Run Jeb run!

Chris Cillizza has an interesting column in the Washington Post today about the 10 Republicans to watch over the next few years. I’m sure that many will have issues with some he left off (hint: pit bulls and lipstick), but I think he does a good job rounding up the future of the party. Of course, there will always be those who rise to the fore rather quickly, but this is the current starting roster. Let the games begin.

Being out of power is certainly no fun, but the theme music isn’t too shabby:

The Republican Party must return to its roots and become a truly conservative party again.  And it must be a principled, well-rounded conservatism.  There is no reason we must sacrifice economic interests in favor of cultural issues or vice versa.  We can do it all.

But we must also recognize a thing or two before we attempt to advance a more truly conservative agenda. (more…)

In the coming days and months we will see plenty of columns and blogposts written about how the GOP can get back into the game, and I’m sure I will be responsible for more than a few.  But let’s wait a bit before we go into full bore policy mode.  For now we should just take stock of where we are. (more…)

Well,  the GOP might be in for a nightmarish night next Tuesday, but that’s fine with me if paves the way for people like Thaddeus McCotter to become the party’s next leaders.

Rick Santorum would be president.

An on the money blog post by Jonathan V. Last at First Things:

There are reasonable criticisms that can be made of Sarah Palin, both as governor and a vice presidential selection. Yet little of what we have seen in the last six days has been either reasonable or critical (in the traditional sense of the word). Instead, much of the left and many in the media simply lashed out at Palin, particularly at her family.

And not only the fringiest parts of the political fringe: A writer at the Washington Post attacked Palin for the fact that her seventeen-year-old daughter was going to have a baby. A writer for The Atlantic openly questioned whether or not Palin’s four-month-old baby, who has Down’s Syndrome, was actually hers. The utterly unfounded suggestion was that the baby was Palin’s daughter’s and that the governor had faked her pregnancy. Proof of the baby’s birth was demanded.

(more…)

It just might be.

Like I said, I can live with Romney.

Because this rejoinder by Romney to Chrissy Matthews tonight on Hardball is dipped twice in awesomeness:

Chris Matthews:  “How many houses do you have?”

Mitt Romney:  “One less than John Kerry — and that’d be four.”

Senator McCain, now might be a good time to seriously consider choosing Gov. Sarah Palin as your running mate.

This from NRO’s The Corner:

Rudy on McCain and a Possible Pro-Choice Pick   [Byron York]

From a conference call with Rudy Giuliani, a few moments ago:

“It would seem to me that the Republican party is not, as far as I can tell…a one issue party, and that would be just one issue among many that would have to be evaluated…I know John McCain. I know his seriously seriousness, his love of country…He will choose the best person, and if that person happens to be, among other things, pro-choice, the party will support that.”

Re: Rudy on a Possible Pro-Choice Pick   [Ramesh Ponnuru]

Doesn’t Giuliani’s experience in the primaries argue against a pro-choice pick? Here you had a candidate who had a lot going for him and whose principal defect was his pro-choice position, and he absolutely bombed. Doesn’t that tell us something about where the party’s sentiment is?

Yes, it does, Ramesh. Yes, it does.

You would think the GOP’s party elites would recognize this simple truth, but apparently this clear and unequivocal “party sentiment” has yet to sink in with them.

That’s the word on the street.

If this is indeed the case, then it’s a brilliant decision, and I am confident that Gov. Jindal will give an excellent speech.

Heck, I’ll be there to liveblog it.

I consider myself a die hard cynic, but I never envisioned the day when the phrase “Republican” would mean the opposite of what it meant in 1980. Thank you California for showing me that even I can dream.

RIP.

Nice to see some fortitude from a GOP Congressman.  In other words, right on, brutha:

h/t RWN

The GOP nominee delivered a populist rant against Big Oil, nefarious “speculators,” and “so-called economists” at an appearance in New York on Thursday.  The NY Sun editorial page scorched him for it yesterday.  This man desperately needs some help and advice in this area.

This seems an appropriate spot to recommend Stuart Rothenberg’s gloomy meditation on the possible meaning of a McCain win for the rest of the GOP.

also has Republican members.

The future of the GOP.

Hey sportsfans, I am sitting in the Columbus Civic Center waiting for the Georgia GOP Convention to begin. I am not sure whether there will be anything interesting to report, but if there is I’ll live blog it here.

Who knows? Maybe some of the Ron Paul folks will make a scene. :) 

BTW, and fwiw, I am down 24 pounds as of this morning.

