In the Final Political War to Save the Republic, the GOP Cannot Afford to Lose Many More Skirmishes.

THE REAL NEWS TODAY IS NEITHER GOOD NOR BAD. It is just hanging there like the stale odor of fired fish in the kitchen the morning after. • • • THE ALABAMA ELECTION. Of course, the stale odor refers to the Alabama special senatorial election that Democrat Doug Jones won last night by 49.8% to 48.4% over Republican Roy Moore. It was an election destined to rattle America whatever the outcome. • • • WHAT HAPPENED? The final weeks of the race were hectic. In December 2017, Moore regained the lead in public opinion polls -- leading or tying Jones in six of the nine polls released. Moore also FINALLY got the support of his own party, that had refused to endorse him because of sexual misconduct and assault allegations against him. But, when President Trump endorsed Moore on December 4, the Republican National Committee fell into line, reinstating its fundraising agreement with him -- too little too late. It was not to be the decision of GOP Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who maintained his opposition to Moore, affirming that Moore would face an ethics inquiry if he were seated in the Senate. By the end of November, Jones had outspent Moore on advertising in the general election. According to Advertising Analytics, Jones had aired more than 10,000 television spots and spent $5.6 million. Moore aired one-tenth that number of ads and spent about $800,000 on them. Jones also outraised Moore in individual contributions, $11.5 million to $5.2 million. This was significantly more than any other Democrat Senate candidate in Alabama in the previous 10 years -- the previous high in this time period was Vivian Davis Figures in 2008 with $293,000. • Jones also received a boost from satellite spending by Highway 31, a super PAC formed in November that spent more that $4.1 million on the race. Breitbart reported last Sunday that Obama campaign staffers spent $468,000 against Moore and for Jones in a one-day massive media attack, for a total of $4+ million, by using a shell group called Highway 31 -- an independent expenditure group used by three secretive DC-based consulting firms run by former Obama campaign staffers that funded its anti-Moore campaign either as in-kind donations from these three firms or by unknown donors, and seemingly led by a consulting firm with offices on K Street, Waterfront Strategies, a wholly owned subsidiary of GMMB Consulting, founded and still run by former Obama campaign staffer Jim Margolis. A week ago, the Moore campaign sent “cease and desist” letters to all the major television stations in Alabama, requesting they stop airing a “patently false” ad purchased on behalf of Highway 31 by Waterfront Strategies, which read, in part : "Specifically, the ad entitled 'Shopping Mall,' which began airing on or around November 28, 2017, begins with the misleading question, 'What do people who know Roy Moore say?' Although the ad shows five quotations, only one of the people quoted -- Teresa Jones, a coworker from 40 years ago -- stated that they knew Roy Moore. And even what Jones claimed was nothing but a figment of the rumor mill. The truth is that the people quoted in the ad were alleging hearsay and third-hand gossip and do not 'know Roy Moore' at all....The facts make clear that the allegations in these attack ads are patently false and known by Highway 31 political action committee to be false. As the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals held in Faye Gary v. Richard Crouch, 923 So. 2d 1130 (Ala. Civ. App. 2005)(affirming summary judgment for Gadsden police chief sued for defamation by former Gadsden police officer Faye Gary for poor performance), defamation is shown when 'a false statement was made 'with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not.' " • An estimated $3.7 million of the $4 million spent on behalf of Highway 31 was apparently provided “on credit” by the three DC-based consulting firms -- Waterfront Strategies, online advertising firm Bully Pulpit Interactive, founded and run by former Obama campaign staffer Andrew Bleeker, and Putnam Partners, founded and run by former Obama campaign staffer Mark Putnam. • It seems to have been legal, but with the Republican elites sitting on their hands and closed wallets throughout the Moore campaign, the gigantic Jones fundraising advantage made Jones the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in Alabama since Richard Shelby in 1992. Shelby later switched his party affiliation to Republican in 1994. So, Alabama now has a Senator for two years -- the election was to fill the rest of the term of Jeff Sessions. The new Senator, Doug Jones, said of the Trump election : "The national election was very disturbing, quite frankly, and I know a lot of people in this state voted overwhelmingly for President [Donald] Trump. But there were about 37 percent of the people who did not, and they need a voice too." Jones identified increasing the minimum wage, prioritizing education as a job creator, encouraging renewable energy and conservation, abortion rights, and preventing discrimination against individuals with pre-existing conditions as policy priorities. • • • THE ATTACK FROM LEFT AND RIGHT. The attack on Moore was begun by the