I wrote on many blogs that I had not yet announced who I would endorse as a PC, who I would get out the vote for.  Continuance of Senator McCain progressivism while running every 6 years as conservative was unacceptable. I have lived in AZ throughout Congressman Hayworth’s career and always felt he did best as a sports caster. I could not see any difference between the two except Senator McCain is rarely eliquent and Congressman Hayworth takes 30 minutes to make a brief comment. I saw no difference between the two incumbents and their combined 40 years of political mismanagement. The question I had was could a citizen candidate step up to the plate and play at the level. Jim Deakin hit it out of the park this evening in the Tucson debate and reaffirmed my sometimes challenged belief in the ability of Americans to step up to daunting challenges. Jim earned my endorsement tonight and deserves serious consideration by all those of us who find the insanity of DC and the mismanagement of our great nation unacceptable.

You have to get creative and active to get things done. Take support where you find it. Find fixes for problems. Work around or run over resistance. It didn’t get broken in a year. We won’t fix it in a year but we will make progress. The PC Project works if you work it.

The victories of 2010 include Charlie Crist pulling out of the Florida Senate primary against Marc Rubio, the booting of Sen. Bob Bennett in the Utah Senate primary and now Idaho’s first congressional district where local tea party favorite Raul Labrador upset Vaughn Ward last night in the Republican primary. Labrador overcame a fundraising disadvantage and Ward’s endorsement by Sarah Palin and the National Republican Congressional Committee to win 48-39 percent. Ward’s loss shows that a blessing from Sarah Palin does not guarantee a candidate victory. As Ward lost in Idaho so can McCain in Arizona.

Conservatives and the Tea Parties also have loses to look at with Coats winning the Indiana Senate primary, Devore trailing in the California Senate primary and Angle in a tight three way race in the Nevada Senate Primary.

The message to all conservative activists and Tea Parties is, yes we can win in the primary if we take effective action together. That means more than just going to a meeting. It means becoming a PC, volunteering time and money to a campaign, walking your precinct and calling, getting out the vote for your candidate. The primaries are ours to win or lose based on the level of effective political action we take. It means working together to pull behind a single candidate where there are multiple choices, such as our Arizona races for US Senate, Governor, Attorney General, etc.

In short, it will work if we work it and it won’t if we don’t. It is up to us.

Tea Party members and conservative activists everywhere should be thankful that they are being written off by the MSM and party power brokers as the latest example of a social flash in the pan of public outrage, quick to foment and quick to fade. In politics, as in war, it is always better to be underestimated by the enemy. I’ll take being underestimated every time. As an activist in multiple Tea Parties and a Republican Precinct Committeeman, I get to see what is happening from both sides, which is first hand evidence of the overwhelming success of the precinct committeeman project, the support given conservative candidates in contested primaries at all levels of government, the education and recruitment of new members, the connections being made to conservatives in elected and party office positions.

In his March 1, 1975 speech to CPAC Reagan made his plea to revitalize the GOP as a party of bold colors and not pale pastels, to return the party to its conservative roots and to let those who disagree to go their way. 35 years later the MSM, the GOP and the Dem’s have yet to see that the Tea Party movement is answering Reagan’s call to action.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36176221/ns/politics-decision_2010/

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/feb/15/nation/la-na-tea-party15-2010feb15

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/15/us/politics/15party.html?pagewanted=1

I was on a nationwide conference call with multiple GOP Congressmen, their staffers and representatives of conservative activist groups to discuss how to address the healthcare disaster. When I got to speak to the group I asked them why we, in the form of the states, were not dealing with the problem directly under Art. V of the Constitution in addition to the various court cases being filed. I was greeted with stunned silence as none of the Congressmen, their staffers or many of the other people on the phone were familiar with Article V or considered its applicability to the problem at hand. After I laid out the meaning and implication of Article V of the Constitution the staffers came back with “we’ll take a look at it immediately”.

The Constitution was the compact by which the sovereign states created and adopted a constitutional republic as a form of national government and placed themselves under it. As part of doing that the states insured that they retained the ability to have an ultimate check on the Federal Government. The ultimate answer for healthcare and the other excesses of the Federal Government is for the states to utilize the power provided them in Art. V.

