The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Could Mattie Fein Become California’s Christine O’Donnell?

Posted on | September 20, 2010 | 26 Comments

I don’t know if Mattie Fein ever dabbled in witchcraft, but she is certainly tired of being dissed by the same Republican establishment types who are running down the Delaware GOP Senate candidate:

Karl Rove’s now-infamous disparagement of Christine O’Donnell has provoked one Republican congressional candidate to go public with her criticisms of GOP leadership.
Mattie Fein, who won a three-way primary and is challenging Democrat Rep. Jane Harman in California’s 36th District, says she has been “snubbed” by National Republican Congressional Committee staff. . . .

As she explained in her guest editorial column last week, the attitude Mattie Fein has encountered among the GOP elite in California is a microcosm of what O’Donnell is facing in Delaware: A go-along-to-get-along idea among GOP leaders who refuse to challenge liberal Democrats head-on. When they can’t hand-pick their favorite “respectable” RINOs, the elite refuse to lift a finger for a Tea Party-backed conservative who actually wins the primary.

Like O’Donnell, Mattie beat the establishment favorite in the CA-36 primary and, now that she’s in the general election campaign, the Republican leadership is AWOL — or maybe even working to protect the Democrat incumbent!

Call the NRCC at 202-479-7000 and tell them to start fighting to win in November!

UPDATE: Dan Riehl has an important related thought:

Let’s face it, Castle’s years of government service made him a multi-millionaire. There’s no real sign that O’Donnell ever rode that gravy train . . . Is she some lunatic, going from witch to devout Christian? Or, is she mostly just your average American with the same noble qualities and some of the faults that the majority of us have?

That is exactly what Mattie Fein has been trying to get across to the GOP establishment types who don’t think she’s got a chance of beating Jane Harman.

Karl Rove, Charles Krauthammer and other establishment-oriented pundits have seriously underestimated the intensity of the wave of populist sentiment that’s going to come crashing ashore in six weeks. This isn’t just about the GOP conservative base. It’s about independent voters who are sick and tired of the Washington elite in both parties.

That’s why a supposedly “flawed” candidate like Christine O’Donnell could beat a 74-year-old lifetime politician like Mike Castle in Delaware and why she’s got a very real chance to beat Chris Coons on Nov. 2. People in the Rove-Krauthammer axis are thinking in terms politics as usual, and they don’t take seriously the voices of Ordinary Americans who for the past 18 months have been saying the same thing over and over to anyone who asks: “We’re mad as hell, and we’re not going to take it anymore!”

That’s why they’re willing to overlook whatever “nutty” stuff that Christine O’Donnell may have said or don in her past. She’s taking them seriously and giving voice to their resentments of the elite, and every time some snooty pundit puts her down, it just makes those people all the more resolved to fight.

This also explains why the GOP establishment doesn’t understand that Mattie Fein coud actually beat Jane Harman. The Republican establishment types are sitting around talking to each other’s analyses of the poll numbers instead of listening to what the people are actually saying.

Just like O’Donnell, Mattie Fein doesn’t “fit the mold” of the type of candidate the GOP establishment prefers and they might be right in any other year.

But 2010 is not any other year. It’s a year when the extremist Pelosi/Reid/Obama agenda has wrecked the economy in an attempt to radically alter the American system of government.

This is a year when all bets are off, when there are no “safe” incumbents, and when scrappy underdog “outsider” candidates could win stunning upsets — if only the big-money bastards at GOP HQ would wake up and seize the opportunity.

Six weeks until Election Day and Republicans are 10 points ahead on the generic ballot — and you want to tell me Jane Harman can’t be beat?

I repeat: Call the NRCC at 202-479-7000 and tell them to start fighting to win  — and win big — in November!

MATTIE FEIN for U.S. CONGRESS

Category: California, Congress, Election, Mattie Fein, Tea Party

Comments

26 Responses to “Could Mattie Fein Become California’s Christine O’Donnell?”

  1. JeffS
    September 20th, 2010 @ 4:37 pm

    Hasn’t the GOP ever heard that old saw, “Hell knows no fury like a woman scorned”?

    Or is that too sexist of me? If so, I denounce myself.

  2. Rob
    September 20th, 2010 @ 4:59 pm

    Well, I called them and sent an e-mail to Sam Fosdick at the NRCC…everybody else do the same.

