First in a series of articles by Rick Buchanan
First, let me say I am proud to be a Michael Del Rosso supporter. So it goes without saying that I was deeply disappointed that Michael was not chosen as the candidate to represent the Republican Party for the 5th Congressional seat. However, my disappointment goes much deeper than this great loss. My greater disappointment is the manner in which he was beaten down and the extent to which personal attacks, lies, half-truths and innuendo were utilized to cast dispersions on a good man. Further, these attacks came from some that claim to wear the mantle of conservatism, but never even took the time to phone Michael or sit down with him to learn who the real man is.
I chose to become involved in politics because I am deeply concerned that we are about to lose our country. The United States has been a far greater contributor to human freedom and prosperity than any other government in the history of mankind. However, without bold, knowledgeable leadership, America will fall. As Michael Del Rosso frequently said on the campaign trail, we are no longer at a crossroads; we are at the end of the road.
I did not involve myself in local and state politics or serve for years on the Executive Committee of the Virginia Tea Party Patriot Federation of Virginia for money or fame. I give of my time because I know something has to be done to push back against the entrenched Establishment of both political parties. I did not become involved to gain profitable access to our elected officials or to become part of the elite club. I believe, just like many who read this, we cannot allow our elected officials to work at their own personal, political advancement while more and more families struggle to make ends meet and our own government continues to grow, robbing us or our freedom and constitutional rights.
When I met Michael Del Rosso last June, I knew he was the real deal. Anyone that has met Michael or heard him speak understands that he is not a phony. His depth of knowledge is incredibly impressive and you can tell that he is sincere. Like me and like many of you, he is involved in the political sphere because he is deeply concerned about the direction of the country. His work over the last twenty years continually educating himself while sharing his knowledge with members of the FBI, DoD, and Congress on the most important federal issues became a second, albeit unpaid, job for him just as it has for me. He is one of us.
I have met a lot of candidates and politicians. I now feel that I can discern which candidates are authentic and which candidates are in the game for their own advancement. I knew after I listened to Michael for an hour that he is who he says he is and more. And although he can stand on his own, his colleagues LTG Jerry Boykin, Admiral Ace Lyons, Congressman Michele Bachmann, Congressman Louie Gohmert, Dr. James Dobson and Congressman Dana Rohrabacher all released ringing endorsements of Michael’s work. These American heroes did not just endorse Michael, they have worked with him and praised him as one of the most educated men on the most important federal issues that face our country.
Starting in February, Michael Del Rosso was the victim of the most vicious smear campaign I have ever witnessed. Who was behind the anonymous smears? Why did the bloggers that wrote the hit pieces not reach out the Del Rosso campaign for a comment before publishing the articles? In the next several articles, I will put those pieces of the puzzle together. I hope that you read these articles with an open mind because there is a lot to be learned from what transpired in the 5th District. And as the saying goes, if we do not learn from the past, we are doomed to repeat it.
Rick Buchanan
Chairman, Virginia Tea Party Patriot Federation
Co-Founder, Fauquier Cornerstone Committee
Co-Founder, Fauquier Free Citizen
20 comments
I’m been deeply depressed by the last couple of years’ Fifth District Conventions when the obviously better candidate was turned down for the machine. And we keep losing elections as a result! The Stupid Party really fits!
[…] See Part I HERE […]
I followed the 5th district campaigns closely and I personally talked to all four candidates. I attended the debate in Charlottesville, and attended several meet and greet events with the candidates. For me, it was easy to narrow the field to Del Rosso and Garrett as the two candidates I could support. While I liked Whited as a decent and honorable man, he seemed to be intentionally positioning himself as a moderate (ala John McCain) which doomed him. I also liked McKelvey personally, though he was just not prepared on national issues well enough. However I was genuinely excited about both Garrett and Del Rosso as two good strong conservative fighters who would do what it takes to win in November and also to keep fighting after the win.
Ultimately, I found it to be a tough decision between the two. I knew that Del Rosso had somewhat exaggerated his resume, but not terribly so, and he was great on the issues and certainly willing to fight hard against liberal nonsense in Washington. However I also liked Garrett’s passion on the issues, as well as his record of fighting effectively against Democrats in Richmond. I found a lot to like in both candidates. I ended up voting for Del Rosso at the convention, but by the third ballot, I was a little surprised by his lack of composure in that final speech. I wonder if that cost him the winning margin.
