- A few Christians want to join Branstad’s
Mazola Party (called that because it’s 100% pure corn oiled and other reasons)
- The Iowa Republican is part of the Mazola party
- Effort fueled by Big Ethanol and a little Kool-Aid
Think of what is aligned against our guy Ted Cruz here in Iowa —
A very fearful national political establishment (Republican and Democrat) is terrified that someone like Ted Cruz who will first consult the Constitution before “governing” is ascending. Cruz must be defeated lest the big government gravy train lose market share. The horrifying implication is that a Cruz win will be in spite of them and therefore he will owe them nothing. Their self-centered ethos cannot comprehend that a Cruz win is the best medicine for the country’s long-term survival as a republic.
Terry Branstad’s type of candidate
Iowa’s own crony capitalist political establishment, now headed by Governor Terry Branstad, (enforced by hangers-on and wannabes) previously headed by Chet Culver and Tom Vilsack, (and their wannabes) have designating Ted Cruz “public enemy number one” for opposing ethanol mandates. The mandates are their golden goose — paid for, as always, by taxpayers and consumers. The laws of concentrated gain and dispersed (and confused) pain apply.
Those two elements would rather have anyone but Ted Cruz succeed in Iowa and elsewhere because the other candidates have already exposed themselves as being readily pliable or already “of the cloth” and “with the program” . . . “people they can do business with” including Trump. With them it will be largely business as usual. There cannot be any serious question that the combined effort to take out Cruz is not at work. The anti-Cruz ads financed by these elements are everywhere.
There is a rumored third element, small in number and attitude as best we can tell, an alliance of supporters of two or three of the low single digit contestants for the presidential nomination. The element thinks of themselves as social conservatives, and no doubt they hold conservative positions on social issues, but are also comparatively big-government conservatives given their preferred choices for president as mentioned in the article analyzed below. They disregard that sustained big government is inimical to social conservative goals.
This from Tim Alberta and Eliana Johnson writing at National Review Online (NRO):
Many supporters of Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum, the last two winners of Iowa’s Republican presidential contests, are grappling with a pair of grim realities as the 2016 caucuses approach. Not only have their candidates been stuck in the low single digits for months in Iowa, but they also view Cruz, the new front-runner, as a phony opportunist who has pandered to Evangelicals for political gain, particularly in Iowa. And they fear that if Cruz notches a win in the Hawkeye State — especially if he does so by a wide margin, which many Republicans now view as a distinct possibility — he will emerge as the overwhelming favorite to capture the nomination.
These assumptions have led to a pair of common conclusions: First, that preventing Cruz from winning Iowa is more important than promoting their own preferred candidates. And second, that if the only way to accomplish that is by throwing their support to another candidate, it should be Marco Rubio.
“This is real. There exists this feeling that Senator Cruz is only the most recent Christian conservative presidential candidate, and that the two individuals who preceded him in the 2008 and 2012 caucuses have not been given the respect that they deserve as voices in the Christian conservative movement,” says Jamie Johnson, a former member of the Iowa GOP state central committee who supported Santorum in 2012 and has not thrown his weight behind a candidate after supporting former Texas governor Rick Perry earlier this cycle.
Why the antagonism toward Cruz from those who largely agree with his message? Some of it can be chalked up to sour grapes; backers of Huckabee and Santorum are angry and disappointed that their candidates have been unable to rekindle the magic of elections past. Yet sudden talk of an anti-Cruz effort has echoed in many recent conversations with Iowa Republicans, some of whom are supporting different candidates and others who are unaffiliated.
Not reflected on by Johnson, at least as reported by NRO, is who appointed Huckabee or Santorum the most capable implementer of all that is necessary for social conservative matters to be reimplimented? Perhaps other social conservatives are of the opinion that those two candidates had already received their days in the sun, acquiring some not so conservative blemishes in the process — more on that here, here, and here ?
