Redstate Morning Briefing

BREAKING: SEIU Handling the Voting Machines in Las Vegas
Remember the news story yesterday about the lady in Las Vegas who, when casting her ballot, discovered that Harry Reid's name was pre-checked for her? My friend Jim Hoft has breaking news that the SEIU is responsible for servicing those machines. Hhhmmmmm. . . .
Read more about it right here at Jim's site.

1. What Better Way to Signal the World You "Get It?" - Hire Washington Insiders!
So, expecting to pick up a number of seats by "newbies," what do GOP leaders in Washington want to ensure? They want "GOP insiders to staff outsiders," according to Roll Call. Eric Cantor's staff added, "There's a lot of important work to get done right out of the gate, so it's important that newly elected Republicans have access to experienced, competent staff so that they can hit the ground running."
According to Roll Call, "[a] Republican aide confirmed leadership's interest in having staff that works well with Boehner to move the agenda forward." And even better, the lobbyists and strategists are in on the act, as well - one lobbyist saying, "[y]ou want to be sure that the newbies, when they hit town, do not necessarily bring their campaign staff to run their Congressional offices, because in some cases they are totally ill-equipped."
But that's not really what this is about at its core. This is about making sure the "newbies" do not rock the boat and get with the program. the Washington establishment's program. The staff that the establishment will "suggest" to the new members will be the same freaking idiots who have been bouncing around the Hill forever and will be more likely to go along to get along - to continue the same way Washington has been working forever. Just take a look at top Republican offices - they are a bunch of re-treads from years past, Administrations past - and for those of us who have been in the trenches fighting for conservatism, let me just say that we have more often been fighting against them than with them.
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2. It's Time to Make GOP Leadership Less Powerful
As Election Day approaches, no outcome should be taken for granted, but it looks increasingly likely that Republicans will take control of the House, and perhaps even the Senate. For those who want to reform Congress, increased thought and planning needs to take place now because many decisions are made the very next week after the election when Republicans "organize."
During these organization meetings, Republicans will elect their leadership for the upcoming Congress, agree upon their internal conference rules, and give their blessing to the slate of members who will represent them on the powerful "steering" Committee that distributes committee assignments. Much of this resembles a bum's rush where the current Leadership offers a series of resolutions, often designed to preserve their own power, that are quickly agreed to because none of the members in attendance are prepared (or willing) to object and consider the long-term ramifications for conservatives.
Yet in many respects, these organizational meetings will lay the framework for whether the incoming class of members will actually be able to change the way Congress and their party does business.
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3. Did Harry Reid pull strings to protect aide in immigration conspiracy?
The facts of the case are these: in 2003 Diana Tejada entered into a fraudulent conspiracy with Lebanese national Bassam Mahmoud Tarhini, with the aim of securing permanent US residency for the latter (there was also and investigation whether Mr. Tarhini had links to 'extremist groups,' but nothing was ever confirmed). Money changed hands. For the next five years Ms. Tejada continued to misrepresent her relationship with Mr. Tarhini, despite official inquiries by immigration services; her eventual confession took place in November, which was one month after she joined current Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's staff. Despite her confession, Ms. Tejada was not charged with any crime at all, let alone a felony; in fact, Ms. Tejada was misidentified as still being at her former job (La Raza) by immigration officials at Tarhini's deportation proceedings. Harry Reid's office has fired Ms. Tejada only in the last month (she was an official Reid spokesperson for the latest DREAM Act push), and claims that they had no prior knowledge of her activities: this has been contradicted by Fox's own sources, which insist that Tejada's confession was partially motivated by concerns relating to her new job with Harry Reid; and that in any case it would be standard operating procedure for the Senate Majority Leader to be made aware of a situation of this magnitude that involved one of his own aides.
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4. Dan Benishek: Of The People, By The People
We are getting down to the wire here and a candidate who can win needs our help. Dan Benishek is running in MI-1 for the seat that Bart Stupak is vacating. Y'all remember Bart Stupak, right? The man who proved that the myth of the Pro-Life Democrat is just that; a myth. He disgustingly sold out the unborn, after promising not to, and voted for Obamacare. Then bravely ran away, in the form of retirement.
Dan Benishek is the man that can, and should, replace the cowardly Stupak. He has a money bomb going on right now. . . . His latest ad, entitled "Get Us Back" shows why we need him to win. Oh, and it is an ad done by a RedState diarist.

5. Alex Sink Drips
Alex Sink and Rick Scott agreed before hand to the rules of their debate. One of the rules was that they'd not take messages or converse with staff during the debate.
Alex Sink, during the debate, sung her own praises about how she always follows the rules. Then her makeup artist came in and handed her a message. During the debate.
Given Alex Sink's debate performance, however, we may need to give her a mulligan.
She spent the entire debate bragging about all the newspaper endorsements she's received. You'd think she was running for Editor of the New York Times. Of course Sink also kept denying she was an "Obama liberal."
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6. We Helped Him Start His Campaign. Let's Help Him Finish It.
It was March 19, 2009. I got on the front page of RedState and said Marco Rubio was my choice to be Senator in Florida and we should not be going all in with a guy like Charlie Crist.
Rubio was at 4% in the polls.
Everybody laughed and thought I was crazy. He who laughs last . . .
We helped Marco Rubio start his campaign. Now let's help Marco Rubio finish it.
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