"Ashamed" Big GOP Donor
Closes Checkbook

"Ashamed" big GOP donor closes checkbook, Daily Kos, March 6, 2010, by Dante Atkins, quoted verbatim:

Click the Gloating Donkey to Listen to Paul's Playlist of Great Electronic Rock Music!

The fallout has begun from the offensive, insulting and juvenile fundraising pitch by the GOP at its retreat in Boca Grande. Via Ben Smith at Politico:

A prominent Evangelical figure and Republican donor says he will end his contributions to the organized Republican Party in reaction to the leaked fundraising presentation that advised using "fear" to solicit contributions and displayed an image of President Obama as the Joker from Batman.

Mark DeMoss, who heads a major Christian public relations firm in Atlanta and served as a liaison to the Evangelical community for Mitt Romney in 2008, wrote Chairman Michael Steele yesterday that he was "ashamed" of the presentation, calling depictions of Obama, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Majority Leader Harry Reid "shameful, immature and uncivil, at best."

Ben Smith has the full text of DeMoss' letter, copies of which were enclosed to all Republican Party Committees as well as the Congressional leadership. But here's the key graf:

While I realize your office made steps to distance you from this presentation I’m afraid the presentation is representative of a culture and mindset within the Republican National Committee; consequently, I will no longer contribute to any fundraising entity of our Party—but will contribute only to individual candidates I choose to support.

The media may be generally unwilling to discuss Republican deficiencies as we approach the 2010 election, but the culture underlying this presentation ought to become a subject for discussion. This modern version of the GOP has shown itself to be an insular and insolent Party that thinks its insulting and degrading message will play well across the country. And the turning tide shows they're not entirely right.

See 2010: The Tide is Turning, Daily Kos, March 5, 2010, by kos (highly recommended).