Chairman's Corner
The GOP after Massachusetts

By GOPAC Chairman Frank Donatelli
Friday, January 22, 2010

Scott Brown’s historic win in Massachusetts scrambles the political picture for both parties. For Democrats, it means they will have far more difficulty turning their momentary supermajority into a permanently larger federal establishment. For the GOP, it gives them a toehold on power in Washington, a seat at the policy table and an even greater opportunity to make real gains in the 2010 midterm elections.

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On Fox: "If The Bill Is So Good, Why Does Everyone Need An Exemption In Order To Vote For It?"

Friday, January 15, 2010



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Top 10 Economic Fallacies of the Obama Administration

By Frank Donatelli
Published in The Hill
Wednesday, January 06, 2010

10. Adding demand for a service can also reduce costs. This is the crux of President Barack Obama’s healthcare promise. He proposes to add millions of users of healthcare, keep supply constant and reduce costs. It cannot happen. It will not happen. If healthcare costs will not decrease, what is the rationale for healthcare reform besides raw politics?

9. The “cost curve” of healthcare can be “bent” by transferring liabilities from individuals to the government. President Obama’s healthcare bill stresses this, but increased third-party payments by the government encourage increased use of the healthcare system, thus raising costs, not lowering them. Again, President Obama’s bill doesn’t deliver on its central promise of lower costs.

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Far-left ideology triumphs
Even over practical politics, Chicago-style

By Frank Donatelli
Published in Washington Times
Tuesday, December 01, 2009

It is now clear that the far left ideological side of President Obama has triumphed over his Chicago machine persona. Saul Alinsky has won out over Mayor Richard Daley.

Political machines are all about winning, which means being responsive to the desires of their electorate. It means paying attention to the views and attitudes of the people.

Ideologues, by contrast, pay lip service to popular opinion, but are far more interested in satisfying a preordained agenda, which may or may not be supported by the people. Ideologues rationalize this disconnect by arguing that their opposition to constituents' views underline the sheer selflessness of their actions. Liberals believe in nothing if not the moral superiority of their motives.

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GOP Must Be Ready When the Spotlight Returns

By Frank Donatelli
Published in Roll Call
Tuesday, November 10, 2009

There has been much commentary about the results of the latest Wall Street Journal survey, which revealed that the Republican Party has not been able to gain traction even as President Barack Obama’s numbers continue to fall. Indeed, the survey showed that the party is now slightly less popular than it was on Election Day last year. This is not really as surprising as it sounds, and it fits with well-worn historical patterns of how parties rebuild after devastating defeats.

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The Comeback Continues

By Frank Donatelli
Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Winning campaigns are primarily about the candidates and the issues that they emphasize. So kudos to Bob McDonnell and Chris Christie for winning the two biggest elections this year. They campaigned long and hard, reached out to Independent voters, and ran strong election day operations. McDonnell broke the Democrats' long winning streak in Virginia. Christie overcame Jon Corzine's personal fortune. But they also did something else. They won because they focused on the issues that were of real concern to their electorates

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The reform-minded conservative

By Frank Donatelli
Published in The Washington Times
Monday, October 26, 2009

Imagine a two-term Republican governor from a state carried by Barack Obama who turned an $800 million deficit into a $1.2 billion surplus by cutting overhead and bringing sound business principles to his state's government even as he provided new health benefits for poor citizens. Imagine no longer. Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels accomplished this and more, and he did it all while enacting the biggest tax cut in state history.

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Northern Virginia House races 'most winnable,' major GOP fundraiser says

By William C. Cook
Published in The Examiner
Thursday, October 08, 2009

Northern Virginia, a region that fueled the state's nearly decadelong Democratic takeover, now offers some of the "most winnable" House races for Republicans, the head of a powerful GOP political action committee said Wednesday.

GOPAC, a group that helped bankroll the national "Republican Revolution" of 1994, announced an at least $100,000 commitment to Virginia races on Wednesday, most of it for a handful of Republican House incumbents and challengers. Five of the campaigns are in the Washington suburbs, an area that voted overwhelmingly for President Obama in the 2008 presidential race.

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Permanent PR campaign

By Frank Donatelli
Published in The Washington Times
Sunday, October 04, 2009

Coming soon to a TV near you - President Obama. He is addressing a joint session of Congress, speaking to the United Nations, and he's on five Sunday political talk shows (all except for Fox).

And yes, that is Mr. Obama on the "Late Show With David Letterman." The president even finds time to go to Copenhagen to beg the International Olympic Committee to bring the Olympics to Chicago in 2016, where he presumably will suit up for the U.S. basketball team.

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Just Like the Rest

By Frank Donatelli
Thursday, October 01, 2009

"Health Care According to Max Baucus" has finally arrived. It’s the most ballyhooed event since the debut of the Jay Leno show at 10:00pm. The Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee has toiled for months in search of a “bipartisan” vehicle to move health care reform forward. As of now, this is the Chairman’s bill and no one else’s. Not one Republican has signed on. While the intentions of the Chairman should be applauded, his final product contains most of the same fatal flaws that are part of all of the other efforts produced so far.

