The Blogs Seem to Have Calculated Their Descent with Amazing Subtlety

David Weigel | August 1, 2006

Two years of mocking the Democratic blogs for donating to loser candidates has taken its toll; Republican blogs want to donate to their own loser candidates. Introducing Rightroots, an alliance of conservative bloggers who've created a list of endorsed candidates and a handy venue for bloggers to donate to their campaigns. Says Ed Morrissey:

We hope that all Republican candidates win their races. However, we wanted to focus on competitive races or on seats that have a broader impact on national politics. Obviously, we still encourage people to contribute to other Republicans; it's just that we feel contributions in these races will have the most impact.

The list is actually pretty smartly selected. The only Rightroots candidates already being helped by the national GOP are the Senate candidates and around half of the House candidates. The rest are longshot candidates for whom tens of thousands of blogbucks would make a difference. A good example is Diana Irey, the wife of a contractor who got a sweet deal with the Iraqi government. The GOP isn't taking her campaign against Rep. John Murtha (D-Penn.) terribly seriously, but getting warbloggers to throw money at a Murtha opponent is like getting a dog to drool when a bell rings.

But that's not the real issue here. The issue is their logo:

Why is the elephant ejecting the blood-red vines grown by the alien machines in "The War of the Worlds"? Is that a winning Republican message for the fall? "Vote GOP: Get Eviscerated By Extraterrestrial Tripods!" I guess it worked for Kang.

I groused about the politicization of blogging in the July issue of Reason.

Comments

|8.1.06 @ 2:06PM|#

Ouch. That's a fugly logo.

|8.1.06 @ 2:07PM|#

Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos.

|8.1.06 @ 2:11PM|#

The logo would seem more appropriate for a Lovecraftian political party. ("Vote Mythos, the stars are right!")

|8.1.06 @ 2:12PM|#

It's like some kind of Republicthulhu thing!

|8.1.06 @ 2:20PM|#

The comments about the Kos candidates always amazed me. It's the perfect example of how reality has jack shit to do with politics.

Kos chose 10 or 20 long-shot candidates to fund. They all lost. But several of them ran competitive enough races to force their GOP opponents to spend time and money defending their district. (Morrison against Delay, for instance -- first time Delay had to campaign in 10 years).

I was pretty fond of the notion. I don't like the thought of "token races" and incumbents not really having to pay attention to their own elections. I'm all for tossing 50k at some Democrat (or Republican) to give a politican an actual opponent he has to pay attention to, rather than having him meddling in an election two states away. Let him tend to his own back yard.

In any case, picking candidate's with virtually no chance of winning was kind of the point. LGF gloating about how all the Kos candidates lost is just LGF missing the poing entirely -- which isn't all that surprising, really.

garry reed|8.1.06 @ 2:23PM|#

The logo looks like a GOP elephant "out on a limb" to me, which sounds about right based on your comments. For me, a libertarian, the only thing a Republican limb is good for is to hang oneself.

|8.1.06 @ 2:51PM|#

Cthulu 2008: Why vote for the lesser evil?

|8.1.06 @ 3:08PM|#

Morat20,

That is some seriously good spin. Its too bad that Kos never plays it that way when the election is going on. They are always going to win up until the time that they loose and then it was "we were just making a point and didn't expect to win anyway." Either Kos is trying to tip these races in which case he is a complete looser or, as you argue, the races are already lost and he has no intention or hope of winning, in which case he is completely irrelevent.

|8.1.06 @ 3:15PM|#

Looks like that elephant is hemhorraging from shooting itself in the feet.

SPD|8.1.06 @ 3:21PM|#

Jon H: I think it's supposed to be trampling on medical marijuana. At least that's my Rorschach take on it. BTW, right-wingers love to use all caps, BECAUSE WE ARE UNDER SIEGE BY LIBERALS, PEOPLE!!! All the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

John, if it wipes the smug, self-satisfied grin of assured victory off of at least one incumbent's face, I'm all for what Kos is doing, so I agree with Morat20.

|8.1.06 @ 4:02PM|#

Oh, thank god some dork blog jerks are telling me where to send my money. How did we live without them before the Internet?

|8.1.06 @ 5:55PM|#

That elephant looks like it's bleeding. Note to any graphic designer out there: do not ever do branching narrow red lines unless it's for a direct-to-video horror movie cover. Which this looks like. Which is really not the first thing you want people to think of when discussing a candidate for public office.

|8.1.06 @ 6:45PM|#

No, I got it - it's the blood of Jesus.

|8.1.06 @ 8:19PM|#

The fields! They're covered in blood!

|8.1.06 @ 10:08PM|#

Cthulu 2008: Why vote for the lesser evil?

I bought a t-shirt with that on it once. I think my ex has it now.

I have "The collect call of Cthulhu" and a friend has "Cthulhu Cola: Just for the taste of you!"

|8.2.06 @ 12:42AM|#

It looks to me like the elephant is shooting electric spark thingies out of its feet...

The Wine Commonsewer|8.2.06 @ 12:50AM|#

I still think the logo looks like a mail box with a rain gutter.

|8.2.06 @ 9:41AM|#

To follow up on what Morat20 wrote, Kos spends a great deal of ones and zeros arguing in favor of building the Democratic Party as a - gasp - national party: the so-called 50-state strategy. Of course this is going to require putting resources into unlikely races - the strategy is based on establishing beach heads in areas that have been hostile territory for years.

I don't think the "Rah rah, we're gonna win" talk that John points out is as telling as he thinks it is, and more than introducing Bob Dole as "the next President of United States" indicates actual belief by the GOP that he had a prayer of winning in 1996. It's just firing up the troops, and everyone understands that.

|8.2.06 @ 6:12PM|#

Was this elephant named "Topsy" by any chance?