I’ll be interested in Rick’s point of view in his future articles. I hope they will be focused more on lessons learned that will be useful in the future, rather than reiterating the strengths of Del Rosso versus the faults of Garrett. For me it is far more interesting to hear about how and why candidates lose through their own mistakes. I could write pages on how Whited positioned himself for failure. Del Rosso made a few mistakes too, though he was a good candidate overall. I think Garrett was mostly consistent throughout, which helped him win. I’d be surprised if the negative stuff by either side was really the deciding factor though. I’m very interested in what Rick has to say. Rick is right to try to glean the lessons to be learned for the future, and if his articles are focused that way, they will be helpful.
I have been a conservative all my life and have always
voted Republican. After I retired 6 years ago, I had the time and energy to put
into politics. Unfortunately, I soon became discouraged and unhappy with the way
Republicans (even in my small county) prepared–I should say didn’t prepare–for
upcoming elections.
Because I want to be an informed voter, I attended a
meet and greet for Michael Del Rosso in February. After listening to Michael, I
was for the first time in years optimistic. Michael is brilliant and can express
himself so that his vision for the future makes sense. Michael actually has a
plan to accomplish his goals. For the first time in years, I was encouraged.
Here is a candidate who is ethical and has integrity, qualities lacking in many in power positions. For the first time I was enthusiastic. Michael has leadership qualities and loves
America. For the first time I was buoyant. Michael believes in the principles of the Founding Fathers and is a devout Christian.
After that meet and greet I knew I had to support
Michael Del Rosso and became one of his many volunteers. I have spent many happy
hours working on his campaign and met numerous competent, honest people. Over
the course of two and a half months, I discovered that like a magnet Michael
draws principled people to him. This is especially true of the two young men who
were his campaign managers.
While working on Michael’s campaign, I was stunned to
find out just how underhanded some people are. I couldn’t believe the attacks
and smear tactics on Michael. All were untrue.
Thank you, Michael, for not stooping to the level of
those who maligned you.
Unfortunately, Michael didn’t win at the 5th District
Convention. His loss is a loss for America.
Did you ever once Vet his resume?
Perhaps the objective is to have honest politics, a process based on goals for the future (if one is elected), a truth – an increasingly novel concept.
When challenged about his “Credentials” Mr Del Rosso attempted to baffle with BS. He made claims to ,e personally that were not confirmed by persons in the know who actually worked at times and places where he claimed to have worked. His expertise…where are the true scholarly researched and published articles in actual publications. his claims of authoring a book where he was merely one of Many contributors did not help his cause with me…. He never answered my simple questions about his background but unleashed his surrogates to attack and harass me with calls and snarky emails. I think I was actually leaning towards Jim until I was accused of being a paid spokesman for Tom Garrett… Go ahead and write your hit piece on the process that you feel was unfair to a man that I say was less than honest to this Veteran.
Del Rosso was caught in his own lies. The. End.
What is the point of writing this now? We’re in the middle of an election cycle. This could easily wait until November 9th.
If Tom Garrett had lost the nomination, he could have written the same exact article (or series of articles) as what Mr. Buchanan has started to do. Both sides (primarily their surrogates) were involved in harsh attacks, but now only one side has the (dis)advantage of being able to play the “poor me” card and build this “dirty politics” narrative. People need to GET OVER IT, move on, help secure the 5th District Seat for the Republican Party, and not get into a dialogue that either a.) throws mud against someone (our nominee) who isn’t in a position to defend himself or b.) entices our nominee to answer accusations and defend himself, while dividing our party and distracting efforts and resources from beating Jane Dittmar in the general.
This is a weak attempt to start a narrative that will be unabashedly biased at a very bad time. It serves no one but the author, or others, who were embarrassed by the outcome, and will ultimately be a self-serving and destructive campaign that will do nothing. No one will gain support for this piece. We can already see what someone like Mr. Buchanan is going to do here. He will cast an extremely too wide of net and attempt to link Tom Garrett to the likes of Robert Hurt, Eric Cantor, the VCN, John Whitbeck, the Establishment, Harvey Lee Oswald, etc. Facts are facts, and broad conclusions on a weblog cant go answered by someone running for Congress.
I understand Mr. Buchanan wants to keep his powerbase and is going to try to save face for having his support result in a loss, but he would be better served to attempt to make that case in November, not now. Anything else seems disingenuous, unfair (due to timing), and outright selfish. We all went through a lot over the last few months, the last thing we need is this.
