 Captain Ed and our Victory Caucus Swag
Folks have probably wondered what the heck I've been up to over the past week, as I know I have been rather quiet. Well, I am finally back home after my time in DC, during which time I had the chance to seriously promote The Victory Caucus to the over 6,000 attendees of CPAC. Knowing that this was a huge opportunity to 'market' our cause, I went all-out in preparation. First was what every good cause needs: lapel pins! I found a company that could do our logo as a pin quickly, and got 100 of them created. Next, with the significant help of instugator, I created a brochure, and after a bit of running around in DC looking for a fast print shop, had 200 copies made. And finally, the saturation bombing strategy: with the assistance of BigCounty's company, I had 500 pens created with The Victory Caucus name, logo, and URL on them. Over the three days of the conference, I distributed the brochures and pens all over the place, dumping small piles of them on strategically-positioned tables and handing out a few pens to every one of the 100+ exhibitor booths. The lapel pins I saved for folks that I actually spoke with and who expressed support for the cause, but by the end of the conference had quite a few good folks who had claimed a pin. It wasn't just attendees that got their hands on Victory Caucus swag. I personally handed Caucus brochures to staffers from every single major Presidential campaign at the event: Romney, Giuliani, Hunter, Brownback, and yes, McCain. My invitation to all of them was to let us know if they'd like to share their candidates' views with us in the form of an editorial piece or do an interview, so we'll see who bites. On the subject of our swag: I know that many of you would like to get your hands on a lapel pin or pen. And I'd like to get them to you! Right now, I'm working to figure out a way to distribute such items, because I definitely can't personally take charge of 'order fulfillment' and ship packages individually to folks who want stuff. But hopefully soon we will have a way that goes beyond our CafePress store to distribute other Victory Caucus stuff. But it wasn't just marketing. Ed and I managed to score a couple of interviews with the presidential candidates who were making the rounds at CPAC. First up was Sam Brownback. Brownback has stated publicly that he does not agree with the surge strategy, and has also called for engagement with Iran on the singular issue of Iraq. He did not, however, vote with the Democrats for their defeatist anti-surge Senate resolution, and so while I disagree with the Senator, I was at least willing to hear him out on his position. Transcribed below is the main portion of the interview that touched on Iran and Iraq. Ed recorded the entire interview, and you can podcast the audio from his post here.  NZ and Captain Ed interview Senator Brownback (photo swiped from Rob Bluey --- thx Rob! ) NZ: Senator, you have gone on record saying that you feel that the troop surge is not the ideal strategy. But you also were trying to encourage full and open debate in the Senate. If you could wave your magic wand and pass something through the Senate right now with regards to Iraq, what would you recommend? Senator Brownback: A three-state one-country solution would be my magic wand. It's provided for in the Iraqi constitution where you have a Sunni area which they already have, a Kurdish area --- a Sunni area and a Shia area and I really think that's what we need to do, because Iraq has so many forces pulling it apart, and its really three groups held together by exterior forces. By the Turks on the North, the Saudis, and --- I don't know really how Iran views the future of Iraq but we've got to get it to a political debate and I think our timeframe is short to be able to get this done. We've got to move this political discussion forward. NZ: What steps could the United States take to dictate that solution in terms of our actions? Senator Brownback: Not unlike the Dayton Accords, you could get the leading Sunni and Shia people in the same room and literally beat heads until some sort of political accomodation. When I was there six weeks ago, you'd meet with Sunni's and they all say it's the Shia's fault; you'd been with Shia and they'd say it's the Sunni's fault. But they weren't working together to solve --- and the Kurds are just up there in the north saying leave us alone. And I went up there and they're doing very nicely. We don't have a long time to mature this issue. The public is growing very weary of Iraq, and we've got to get it on a political track. NZ: I'm glad you mentioned Iran. I know you've called for further engagement with Iran on the singular subject of Iraq I believe that was close to your phrasing. What specifically would you recommend if you were directing the State Department at this point to do to engage with Iran on Iraq? Senator Brownback: Well I think this neighbor's conference is a good idea; it was proposed in Baker-Hamilton. If my theory on Iraq is correct that its three groups held together by exterior forces, you need to get the exterior forces talking with each other, and I think that's a positive that they're doing. But Iran... while we need to talk with them in that setting, we've got to pressure them in every other setting. Economic sanctions, human rights issues that we need to drive; I think we need to fund democracy building groups in Iran. I think it would be quite similar actually to how we talked with the former Soviet Union at the same time that we confronted them every where they were probing outside of the Soviet Union. NZ: In terms of engagement with Iran on Iraq, do you believe that Iran sees it in their interest to have a stable Iraq? Senator Brownback: I don't know... I don't know their mindset on it. I just know they are very dangerous developing nuclear weapons; they're the lead sponsor of terrorism around the world and they seek advantage and they are confronting us in Iraq. So I don't know what they want but I do think we're going to have to confront them on nuclear weapons. They have a stated, open ideology of destroying Israel and attacking us. This is from Khomeni that started the modern theocracy in Iran. They have not walked away from that and I think we have to take them at their word.
Later in the day, Mitt Romney swung by the exhibit hall, and again Ed and I pulled out the interview chair (literally, although the Governor chose to stand). Unsurprisingly, Governor Romney repeated his resolute stance on Iraq. He was even more in demand than Brownback, and so spend a shorter time with us. I did manage to get one Iraq question in, however.  Governor Romney's Blog Row interview (thanks to Blog Row Adminigoddess Kristina Grabosky for the pic!) NZ: Governor, you've been very strong on national security. What would you say to Congress right now in terms of any resolutions or actions that they should take with regards to the war in Iraq? Governor Romney: You know, it is not in my view appropriate for Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid to dictate to the commanders in the field or the Commander in Chief how to run the war. So I don't think they should use -- through the budget process a political ploy or political maneuver to try to run the war. The Commander in Chief and General Patreus and others should be the ones calling those shots.
Audio of the full interview can be found at Ed's place here . And finally: as I posted Friday, I was honored to receive CPAC's first Blogger of the Year award. I took shameless advantage of my brief moment in the spotlight to plug the Victory Caucus. My 'acceptance speech', such as it was, went as follows: "I will be very brief. I just want to say thank you for the award, and if you feel as I do that the only option we have in Iraq is victory and that we must truly support our troops, I'd urge you to VictoryCaucus.com: we need your help to help win the media and information war so that our troops can win the real war. Thank you."
If you'd like the full live NZ effect, you can watch the award presentation on YouTube:
( a cool detail that I totally missed while it was happening: when I was called to the stage, they played the Mission Impossible theme song. That rocks ! ) So that was CPAC, at least a tiny little slice of a view of it from the Victory Caucus perspective. It was tremendous fun, and beyond everyhting I've mentioned here, I also met quite a few truly interesting people who share our beliefs and goals that I hope we'll be working with going forward. Stay tuned! -N.Z. You can comment on this post in the forums here .
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