up with the RNC chairman at an event in Anaheim, California, on October 16 and in Orlando, Florida, on October 23.

According to a copy of the invitation acquired by CNN, contributions for the events range from $25 per person to attend one of the rallies to $30,400 per couple for a private meeting and reception with Palin and party leaders.

The Republicans' plans were first reported by Politico.

In August, in what was considered a surprising move at the time, Palin attached her name to a letter and survey that was mailed to RNC donors soliciting contributions for the committee's Victory 2010 program, a nationwide get-out-the-vote effort.

Gov. Palin, who has the cultivated her reputation as a political outsider, appears to be making an effort to mend fences with the GOP establishment now that the primary season is ever and as she considers a possible 2012 presidential bid.

Since the end of the 2008 campaign, the governor's relationship with the GOP establishment inside the Beltway has been a cool one. According to CNN, she angered some Washington GOP insiders in March of 2009 by not participating in a joint fundraiser for the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) and the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC). But she actually did attend the event, although she was not one of the speakers. A year later, she asked the RNC to remove her name from an invitation to a party fundraising event in New Orleans that listed her as one of several invited guests because the committee didn't bother to ask her before using her name to promote the event.

In addition, she has supported a number of anti-establishment Tea Party candidates for the House, the Senate and governor against the party's preferred candidates in GOP primaries, and several of them won their races. Now that the Washington GOP is getting behind those candidates with campaign contributions and other forms of support, Gov. Palin appears to be more willing to work with Republican insiders. In her speech to the Iowa Republican Party’s Ronald Reagan Dinner September 17, she told a record crowd in Des Moines, "In just 46 days Republicans will put their ideas and their experience on the line to let the voters decide. It is time to unite."

Politico's Ben Smith comments:

Steele is under fire from the GOP Establishment, as always, this time for his travels outside the battlegrounds, and sometimes outside the 50 states. Palin's willingness to show up for him -- and not, say, for the "shadow RNC" led by Karl Rove and other GOP figures -- enhances his stature, and perhaps his bid for a second term of his own.

He and Palin may not have all that much in common, but they've backed one another in the past, and they're both genuine outsiders at this point, with the same enemies inside the party.

- JP

New NRSC ad: 'Prove Them Wrong'

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See how many Palin-endorsed candidates for the U.S. Senate you can count in this new NRSC ad:



Our side has really been producing some knockout ads and videos lately!

h/t: Smitty

- JP

GOP establishment shows its ugly backside in wake of O'Donnell victory (Updated)

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The Republican Party establishment is acting like spoiled children who didn't get their way in the aftermath of Christine O'Donnell's stunning upset victory in Delaware. The first bad ol' boy to show his hind end was Karl Rove, as Michelle Malkin comments:

I just finished watching Karl Rove trashing GOP Senate primary winner Christine O’Donnell. It was on Sean Hannity’s FNC show. Might as well have been Olbermann on MSNBC. The establishment Beltway strategist couldn’t even bother with an obligatory word of congratulations for O’Donnell. He criticized her “character” and “rectitude” and claimed she hadn’t answered questions about her financial woes. She did so here. Rove mocked her security concerns as “nutty.” Yet, her concerns have been more than justified. See here (second video clip).

Rove came across as an effete sore loser instead of the supposedly brilliant and grounded GOP strategist that he’s supposed to be. Expect more Washington Republicans to start sounding like Tea Party-bashing libs as their entrenched incumbent friends go down.

Then, before O'Donnell even had a chance to deliver her acceptance speech, Dan Riehl relates:

... the NRSC rushed out to say they will not support her. Video here via The Right Scoop. One source I spoke with claims that RNC Michael Steele is purportedly going to go to Delaware to support Christine O'Donnell. As I said earlier on Twitter, the NRSC is dead on the web as far as I am concerned.

@NRSC Cornyn is one of the most incompetent NRSC heads ever. Now you won't support us? You are DEAD on the web ....

I would encourage all grassroots and conservative activists and bloggers to, not just ignore them, but proactively work to run-down whatever web based initiatives they choose to employ until this matter is resolved. John Cornyn should be held accountable and removed from his NRSC position.