As I post this, the Democrat, Travis Childers, leads the Republican, Greg Davis, 51-49%, with almost 2/3rds of the precincts reporting. This is only an 1800-vote margin and I imagine this could change if the boxes around Southaven haven’t yet reported — but this doesn’t look great for the GOP.

If you want to watch the vote come in, head over to The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal. Also, there’s some interesting commentary on Y’all Politics.

Update: The Clarion-Ledger has county-by-county returns. Unfortunately for Davis, DeSoto County — his home — has reported and Childers remains in the lead by 700 votes, with 72% of the precincts reporting.

Fat lady sings: The AP has called the race for Childers.

This is stunning: The final tally is Childers 57,276 (= 53.7%), Davis 49,314 (= 46.3%). I grew up in this district and still keep up with it through my family, and I have to say that I have a very bad feeling about tonight’s results.

More: Dick Polman, a political columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, explains the significance of this race below the fold: (more…)

Senator Chuck Grassley is apparently not a big fan of those who preach some variant of the “prosperity gospel.” In fact, this form of ministry troubles Grassley so much that this past winter he decided to use his considerable power as the “former chairman and now Ranking Member on the Senate Finance Committee” to launch a full-blown investigation into the operational affairs of six “prosperity-gospel” ministries: Without Walls International Church; World Healing Center Church, Inc./Benny Hinn Ministries; Joyce Meyer Ministries; World Changers Church International; Kenneth Copeland Ministries; and New Birth Missionary Baptist Church. (more…)

Three cheers for Cardinal Egan.

Update: For thoughtful commentary on the matter, see here, here, here, and here.

[Ed. This is another post from my Alexham archives at RedState. I penned this post right before McCain secured the GOP nomination, and the message remains as true then as it does now: It is time for conservatives to rally around Senator John McCain. To a certain extent, this has already happened; but there are still a few holdouts amongst us (Centinel, I am looking in your direction), and this post is being republished here for their consideration.]  

I know many of you aren’t thrilled about supporting McCain, and some of y’all have even made blood oaths that you will never vote for “that man.” And trust me. I get it. I know exactly where y’all are coming from. For some, it was McCain’s opposition to President Bush’s tax cuts. For others, it was McCain’s cheerleading for patently unconstitutional campaign-finance legislation. For social conservatives, it was McCain’s support for federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. And for many, it was all of the above, as well as McCain’s propensity for bucking the Republican establishment and cozying up to liberal dems like Ted Kennedy. Understandably, these things have irked many a conservative, including yours truly. (more…)

I am pleased to see that my reposting of ”Who we are instead” generated two excellent, thought-provoking responses by Joel and Centinel. Needless to say, this is an important topic, and I am interested in hearing what others have to say about the future of conservatism in these United States.

So, in addition to any comments generated by the posts noted supra, I invite other bloggers/readers to submit their own posts on “The future of the GOP and Conservatism,” which I will link to or republish in this master post.

My hope is that these posts will spark discussion in the conservative blogosphere, and help us visualize where we need to go from here.

It’s about ideas and principles, folks. It always has been.

[Ed. This is a post from my "Alexham" archives over at RedState. I am reposting it here because I believe the overall message of the post needs to be restated before we gather together for the national convention in September.]

I can still remember the day after the 1994 midterm elections. It was an unusually sunny day in the Southland, and all seemed right with the world. After all of those years in the wilderness, the Republicans had finally taken control of the House, and soon thereafter, the Senate. We would do things differently, we promised. We were a different kind of political party. Unlike the Democrats, who only care for power for power’s sake, we sought power to make a profound difference in the lives of every-day Americans.

How different things look thirteen years later. Somewhere along the line, we lost our way. I think most Republicans instinctively know this, but have trouble articulating exactly when things began to unravel for our party. What we do know is that the Republican Party is at crossroads. We are a party in search of an identity, and the path we choose will have long-term ramifications not only for the GOP, but for these United States. (more…)

I am pleased to announce that today I was elected by the Eighth District Republican Party in Georgia to serve as a delegate to the Republican National Convention. Pretty cool, eh?

Minneapolis/St. Paul, here I come!

I may even do some live blogging.

If any of SA’s readers plan on attending, please let me know and we’ll plan a little get together.

Sorry, K-Lo, your man simply cannot be trusted.

(LvRS)

Well, it looks as though Senator Brownback just may be able to hang with the big boys when it comes to raising money after all.

(LvJoe)

Will the real Mitt Romney please stand up?