A rt. V "on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress"

The states have the direct power to call and run a constitutional convention, write and propose amendments and ratify those amendments. The only role the Federal Government, in the form of Congress, plays is to determine which of the two ratification methods the states will use. That’s it. The states hold the power to fix this. It takes 34 states to call a convention and 38 to ratify amendments. If 38 states are willing to go to court why are not the same 38 states willing to deal with this and many other problems directly?

Whether 34 states would actually pass the required legislation or not, consider the impact on the Federal Government and the pending court cases if states began to pass legislation calling for a convention to deal with healthcare and the many other encroachments of the Federal Government on the rights of the people and of the states. I recommend that we seriously consider this action. We are fighting for the very soul of this country. When you are in a fight for your life and your liberty you do not let any viable weapon go unused.

It would require these “belligerents” to be coded as “high-value detainee[s]” to be held in military custody and interrogated for their intelligence value by a High-Value Detainee Interrogation Team established by the president. The bill asks the President to determine criteria for designating an individual as a “high-value detainee” if he/she: (1) poses a threat of an attack on civilians or civilian facilities within the U.S. or U.S. facilities abroad; (2) poses a threat to U.S. military personnel or U.S. military facilities; (3) potential intelligence value; (4) is a member of al Qaeda or a terrorist group affiliated with al Qaeda or (5) such other matters as the President considers appropriate.

Who do you think will be defined as “high value detainees” given that Sec. of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano has determined that rightwing activists (ex-military, gun owners, Tea Party member, etc.) pose the highest risks of internal “terrorism”?

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:s3081is.txt.pdf

Main stream press like this is a double edged sword. It gives the effort visibility, acknowledges that it is being successful and can be used by us as a tool to recruit more conservative PC’s. On the other hand it is a warning to the RINO’s that the unwashed masses are taking over their GOP county club and it will encourage them to push back. I firmly believe we have the numbers to swamp the RINO’s and take control of the GOP but do not expect it to happen without a fight.

Secondly, remember Alinsky’s rule that any negative pushed hard enough becomes a positive meaning that if we push hard enough against the RINO’s in charge of the GOP and do take it over people are going to turn to us and ask, “OK, you’re in charge now. What are you going to do? What candidates are you going to run and support? How are …” Victory does come with a price and that is the responsibility to run well what you have taken over.  Obama, Harry and Nancy are learning that lesson the hard way as did the GOP after the election of George W. Bush in 2000 when they held the House and Senate.

We need to learn from their failings and, once we control the GOP, manage and lead based on firm conservative principles of limited constitutional government and sound fiscal policy.

LA Times article text and link follow. I have also included the links to the older WSJ and NY Times articles.

By Kathleen Hennessey – LA Times

February 15, 2010

Reporting from Washington – First there was the “tea party” protester. Now meet the Tea-publican.

Conservative activists who once protested the political establishment are now flooding the lowest level of the Republican Party apparatus hoping to take over the party they once scorned — one precinct at a time.

Across the country, tea party groups that had focused on planning rallies are educating members on how to run for GOP precinct representative positions. The representatives help elect county party leaders, who write the platform and, in some places, determine endorsements.

“That’s where it all starts. That’s where the process of picking candidates begins. It’s not from [GOP leader] Michael Steele’s office down. It’s from the ground up,” said Philip Glass, whose National Precinct Alliance is among the groups advocating the strategy. “The party is over for the old guard.”

In Arizona and Ohio, Republican Party officials report an increase in candidates running for precinct positions, which often sit open because of a lack of interest.

In South Carolina, a coalition of tea party groups has made a formal agreement with the state GOP to urge its members to get engaged at the precinct level.

In Nevada, a group of “constitutional conservatives” working under the tea party banner has already taken control of the Republican Party in the Las Vegas area, gaining enough strength to elect six of the seven members of the county executive committee.

Glass’ group and others say their work is nonpartisan; their hope is that people will reshape both major political parties. But for most of the small-government conservatives of the tea party movement, the Republican Party is a more natural fit.

