Ed Martin (r) is upset about ads and other media used in the Mississippi republican senate primary runoff election:

Missouri GOP head seeks party probe of Mississippi ads alleging racism

By Sean Sullivan and Karen Tumulty July 8 at 7:30 PM

The head of the Missouri Republican Party on Tuesday asked Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus to appoint a task force to investigate what he called “racially divisive ads and robocalls” critical of state Sen. Chris McDaniel in the Republican runoff for U.S. Senate in Mississippi, marking the latest instance of lingering intra-party discord following Sen. Thad Cochran’s narrow victory over McDaniel last month.

Missouri GOP Chairman Ed Martin e-mailed letters to Priebus and RNC members Tuesday afternoon expressing concerns….

Ads and robocalls. Interesting.

The RNC has been in Kansas City, scoping out the locale as a possible site for the 2016 Republican National Convention. Someone interesting also showed up. Via Twitter, from Senator Paul LeVota (D):

Paul LeVota ‏@paullevota

Former ViP Dick Cheney surprises RNC members in KC, which means means an invasion isn’t far behind. [….] 12:23 AM – 5 Jun 2014

From Yael T. Abouhalkah:

Dick Cheney’s KC visit a chilling reminder of GOP’s deadly war policies

By YAEL T. ABOUHALKAH

The Kansas City Star 06/05/2014 1:21 AM

Dick Cheney – one of the most hated and hateful vice presidents in recent U.S. history – was in Kansas City Wednesday night….

….So exactly why some Republicans might have thought it was a good idea to have Cheney’s name associated with the selection of where to hold their national convention escapes me.

Sure, Cheney is still seen as a saint by hard-right figures in the party.

But he’s also the exact kind of spiteful leader that Republicans won’t need out front campaigning for their 2016 presidential nominee, at least if the GOP wants to win back the White House by gaining votes from more moderate Americans….

Does anyone think we have any chance of getting a media credential? Just asking.

Today, on the Faux News Channel:

Todd Akin (r): Let me make it clear, I would do absolutely everything in my power to work with his team and the team that’s gonna try and put our economy and America back on track. I’m fully behind him and I’m fully behind our, our great team of, uh, uh, of, Ryan who I work with in the House, and, and, um, and the, the entire Republican platform. It’s fine. I’m, I’m on board with all of that.

He’s on board with the republican platform. Like that’s a stretch.

But, but:

Republican vs. Republican

by Philip Gourevitch

September 3, 2012

….When word got out that the Republican platform called for the criminalization of abortion without reference to exceptions, the Republican National Committee chairman, Reince Priebus, declined to bow to the candidate. “This is the platform of the Republican Party,” he told MSNBC. “It is not the platform of Mitt Romney….”

Via TPM we learn that when asked during a debate among the candidates for the RNC chairmanship what her favorite book is, Missouri’s Ann Wagner distingiushehd herself by naming her favorite bar instead:

… the real highlight of the exchange came when Ann Wagner responded to the question, saying, “Probably my kitchen table.” What was she referring to exactly? Her favorite bar, apparently, which she thought she was being asked. Her favorite book, though, is George W. Bush’s new memoir, Decision Points.

Better lit up than literate in this case perhaps? Of course, Wagner’s was not the only startling response.  Current RNC chairman, Michael Steele, decided to go for the big time and selected War and Peace to burnish his intellectual credentials – and then mistakenly quoted the opening sentences from Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities. Both responses were fitting somehow, one probably sincere and the other intended to be the usual ho-hum – Steele’s reveal just an added delight.

UPDATE:  Michael Tomasky thinks Ann Wagner will get the nod – based on the fact that she “looks the most Republican of the four”:

Affinity groups such as political parties go with people as leaders they feel comfortable with. Steele was an aberration for an extremely aberrant historical circumstance. Partly in response, I think Republicans will want in the new chair a surfeit of normalcy. That starts with how the person looks, and that means Wagner.

Just another country-club matron …

Ann Wagner, who is running to replace Michael Steele as the  Chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC), just finished a successful stint as Roy Blunt’s campaign manager. As Hotflash noted in a comment to a blog post here at SMP, she has the gift of sounding mild and rational while speaking for a party that is rushing to walk on the wild side. Certainly, under her leadership, the Blunt campaign negotiated the Tea Party shoals while never abandoning the GOP corporate crew whose interests Blunt seems to put first and foremost.

The upcoming campaign for the RNC Chair could pose a serious challenge to her skills, however. In this context, I was struck by a comment Slate‘s David Weigel made about the benefits of his attendance at a FreedomWorks-Republican Conservative Caucus forum for RNC chair candidates:

As a way of seeing just how successful the Tea Party’s capture of the GOP has been, it was very useful. And it was even better as a gauge of how smart Republicans have become at 1) figuring that out and 2) figuring out what Tea Partiers want to hear.