But good luck, so the angry typing for the world to see will continue to try to rally the troops — to what end? Perhaps the criticism should be aimed at one’s own tactics and strategy for now, and outwardly later. It doesnt seem like it’ll be that way. I find the locus of this article to be ironic, given that The Bull Elephant posted just as harsh of criticism of Mr. Del Rosso’s campaign as any other blog or report. The late night emails and links to anonymous websites comparing Garrett to Chris Farley, or the emails suggesting that he represented sex-offenders during the convention? Will those be reported? Will those be referenced in Mr. Buchanan’s hit-piece? Will the calls for transparency, fairness, and objective reporting tell a full story or just the story that these truth-warriors want to be told? Of course not. This is the world we live in because this is the world people like Mr. Buchanan have created with blog posts and rumor mills like this article. If you want victory, change hearts and minds on principle and positive outlook, not smear campaigns in the 13th hour.
We all need to pray for peace to fall on the hearts and souls of so many on this blog, in our Commonwealth, and throughout our country, so we can win a larger battle. No one is perfect, no candidate nor race is perfect, and none of the candidates in the 5th, nor their surrogates, should act otherwise. Good luck.
Tom Garrett reminded Fifth District voters ad nauseam of his stint in the field artillery, and he does a good job of replicating the overbearing growl of some remembered battery commander.Perhaps now that he has what he wanted, he’s thinking back on another element of his artillery experience. The field artillery, like politics, is a demanding business; there is no place for shortfalls in either. With the guns, one or two powder bags short and ruin rains down on friend, rather than foe. Does Garrett understand that he is entering his congressional race more than a few Republican powder bags short as a result of the disreputable way he secured the nomination?
Tom Garrett became the Republican standard bearer through gross deceit, character assassination,contemptuous deprecation of patriotic men and women, and a corrupt bargain with another duplicitous pseudo populist, engineered by an array of sleazy party hacks. Surely Garrett must be concerned that winning that 35 convention delegate votes over Michael Del Rosso cost him and his party friends many more than 35 supporters among the decent people who followed the Fifth District race. These citizens know that Garrett was not able to raise serious money for his campaign. So he did what he could with a flimsy record and no money–he lied. Garrett’s campaign consisted of nothing but a strategy to destroy his strongest opponent.But worse, Garrett did not simply deceive the District republicans; he cheated them. Instead of a Republican candidate with the character, experience and understanding to confront pressing issues, we have an angry little man without the self-knowledge to recognize his own inadequacy, and as demonstrated by his despicable campaign, incapable of placing the public good over his own ambitions.Conservative bloggers overconfidence about “Ditz-Mar” notwithstanding, Tom Garrett is not equipped to argue an ideological case against the onslaught that the hive of Progressive groups infesting Central Virginia will unleash against him, not to mention the skeletons that can be unearthed by well-funded “independent” leftist opposition researchers. Any opportunity for turning the race into a full-blown dissection of the insidious effects of creeping Progressivism in the District are gone; substituted will be Garrett’s swaggering, simplistic blather. Even if the Republican registration advantage saves him, Garrett will go to Congress unequipped for any but the role of a follower, a grateful recipient of party or US Chamber of Commerce largess, hoping to serve out an undistinguished tenure in the best job he will ever have in a cautious enough manner to parlay his limited gifts to some future paltry advantage.
Radetzky
I liked all of the candidates and while I supported Michael throughout the race, I was thoroughly impressed with the youngster, Mr. Whited. He certainly has a future in the 5th District.
I too, will support Mr. Garrett, as we know what the ideology of the demwit crowd is, to destroy America. I will just not be working as enthusiastically for Mr. Garrett due to the classless campaign of personal destruction he ran against Michael. Regardless of where the stories against Michael were generated, Mr. Garrett’s campaign, surrogates or the like, Tom should have put a stop to the underhanded games. It has reflected poorly on him, for sure.
funny, I worked on team Tom and we were Always told run on the issues and not to smear other candidates or reply to any smears against tom
Somebody should have given the memo to all them surrogates that continued to blast Michael up to and even during the convention with the kind of stuff like those email blasts that went out to Del Rosso delegates, then. While I wasn’t a fan of Michael’s last speech at the convention, it was certainly full of too much emotion generated from those last minute attacks, but understandable in my humble opinion. I suppose the politics of personal destruction do work.
