Bachmann Supports Taxpayer Bail-Out for Republican Party

Bachmann's blog:

Today, my House Republicans colleagues and I introduced America Speaking Out, an effort by House Republicans to engage the American people in the process of building a new policy agenda for America. Go to AmericaSpeakingOut.com to get involved and take part in the process. It’s time for the American people to drive the agenda in Washington, not the other way around.

Crooks and Liars says America Speaking Out is really about bailing out Michael Steele and the GOP:

The effort is called "America Speaking Out." It's a fairly expensive campaign with a new website, produced videos, integrated voting tools and an expensive set at the Museum to launch the effort.

The whole thing would be fine and Democrats could just spend their time mocking the odd platform ideas (like repealing Section II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964) if it was being paid for by a party committee like Michael Steele's RNC. Except that Republicans don't want Michael Steele anywhere close to their election platform. They decided to run the entire project from their minority offices in the House of Representatives.

That means that everyone reading Crooks & Liars is paying for the Republican Party's 2010 election re-branding efforts and helping foot the bill for the Party's platform in 2010.

--snip--

Here's the deal. The RNC is going broke. The national committee is bleeding staff. The RNC's online operation is actually the worst political effort in politics at the moment, their website is actually still in Beta and they spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to build it. They don't have the experience or the money to launch a Party re-branding effort. And Republicans in Congress hate and distrust Michael Steele. They don't want him to anywhere near their 2010 message.

And because of that taxpayers have to pay for the GOP's 2010 re-branding effort. By my estimation, the cost of the website, the video, the staff time, and the glitzy launch today at the museum may have cost taxpayers at least $100,000 -- and it's only the first day.