GOP Woes Vol. 1-GOP Lobbyist Smacks Lott For Not Wasting Money On GOP

Because, according to one Republican insider, Lott's financial gift to the U of M wasn't a smart use of funds the GOP desperately needs.

Some blame Lott for tough GOP defeat in Mississippi

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Lott created the House opening by opting to leave Congress late last year before tougher lobbying restrictions went into effect. After his departure, Rep. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) was appointed to serve out Lott’s unexpired term, which created the need for the special election to fill Wicker’s seat.

Republicans were irked that Lott would retire early just to serve his own financial interests.
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Lott also bucked his own Mississippi congressional colleagues by supporting Greg Davis, the Southaven mayor and former state legislator who lost to Democrat Travis Childers. The rest of the delegation backed former Tupelo mayor and former Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Chairman Glenn McCullough Jr.
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“Certainly a lot of Republicans are in a bad mood because we’re in the minority and we’ve had this self-inflicted problem in a very important race,” remarked one GOP campaign strategist who works in the Deep South. “Lott chose a candidate with limited general election appeal and I think a lot of people question that.”
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And here's where this post's title is borne out

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One GOP lobbyist on K Street also cited Lott’s $200,000 gift to his alma mater, the University of Mississippi, as contributing to the perception that he’s not doing everything he can to help House Republican reelection efforts. That money, the source said, would have been better spent on contributions to GOP campaigns across the country.
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Now why would Lott want to waste all that money on the clearly-doomed GOP, the same party that rebuked him by removing him from his Senate Majority Leader perch for his remarks at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday?

Besides, it's not as if Lott's the ONLY skinflint in the GOP's Senate wing.

Stingy senators stiff GOP

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Republican senators with millions of dollars in their campaign accounts have given little or nothing to the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), despite its desperate pleas for cash funds.

Fewer than 10 Senate Republicans met goals they received for an NRSC fundraiser with President Bush in McLean, Va., Tuesday evening. GOP senators were asked to contribute $100,000 from their campaign accounts or recruit four major donors for the event.
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Republican Sens. Arlen Specter (Pa.), Jim Bunning (Ky.), Richard Lugar (Ind.), Pete Domenici (N.M.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Olympia Snowe (Maine), Tom Coburn (Okla.), and Larry Craig (Idaho) have given nothing to the NRSC, according to campaign finance data collected by the Federal Election Commission and CQ Money Line, a website that tracks fundraising.
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And according to John Ensign, the GOP Senator tasked with helping the Republicans win Senate races, the miserly Senators are NOT responding to his financial entreaties.

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“We’ve tried fear, we’ve tried positive reward, positive reinforcement, we’ve tried being a little harder on them, we use different things at different times – begging, we beg a lot,” he said.
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And here's what Ensign's begging has gotten the Senate Republicans from Richard Shelby

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Sen. Richard Shelby (Ala.), who occupies a lucrative fundraising position as ranking Republican on the Banking Committee, has nearly $13 million in his reelection fund. Yet he has given only $15,000 from his leadership PAC to the NRSC.
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At least Shelby's consistent, he favors Govt. on the cheap even with his own party, a group facing a VERY harsh electoral climate.

And it's not like Lott's the ONLY former Republican insider turned lobbyist throwing a wrench in the GOP's legislative efforts.

GOP lobbyists open fire on one of their own

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A gaggle of right-leaning healthcare lobbyists have lashed out at one of their own, blaming a Republican former House Ways and Means Committee aide for assisting Democrats in an attempt to gut an insurance concept conservatives view as the future of healthcare.

Opponents of the Democratic bill have accused the former staffer and current lobbyist, John McManus, of selling out Republican principles by helping the other party weaken a signature conservative policy victory, the creation of tax-free health savings accounts (HSAs), in order to help his client leverage one of its patented products.
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These Republican lawmakers are backed up by a plethora of special interests, from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to the banking industry to the health insurance industry. Letters decrying the bill and carrying the signatures of at least 40 companies and trade associations landed on Ways and Means Committee members’ desks last week.
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The groups backing the HSA's do NOT put the consumers & patients interests first, so we'll see how well enabling an all-too-often ruthless corporate agenda will play with the voters on Election Day.

There are so many woes hitting the Republicans right now it's absolutely unreal, and these problems are not only always self-inflicted, they're going to tear the GOP apart even worse than the voters will in November.

Such a pity.

(First in a series detailing GOP misfortunes and in-fighting leading up to the November elections.)