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In a highly damaging disclosure, Politico obtained a confidential Republican National Committee presentation detailing the Party's strategy for fundraising.

The leaked document discusses the use of "fear" of President Barack Obama and stopping "socialism" as ways to motivate for donors.

But the document also asserts that Republican donors are interested to donate because of: "networking opportunities", "access", "wall of fame", "ego-driven", "extreme negative feelings towards current administration", and "reactionary" tendencies.

The strategy also contemplates that donors will be motivated by "tchochkes!!!!!" or trinkets.

Not surprisingly, Republican donors are less than happy at being depicted in this manner by the Republican Party itself.

Here's a particularly bizarre image from the presentation:

Politico reports on the Republicans' attempt at damage control:

Republicans, including Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, are scrambling to put as much distance as they can between themselves and an RNC fundraising document encouraging operatives to use “fear” to solicit donations, but several veteran Republicans say the tone of the pitch is nothing new.

Steele also rushed Thursday to assure donors that the party respects them despite the assumptions behind the document. “Our donors are compassionate, concerned activists out there who support a party that they believe in. And we want that to continue,” he said on Fox News.

Nearly 30 Republican Party officials, committee members, strategists and top fundraisers were contacted Thursday by POLITICO to comment on the controversial PowerPoint presentation. Only a handful responded, and very few were willing to speak on the record.

“That a Beltway operative is supremely cynical is no surprise,” said Mark Hillman, a Republican National Committeeman from Colorado. “That he’s so foolish and naive as to air that crap publicly and distribute printed copies is just appalling.”

“It’s clear that the Obama administration’s far-left agenda is scaring a lot of people, and therefore it’s useful as a fundraising [tool], too. So I understand why they did it,” said Fred Malek, a prominent Republican donor and power broker who has aligned himself with the Republican Governors Association rather than the RNC.

“But I ... believe that it is always more powerful to state how we want to move the country forward, especially since our center-right agenda is where the country is as a whole,” he said.

Here's Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele bumbling his way through an explanation on FoxNews:

CNN reports on Steele's public reaction.  The disclosure of this document was "unfortunate", he said:

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele on Thursday condemned a now-public internal party document that mocks GOP donors, but he would not say if disciplinary action is being taken against the official who created the presentation.

The powerpoint presentation, leaked to Politico on Wednesday, described high-level Republican donors as "ego-driven" and claimed they could be enticed with "tchochkes." The document included a slide - titled "The Evil Empire" - with cartoonish images depicting President Obama as the Joker, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as Cruella DeVille and Harry Reid as Scooby Doo. Steele called the pictures "unfortunate."

"Those are images that were pulled off the internet, they've been out in the public domain for a while, and you know, a staffer was putting together a presentation for a small group of about nine or ten folks and thought that they would intersperse the presentation with humorous shots," Steele explained in an appearance on Fox News. "They are inappropriate shots."

Steele would not say who was responsible for the document, saying only that he has asked RNC Finance Director Rob Bickhart "to get to the bottom of it." Bickhart is reportedly the staffer who made the fundraising presentation to GOP donors in Boca Grande, Florida last month.

The Washington Post describes the attempt to control the damage:

National Republican leaders scrambled Thursday to control damage caused by an internal party document that caricatures President Obama as the Joker and stokes fear of socialism to raise money in a critical election year.

The 72-page PowerPoint presentation reveals the blunt appeal to emotion that both parties use to motivate donors and prefer to keep private. But its release online and consequent cable chatter became an unwelcome distraction for Republicans, because the strategy it outlined fit squarely with Democrats' portrait of the GOP as the party of "no."

"You don't defend it," Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele said Thursday in an interview on Fox News. "It was unfortunate. Those were images that were uploaded off the Internet. They've been out in the public domain for a while. A staffer was putting together a presentation for a small group of nine or 10 folks and thought they would intersperse their presentation with humorous shots. They're inappropriate."

Sen. John Thune (S.D.), a member of the Republican leadership, said: "There is no place for this. Obviously when you're fundraising . . . you want to make direct and succinct points, but using these sorts of tactics is certainly not something that any of us ought to condone."

Ironically, Republican fundraising for Congressional campaigns is running behind the Democrats' efforts.  Politico reports:

Republicans are feeling pretty good about the midterms. Prognosticators don’t laugh anymore when they talk about taking back Congress.

But while wind at one’s back is a good thing, cash in the bank would be better, and on that score Republicans are lagging behind. Their candidates have raised less than half the $84 million that experts estimate it will take to seriously threaten the Democratic majority in the House. The situation at the National Republican Congressional Committee is even bleaker.

In 2008, the committee spent more than $34 million on advertising and other assistance to candidates, according to Federal Election Commission reports. Today, the NRCC has a grand total of $4 million in the bank — and that is after one of its best fundraising months. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, by contrast, has about $18 million.

Overall, the Democratic Party committees combined have outraised their Republican counterparts significantly, bringing in $442,885,585 since last January, compared with $255,000,681 for the respective GOP committees. The Democrats’ $51 million in cash is also significantly larger than the Republicans’ $34 million.

In recent cycles, such disparities have become the norm for the Democratic Senate and House committees. A major difference this year, however, is the Democratic National Committee’s ability to keep pace with the Republican National Committee, which has dominated the fundraising world for decades.

Is she a serious political force or simply being provocative to sell books and speeches at $100,000 a pop?

Sarah Palin was the undisputed star at the recent Tea Party convention - a high wattage performance that left her fans salivating for a 2012 Presidential run and her enemies chuckling at her hand notes and over-the-top rhetoric.

But what does Sarah really want?

