I just got a most interesting fundraising email from Ken Mehlman (yeah, I'm on their mailing list - know your enemy, I say). And what did I learn? That the netroots' "Use It or Lose It" campaign to get safe Democratic officials to donate part of their campaign war chests is
scaring the crap out of the GOP.
Today, Ted Kennedy and John Kerry have announced they are dumping $1 million of their campaign warchests into this election. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Far left groups like MoveOn.org are pressuring other Democrat Senators - with tens of millions of dollars in the bank - to pour their money into a desperate last-minute bid to take control of Congress.
Here's the challenge - and it's a big one. Can our grassroots donors nationwide double the Kerry/Kennedy bid for liberal control of Congress? That's $2 million from grassroots contributors. Can we do it?
Sure, this'll probably scare their grassroots into cutting a couple million more bucks. On the other hand, the Kerry and Kennedy donations are just the tip of the iceberg for us - their authority will cause many other less famous Democrats to donate as well, and could well lead to some matching netroots donations on our side, too.
But most importantly, you can practically smell the fear radiating from this message... not the generic existential threats of "Save Amurrika from terrorists and teh gay!" that they use to rouse their base, but the stark fear of losing power. This message makes them look weak and ineffective. Why can't THEY get their safe-seat candidates to pony up? Because they don't HAVE any safe seats anymore.