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Chairman Donatelli Supports Virginia Statewide Candidate

Friday, September 25, 2009

Chairman Frank Donatelli at Wednesday's reception for the 3 Virginia statewide candidates: gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell, Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling and Attorney General candidate, State Senator Ken Cuccinelli, pictured here with former Governor George Allen and his wife Susan.



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An Old Whine In New Bottles

By By Frank Donatelli
Published in FOXNews.com
Monday, September 14, 2009

The president was eloquent as usual on behalf of his ideas. The problem is that the American public has already spoken: we do not want what the president is proposing. President Obama gave his 28th speech on health care reform to a joint session of Congress this past week. Too bad the presidency doesn't consist solely of such "big occasion" speeches. The president excels in this area. Unfortunately, the basic principles he enunciated in this 28th rendition suffered from the same defects as the first 27 and explains why the public is resisting this latest version. There are no cost containment measures in the health care bill. If the president's latest plan is enacted, costs will go UP, not down. By adding millions of new consumers of health care to a static pool of health care providers, the simple law of supply and demand can provide no other outcome than to increase the cost. Costs will either rise or a

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Could win the GOP as many as 14 congressional districts

By Frank Donatelli
Published in The Washington Times
Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Faced with open rebellion in its own ranks, the Obama administration is considering enacting Obamacare through an arcane backroom procedure that would require a simple majority vote, bypassing a Senate filibuster threat and any necessity for support from minority Republicans. Essentially, President Obama could pass his health care reform bill on a straight party line vote. While the national interest is far better served by the outright defeat of the president's plan and that's where Republican efforts should be directed, such a move by the administration would guarantee a Republican House no later than 2012. Consider that the program to be enacted would include all taxes to pay for the plan, big cuts in Medicare, the government-run health insurance plan (the "public option"), employer mandates and fines and almost certainly hundreds of billions of dollars added to the national debt. There's a reason the administration would try and pass this program with a bare partisan majority

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DONATELLI: Keep hallmarks of health care

By Frank Donatelli
Published in The Washington Times
Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Conservatism's principles suggest that states, not the federal government, take the lead on reforming health care to preserve its three hallmarks: access, affordability and innovation. To do that, conservatives from more than 30 states came up with these ideas at a meeting this month in Chicago: Medical malpractice reform. A major cause of more expensive health care is the rash of "junk lawsuits," i.e. suits with little legal merit, filed in hopes of securing a settlement against health care providers. A number of states, including Texas, Virginia and Oklahoma, have enacted sensible restraints on who can bring such suits and how much can be collected in damages beyond actual economic injury. Congressional Democrats have even refused to consider this sensible reform because of the handsome campaign contributions they receive from trial lawyers.

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GOP gains steam as health bill sputters

By Andy Barr
Published in Politico.com
Sunday, August 16, 2009

After two terrible elections when independent voters turned away from the GOP and the party lost control of the White House and the Senate, Republicans finally have a little spring back in their step thanks to a health care debate that has done more to cool off Obama-mania and reignite the conservative base than even most of its leaders had hoped. "Republicans have quickly recovered their voice," Rep. Mark Kirk, whose Senate campaign in Illinois has many Republicans eyeing a pick up, told POLITICO. Kirk joined party leaders here this week at the second annual GOPAC conference, where they worked with state legislators to develop a unified GOP strategy and message on heath care. The timing of the conference could hardly have proven better for the group, as the backlash to Democrats' health care plans has enthusiasm in Republican ranks at its high water mark of President Barack Obama's six-and-a-half months in office.

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Chairman Frank Donatelli on Fox News Channel's "Happening Now"

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

GOPAC Chairman Frank Donatelli appeared on Fox News Channel's "Happening Now" Wednesday, July 29th to discuss a new poll released Wednesday morning that finds at least half of all Americans, 49%, believe the country's debt best days are behind us.

Jane Skinner:
You look at those numbers and I want you to be specific in terms of strategy, how you would advise the White House to do with this electorate? How about these congressional members that are going to go home and hear about it?... I want to put up a quotation from a conservative writer. Has the white house miscalculated how we feel?

Frank Donatelli:
I think so. President Obama was elected to fix the economy, not to turn us into France. The fact of the matter is, h

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Chairman Donatelli on Good Morning America:

Monday, July 27, 2009

GOPAC Chairman Frank Donatelli appeared on Good Morning America Monday, July 27th to discuss the ramifications of Governor Sarah Palin’s resignation and her ongoing role in Republican politics.

An Excerpt:

Neil Karlinsky:
She leaves office a year and a half early, with a growing pile of cash in her political action committee, more than $1 million strong, and growing rapidly, since her decision to resign. She will get out there and she will start something for candidates.

Frank Donatelli:
She runs second in most of the public polls, as far as Republican preferences for 2012 so she'll still very much be a factor, as we go fo

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Chairman's Editorials:

07/29/2009: Youth Should Focus on Freedom

07/21/2009: Limits on Presidential Actions: The Next Constitutional Crisis

06/12/2009: Will America Follow California's Example?


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