Is she a serious contender for leadership within the Republican Party, putative leader of a third party or a great opportunist that has leveraged her 2008 failed run for the Vice Presidency into an uber lucrative television, print and public speaking empire?

Of course, only Sarah and Todd Palin (better known as the "First Dude") really know.

But in a recent interview with FoxNews' Sean Hannity, Palin seemed to make a play for simultaneous Tea Party leader and serious Republican contender.

In the most striking moment of the interview, Palin suggests that the Tea Party "takeover" the Republican Party.

"I vote to takeover the Republican Party, Tea Partiers, and get them [Republicans] to see the light," Palin said.

While many mainstream Republicans are thrilled by the idea that they will be able to harness the enthusiasm of the Tea Party for an electoral takeover of the country in  2010 and 2012, there is also anxiety that it could all blow up in their face.

Some Republican strategists worry about the risk that the mainstream Republican Party will be drowned in a right-wing populist Tsunami that knocks out electable GOPers and replaces them with members of the loony right unable to capture Independents and disaffected Democrats.

Whatever Palin's true intentions, she is a force to be reckoned with - a force that is unpredictable and could very well impact both mainstream parties' electoral fortunes in surprising ways.

Politico reports:

Palin has recently maneuvered herself into the role of unofficial leader of the movement, speaking to the first-ever National Tea Party Convention in Nashville last month and championing the tea parties in media interviews.

Palin was paid $100,000 for her speech to the tea party convention. The former governor said the payment was donated back into the political movement, but she has yet to explain how or to whom the money was given.

Asked to define the tea party movement, Palin said "it's pretty simple. it's a smaller, smarter government, not growing government to control more of our lives and our businesses and make decisions for us."

"It really is not as complicated as some in Washington, D.C. want to make it out to be," she claimed.

From her new perch as a FoxNews analyst, Palin calls for the "takeover" of the GOP:

US News & World Report recounts GOP anxieties about Palin's true intentions:

Some Republican strategists say she appears to be trying to become, at minimum, a leader of the tea party movement and a power broker within the GOP.

But she has done little to reassure centrists that she is presidential material. As a celebrity politician, Palin can draw enormous crowds and presumably could raise lots of money from conservative donors for a presidential campaign if she decided to run. But her fortunes have declined with the general electorate. Seventy-one percent of Americans don't consider Palin qualified to be president, and 55 percent have an unfavorable view of her, according to the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll.

"Sarah Palin is a performer," says a prominent Republican who has advised two presidents. "She has star quality, but she's content free. Her audience consists of the 25 to 35 percent [of Americans] who are totally disaffected, totally disenchanted." Palin defenders, however, say that she has much more potential than her critics think and that she realizes she needs to learn more about issues.

Woo-hoo - the Senate may actually be able to legislate.

After a crazy period when Democrats and Republicans were at each other's throats over everything - with the American people suffering in the process - the United States Senate this morning passed a modest jobs bill with a bipartisan majority.

Is this the beginning of a new period of government functionality or simply a tactical retreat for both Parties so that they help change peoples' perception that the government is broken?

Whatever the answer, it's good to see some progress on fixing the economy, growing employment and resolving some of the serious issues affecting our country.

The Washington Post reports:

The measure passed 70 to 28, with 13 Republicans joining 57 Democrats in support of the package. One Democrat, Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, voted against it.

"We've had so much gridlock," said Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), co-author of a key portion of the bill. Now, he said, "finally we have something" bipartisan to show the public.

The legislation is the first element of what Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) has said will be a multipart "jobs agenda." The measure includes a new program that would give companies a break from paying Social Security taxes on new employees for the remainder of 2010. It also carries a one-year extension of the Highway Trust Fund, an expansion of the Build America Bonds program and a provision to allow companies to write off equipment purchases.

The next stop is the House, where Democratic leaders are weighing whether to pass the Senate version or go to conference to reconcile it with the $154 billion jobs bill the House passed in December.

Wednesday's passage of the Senate bill was made possible by five GOP defections on a procedural vote Monday -- from two retiring senators from the economically depressed Midwest and three New Englanders seeking to maintain a foothold in a region where Republican officeholders have grown scarce in recent election cycles.

New York Senator Charles Schumer gives a behind the scenes look at the Senate deliberations:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

FoxNews reports:

Companies that hire the unemployed would claim new tax breaks under a jobs-promoting bill the Senate passed Wednesday, delivering President Obama and Democrats a much-needed victory.

The 70-28 vote sends the bill back to the House, which passed a far more costly measure in December. Many in the House consider the Senate bill too puny, but they may simply adopt it and send it to Obama in order to get a win. Democratic leaders promise more so-called jobs bills are on the way.

The bill contain two major provisions. First, it would exempt businesses hiring the unemployed from the 6.2 percent Social Security payroll tax through December and give them an additional $1,000 credit if new workers stay on the job a full year.

Second, it would extend highway and mass transit programs through the end of the year and pump $20 billion into them in time for the spring construction season. The money would make up for lower-than-expected gasoline tax revenues.

The Senate's $35 billion proposal is a far smaller measure than the $862 billion economic stimulus bill enacted a year ago.

The measure cleared a key hurdle Monday when the Senate's newest member, Republican Scott Brown of Massachusetts, and four other Republicans broke party ranks to defeat a filibuster. Republican leaders said Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., had used strong-arm tactics to bring the measure to the floor.

In all, 13 Republicans voted for the measure Wednesday. Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska was the only Democrat in opposition.

Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, blasted the measure for increasing the budget deficit to fund highway and transit programs. He said the measure made a joke of Democratic promises to adhere to "pay-as-you-go" budget rules requiring new spending programs to not increase the deficit.

"I don't think you get people back to work in this nation by loading more and more debt onto the next generation," Gregg said.