Wagner already seems to be trying her best to exercise tact. In response to claims at the forum that the GOP owes it’s Nov. 2 victories to the Tea Party, she cautiously observed that “we have to reflect the true, independent nature of these Tea Parties that are out there.” Bunkum, but important bunkum for someone who wants to keep the squalling baby placated while they throw out the foul bathwater.  

I expect that Wagner’s performance will offer many such moments of rarefied amusement for those of us who appreciate a nuanced delivery. The GOP, after all, now has to cater to a chorus of crazies who, encouraged by the purposely vague Tea Party rhetoric, have crawled out of the woodwork where they have  hidden since the late 1950s.

Just this week, Judson Phillips, president of the Tea Party Nation, declared that voting should be restricted to property owners only. I know that these delusional fools think they have a private line to the Founders, but it will be incumbent on the likes of Wagner to steer them gently when they get their 18th century lines this badly crossed – which she just may be able to do. She did after all, get many of the  “we-the-people” contingent to toady for Roy Blunt in spite of the fact that he delivered some of his Tea Party friendly lines with all the conviction of a confirmed drunk at a prohibition rally.

This evening I received an automated survey in the voice of Ken Blackwell (r) (former Ohio Secretary of State and current candidate for chairman of the rnc).

Talk about social conservatism. Heh. The questions which required a “yes” or “no” response were the standard right wingnut boilerplate. God, guns, gays, and less taxes. My favorite was (paraphrased): “Do you believe that marriage should only be between a man and a woman…?” I answered correctly, “No.” The call was paid for by one of those obnoxious meme named PACs. “America something something something, etc.”

Ken Blackwell. Ohio. Secretary of State. 2004. Oh, right:

Ohio still paying legal fees from 2004 election

Posted by Associated Press December 24, 2008 08:19AM

COLUMBUS – Ohioans are still paying for the 2004 presidential election.

The secretary of state’s office says more than $1 million has been spent already to settle seven lingering lawsuits. More than a dozen cases remain in state and federal courts.

Lawsuits have challenged then-Secretary Ken Blackwell’s election directives, such as restricting news media exit polling, and the narrow results that clinched President Bush’s re-election over Democrat John Kerry…

Heh. I hope he becomes chairman of the rnc – he’ll stick to the same old playbook. Consider this my enthusiastic endorsement.  

Nothing exceeds like excess:

October 22, 2008

Republicans spent $150,000 on Sarah Palin’s clothes

The Republican Party has spent $150,000 in upmarket designer stores on dressing Sarah Palin for the part of vice-president…

…The Republican Party has tried to play down the extraordinary sum it has spent on packaging Ms Palin.

“With all of the important issues facing the country right now, it’s remarkable that we’re spending time talking about pantsuits and blouses,” said Tracey Schmitt, a party spokeswoman…

[emphasis added]

They must not remember this:

No More Mr. Nice Guy

By Dana Milbank

Tuesday, December 11, 2007; Page A10

…Sounds like a bit of class warfare — coming from a man with a 28,000-square-foot house, $30 million in assets and a $400 haircut…

[emphasis added]

Yes, the republican party is seriously irony impaired.

They forgot. They created this world, but we all have to live in it.

Not so different fiddlers, same dance:

Police raid RNC protest sites in Twin Cities

…On Saturday afternoon, law agents surrounded 951 Iglehart Av. in St. Paul where members of I-Witness Video, a New York-based group that monitors police conduct during protests, were staying. They were detained and handcuffed but eventually freed without charges…

tiny URL

Massive police raids on suspected protestors in Minneapolis

…This is truly repugnant, extreme police behavior designed to intimidate protesters, police critics and others, and it ought to infuriate anyone and everyone who cares about basic liberties.

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

More Protesters Arrested in the Twin Cities

…Glenn Greenwald: So what were they charged with?

Bruce Nestor: They were charged with conspiracy to commit riot, which is about as bullshit a charge — about as thin a charge — as you could possibly come up with. And I say that as a lawyer.

Glenn Greenwald: How do you distinguish between that and a protest?

Bruce: You can’t. It basically criminalizes political advocacy. I mean, the essence of conspiracy law is if a single individual takes an overt act towards accomplishing an illegal goal such as purchasing a brick, and the police then claim that someone else in his group has an intent to throw that brick, then everyone who advocates that you attend that demonstration…

Glenn: Even if you’re not intending to commit that crime…

Bruce: …even though you’re not intending to commit the crime, could all be charged with conspiracy….

It’s their party and they’ll desecrate the Constitution if they want to.

Heaven protect us from long (and short) haired protesters with large puppets and smart mouths. Puh-leaze.