Chad Kolton, a Cino spokesman, said the only thing Schlapp offered to Steele was a pledge that Cino and her allies would only say positive things about him and would do nothing to impede his efforts to secure a job at a law firm or on TV.

All in all, despite rhetoric and platitudes from Boehner and Steele addressing the help of the tea party in November’s historic gains, their attempted influence at the RNC event is telling … same old guard protecting its own.

In addition to her entrenched GOP ties, Cino has had to explain her support for a pro-abortion organization as well as her role in lobbying FOR Obamacare.

Read the article for the low down. Reince Preibus garnered enough votes on the 7th ballot to be elected Chair, with Saul Anuzis 2nd, and Maria Cino 3rd.

Reid Wilson at National Journal has a bit more on the speculated deal making with Steele.

Corie Whalen of American Majority writes a MUST READ ARTICLE (and I don’t say that often) about the process, the personalities, and the progress made by these efforts, and puts forth that now it is behind and we need to focus on the system rather than the individual representatives. I agree. IMO it does no good to primary the conservatives we just spent 18 months fighting to get into office over this one vote, when so much is stacked against them due to the legislative system. It was a battle, but it’s not the war, and they are good soldiers.

Please read her article. Comments welcome. Just a sample …

However, if tea partiers in Texas, who are doing a great job of focusing on state level issues in 2011, are ignorant to the system their Representatives are faced with, and think the threat of “WE’LL VOTE YOU OUT!” is greater than the Speaker’s “You won’t be granted any committee positions and your policy priorities will be put on the backburner”, guess what? They’re going to take their chances on disappointing the grassroots with one vote – a vote that A: will give their legislative agenda priority if they’re on the right side of the race, and B: provide them with potential fundraising for their reelection campaign.
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Rationally, a legislator does have to balance these concerns. And in that same vein, tea partiers have to recognize that no matter who they put into office, that vote doesn’t come with an addendum where one can make operational recommendations to the Rules Committee, or, even more importantly, help craft a constitutional amendment to fundamentally alter the nature of the system.

California Activist warns RNC to choose wisely

On the Priebus of Disaster

Story by Ben Smith at Politico

Erick Erickson at Redstate has some thought

What nerve given the behavior of these same Republicans, including Graham, during the Tea Party insurgence during 2010. Graham was one of the movement’s chief critics. Suddenly, Graham has woken up to the fact that the GOP lacks a spine? Where was he and where were they when Murkowski was running as an Independent in Alaska? Where were they on Crist in Florida before he went Independent and Grayson in Kentucky? After years of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell how weak the GOP Senate has been, suddenly Graham sees the light? Sell it somewhere else, Lindsey. If the GOP Senate is spineless, you certainly haven’t been much of a vertebrae over the years.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) lashed out at fellow Republicans Tuesday for a “capitulation … of dramatic proportions” to Democrats and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) in the lame-duck Congress.

Graham said Republicans have no one to blame but themselves for allowing ratification of the New START Treaty and other legislation in the period before new lawmakers are sworn in in January.

“When it’s all going to be said and done, Harry Reid has eaten our lunch,” Graham said on Fox News radio. “This has been a capitulation in two weeks of dramatic proportions of policies that wouldn’t have passed in the new Congress.”

Michael O’Brien at TheHill.com reports that Senator Lindsey Graham NOW … in a very timely fashion … just as conservatism in a sense returns to DC … and after millions and millions of voters have spoken … has seen the light.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Thursday that he no longer favors closing the terrorist detention center maintained by the U.S. at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Graham, who’d previously sought to work with the Obama administration to close the prison, said there’s “no way” to close the facility at this point.

That’s a shift for Graham, who had previously hoped to close the prison, which he regarded as a public relations disaster for the United States.

Even Al Gore recently admitted that whole job killing, taxpayer crunching ethanol effort was a) a mistake and worse b) basically a fraud.

John Thune. We’ll remember this.

Do you support Senator Lindsey Graham in his effort to try terrorists in military courts?

Here is my comment on the Facebook page:

oh brilliant. wait until Graham falls on the right side of an issue and THEN ask if we support him. Who can’t see through this? How about you put out a similar call for “support/non support” when he promotes amnesty? earmarks? socialist judges on the Supreme Court? reform of SC GOP can’t come soon enough

You want to comment? have at it…

http://www.facebook.com/screpublicanparty?v=wall

This week is when the Steering Committee will make their decision on Upton’s future. They will decide if they want to promote a bailout loving, free market hating, light bulb regulating, career politician to serve as Chairman of the very important House Energy & Commerce Committee.

You’ve read about Upton a few times here already, and I’ve urged you to call the Steering Committee Members. Take another look at why this would be a HORRIBLE appointment (from Bitely’s post)…

* Upton was one of only 16 GOPers who supported in 2009 House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s omnibus spending bill that increased spending 8.4 percent on top of the $787 billion stimulus program.