Washington Post on November 9. It quickly became the banner used by ProgDems to attack everything Moore said or did -- even pulling in Republicans. Senator Cory Gardner, the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said : "Roy Moore will never have the support of the senatorial committee. We will never endorse him. We won’t support him. I won’t let that happen. Nothing will change. I stand by my previous statement." • Stand Up Republic, a social welfare organization founded by 2016 independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin and his running mate Mindy Finn, made a $500,000 ad buy calling on conservatives to reject Moore. The ads reference the sexual misconduct and assault allegations against Moore, which he has denied. In one ad, a Republican voter says that he cannot vote for Moore because he "makes Republicans and us Christians look bad." The second ad features clips of girls looking into the camera as the narrator asks, "What if she was your little girl? Your daughter? Your sister? What if she was 16 years old, or 15, or even 14? Would you let a 32-year-old man be alone with her? Date her? Undress her? Touch her? Have her touch him? That's what Roy Moore did. He called it dating. We call it unacceptable. That's why we can't support Roy Moore." Neither ad encouraged voters to support Jones. • Senator Richard Shelby, the other GOP Alabama Senator, said in an interview that he voted for a write-in candidate rather than Moore when he cast his ballot early : "I’d rather see the Republican win, but I would hope that Republican would be a write-in. I couldn't vote for Roy Moore. I didn't vote for Roy Moore. But I wrote in a distinguished Republican name. I’d rather see another Republican in there and I’m going to stay with that story. I'm not going to vote for the Democrat, I didn’t vote for the Democrat or advocate for the Democrat. But I couldn’t vote for Roy Moore. The state of Alabama deserves better." • Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he voted by absentee ballot but refused to say who he had voted for, causing the mainstream media to surmise that he voted for Jones or wrote-in a name. • Former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, born in Birmingham, had refused to support Trump in 2016 even after he had won the GOP nomination. She implored Alabama voters Monday to cast a ballot in the state's upcoming special election : "This week's special election will be one of the most significant in Alabama's history," Rice said in a statement to AL.com on Monday. "As a native daughter, I remain -- at heart -- an Alabamian who loves our state and its devotion to faith, family, and country. I encourage you to take a stand for our core principles and for what is right. These critical times require us to come together to reject bigotry, sexism, and intolerance. It is imperative for Americans to remain focused on our priorities and not give way to side shows and antics. I know that Alabamans need an independent voice in Washington. But we must also insist that our representatives are dignified, decent, and respectful of the values we hold dear. Please exercise your right to vote -- a privilege won by the sacrifices of our ancestors. Sustain the central ideals and values that make our country a beacon for freedom and justice for the sake of Alabama and for the good of the United States of America." Roy S. Johnson, an anti-Trump Alabamian whose columns appear the Birmingham News, the Huntsville Times, the Mobile Register and AL.com, interpreted Condoleezza Rice's statement to mean : "She did not reveal whom she's supporting, either -- then again, she did....One of these suckers is going to win and it will affect YOU, so vote!...I'd be crazy leave the San Francisco Bay Area and return to Alabama, but I still love y'all, and still know the three buttons that bring a tear to your eye : faith, family, and country. Now, go vote!....Let's not blow it, Alabama. Vote for the guy you KNOW imbodies those ideals. Not the guy on the horse." • • • THE DIE WAS CAST IN THE GOP PRIMARY. Senator Luther Strange, now sitting in the Senate as the replacement for Jeff Sessions, lost the Republican primary to Roy Moore, 55% to 45%. Despite President Trump, Mitch McConnell and almost every Republican in Washington shouting out support for Strange, Moore, supported by Steve Bannon, walloped Strange. Bannon's agenda was and is to oust McConnell as Majority Leader because he does not support Trump's legislative agenda. If the Alabama result raises any deep political question, it is whether Steve Bannon will have enough clout left going forward to influence the 2018 senatorial elections he has targeted. The split in the GOP was never healed, despite Trump's switch to Moore just a few days before the election, a switch not followed by many GOP elites except for the RNC. So, it is easy for conservative and #NeverTrump Monday Morning Quarterbacks to say, as Matt Drudge did Tuesday : “Luther Strange would have won in a landslide...Just too much crazy in nerve racking times. There IS a limit!” Nothing is less clear. • Alabama Republicans chose Moore in August. On November 9, the Washington Post sex assault charges were leveled against Moore. I had thought that by last weekend, polls were showing that these charges had been largely