  3. cobra
    September 20th, 2010 @ 5:07 pm

    Man,
    She is gorgeous!
    And, speaking of the California GOP?
    They are a bunch of schmucks-just see how they pushed the governator,after Grey Davis was impeached over an extraordinary local congressman-Tom McClintock, who is now in the US Congress!!!!!!!.

  4. Estragon
    September 20th, 2010 @ 5:32 pm

    “or maybe even working to protect the Democrat incumbent!”

    Another made-up smear against the Party, just like the fabricated claim the NRSC lawyer was in Alaska to help Murky “steal the election.” Quite in the mode of Liar Levin, slime artist extraordinaire.

    Spread false claims about the party establishment, then slam them when they don’t fall all over themselves to assist YOUR personally preferred candidates . . . good strategy!

  5. Rob
    September 20th, 2010 @ 5:35 pm

    @cobra & estragon,
    So you guys called too?

  6. Could Mattie Fein Become California’s Christine O’Donnell? « California TCOT
    September 20th, 2010 @ 6:13 pm

    […] Stacy McCain; I don’t know if Mattie Fein ever dabbled in witchcraft, but she is certainly tired of being […]

  7. Layaway
    September 20th, 2010 @ 6:21 pm

    Estragon, I’m working for candidates here in SoCal and I know what it takes to get the state party off its ass.

    Dynamite ain’t even in the running.

  8. Layaway
    September 20th, 2010 @ 6:24 pm

    We’re admitting to 12+ % unemployment in CA, with the actual approaching 23-25% in some areas, but we can’t take on the Democrats?

    Get off your asses, turn off your computers, get out on a street corner and listen to what people are saying.

  9. Calvin Dodge
    September 20th, 2010 @ 6:35 pm

    I didn’t call the NRCC.

    That’s because they just called me with their hand out. My reply: “Call me back next week. If the NRCC has stopped snubbing Mattie Fein in California, then I’ll be happy to give”.

  10. mattie fein
    September 20th, 2010 @ 6:51 pm

    Layaway,

    yes..we are off our rumps believe me. And yes if you look at the state numbers you are right on with those stats.
    Mattie

  11. Lou
    September 20th, 2010 @ 7:44 pm

    The Democrats will lose over 100 seats in the House.

  12. Another McCain (not that one... or the other one)
    September 20th, 2010 @ 8:51 pm

    Mattie Fein isn’t analogous to Christine O’Donnell in any way other than running against an establishment Republican. If you want to argue that, you’d have to contend that Christine O’Donnell represents all conservatives that ran against the establishment Republicans.

    I don’t think Mattie Fein has been unemployed for years, or only pulled in just over $5,000 income for all of 2009, or stated she actually made more than that but doesn’t have to tell us how or by how much.

    I want the national committee to back O’Donnell just as much as the next person because Coons would be a disaster, but given her questionable use of campaign funds, I am extremely disincinclined to ever personally donate to her campaign. There’s a lot of races where $750 would matter and I wouldn’t have to wonder if it went to pay her rent. I know, I know, as she isn’t currently employed, there’s nothing wrong with her giving herself a minimal salary for some of her campaign-related expenses, but I don’t know how she orates about fiscal conservativism and personal responsibility in speeches while not living or practicing it herself.

    It isn’t that these accusations are coming from journOlists, but people within the party. The left isn’t pulling this out of thin air, Christine O’Donnell gave them these personal problems to hammer her with. In all honesty, if she were a 41-year-old man that hadn’t held down steady employment for years or only made $5k last year, I would swear that was a Democratic candidate. So I don’t think Mattie Fein could “become” a Christine O’Donnell because she didn’t fish for any tv appearance that would have her like Bill Maher’s show, whatever it’s called, but rather, has very respectable past employment and credentials.

  13. Mattie Fein and the (Bad) Old GOP Boys Club
    September 21st, 2010 @ 6:28 am

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    September 21st, 2010 @ 8:44 am

    […] ordinary year Six weeks to the election. Wake up to the new realities from the Other McCain. …2010 is not any other year. It’s a year when the extremist Pelosi/Reid/Obama agenda has […]

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    September 27th, 2010 @ 9:16 pm

    […] you can in a difficult political environment.Furthermore, I have also enthusiastically supported Mattie Fein in CA-36, even though we aren’t entirely eye-to-eye on various social issues. A win for Mattie would […]