Mazola Party
Now this editor is a long-time activist in the right to life moment and other social and conservative causes and I have never been paid a dime in support of or obliquely related to those causes. However movements need paid organizers, that is the way of the world, indeed I have helped raise money for organizations who pay staff. The necessity of paying dedicated staff is real and not at issue. However transparency is important if such elements are going to challenge Cruz’s integrity. The NRO article continues:
Why the antagonism toward Cruz from those who largely agree with his message? Some of it can be chalked up to sour grapes; backers of Huckabee and Santorum are angry and disappointed that their candidates have been unable to rekindle the magic of elections past. Yet sudden talk of an anti-Cruz effort has echoed in many recent conversations with Iowa Republicans, some of whom are supporting different candidates and others who are unaffiliated.
For now, there are only murmurs about moves being made behind the scenes to damage Cruz. Several Republican sources point to Nick Ryan, a prominent Iowa strategist who leads the pro-Huckabee super PAC Pursuing America’s Greatness, as a key player in the anti-Cruz efforts. Ryan is known to have longstanding ties with operatives in Rubio’s orbit, most notably Sean Noble, whose group American Encore has been running ads pummeling Cruz on national security. Sources believe that Ryan has signaled to those allies a willingness to boost Rubio by weakening Cruz.
Bob Eschliman writing at Charism magazine reports and expands on the NRO article — Is There an Anti-Ted Cruz Effort Building in Iowa? — in which he reveals another someone that figures in Ryan’s orbit, specifically the oft-quoted about the caucuses – Craig Robinson — the editor (and sole writer of late) of the blog The Iowa Republican (we have linked to it a number of times in these pages).
Robinson, president of Global Intermediate LLC, an Iowa-based political public relations and marketing firm, also is founder and editor-in-chief of The Iowa Republican website. It is well known in Iowa political circles the website has longstanding ties to Concordia Group CEO Nick Ryan, who is identified, but not quoted, in the article.
Ryan serves as president of the pro-Huckabee Super PAC Pursuing American Greatness, which had paid Concordia Group nearly $30,000 in consulting fees in the first half of 2015, and more than $2,000 in digital advertising fees to Global Intermediate, according to Federal Election Commission reports. In the report, Ryan is indicated as the central figure in the anti-Cruz effort: . . .
The Iowa Republican published an article Monday (ed note Dec 28th) titled “Ted Cruz: The False Prophet of Social Conservatism.” Robinson is identified as the author of the article, which attacks Cruz’ authenticity as a social conservative from the very first paragraph:
“Contrary to popular belief, the 2016 presidential campaign of Texas Senator Ted Cruz does not present socially conservative and evangelical voters their best chance to put one of their own in the White House. Instead, a Cruz presidency may usher in the total demise of social conservative movement in America.”
Robinson’s article goes on to extrapolate Cruz’s allegiance to the full Constitution as inimical to social conservatism because of Cruz’s support of the 10th Amendment. Robinson’s stretch of Cruz’s views on the 10th amendment is made without acknowledging the opportunity the amendment affords social conservatives to achieve what it is barred by the judiciary and congressional stonewalling. Nor does he acknowledge that NO ONE would be better at filling judicial vacancies than Cruz.
The Constitution is simply not the enemy of social conservatives, but if it were, social conservatism is surely doomed without its protections. Regardless, Robinson owes it to innocent readers to post on his blog something to the effect “fueled by ethanol.”
Here is the Big Ethanol nexus to the Trumped* up Huckabeed* up anti-Cruz effort. Via Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). Note that the references below are to liberal sources so skip their biased analysis and disregard their selectivity – our purpose is just to credit acknowledged facts they have presented. Bold emphasis ours.
Consultant Behind Ethanol Group’s Anti-Cruz Ads Also Heads Huckabee’s Super PAC
Earlier this month, a pro-ethanol nonprofit group, America’s Renewable Future, launched a campaign in Iowa attacking Sen. Ted Cruz’s position on the ethanol-boosting Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) as hypocritical. The anonymously funded radio ads hitting Sen. Cruz appear to be the work of a consultant who also runs a super PAC supporting one of Sen. Cruz’s GOP presidential primary rivals, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
The ads are hosted on the YouTube page of the Concordia Group, an Iowa-based public affairs consulting firm. The president and founder of the firm is Nick Ryan, a political operative known for the American Future Fund, a 501(c)(4) organization that has spent millions to influence elections. As Ryan’s Concordia bio notes, he is also the president of Pursuing America’s Greatness, a super PAC supporting Gov. Huckabee.