Finally, Mike Castle proved to be as ungracious in defeat as he was during the campaign. Channeling his inner Lisa Murkowski, the old goat refused to endorse O'Donnell:

A Rep. Mike Castle (R-Del.) campaign source confirmed to The Hill late Tuesday that the longtime congressman will not be endorsing Christine O'Donnell.

[...]

As to whether the national party would back O'Donnell, a Castle campaign source said the campaign has no knowledge of their thinking but said "they should save their money."

Gov. Palin's appeal for unity seems to have fallen on deaf ears, at least as far as the old guard is concerned.

Meanwhile, Jeffrey Lord wonders if the GOP is suicidal.

This is disgraceful behavior. The grassroots is going to have to completely take over the Republican Party and throw these corrupt bums out. But we will do it. The GOP will be the party of Reagan again if we have to drag every one of these sour old power-addicted ruling class elitists kicking and screaming out the door.

Updates...

Bravo, Jim DeMint. The South Carolina conservative Senator's PAC has set a goal of raising $174,000 for O'Donnell by next week.

Ed Morrisey has some excellent analysis and commentary at Hot Air.

Stacy McCain at The American Spectator: "This Changes Everything."

Dan Riehl looks at last night's winners and losers in the media.

Christine challenges her critics in the GOP establishment as she make the round of morning talk shows.

The GOP establishment feels the heat and turns on a dime.

- JP

NRSC survey shows Miller above 50 with double-digit lead over McAdams

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The NRSC didn't exactly get off on the right foot with Joe Milller in Alaska by sending a lawyer to help his primary opponent Sen. Lisa Murkowski. But the organization commissioned an opinion poll which shows Miller, who is armed with Sarah Palin's endorsement, well out in front of Democrat Scott McAdams by a 52%-36% margin, according to the National Journal's Hotline On Call blog:

Fully 57% say they want a GOPer to provide a check and balance over Pres. Obama, while only 33% want a Dem to help pass the WH agenda. Obama's job approval ratings clock in at just 40%, while 53% disapprove.

The top of the ticket will benefit GOPers as well. Gov. Sean Parnell (R) has a wide lead over ex-state House Min. Leader Ethan Berkowitz (D), besting the Dem by a 54%-40% margin.

Basswood Research's Jon Lerner, who has also done polling the Parnell campaign, conducted the survey of 400 likely voters August 28 and 29. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percent.

- JP

Cornyn says NRSC team is pulling out of Alaska

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More bad news for Lisa Murkowski. Not only has the Alaska Libertarian Party denied the incumbent Senator its ballot line, but the National Republican Senatorial Committee is withdrawing the team it sent to the 49th State to aid her campaign during the counting of absentee ballots:

Joe Miller, the Republican candidate poised to knock off Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) in a primary contest, said Monday he has received assurances the GOP's Senate campaign committee is removing its operatives from the state and will remain neutral.

But he maintains there is still an effort to "skew" the results in Murkowski's favor.

After emerging from Tuesday's primary with a narrow lead over Murkowski, Miller expressed concern about a potential legal battle over the election and accused the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) of "meddling" in the contest. His comments came after the NRSC's chief counsel traveled to Alaska to assist Murkowski.

The Sarah Palin-backed candidate told ABC's "Topline" webcast Monday that he spoke with NRSC Chairman John Cornyn (Texas) over the weekend, and that he "gave me his word that he is pulling his team out."

NRSC spokesman Brian Walsh affirmed that the committee would support whoever the nominee is after the winner is decided, even though its lawyer was assisting Murkowski.

State election officials will resume counting ballots Tuesday. Over 25,000 ballots remain to be processed, including absentee ballots, ballots pending under review for validity and 663 early ballots.

- JP

Stacy McCain: Alaska Libertarians meet, discuss Murkowski

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Stacy McCain hears that the executive committee of the Alaska Libertarian Party is meeting in emergency session Sunday to discuss efforts by Murkowski operatives to get the Incumbent Senator on the LP ticket as its candidate for the U.S. Senate in the event she loses the Republican primary to Joe Miller:

The Alaska LP executive committee meeting lasted more than two hours, but the committee members were sworn to secrecy about the result. A press conference is scheduled Monday in Anchorage — I’ll update with details later — and Alaska LP chairman Scott Kohlhaas could be making an appearance on Fox News.