Having met Michael Del Rosso in February of this year – and having been so impressed by his remarks on entering the race, and the reasons for this, I was not only impressed. I was stunned by the caliber of his credentials. I attended several meet and greets, became a willing and involved volunteer, did research, attended the debates, attended the Fifth District Convention. As stunned (happily) as I was with Michael’s qualities, his knowledge, his ability to pinpoint threats to our nation and our Founding documents (and the debates that were part of their formation), I was equally stunned (furiously so) about the low level, snake-in-the-grass dealings of one opposition campaign. To say I was disgusted with what I saw, read and heard diminishes my reaction significantly. I look forward to Mr. Buchanan’s elucidation of what really happened and how mislead some really were. It pays to do your homework!
I too met Michael a few years ago and run into him at many social/political events. My husband and I have had the pleasure of sitting down and listening to his love of helping vets with severe problems. This is the Michael I know. I have also heard him speak on several topics connected to our national security. Always willing to GIVE his time and energy for all. I love his enthusiasm and his passion for our country. Many consider him a distinguished American patriot. His oath is to God, his integrity is his framework.
For those who told lies to demean his character is typical of someone we do not want in office but manages to get there through manipulation and destruction of the truth. Unfortunately, this is done through party loyalty. Ironic the word they use to control…loyalty. And through that loyalty they demean themselves. It is a vicious circle to deceive.
I wish Michael had been chosen because he is the person of integrity the office needs. Michael, I sincerely hope you will run for office again. We so badly need your character there.
One of the most disappointing conventions I ever attended was the recent 5th District in Nelson County. Unfortunately, out of the disappointment came the knowledge that many delegates had not done their homework. These delegates, after a first/second round loss, allowed another candidate to usurp their votes, no questions asked! I suppose this represents a strong case for a primary election where such deals cannot be made. No doubt, Michael’s background was superior to all others and the Fifth District is the loser. That being said, Michael’s experience, expertise and fine character will never be wasted, and he will be a perfect candidate for higher office. Others may have closed a door, but God knows all about double doors and myriad windows!
Hear hear; I am looking forward to your future articles.
I had seen, heard, and spoke to Michael Del Rosso a number of times, as I did the other candidates during the campaign season. Seeing how this was the first time my wife and I were delegates at a convention, we intended to stay neutral until said convention. However, we were so impressed with Michael’s length and breath of knowledge on vital subjects, and his sincerity, that we had to become his delegates.
Not that this matters, but take a listen. I’m 62 years old, and have been a political and geo-political junkie since I was 13 years old. I also have been a follower of alternative, uncensored news for years. As you know, this is news other than all the mainstream news, including Fox. Consequently, the thing that I regret the most from the Del Rosso defeat, is that he will not be able to teach his fellow congressmen and women things they have no clue of.
I support Garrett 100% for congress, and wish him God’s speed. But, I believe the 5th district missed its chance to elect a representative which would have been an intellectual force in enlightening what’s left of the House that still has some sense of integrity.
New to participation in politics, I, too was appalled by the vicious and unsubstantiated lies told about one of the finest and most selfless men I’ve ever known, Michael Del Rosso. I look forward to whatever light Rick will shine on this. It is not only the 5th District’s loss, but our Nation’s loss, as well, that we didn’t choose Michael as our candidate. As my wife and I recently participated in the process of the State and 5th District conventions and the efforts leading up to them, we found it very eye-opening. Without naming names at this point, I will say that the respect I once had for several individuals is gone. We saw cronyism and self-service on full public display, and actions that revealed the true character as opposed to what we expected based on speeches and conversations in various venues. It’s well known that I totally supported and endorsed Michael. I daresay that those who resorted to lies and innuendo, and others who believed what they heard and read over what they actually verified, never attended one of his meet and greets, and looked him in the eye. I attended many, and repeatedly heard those in attendance say “We need this man.” Michael’s mission to do his part to bring our country back to Founding Principles, and to prepare us against current and potential threats, began many years ago. His fight will continue because he loves America. I am proud to call him my friend, and to help him in any way I can as he continues the cause.
I met Michael at that same June meeting.
I was impressed with his knowledge and that he would explain to me where I could understand. We worked very hard for Michael because knowing that he is the real deal and the one that could be a major player in turning this country around. Sadly, it did not happen. It was devastating.