Republicans Still Haven't Figured It Out!
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Citizens for Term Limits
“Our lives, our Fortunes and our Sacred Honor”
www.termlimits.com
May 12, 2008
Rense Johnson, Chairman
Second Chronicles 7:14
Dr. Tom Cole
Chairman, NRCC
P. O. Box 96155
Washington, D.C. 20090
Dear Chairman Cole:
Things may not be quite as bad for Republicans as Saturday’s Oklahoman article appeared.
As Chairman of what started out as Louisiana Citizens for Term Limits, I watch Louisiana politics closely. The loss in the Louisiana Sixth District was predictable and based on the Club for Growth support of a phony Republican, running against a conservative GOP woman who had what I thought were very good conservative positions on the issues. I am well acquainted with the phony Republican, Woody Jenkins, and enclose what I
wrote about him years ago. Jenkins is a walking disaster. (My opinion of Club for Growth is a subject for another letter.)
My recipe for Republican victory in November is enclosed, an uphill task. But you have great allies in Boehner and Shadegg. And if you have read Senator Coburn’s book Breach of Trust, you know that Coburn campaigned on term limitation (Coburn’s words circled on that enclosure).
Since money raising is a big part of your job as Chairman of the NRCC, you should also read the enclosed “Bankrupt — and Losing International Influence,” which logically raises the question, where will the needed GOP funding come from that you will need for the ‘08 elections?
Because we strongly believe in constitutionally-mandated Congressional term limits — not only its benefits to the nation, but also its huge popularity with the voters — we are convinced that it could be a tipping point strategy for a McCain landslide victory in November.
The extreme power of the term limitation issue — 60% to 80% support across the country and 82% in Oklahoma — can overturn commonplace thinking. At a time when the “reds and blues” on the national political map are in a state of flux with Republicans on the short side of the equation, the tremendous popularity of term limitation offers Republicans an historic opportunity to upset the party balance in Congress and in the country and put Republicans in charge of Congress for years to come.
Today we see term limitation as a highly-charged emotional issue, representing a disconnect between the man on the street and his government. And — the issue which has cost the party dearly since 1994 can be its deliverance now. But both Democrats and the inexorable calendar are our enemies.
Magnitude of the support makes for landslide numbers if the issue is used. But sadly, it is still anathema to a few Republicans. Who will be served?
What will go away if this issue is ignored . . . is whatever life remains in the Republican party.
Term limitation has by now assumed the dimensions of a hugely powerful campaign weapon. It is poison to Democrats, which means only Republicans can use it. It is the only issue of its kind, and it still belongs exclusively to the GOP.
Dr. Cole, the vast majority of workaday Americans want to be Republicans — if only the real Republicans will take them back. Thus the great odds of success for a grassroots fund-raising program aimed at Republicans, who will loosen their purse strings when they catch the contagious fever across the land.
Would John McCain have the courage to go directly to the American People with this? No one doubts McCain’s courage if he can be made to see the huge benefits accruing to Americans and the Republican party from this dramatic move, and the national excitement from Republican voters.
But — were the GOP to adopt term limitation as a national platform, party-wide, to put congressional term limits in the Constitution, voters would flock to the party in droves, creating that landslide for all Republicans. The required two-thirds congressional vote for a constitutional amendment doesn’t have to be achieved in ’08, only strong evidence of the pursuit of it.
Rank and file Republicans will love it. The resulting landslide will catch all the pundits and all the insiders completely by surprise. Reid and Pelosi will only be able to stand and watch. Hillary and Obama too.
Permitting destruction of the Republican Party and abandoning the country to the socialist tax-and-spend Democrats is not an option.
Warmest regards,
Rense Johnson
Enclosures
CC: Tom Cole Congressional office
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