RNC website cost $1.4 million, 5 times more than Dem site

By GottaLaff

Ladies and gentleman, this is what $1.4 million dollars can buy if you are a Rushpublic:

And they want us to trust them with a budget? If I were the GOP, I'd think twice before starting in with how well they manage the big bucks. Exhibit A:

The Republican National Committee (RNC) has spent $1.4 million on web sites and services, much of which was spent on the new GOP.com, which was released just over two weeks ago.

The report comes from the Sunlight Foundation, which used Federal Election Commission expense reports to calculate their total. The amount is higher than experts expected the project to cost and is five times more than the Democratic National Committee (DNC) spent building democrats.org.

$1.4 million could buy a lot of health insurance and cover a whole slew of mortgage payments. Instead, it went toward websites that could have been designed more effectively and economically by little 4 1/2-year-old Kylie:

“It feels as though too much focus has been placed on flashy features to the detriment of usability,” said Jamie Newell of Washington-based 7AZ Web Design. The site’s reliance on a mish-mash of technologies make it inaccessible to some, including those on mobile devices, he added, “making it impossible to navigate the site and ultimately hindering the message they are trying to deliver.”

Gee, that pretty much describes the party in general, Sarah Palin, et al. specifically.

No wonder only 20% of respondents will identify themselves as Rushpublics. I'd be ashamed to admit that, too, if I were in their sad little shoesies.

Republicans Still Wrangling Over Alternative Budget

I heard Ryan when he just proposed the budget (no vid yet), and as expected it was just the same old crap repackaged with a bow.

"Republican leaders in the Senate are clashing with John McCain, their party's 2008 presidential nominee. He wants to offer an alternative to the Democratic budget and they don't," CQ Politics reports.

"The behind-the-scenes battle is part of a larger split in the Republican Party. Some in the GOP believe their best strategy is to resist President Obama's agenda and take carefully chosen shots through amendments they all agree on; others want the party to do more to demonstrate how a Republican imprint would be different.

Meanwhile, First Read notes that a week after House Republicans "held a press conference to unveil a budget alternative that had no hard numbers in it, they take another crack at it when Rep. Paul Ryan, the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee, formally unveils the alternative at 10:30 am ET."