If you are a conservative Republican, as I am, you have a right to be worried. An overconfident and complacent Republican Party could be facing electoral disaster. Hillary Clinton, Howard Dean, and a host of others could be looming in our future and undoing all the good we’ve tried to do.
It’s break the glass and pull the alarm time for the Republican Party.

That’s how Hugh Hewitt begins his candid and public strategy guide for the Republican Party titled “Painting The Map Red“.

I will begin my review with a most sincere and humble apology to Mr. Hewitt. You see, when I inquired about interviewing him about the book 3 weeks ago, he was very gracious and accepted my request. The subsequent disaster that occurred was entirely my fault and it is a lesson I will never forget. While I have included excerpts from the interview using my notes, I am unable to provide you with a complete transcript. See the link above for a further explanation. That being said, this is a fantastic book!

As you can tell from the opening paragraphs the book is provocative. Hewitt makes a strong case for what’s wrong with the Republican Party’s current course and provides 5 messages they need to hammer home to ensure the GOP maintains its majority in the 2006 mid terms and then lays out a strategy for nominating and electing a Republican successor to George W. Bush in 2008. He also provides strategies designed to tailor those messages to specific regions of the country. If the Republicans plan to win in 2006 and later in 2008 they would be well served by listening to Mr. Hewitt.

In fact a couple of weeks back Hewitt met with several congressional members while promoting the book in Washington D.C. where he conveyed the messages put forth in Painting The Map Red to them personally. During that same press junket he participated in a panel discussing the book at the Heritage Foundation. The panel included Hugh, Democratic Strategist and Fox News contributor Bob Beckel, and Weekly Standard Executive Editor and Author Fred Barnes (who I have also had the privilege of interviewing).

During the discussion Fred Barnes said that he believed that the Republican leadership had gotten the message and that Republicans were beginning to understand that they could loose. I asked Hugh if he agreed with Mr. Barnes and he answered flatly:

No I don’t. I won’t believe they have gotten the message until they come back into session and clear the calendar, secure the border, restart the confirmation process of Judges Kavanaugh, and Boyle, and some of the other issues raised in the book.

Editors Note Just two days ago Hewitt reported The prospects of the GOP Painting the Map Red have increased dramatically in just the past month. Maybe his message has begun to sink in.

I asked Hugh if any of the 5 messages offered in the book were more important than the others and he quickly answered:

The war on terror supercedes everything.

Painting The Map Red gives political junkies like me a great insider’s view of how party strategies are formulated and implemented. (At least successful ones). You don’t have to be a Republican to appreciate the book. In fact Democrats would be well served by reading Painting The Map Red. Going beyond laying out a play by play strategy for the GOP, Hewitt offers Dems some good advice and admits he does so openly because he firmly believes they will not listen. His predictions for the future of the Democratic Party regardless of the outcome in 2006 are not kind.

Unfortunately I fear his predictions are accurate. I say unfortunately because like Hewitt I believe our country requires a vibrant two party system in order to best serve the American people. Both parties need to offer well argued competing ideas on how to run the country. Right now the Democratic Party is anything but vibrant and seems to be completely void of any new ideas to address the important issues of our times. This void of ideas from the left has made the Republicans lazy and complacent. Hewitt’s book is a necessary wake up call.
In Painting The Map Red, Hewitt is not kind to Republican Senators Lincoln Chafee and John McCain. While he points out as he often does on his radio show and blog why he believes Senator McCain is “a great American, a bad Senator, and a terrible Republican” he still recognizes a few redeeming qualities for Senator McCain.

Conversely Hewitt finds very little to admire in the Senator from Rhode Island and has an entire chapter dedicated to making the case that the Republican tent is not big enough for Chafee. He openly advocates for voting against Chafee in the upcoming primary and if unsuccessful there urges Rhode Island Republicans to either stay home or even take the drastic step of voting for his Democratic opponent in the general election. Again Hewitt offers a convincing argument.