The shift to local party politics is a notable turn for the group, which emerged in opposition to national financial bailouts supported by both parties.

But protesting has its limits, said Darla Dawald, national director for a conservative social networking site, ResistNet.com, that is directing people to local party contacts. The protests were a way to “catapult people off their couches. But then we needed to give them something to do, a way to get engaged.”

Dawald took a look at her own precincts in Arizona’s Pinal County. She said only 40% of precinct committee positions were filled. In Maricopa County, home to Phoenix, only 30% of the positions were occupied, she said. Dawald, who owned a gift shop that had closed in the recession, said it looked to her like no one was minding the store.

“It’s not like we’re going in and replacing people. We’re going into positions that are open, things nobody is doing,” she said. “It was clear that a small group of people within the party were making decisions for everyone.”

After several months of organizing, Maricopa County now has 50%, or about 3,000, of its precinct committee positions filled.

In Nevada’s Clark County, the number of occupied precinct slots has swelled from roughly 200 to nearly 1,000, party officials said. Party meetings that were once held in conference rooms have been moved to casino ballrooms.

Many Republican Party leaders have welcomed the activity, particularly because they worried that the energy driving the tea party movement might create a third party that would split the conservative vote.

That scenario played out in New York’s 23rd Congressional District in a special election last year, a cautionary tale in Republican circles because it led to a Democrat capturing a longtime GOP House seat. The precinct strategy is a sign that tea party activists are finding a home — or in many cases are willing to return to a home — in the GOP.

“We believe we have a whole lot more in common than not,” said Patrick Haddon, the Republican Party chairman in Greenville, S.C. “We believe we can help each other. They know what they believe, they’re passionate about it, they can organize. And we have a lot of experience in how elections are run and how campaigns are run.”

The South Carolina GOP announced at a news conference last week that it had reached an agreement to work more closely with the Upcountry Coalition of Conservative Organizations, a collection of tea party groups in the state. Under the deal, the coalition will help the party rebuild at the precinct level. The party agreed to support fiscally conservative candidates. Haddon will act as a liaison between the groups.

But some reaction to the agreement shows how many in the tea party are still skittish about associating with the GOP — or worse, being viewed as a party appendage.

After state party Chairwoman Karen Floyd described the agreement on television, activists cried foul, saying she had left the impression that the party and the tea parties had merged. Coalition spokesman Harry Kibler said he felt “betrayed” and “used.”

Another news conference was called to clarify the terms.

“We are independent. We will remain independent. And we will vote for the most conservative candidates regardless of party,” Kibler said Friday.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-tea-party15-2010feb15,0,1928212.story

2/13/2010 WSJ story

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703382904575059293624940362.html

1/15/2010 NYT Article

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/15/us/politics/15party.html?pagewanted=1

This diary is a summary of my dealings with Senator McRINO and Senator Minority Wimp Kyl that have been blogged on a number of other conservative sites but never together in one place.  I got my arm twisted by Cold Warrior to put it together and post in on Red State so here are the highlights told in chronological order starting in December just after the healthcare bill hit the Senate floor.

Dec 10, 2009

In the discussion on the 2010 primary and how he plans to get reelected, his staff blew off any need to get support from the party’s base or its PC’s. McCain’s position is that he does not have any official primary competition at this time. I suspect he feels that he can overcome any grassroots resistance with campaign spending.

No matter what happens with the healthcare bill, we need to work together, coalesce behind a single challenger and show John what a united grassroots effort can do. In just three weeks a conservative grassroots effort in NY23 drove out the leftist, handpicked GOP candidate, put Conservative Party Doug Hoffman on the map and within a few points of victory. We have about 6 months before early voting starts. Can we get this done and get McRINO out? Can we get the conservative PC’s pulled together to put the party against McRINO and out call and out door knock his people?