Pointing to the recently released PPP Poll, Stacy says longtime Sarah Palin foe Andrew Halcro, who ran as an independent and was defeated by Gov. Palin in the 2006 GOP gubernatorial primary, is behind the talk about Murkowski supposedly running in the general election as the LP candidate. Such talk, says Stacy, is just that:

As for Andrew Halcro’s scheme, remember that the No. 2 official in the Alaska LP said it’s “99% ... no way” that the Libertarians would take Murkowski.

The Miller campaign, meanwhile, says someone is calling absentee voters in the 49th state and asking them who they voted for in the primary. Miller's team says they are not the ones making the calls, but one of the voters who was contacted claims that the caller identified himself as being with the NRSC. Both the NRSC and the Murkowski campaign deny making the calls. If it can be proven that the NRSC is making the calls, Dan Riehl says there will be hell to pay.

Miller appeared on CBS News' Face the Nation Sunday morning.

- JP

NRCC/NRSC Fundraider: Sarah Steals the Show

In the high drama which preceded last night's NRCC/NRSC fundraiser (see here and here), there were questions of whether Gov. Sarah Palin should be re-invited to attend, and if she agreed to show, whether she should be allowed to speak.

What Senators and Congressmen do best, aside from serving their own selfish interests of course, is compromise. So an agreement was worked out which would allow the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate to attend, but not speak. We expressed our opinion that Gov. Palin would be the logical choice to introduce Speaker Gingrich, but GOP Hill-types, especially those in the NRSC, are not in the habit of listening to the grassroots.

Gov. Palin had, after all, attracted a crowd of over 20,000 to an event in central New York which would normally draw a fraction of that number. In Westchester County the following day, she helped raise what is expected to total over $1.2 million after all the donations have been counted. The Alaska governor's election eve campaigning for Sen. Saxby Chambliss in Georgia significantly increased his margin of victory in a runoff election that had been predicted to be a close contest. Since the object of a fundraiser is to raise funds, a speaking role for Sarah Palin would have made sense.

But it was decided that the Palin presence at Monday night's event should be in a cameo role. Even so, some backers of other potential candidates for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination feared that simply by virtue of her mere appearance at the fundraiser, The People's Governor would steal the show. She did:

Newt Gingrich was the keynote speaker at Monday night's fundraising dinner for the Senate and House Republican campaign committees, but it was Sarah Palin who stole the show.

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Palin did not speak at the event, but during a break in the program for dinner, Republicans clustered around the former vice presidential nominee's table near the front of the ballroom, eager to meet the governor and pose for pictures.

It was the only table in the vast ballroom that had a crowd gathered around it -- and despite their distance from Palin's table, multiple television cameras kept their lenses trained on the governor for much of the night.

The Republicans have a genuine rock star on their hands. Unlike the Democrats, however, they don't seem to know how to use that to their own advantage.

- JP

Why Gov. Palin didn't speak at Monday fundraiser

Aaron Burke at The Hill's Blog Briefing Room figured it out:

Apparently there was a reason Sarah Palin was not allowed to speak at Monday's Senate House Dinner: Newt Gingrich used up all the time.

Burke put a clock on the keynote address, and it ran just four minutes shy of a full hour. The blogger suggests that if Gingrich is running for president, the former House Speaker "might want to be a little more succint."

- JP

Gov. Palin WILL attend fundraiser tonight in DC

It appears that NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions, for one, has mended some fences, and Gov. Palin will be attending (but not addressing) the NRSC/NRCC fundraiser tonight in Washington DC.

John Cornyn, asccording to some reports had just about blown it. That would be consistent with the direction in which he's been headed ever since becomming the NRSC chairman.

Reports from WaPo blogger Chris Cillizza at The Fix and MSDNC's Nora O'Donnell.

Before these latest developments, the GOP had a big mess on its hands.

h/t: C4P

Update: According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the dinner will be carried live on C-Span3 beginning at 6:30 PM CDT

- JP