Jack Kingston

John Fund over at the Wall Street Journal’s Political Diary has a nice piece on Jack’s 21st Century leadership bid — and his overall approach to modern media which is worth noting to our readers:

YouTube Insurgent

Georgia Republican Congressman Jack Kingston has always been one to embrace innovative approaches to politics. As head of the Republican Theme Team, he was one of the first members to start his own blog. He was also eager to sit down with comedian Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central for an interview and unlike some Members who’ve visited with Mr. Colbert, managed to emerge looking neither arrogant nor clueless.

After this month’s GOP loss of Congress, Mr. Kingston decided to campaign for a vacant spot in the GOP leadership, namely the chairmanship of the House Republican Conference. As part of his unconventional effort, he posted a campaign message on YouTube.com, the ubiquitous bulletin board for video junkies. “Thank you very much for opening this,” Mr. Kingston told viewers at the beginning of his video. “I’m doing this because so many of you guys haven’t been returning my phone calls and anyhow it saves all of us a little time.”

Mr. Kingston says the YouTube posting attracted a decent amount of attention and was a useful reminder to Members “that there are lots of fun ways to send a message.” Though his high-tech campaigning didn’t land him the conference job, he came much closer than expected, losing only narrowly to establishment favorite Rep. Adam Putnam of Florida. Expect to see Mr. Kingston keep honing his alternative media skills as he continues to convince his colleagues that the way to reach younger voters is to supplement traditional media efforts with something completely different.

Jack sent around a note earlier today after losing his race to be Conference Chairman. I’ve posted it below since so many of you joined the fight and have supported Jack over the years.

—–Original Message—–
From: Jack Kingston
Sent: Friday, November 17, 2006 11:14 AM
To: All Staff; Friends; Grassroots Allies
Subject: While we came up short 91 to 100, it was a close race and I feel good about it

I have no regrets. It was a good campaign. The staff did a magnificent job and we had lots of good supporters. I know many people were praying -especially me- and @ this moment of defeat I’m comforted in a great peace. As the old hymn says, “It is well with my soul.”

I thank everyone for all the hard work. It’s been a long 10 days!

Jack

Today, Jack sent the following video to each of his colleagues outlining his candidacy for Conference Chairman. Enjoy.

UPDATE (12:58 PM): We just realized a change we need to make to this video. Will be back shortly.

UPDATE (11/14/06; 12:41 PM): You can find the video at YouTube by doing a quick search for “Jack Kingston.”

What does today mean and does it really matter?  To find the answer you might want to consider turning off the talking heads and dueling polls of the MSM and turn on the voice of terrorists around the world - Al Jazeera.  In a Halloween special with Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, the Lebanese terrorist-in-chief continued his media battle for the hearts and minds of both his own people and ours:

 “When we were young boys . . . I cannot forget the sight of the American forces leaving Vietnam in helicopters”

It seems a safe bet that the subtlety of the Democrats’ planned ‘redeployment’ as a strategy to win the War on Terror may be lost on our enemy.

Just listen to how terrorists viewed the ‘redeployment’ of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon in 2000 - “For six years, we were preparing . . . or rather, anticipating a war some day - a vicious, large-scale, and dangerous war, knowing that the Israeli enemy would not keep silent after its defeat in 2000.”

Translation - when you lose we will move in tens of thousands of missiles and prepare to bring the war to you.  Aside - even if the U.N. sends in ‘peacekeepers’ we will still move in tens of thousands of missiles under their noses.

Nasrallah’s message to the people of the Middle East, which is the same message as Bin Laden, the same message as Al Qaeda, the same message as Saddam, is this: “I advise all of those who place their trust in the Americans to learn the lesson of Vietnam and to learn the lesson of the South Lebanese Army with the Israelis, and to know that when the Americans lose this war - and lose it they will, Allah willing - they will abandon them to their fate, just like they did to all those who placed their trust in them throughout history.”

We know President Bush and the Republican Congress’s plan for victory in Iraq - stay on the offensive and help build a stable government that can defend and sustain itself, after we defeat the terrorist together.  But what do we know of the Democrats’ plan and does Nasrallah have reason for his confidence?

Michael Kinsley put his fear (and mine) on paper in today’s Washington Post. 

 “For national security in general, the Democrats’ plan is so according-to-type that you cringe with embarrassment:  It’s mostly about new cash benefits for veterans.  Regarding Iraq specifically, the Democrats’ plan has two parts.  First, they want Iraqis to take on ‘primary responsibility for securing and governing their country.’ Then they want ‘responsible redeployment’ (great euphemism) of American forces.  Older readers may recognize this formula.  It’s Vietnamization - the Nixon-Kissinger plan for extracting us from a previous mistake.  But Vietnamization was not a plan for victory.  It was a plan for what was called ‘peace with honor’ and is now known as ‘defeat.’”

Defeat in this war is not an opition.

Yesterday, Iran fired dozens of long range, Shahab-3 missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads and threatening U.S. forces in the Middle East and our allies in Israel.  So what would Nancy Pelosi and the House Democrats do to keep us safe from this threat?

Nothing.

“The United States does not need a multibillion-dollar national missile defense against the possibility of a nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missle,” Democrat Leader and Speaker-wannabe, San Francisco’s own Nancy Pelosi.

And she is not alone in her desire to leave America defenseless.  Democrats have consistently opposed missile defense efforts and repeatedly voted to slash funding and curtail missile defense programs.  Most recently, in May 2006, 130 House Democrats voted to cut $9 billion from the Ballistic Missile Defense Program. 

You probably guessed already but Nancy Pelosi voted yes to slash this funding and opposed deployment of missile defenses capable of defending against misslies fired from North Korea and Iran.

In today’s Washington Times, there’s a great op-ed by Jack on Nancy Pelosi’s inability to grasp that we are in a global War on Terror:

 In a stunning performance on “60 Minutes,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi proved again why she cannot be trusted to keep America safe from the threat of global terrorism and Islamic extremists.  Mrs. Pelosi demonstrated that she does not understand the global nature of the threat when she stated flatly “the war on terror is the war in Afghanistan.”

Read the rest HERE.

For a fantastic picture of what our troops in Iraq think about Senator Kerry’s comments, go check out Drudge.

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