Dec 15, 2009

In weekly web column titled “DEFEATING A GOVERNMENT TAKEOVER OF HEALTH CARE”, Sen. Kyl stated” I believe this is the most dangerous piece of domestic legislation that I’ve seen since I’ve been in Congress. And I will continue to do everything I can to defeat it, and encourage my colleagues to do the same.” I called Kyl’s DC office today and spoke to Robin, a member of his staff. The following is a summary of our conversation taken from my notes. Please do not take this as a transcript. I don’t write that fast.

Steve: Is Jon committed to defeating the bill?
Kyl’s Staff: Yes.
Steve: What does Jon means when he says he is doing everything he can to defeat the bill?
Kyl’s Staff: Jon is using the amendment process to highlight and call attention to the defects in the bill and to extend the debate. As minority whip he is very proud of holding all 40 Republicans together to vote against the bill.
Steve: If he wants the bill defeated is there was anything Jon would not do to stop it?
Kyl’s Staff: What do you mean by that?
Steve: Jon and all the other Republican Senators have had multiple opportunities to object to calls for “unanimous consent” to delay the bill, such as requiring it and all the amendments to be read. Why hasn’t Jon objected?
Kyl’s Staff: That would be seen as obstructionist and is not material.
Steve: If Jon does want to kill the bill and both a filibuster and an objection would both delay the bill, why does Jon think a filibuster is OK but forcing the bill to be read is not.
Kyl’s Staff: Reading the bill is a waste of time and does not point out the issues with it.
Steve: If the objective is to kill the bill then why not object?
Kyl’s Staff: We do not want to be seen as obstructionist.
Steve: Don’t you guys think that the people have read the bill, read summaries of it and already know what a dog it is?
Kyl’s Staff: The Senator wants to use the amendments to explain the problems with the bill.
Steve: Is the bill constitutional or not?
Kyl’s Staff: We have been receiving a lot of call on this issue particularly regarding the individual mandate.
Steve: I didn’t ask what the people think, I asked as an attorney does Jon think the bill is constitutional or not?
Kyl’s Staff: The portion of the individual mandate may not be.
Steve: What about the whole bill? Where in Article 1 Section 8 is the federal government empowered to regulate healthcare?
Kyl’s Staff: The government already regulates Medicare and Medicaid.
Steve: I am not aware of any court case that has ruled on the constitutionality of those acts and whether the government is already acting unconstitutionally does not answer my question. Does the government have authority for this bill?
Kyl’s Staff: That is a nonproductive argument.
Steve: It’s nonproductive to point out the government has no right to pass this legislation?
Kyl’s Staff: (no response)
Steve: So Jon has held everyone together to oppose the bill?
Kyl’s Staff: Yes, and he is proud of it.
Steve: Then how do you explain Sen. Snowe’s vote to move the bill to the floor.
Kyl’s Staff: That was only a committee vote, not a floor vote.

I then called McCain’s DC office and spoke with one of his staffers, Greg. After a few questions it was obvious Greg was not going to answer any of the questions I had asked Kyl’s staff but he would take my comments. Greg did mention that Kyl and McCain are hosting a tele-townhall tonight on healthcare. When asked for the details Greg referred me to the Sierra Vista paper. When pushed for details he could not provide me with anything other than it started at 6:30. No call in number, no access code, nothing. When I asked why it was not on McCain’s or Kyl’s websites, Greg said he would pass my suggestion on to Sen. McCain.

After my wonderful conversations with our staunchly conservative Senator Kyl’s staff and the well informed staff of his fighting colleague John McCain I am now assured that Jon and John are doing everything they can to kill the bill. Can some one hand me a barf bag?

Dec 16, 2009

I received the following form letter response from Sen. Kyl.

Dear Mr. Kohut:

Thank you for contacting me regarding health care reform and my comments about Senate consideration of the bill. My conservative colleagues and I are not trying to “improve” the President’s health-care reform bill, as some have suggested. It cannot be improved – it is fatally flawed. We are executing a carefully devised strategy of working within Senate rules to defeat it. (It would obviously be counterproductive to signal to the Majority exactly what our strategy is, but it includes making the other party vote on amendments that reveal what’s wrong with the Majority’s bill.)

