NEWS AND OPINION:
The Republican Party has argued, pouted, postured and made threatening gestures at one another and the White House for many days. Despite the strife, the GOP has never had a better year for fundraising. After months of record-breaking donations, there is now $121.4 million in the GOP treasure chest — and zero debt. Management is pleased. Steve Wynn, finance chairman of the Republican National Committee, says the broad support for the GOP began the day President Trump was inaugurated and has continued ever since.
“As President Trump follows through on his campaign promises, our grass-roots support continues to grow across the America,” says equally enthusiastic RNC Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel.
Things are not so bodacious for the Democratic Party, which has about half of what the GOP enjoys. According to the latest Federal Election Commission filing, the Democrats have accrued $60.7 million this year, and have $2.6 million in debt.
“An easy New Year’s resolution for the Democratic National Committee: Stop posting abysmal fundraising numbers,” advises Michael Ahrens, the nimble rapid response director for the GOP, who compares the parties’ respective performances.
Chairman Tom Perez posted the DNC’s “worst November report” in a decade, says Mr. Ahrens — while Mrs. McDaniel has broken every GOP fundraising record for the last eight months.
The Democrats and progressives, meanwhile, remain revved up and snarling — frequently citing polls that claim the voting public poised to vote Democratic in 2018 and change the balance in House and Senate.
Republicans and conservatives, meanwhile, calmly counter that their political rivals have yet to develop a battle plan and agenda — and that some news organizations are beginning to report the positive developments.
The DNC War Room — a public outreach entity within the party, disagrees — and is urging Democrats to dig deep and donate to the party, and prepare to counter the GOP surge in a big way.
“Throw them all out,” the War Room advises.
LIFESTYLE MAGAZINES TAKE TO TRUMP BASHING
Much of the mainstream media remains on anti-Trump patrol. But now, the lifestyle magazines have joined the fray.
“Heretofore non-political, nonpartisan lifestyle magazines are peppered these days with random Trump-bashing posts,” reports John Daniel Davidson, a senior correspondent for The Federalist who cites Men’s Journal, Men’s Health, Golf Digest and even Architectural Digest among the newly realized critics of President Trump that attacked his food choices, weight, immigration policy and tax plans.
Then there is Outside.
“Look, I might be covering an ice-fishing tournament in Minnesota, but like all decent people on the coasts, I hate Trump,” wrote Ian Frazier, a writer for the outdoorsy magazine who was covering rods, reels and fish.
“Inserting random anti-Trump commentary into an otherwise anodyne feature story about ice-fishing in an outdoors magazine is a typical example of politics becoming an all-encompassing black hole of cultural outrage and virtue-signaling in the age of Trump,” notes Mr. Davidson.
“It’s also ugly and condescending, and its aggregate effect on our civic culture — not just from this one magazine but from all the media outlets that now engage in this sort of thing — will be to corrode our civic life, cheapen our political discourse, and strain the bonds of brotherhood we should feel for our countrymen,” he says.
SARAH CLEARS THE AIR ON A ’HOAX’
According to Public Citizen, a nonprofit activist group, 100,000 people are poised to protest in all 50 states if President Trump “attempts to fire special counsel Robert Mueller or block his criminal investigation into the Trump campaign and administration.” In addition, Sen. Mark Warner voiced his own concerns on the Senate floor.
“Any attempt by this president to remove Special Counsel Mueller from his position or to pardon key witnesses in any effort to shield them from accountability or shut down the investigation would be a gross abuse of power and a flagrant violation of executive branch responsibilities and authorities,” the Virginia Democrat told his peers.
“I want to be very clear and make sure that I address Sen. Warner’s concern for the 1,000th time. We have no intentions of firing Bob Mueller, we are continuing to closely cooperate with him. We look forward to seeing this hoax wrap up very soon. We think that it’s just further evidence that the Democrats have no plan, they have no agenda, they have nothing to talk to about other than attacking this president,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told Fox News on Thursday. “Hopefully some of the Democrats will make some New Year’s resolutions to come back and talk about working with this president to help Americans instead of working to attack this president. It’s gotten them nowhere, and I hope that the new year can bring some new things into it.”
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POLL DU JOUR
• 44 percent of Americans say they are likely to make a New Year’s resolution in 2018; 46 percent of women and 43 percent of men agree.
• 12 percent say they will resolve to “be a better person”; 9 percent of women and 17 percent of men agree.
• 12 percent say they will resolve to lose weight; 15 percent of women and 7 percent of men agree.
• 9 percent say they will get a better job; 9 percent of women and 8 percent of men agree.
• 7 percent say they will improve their health; 7 percent of women and 7 percent of men agree.
• 6 percent say they will spend less and save more; 8 percent of women and 3 percent of men agree.
• 1 percent resolve to stop drinking, 1 percent resolve to be more politically involved, and less than 1 percent resolve to “worry less”; demographic breakdowns unavailable.
Source: A Marist Poll of 1,074 U.S. adults conducted Nov. 6-9 and released Thursday.
• Merry Christmas, and thank you for reading Inside the Beltway. Follow Jennifer Harper on Twitter @HarperBulletin
• Jennifer Harper can be reached at jharper@washingtontimes.com.
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