Shaping Operations

U.S. military joint doctrine defines a shaping operation as "an operation at any echelon that creates and preserves conditions for the success of the decisive operation."

Right now, that's what we need to be concentrating on: shaping the political battlefield for 2010 and 2012. One of the best ways to do this is to reduce the effectiveness of the Obama administration and the Democrat controlled Congress.

That's why I like these suggestions from James Wiles (HT: Instapundit):

what would Rahm Emanuel do if he had Congressman John Boehner's job as House Minority Leader?

That's easy. Put as many long-range torpedoes into the water aimed at Senator Obama's ship of state before Republicans lose control of the Executive Branch as possible. Here are a few:

*Appoint U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois Patrick Fitzpatrick as a special prosecutor so he can pursue his investigation of Tony Rezko and his corrupt dealings with Illinois's governor and other creatures and spoilsmen of the Daley Machine. This will make it politically difficult for a President Obama to pardon Mr. Rezko and impossible for him to terminate Mr. Fitzpatrick as a federal officer come January 21 as a way of de-railing this investigation.

* Appoint a special prosecutor to investigate ACORN's voter registration methods and its dealings with the Obama campaign.

* Appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the Obama campaign's on-line fundraising operation, including its disabling of the credit card security software on its on-line donations system. File a complaint with the Federal Election Commission regarding same.

* Appoint a bipartisan (love that word!) presidential commission to review the candidates' fundraising in this election cycle and to recommend changes in federal election laws.

File ethics complaints against Sen. Chris Dodd and Congressman Barney Frank for their relationship with Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Countrywide Mortgage.

Be it noted that, in his day, this is probably what Newt Gingrich would have done, too. It was then-Congressman Gingrich's persistent filing of ethics complaints against then-House Speaker Jim Wright, D Texas, which eventually brought Speaker Wright down and made possible the Republicans' re-taking of Congress in 1994 on the platform of the Contract with America.

Who needs a honeymoon anyway?

These actions would force Obama and his allies to start playing defense even before Obama takes office. Energy and political capital applied to defending themselves on these fronts is energy and political capital they won't be able to use to enact their agenda.

If the special prosecutors turn up anything, that at a minimum supplies ammunition to use in future elections. And, if the campaign finance investigation should discover that Obama's campaign was violating campaign finance laws, and that Obama knew, or should have known, about it, you've got grounds to press for impeachment. Of course, the Dems in Congress won't go for it, but that just provides more ammunition against them.

Thoughts for conservatives from Sen. Tom Coburn.

HT: Instpundit

A suggestion from me: Nobody symbolizes the ethical rot and corruption of principles of the Republicans in Congress more than Ted Stevens of Alaska. Assuming he prevails (and as of now, he still holds a slim lead) he should be asked to resign, for the good of the party, to allow GOP Governor Sarah Palin to appoint a serious limited government advocate to replace him. If he doesn't at a very minimum, demote him to make him the junior member of the party Senate caucus, and give him absolute last dibs on committee assignments.

Another thing: only Senators and Reps willing to make a no-earmarks pledge should be put on Appropriations committees.