You might recall that President Obama had initially called on Congress to pass the health care bill by June. It was no accident that he has had to reset the deadline a number of times – to July 4, then Labor Day, then Thanksgiving and now Christmas. Those of us who oppose the bill have done everything we can to expose the flaws in it, and give the American people time to understand it and mobilize against it. Indeed, when the debate first started in June, polls suggested that 50 percent supported the President’s plan in some form. Since the summer, every poll has shown majority opposition, with the latest CNN poll indicating that 61 percent now oppose the legislation and only 36 percent support it.

I have enclosed an article from the Capitol Hill newspaper, Roll Call, about Senate action on the bill. You might also be interested in my comments on the Dennis Prager radio show. The interview is available on my YouTube page at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-ExDnRt0d8.
I appreciate your sharing your thoughts. Please stay in touch.

I emailed the following response to Sen Kyl.

A form letter response (follows this email) of “trust us, we know what we are doing but it’s so secret we can’t tell you” is patronizing, childish and presumes that you can put one over me, my fellow precinct committeemen and the conservative base of the party.

NO SALE!

I have been in frequent and repeated contact with both your and Sen. McCain’s DC staff querying them concerning the HC bill, your positions, actions, etc. and the responses from your and Sen. McCain’s staffs fly in the face of your response to me.

First off, in a long discourse Sen. McCain’s staff was very clear that he did not want to kill the bill, that he wanted to improve it, that he wanted to pass HC reform. No buts about it. That was John’s position.

Your staff was equally clear in that you as Senator and as Minority Whip would not use every tool in the box to kill the bill, that objections to unanimous consent were off the table as “obstructionist”, that NO ONE was going to argue that the HC legislation was unconstitutional on multiple grounds (Art 1 Sec 9 Clause 3 Bill of Attainder, Art 1 Sec 8 & 10th Amendment no enumerated power to enact, etc.), etc. regardless of your 12/14 column that you would throw everything including the kitchen sink at it.

The claim that you want to expose the bill’s flaws to the American people is beyond belief. Do you live in a cave? Do you every look outside? Do you even come to AZ anymore and meet with us PC’s, meet with your constituents? What do you think happened all summer at town hall meetings? Tea Parties, marches and protests? The 1 million plus horde at the capital on 9/12? Unlike many of our congressmen, the people, when the bills were finally made available, read them! Read the analyses. We have known what is in it. The last thing we need is someone to point out that it’s bad. We can smell the stink from 2,000 miles away. Give me a break!

We do not see where you have a passion to fulfill your oath of office to “defend and support the Constitution … to bear true faith and allegiance to the same.” This is a war against America and what our founding father’s established. The GOP is acting like this is an argument over a hand of bridge at the country club. We do not see you and most of the GOP acting as if the country is at stake and doing your utmost to protect the people. We see business as usual in the Senate’s rarified, country club, good-old-boy setting and manipulation and planning for 2010. We see the GOP sorrowfully wringing its hands over the passage by 60 Democrats of a wretched HC bill and using it as leverage in 2010 for Mitch McConnell to become Majority Leader, you to become majority whip, etc. while WE THE PEOPLE pay the price for your electoral gamesmanship.

I am an American first, a constitutional conservative second and a GOP PC by necessity. We are done with the type of crap response you sent me. We, the conservative base of the party that is pouring into the PC ranks, will get this fixed. We will take this back to the party of Reagan. We will flush the RINO’s out of leadership and elected office including McCain. It may take us a few years but we will get it there. Ask Michael Steele how it is going with Nevada. Ask Randy Pullen what is happening in AZ to the PC rolls. Ask John McCain later in the spring who the PC’s will support in his re-election bid. John is in for a massive eye opener. In three weeks we buried Dede Scozzafava and almost put Doug Hoffman over the top in NY23. What do you thing we will be able to do in the time to the 2010 primaries? The 2010 general? 2012? The base has woken up and we are pissed. Your choices are to lead, follow or get the hell run over. Which do you choose?

Dec 18, 2009

I have come to the conclusion that Sen. Kyl and his DC staff work under a “cone of silence” borrowed from the prop room of “Get Smart” with no connection to the people of Arizona. In an attempt to see if any of what we have been telling him or his staff had gotten through I spent another 15~20 minutes on the phone this morning and once again got Robin of his DC staff.

