Inside Groundswell: Read the Memos of the New Right-Wing Strategy Group Planning a "30 Front War"

[deminks]

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/07/groundswell-rightwing-group-ginni-thomas

Believing they are losing the messaging war with progressives, a group of prominent conservatives in Washington—including the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and journalists from Breitbart News and the Washington Examiner—has been meeting privately since early this year to concoct talking points, coordinate messaging, and hatch plans for "a 30 front war seeking to fundamentally transform the nation," according to documents obtained by Mother Jones.

Dubbed Groundswell, this coalition convenes weekly in the offices of Judicial Watch, the conservative legal watchdog group. During these hush-hush sessions and through a Google group, the members of Groundswell—including aides to congressional Republicans—cook up battle plans for their ongoing fights against the Obama administration, congressional Democrats, progressive outfits, and the Republican establishment and "clueless" GOP congressional leaders. They devise strategies for killing immigration reform, hyping the Benghazi controversy, and countering the impression that the GOP exploits racism. And the Groundswell gang is mounting a behind-the-scenes organized effort to eradicate the outsize influence of GOP über-strategist/pundit Karl Rove within Republican and conservative ranks. (For more on Groundswell's "two front war" against Rove—a major clash on the right—click here.)


One of the influential conservatives guiding the group is Virginia "Ginni" Thomas, a columnist for the Daily Caller and a tea party consultant and lobbyist. Other Groundswell members include John Bolton, the former UN ambassador; Frank Gaffney, the president of the Center for Security Policy; Ken Blackwell and Jerry Boykin of the Family Research Council; Tom Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch; Gayle Trotter, a fellow at the Independent Women's Forum; Catherine Engelbrecht and Anita MonCrief of True the Vote; Allen West, the former GOP House member; Sue Myrick, also a former House GOPer; Diana Banister of the influential Shirley and Banister PR firm; and Max Pappas, a top aide to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).

Among the conveners listed in an invitation to a May 8 meeting of Groundswell were Stephen Bannon, executive chairman of Breitbart News Network; Dan Bongino, a former Secret Service agent who resoundingly lost a Maryland Senate race last year (and is now running for a House seat); Leonard Leo, executive vice president of the Federalist Society; Sandy Rios, a Fox News contributor; Lori Roman, a former executive director of the American Legislative Exchange Council; and Austin Ruse, the head of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute. Conservative journalists and commentators participating in Groundswell have included Breitbart News reporters Matthew Boyle and Mike Flynn, Washington Examiner executive editor Mark Tapscott, and National Review contributor Michael James Barton.

(end snip)

Fascinating behavior for the wife of what some call a supreme court justice.

[arely staircase]

1. 30?

seems a little ambitious.

[calimary]

2. If their wording isn't, their objectives are.

And they need to be taken seriously and responded to.

This is why we ALWAYS have to remain vigilant. There were stories awhile back that ALEC disbanded. Don't believe it for a moment. Maybe the NAME of the organization was done away with. Just as there's no more "Blackwater." But there IS INDEED something called "Xe" and probably other clones that have metastasized from it, and their work goes on, and their contracts continue, and their objectives remain intact and enforced. But they changed their name and their mast-head and that's lulled some on our side to think that we beat 'em, they're gone, not coming back, done, we won! AND WE DIDN'T!!! They're STILL HERE. STILL UP TO NO GOOD. Only they have better cover now because they changed their name and enough people figured that was that.

[deminks]

3. kick for the afternoon.