Facing a primary challenge of his own from the left, there has been recent speculation that Connecticut Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman may run as an independent or join “another party”. I asked Hugh if the Republican tent was big enough for a men like Joe Lieberman and without hesitating he told me:

I would welcome Joe Lieberman with open arms.

True to his blogfather reputation Hugh weaves the influence and importance of blogs on the upcoming elections throughout Painting The Map Red. Hewitt borrows and builds on an analogy first put forward by Dean Barnett of Soxblog and The Weekly Standard where he describes the left side of the blogosphere as using lead pipes that poison the water of information with invective, profanity, and bad analysis, while the blogs on the right use pipes of copper that keep the information flow pure and fact based. His examples on the left of course include Atrios, and Daily Kos. If you haven’t read them just pop over to either one today and read the first three posts. I assure you the tone you witness for yourself will drive Hewitt’s point home. The first example Hugh gives on the right is actually one of my daily reads and favorite blogs Betsy’s Page. Again I encourage you to read the first 3 posts at Betsy’s site on any given day and judge for yourself which side offers the higher level of discourse.

This chapter really made me think about the differences between the two sides of the blogosphere and why they appeared to be so stark. I have come up with a theory regarding this and asked Hugh what he thought of it during our interview. Until the rise of the blogosphere the MSM has been able to filter out the most radical voices on the left while at the same time offering the more radical voices on the right as representative of the mainstream. Hugh agreed and told me:

That’s very shrewd and correct. The MSM has always put a filter on the far left and made them seem much smaller than they are while at the same time making the far right appear much bigger than it is. The blogosphere has allowed the center right to articulate its position and correct the misinformation of the MSM.

Hewitt argues there are significant differences between the MSM and new media models. One being new media’s willingness to promote each other and cooperate on developing stories vs. the MSM model of “scoop and exclusive”. Then he follows up with an active example of that difference by plugging lots of blogs big and small in the book. He cites the professionalism and vigorous investigative journalism of Captains Quarters, and Radio Equalizer. He credits Instapundit and Powerline for setting a tone and style that has served as an example to newer right of center blogs and argues it has served them well.

Hugh takes time to single out the effect of Milblogs in the blogoshpere. He lists Mudville Gazette, Blackfive, and Smash as examples of popular blogs run by active duty military and veterans. Hewitt explains while Milblogs are generally apolitical they receive numerous links from the right side of the blogosphere who believe in their mission, and in return reciprocate with links of their own to blogs who support them. In contrast argues Hewitt the left side of the blogosphere widely ignores the milblogs and consistently denounces the military’s mission in the GWOT.

He told me T.F. Boggs, and American Citizen Soldier were two of his favorites in the new generation of up and coming Milblogs. Both men are currently serving in Iraq during their second tours in the GWOT.

Hewitt also discusses the increasing influence of blogs and new media on decision makers, and opinion makers. He cites a recent appearance on MSNBC’s Hardball program where Lynne Cheney remarked that she read Hugh’s blog along with Instapundit, Powerline, and National Review’s Jim Geraghty every day.

When I asked Hugh if he was aware of any other Washington insiders or politicians who read blogs he replied:

Well I know all of the 2008 presidential candidates do. David Dreyer does. Any of them who care about getting re-elected either read blogs or have staffers who do.

This chapter alone makes Painting The Map Red worth buying. It would be very interesting to have some bloggers on the left substantively rebut Hewitt’s point that their side of the blogosphere is dragging the Democratic Party down.

If you consider yourself to be a left of center blogger then I encourage you to buy the book and address Mr. Hewitt’s arguments. (Hey if nothing else you might earn a link from Hugh’s blog and get some traffic out of it).
If you are a Republican activist you need to buy this book start convincing your elected representatives and hopefuls to start implementing the strategies laid out in this book.

If you are a Democratic activist you need to buy this book and start convincing your elected representatives and hopefuls to develop substantive counter arguments to them because any good GOP opponent is going to use them.

If you just like to look at the inside baseball of politics then you need to buy this book yesterday.

Of course if you are a Hugh Hewitt fan then you know Hugh would like you to buy 20 copies and hand them out to all your friends.