When asked about Sen. Coburn’s objection to Sen. Sander’s amendment, she responded that neither Kyl nor the rest of the GOP leadership had taken a position on Coburn’s action. I asked why Kyl or any other Senator did not demand that the amendment be read in full as required under Senate rules rather than allow it to be withdrawn. Kyl’s opinion is that getting the amendment withdrawn is better than having it read, it’s a bad amendment so why read it if we can make it go away. Kyl is trying to get the constructive thing done and use the amendment process to put the position of moderate Democrats on record to make it more difficult for them to vote for cloture or for the final bill. When I asked if this is to buy time for the people in those moderate Democrats’ state to pressure their Senators the answer was yes, Kyl wants to force any votes for cloture or passage into 2010.

I then asked if Sen. Kyl was aware of all the recent changes in the precinct committeemen roles in the state. Robin indicated that he was not aware and asked what they were. I informed her that Maricopa County had gone from about 1,500 PC slots filled in 2008 out of 6,000 to over 3,000 now. The same was happening in counties throughout Arizona. These new PC’s were an ongoing flood of conservative activists from Tea Parties, 9-12 Groups, etc. that we no longer willing to tolerate what was happening in the GOP and would take it back to its conservative roots. As we started to get into the impact of this change on current leadership and elected representatives, Robin once again felt she had given me too much time and had to take other calls. When I asked if she wanted by name or any other information, the answer was no, she could tell by caller ID that I was from AZ and that was all she needed. I did tell her to expect additional calls, for my conversations to be posted on multiple blogs to make people away of Kyl’s positions and, most importantly, to be ready for change in the GOP because change is indeed coming!

Later in the day I did see a quote from McCain where he said, “I don’t think it would be outrageous to ask for a bill that we haven’t seen to be read” concerning the healthcare bill. Maybe McCain is starting to get he message or getting concerned about his reelection. I had no success in getting through to McCain’s DC staff today. If there was been a change in the GOP position it is too little too late. If they had done this from the beginning we would not be having these conversations.

Dec 22, 2009

I got my bud Greg at McRINO’s DC staff again. When I asked why McRINO changed his position on the HC bill I got the “he has always been against it, he never wanted it to pass.” So I went through all the answers from the DC staff documenting that McRINO wanted to improve the bill and pass HC not kill it. After 10 minutes of Greg sticking to his talking points I told him that John can talk till he’s blue in the face, we watch what he does and he did not try to “kill the bill” any more than did the rest of the GOP Senators. Everyone was treating this like a bad hand of cards at the country club. When I got into John’s 2010 primary run Greg kept trying to have me call his campaign group. “Why would I do that?”, I asked him since John has shown us he is not worthy of our support, so rather than try to get any more answers from John my role now is to align the PC’s and the party against McRINO and for his competition. At this point Greg kept pushing me to either talk to McRINO campaign staff or to talk to a senior staffer in his DC office. When I got passed to Chris in his DC office, Chris‘ mailbox was full. Image that.

So folks, enough on the wimp and the RINO. Its time to move out and bounce McCain out in the 2010 primary.

Dec 24, 2009

Formal request for meetings with PC’s from multiple counties were sent to Sen. Kyl and Sen. McCain to discuss their inadequate actions on healthcare and other horrific legislation pushed by the liberal left. I was one of four people coordinating the meeting request for a very large group of PC’s that were appalled with the positions and performance of our Senators.

VIA EMAIL to Lois Halverson  (602) 952-8702 , Dec. 24, 2009

Re:  Precinct Committeemen Request for Meeting with Sen. McCain

Dear Ms. Halverson,

Thank you for your time this morning on the phone.  I hereby request, on behalf of many like-minded Republican Party precinct committeemen, a meeting with Sen. McCain as soon as possible.  We would like Sen. McCain to hear our thoughts regarding the utterly unacceptable performance of Sen. McCain and the GOP to kill the Democratic healthcare bill which ultimately passed the Senate today without effective opposition.