The Concordia Group’s YouTube hosting of the radio ads isn’t the only evidence of Ryan’s involvement. In a press release defending the group’s ads against complaints from Sen. Cruz’s campaign, America’s Renewable Future links to a Microsoft Word fact-checking document of the ad. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington downloaded the document and discovered metadata showing that Ryan is listed as the author: . . .
When America’s Renewable Future first announced its plans to make ethanol a top issue in the Iowa caucuses, the group’s organizers told the Des Moines Register that funders included the Iowa Corn Growers Association, the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, and Growth Energy. Ryan’s duel role raises questions about whether the group has received funding from Huckabee supporters specifically for the anti-Cruz ads, . . .
And what about America Future Fund – where does it get a lot of its money? From a report in the New York Times:
interviews found that the group was started with seed money from at least one influential Iowa businessman: Bruce Rastetter, a co-founder and the chief executive of one of the nation’s larger ethanol companies, Hawkeye Energy Holdings,
And more about Rastetter and his connections to Branstad, the rest of the Republican establishment and its crony capitalism (and by the way Chet Culver) are in this lengthy article at Bleeding Heartland (liberal alert). The links are extensive and substantive. They lend credence to it being all about ethanol and opposing anyone who challenges the corporate welfare Also consider this article at Bleeding Heartland.
So our view is that it is Big Ethanol that tries to ramrod Republican (and Democrat) politics in this state. Not that profound or unique an insight. Our purpose in the forgoing was to substantiate it some for posterity. Fortunately a lot of farmers and agriculture supporters and social and religious conservatives know better what is good for the industry and the country and the Iowa caucuses and are supporting Ted Cruz — like Steve King.
Back to the third element of the unholy alliance (powered by the third rail of Iowa politics)
Eschliman in the Charisma News article goes on to question the politics of the alleged stop Cruz at all costs effort:
The question left unanswered in the (NRO) article, however, is how such a coalition would work when both Huckabee and Santorum—past winners of the Iowa Republican Caucus—have said they won’t bow out before the first-in-the-nation caucus on Feb. 1. Santorum is on pace to have visited all 99 counties by Caucus Night, and Huckabee is fast approaching his own sweep of the state.
We do not anticipate it amounting to much but given Huckabee’s and Santorum’s place in the polls how could it? Our advice to them is if they don’t think Huckabee or Santorum have a chance and they like Rubio next best – fine, support Rubio. Just don’t call doing the bidding of crony capitalists the better social conservative route against an honest evaluation of the evidence and legislative history of Cruz. It is also not the Christian route when the favorite “Christian” candidate (Huckabee in this case) allows his campaign to be so aggressively championed by corporate interests (Ryan et al), something he hypocritically decries in others, and goes on to make these kind of distortions as Huckabee did:
“Conservatives are being asked to ‘coalesce’ around yet another corporately-funded candidate that says something very different at a big donor fundraiser in Manhattan than at a church in Marshalltown,” Huckabee said in a statement shortly after Politico released the audio of Cruz’s fundraiser remarks. “Shouldn’t a candidate be expected to have authenticity and consistency, instead of having to look at a map to decide what to believe and what to say?”
In the recording published by Politico, Cruz responded no when asked if fighting gay marriage was one of his top three priorities, but went on to put it in the context of a broader goal: “defending the Constitution.” The super PAC ad omits the latter part of Cruz’s reply.
Regarding reliability on the issue of traditional marriage, which is said to be driving the concerns of this anti-Cruz group, we would also encourage them to consider the information available at this link: 5 GOP presidential candidates who will betray you on gay marriage before jumping from their favorite candidate. The article refers to Trump, Carson, Rubio, Christie and Bush, and to also consider the fact that the National Organization for Marriage along with other social conservative groups and leaders have endorsed Cruz.
R Mall
- Both Trump and Huckabee are for continuing ethanol mandates (as are the rest with the exception of Cruz)