* Upton was one of nine GOPers who opposed in 2009 an amendment by Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., that would have substituted an array of tax cuts and credits for the Obama-Pelosi-Reid stimulus program.

* Upton was one of 43 GOPers who opposed in 2009 a Republican amendment to cut the Democrats’ stimulus bill by $355 billion.

* Upton was one of 20 GOPers who opposed in 2009 a Republican amendment to cut Environmental Protection Agency funding to its 2008 level.

* Upton was one of 34 GOPers who voted in 2009 for the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act that removed millions of acres of federal lands from energy exploration and production.

* Upton was one of 19 GOPers who voted in 2009 for a Democratic amendment directing the secretary of education to establish an advisory council for “high-performing” green public schools, thus further entrenching environmental radicals in the public education system.

* Upton was one of 29 GOPers who voted for the Democrats’ bill establishing the Santa Cruz National Heritage area along the U.S./Mexican border, which effectively prevents the U.S. Border Patrol from doing its work along the border.

and there’s more.

Please spend some time Tuesday calling the Steering Committee Members. They must hear from us. (excuse format, just CALL!)

John Boehner Speaker 202-225-6205
Eric Cantor Republican Leader 202-225-2815
Kevin McCarthy Republican Whip 202-225-2915
Jeb Hensarling Republican Conference Chair 202-225-3484
Tom Price Policy Chair 202-225-4501
Cathy McMorris-Rodgers Conference Vice-Chair 202-225-2006
John Carter Conference Secretary 202-225-3864
Pete Sessions NRCC Chairman 202-225-2231
Greg Walden Leadership Chairman 202-225-6730
Tom Cole NRCC Chairman (last Congress) 202-225-6165
Lamar Smith Texas Representative 202-225-4236
Ken Calvert California Representative 202-225-1986
Jeff Miller Florida Representative 202-225-3414
Doc Hastings Region I Representative 202-225-5816
Tom Latham Region II Representative 202-225-5476
John Shimkus Region III Representative 202-225-5271
Mike Rogers Region IV Representative 202-225-4872
Bill Shuster Region V Representative 202-225-2431
Steve LaTourette Region VI Representative 202-225-5731
Hal Rogers Region VII Representative 202-225-4601
Lynn Westmoreland Region VIII Representative 202-225-5901
Bob Goodlatte Region IX Representative 202-225-5431
Cynthia Lummis Small State Representative 202-225-2311
Gregg Harper 111th Class Representative 202-225 5031
Todd Rokita 112th Class Representative 317-268-4964
Joe Heck 112th Class Representative 702-614-5900
Pat Meehan 112th Class Representative 484-454-3203

Read more at NetRightDaily.com: http://netrightdaily.com/2010/11/stop-fred-upton/#ixzz16iLU4VbY

Raz Shafer of American Majority and a blogger at Redstate has given us great info on this situation. This is his latest on the issue.

Go read his posts, here’s an excerpt from today:

I told you on Friday that Rep. Brian Hughes had made allegations that a Straus lieutenant had made those very threats to him. He said that redistricting maps were being drawn to hurt Rep-elect Erwin Cain and Rep. Dan Flynn. When Straus said that those claims were outrageous, Rep. Hughes sent him an email naming the offending member. That brings us to today.

This morning there was a hearing of the Committee for General Investigating and Ethics. This committee is chaired by one of Straus’ closest allies, Rep. Chuck Hopson. Among the other four members of the committee, three are strong Straus supporters.

At the beginning of the committee meeting, Chairman Hopson announced that Rep. Larry Phillips (vice chair of the Ethics committee) was the member named by Rep. Hughes and that Phillips would not sit on the committee during this hearing. Following that two-minute statement they went into secret session. Representatives Hughes and Phillips were apparently the only non-committee members in the meeting.

When they emerged from their three-hour secret session, Hopson’s verdict that without a recording there wasn’t enough evidence to take action.

* He was one of only 38 House Republicans to support the Democrats’ Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 that removed millions of acres of federal lands from oil and gas leasing, thus driving up energy costs for consumers.
* He was one of only 20 Republicans to vote against an amendment that would have reduced the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2010 funding to 2008 levels.
* He teamed up with Democrat Jane Harman to pass an invasive energy bill which mandates that only politically-favored “environmentally-friendly” light bulbs be used. Yes, he thinks the Constitution gives him the power to tell you which light bulb you can use.
* Here is an exhaustive list of his votes dating back to 2003/2004.

She includes a link to sign this petition opposing Upton.

Where you can find a list of phone numbers to call the Republican leadership. In fact this link is so cool, you can call the leadership just by clicking! Really cool. Go on. I dare ya. Try it out.

We really need to call before this decision is made. If Upton is appointed Chair, then that is on US for not being as loud and forceful and passionate about a mistake being made on OUR side as we were re: DISCLOSE or DREAM or health care.