You told me that you believed Sen. McCain would not be available for any such meeting until after January 13, 2010.  Meanwhile, I and other precinct committeemen around the state will try to provide you with the numbers of precinct committeemen we believe will want to attend a meeting with Sen. McCain if he will make himself available to us. You have already heard from Dan for Maricopa County. I’m coordinating Pinal County and assisting with Pima and Cochise Counties. We hope Sen. McCain will make the time to meet with the base of the party before we complete our consideration of which candidates we will support in the 2010 primary.

Thank you,

Stephen Kohut

A similar request was sent to Sen. Kyl. The formal requests have been followed up with repeated phone calls, emails, etc. since. While there have been multiple conservations with the schedulers of both Senators the request to meet with the PC’s has been ignored by both of them.

Jan 11, 2010

After much pushing I heard from Elizabeth, Kyl’s schedule, late Friday 1/8. The conversation got heated. I have not been called Sir so many times by one person in years. She brought up the “he did everything” and I beat back with “Kyl did not and he lied to us”. I referenced Sen. Gregg’s minority rights letter and asked if Kyl had done everything Gregg had listed, objections to unanimous consents, hard quorum calls, etc.  Liz said she had never seen it. I faxed it to her and now she has seen it but facts are facts and Jon did not do what he could have, not by any measure.

Liz said meeting next week with Kyl is “very unlikely” but it is not no yet. Kyl will be at the Tucson Tea Party 1/13 but Liz said that that has been in the works for weeks. Our request has also been in the works for weeks as well. Today Kyl seemed to have time as he was at the Phoenix studio of KYFI, 550 AM, and spent 1.5 hours on the air with Barry Young. If we don’t get a meeting with Kyl before the end of this recess that tells me all I need to know regarding our junior Senator.

Nothing from Lois Halverson’s regarding a meeting with McCain. I think we consider that one done and just plan to put McRINO out to pasture in the primary.

Jan 16, 2010 – Pinal County GOP Mandatory Meeting

At the mandatory meeting for Pinal Count GOP Precinct Committeemen Sen. McCain was a guest speaker and did Q&A with the PC’s. Early on in the meeting the Senator came by and shook my hand. Later on I was one of the first people selected to ask the Senator a question I started off framing the question with “Senator, for the last month PC’s from five counties have been asking to meet with you to discuss healthcare and other critical legislation. We have faxed, emailed, called …” At which point Sen. McCain cut me off and told me how busy he was, didn’t I know he was in Afganistan, didn’t I know, and on and on … Microphone in hand he castigated me for even beginning to think that a month was enough time for him to meet with a large group of his GOP PC’s.

I then went on “Senator, let me just ask one of the questions we PC’s wanted to discuss with you. Throughout the month of December your DC staff said repeatedly and consistently that you wanted to improve the healthcare bill and pass healthcare reform …” At this point the Senator went ballistic and went right into Alinsky 13 with “That’s not True!” We went back a forth a few time with me trying to get to complete framing my question to which he loudly responded “That’s not true” calling me a liar. He then went on with “Didn’t you hear me on MSNBC, CNN …” running down a litany of the shows he used to get free press and telling people that what I had said his staff told me was not true.  It was obvious he did not want me to get to my question and was determined to make it about me and not the topic. I held up my hands indicating that I was done. Our Chairman got on his microphone to calm things down.

What happened to me set the pattern for the rest of McCain’s Q&A. If he didn’t like the question he personally attacked the individual asking it. If he liked the question he would be courteous and wax on and on with a long answer. At the end of the meeting multiple PC’s came up to me and told me that they had also talked with McCain’s DC staff in December and were told the exact same think I had been told repeatedly, that McCain wanted to improve the bill and pass healthcare legislation.