absorbed because of the continuing parade of revelations about their being Fake news with forged yearbook autographs and an outright hired gun 'victim' making up her story. Seems not. • • • THE PROGRESSIVE GLOAT AGAINST WHITES. But, there were two other factors that had nothing to do with sex -- the huge Democrat expenditures noted above, as well as the unprecedented Democrat effort to get out the vote, especially the black vote. Depending on who you believe, black voters make up between 25% and 28% of the total Alabama electorate. And, after weeks of speculating about whether black voters would turnout for Doug Jones, they did -- overwhemingly. And proved to be the key to his slightly 'upset' win. White voters voted for Moore, 68% to 30% for Jones. Both black and white women voted for Jones in percentages higher than the averages -- white women 34% and black women 98%. The win and the black vote were the cue for an assault on white people by film director Michael Moore -- who has previously celebrated a future where white people become a minority so Democrats are virtually assured endless electoral victories as a result of changing demographics -- and who in August tweeted : "The angry white guy is dying out, and the Census Bureau has already told us that by 2050, white people are going to be the minority, and I’m not sad to say I can’t wait for that day to happen. I hope I live long enough to see it because it will be a better country.” Moore was by no means the only Progressive to react to the Alabama Senate result by gloating over or insulting white people. • On Tuesday, MSNBC, CNN and Huffington Post contributor Kevin Allred tweeted an unhinged tirade that mocked and insulted white people : "KEVIN ALLRED @KEVINALLRED FOLLOW JUST IN CASE YOU WERE STILL WONDERING CUZ YOU'RE BASIC AF F**K WHITE PEOPLE F**K WHITE PEOPLE F**K WHITE PEOPLE F**K WHITE PEOPLE F**K WHITE PEOPLE F**K WHITE PEOPLE F**K WHITE PEOPLE F**K WHITE PEOPLE F**K WHITE PEOPLE F**K WHITE PEOPLE F**K WHITE PEOPLE F**K WHITE PEOPLE." • Irish Times journalist Emer Sugrue screamed : “white people shouldn’t be allowed to vote." • Karen McGrane, writer and web strategist, shouted : "White people : you had your chance, this is where we’re at, let black people decide now.” • Dante Atkins, campaign pro and press secretary for Democrat Representative John Garamendi, tweeted : “I wanna re-emphasize something. White people strongly supported Roy Moore. Let’s take that, internalize it, and not let ourselves pretend that we don’t have a problem. White men especially.” • Noah Berlatsky, writer and contributor to The Atlantic, tweeted : “Black people are turning out in higher numbers than 2014. White turnout down. the problem here, as everywhere in america, is that there still may be too many white people.” • • • DEAR READERS, since I never really endorsed Roy Moore, I am a little to blame, too. The race was a lose-lose combination for both Trump Republicans and the GOP Elite. Supporting Moore had been turned by the MSM into a stance against women and GOP ideals, even though the MSM detests GOP ideals. To support Jones was to accept that late abortion, Obamacare and high taxes outweigh Republican principles of right-to-life and market-driven personal healthcare between patient and doctor, and the admission that the booming Trump economy is not important for the future of America and its citizens. • If early analysis is right, black Alabamian Democrats made the choice for all of us. It is not the right choice for them, let alone for America. It always puzzles me to see black Americans huddle under the Democrat tent that condemns them to poverty and plantationism. But, we Republicans have to take responsibility for changing that. So far, we have failed. • And, Finally, Jones’s victory tightens the Republican margin in the Senate, giving them just a 51-49 advantage over Democrats heading into the 2018 midterm elections. That may be a problem if the ProgDems can hang the Roy Moore loss around the GOP's neck as a cement weight. • Trump was never really enthusiastic about Moore, but he finally understood, as the Swamp Republican leadership did not or would not, that allegations are not convictions, and that a Republican in the Senate is always the GOP goal. Don't think that if the Democrats had been sitting in the GOP seat in Alabama they would have bolted for a Republican. Democrat politics doesn't work like Republican politics -- because it is results-driven rather than ideals-driven. So, thinking that Democrats are like Republicans is foolish dreaming that harks back to a dead and gone age in US politics. This is war. And, every battle counts toward the victory of the Constitution and rule of law over elitist Marxism. • As Judge Moore said on Tuesday evening, in recognizing the result but not conceding : "May God bless you as you go on, give you a safe journey, and thank you for coming tonight. It's not over and it's going to take some time." Roy Moore was referring to his own loss or very unlikely victory, unless massive vote fraud is uncovered before early January, when Jones will be sworn in. But Roy Moore was right all the same. This war will go on until one side wins. Politics as usual has become the final political war to save the Republic. The GOP cannot afford to lose many more skirmishes.