Jan 23, 2009 – AZ State GOP Mandatory Meeting

Kyl was disingenuous again. The one amendment (Sanders’) that one GOP Senator (Cobrun) objected to and forced to be partially read made the press everywhere. His claim that the GOP forced the reading of the bill and the many amendments simply does not hold water as they would still be reading the bill and amendment today and, according to Kyl’s DC staff, would be reading past President’s Day and even possibly Easter. Coburn’s objection was the proverbial fig leaf of cover. Instead the GOP went for a country club arrangement of I’ll let yours go forward if we can look like we opposed it if we get to go next and look like we oppose raising the debt ceiling by $1.9 Trillion. We got saved by a miracle in Massachusetts and not by a no holds barred floor fight by the GOP. While Kyl is a good man in many ways he still does not get it that we expect to be told the truth, as hard as it may be, when we ask a question and not some well packaged spin.

Jan 27, – letter from Kyl and my response

I faxed the following response to Kyl’s Senate and campaign office again reiterating the request from 5 counties of PC’s that he meet with us.

Letter to Sen. Kyl

Dear Sen. Kyl,

Thank you for your response. Since your response came from your campaign committee my letter will be faxed to both your Senate and campaign offices.

Your continued claim that Senate Republican employed every action possible to defeat the bill is and continues to be factually incorrect. Did the GOP take meaning action? Yes, and it is appreciated. Did the GOP indeed do everything they could within their rights? No. Not hardly. No matter how hard you try to spin it the claim of “we did everything we could” does not stand up to scrutiny. While the Democrats could have changed the rules of the Senate while they held a 60 vote super majority the likelihood of that occurring was virtually nil so let us look at two of the key minority rights that the GOP failed to fully avail themselves of.

The most glaring is the objection to unanimous consent requests. Your own letter points out “One significant victory came after we forced the reading of Senator Sanders’ 767-page amendment, proposing a single-payer plan…’’ That one objection twisted the Democrats into a knot. Unfortunately it was the only objection of its type that was raised between the bill’s submittal to the floor and its passage on Dec 24. If the GOP had objected to the original bill and each and every amendment and forced their reading three times as allowed they would still be reading and it would not have gotten to a vote. In long conversations with your DC staff they confirmed that if this had been done the Democrats would have been reading legislation until after Presidents Day. Your staff further went on to agree that, in combination with hard quorum calls, this would have pushed any floor vote off until possibly as late as Easter. The honest claim you and the GOP can make is that “we did everything we were willing to do”.

Regarding the swing in the polls and public opposition you referred to, the primary driver for the change was not the GOP. It is and has clearly been the Tea Party movement along with other grassroots conservative activism groups through activities visible to the public and press and behind the scenes activity on the internet and social media that have caused the swing in the polls on healthcare and other issues. While the GOP did voice its concerns they were not the primary mechanism that drove public opinion, made town halls and other public settings hell for Democrats starting in this past summer or closed the deal on “the miracle in Massachusetts”.

Your response to me on your and the GOP Senate’s action on healthcare is a clear illustration of why 75% of Republican feel their congressmen are out of touch with them and why in a three way Rasmussen poll the Tea Party leads with 41% of people viewing it favorably and the GOP is dead last. Tea Party Patriots have a clear and consistent message of constitutional conservatism. The Democrats get their one third from the liberal left. No one knows what a Republican is today because their words do not match their deeds and their actions do not match the party’s conservative platform. It’s that simple.

Senator, I believe you are basically a good man and public servant but political spin answers are not acceptable to me as either your constituent or as a Republican precinct committeemen. For over a month I and several other precinct committeemen representing a large group of PC’s from five counties have asked to meet with you to discuss our concerns over how healthcare and other critical Democratic legislation has been handled. We faxed in our requests to your Arizona scheduler as asked. We followed up with multiple calls and have been ignored. Trying to discuss and deal with these concerns of our constituents and the party by trading letters is ineffective and untimely. You elected not to meet with us. That is your choice. Choices, like elections, come with consequences good and bad. Our request to meet with you still stands opens at this time. We hope you reconsider our request and your decision.

Feb 2, 2010

After almost two month we continue to ask to meet with our two Senators to no avail. The GOP is still trying to claim that it was the primary reason healthcare legislation has not been passed yet. So, rather than beat the dead horse we are moving on the deal with Senator McCain in the primary and fix our RINO problem one office at a time.