NRO: Brownback should pull out of POTUS race

National Review's Rich Lowry writes on why Sam Brownback should pull out of the 2008 Presidential race.

Coffman, Tonner and CO-6

Several well placed Republican sources have confirmed that Secretary of State Mike Coffman has been meeting with Flat-Line's (Phaseline) Sean Tonner about running for Tom Tancredo's CO-6 House seat. At least two meetings have taken place in the last three weeks.

Does this indicate that Coffman has inside information into Tancredo's plans for 2008?

Does Tanc's strong finish in the Iowa Straw Poll breath new life into his Presidential run?

What isn't clear is whether or not Coffman will primary Tancredo. A Coffman run for CO-6 is sure to anger both the Republican party establishment, as well as conservatives.

Republicans want to keep the Secretary of State seat, which if Coffman won CO-6, would be appointed by Governor Ritter.

Conservatives believe that Senator Ted Harvey or Wil Armstrong would be far better conservative ambassadors in Congress.

Humor, POTUS style

Yes, that is Rudy in drag. Yes this is Romney dressed like a mariachi singer at a Massachusetts Mexican restaurant.

Iowa Straw Poll

The clear victor of Saturday's Iowa Republican Straw Poll is Governor Mike Huckabee.

Mitt "RINO" Romney may have actually won the poll, but Huckabee made the strongest showing and elevated himself to the top tier of candidates.

I'm in the process of tracking down some Colorado guys who went to the straw poll to get there first hand reactions. I'll post their reactions, once I get them.

In the mean time, read National Reviews analysis of Huckabee here.

Full Straw Poll results:

Iowa state auditor David Vaudt has unofficially certified the Iowa Straw Poll results. With 14,203 ballots having been reportedly cast, here are the results as per (http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/) …

1. ROMNEY: Gov Mitt Romney won the 2007 Ames straw poll, receiving 4516 votes, or 31%.
2. HUCKABEE: In a surprise, Gov. Mike Huckabee finished second with 2587 votes at 18.1%
3. BROWNBACK: Sen. Sam Brownback with 2192 votes and 15.3%
4. TANCREDO: Tom Tancredo with 1961 votes, 13.7%.
5. PAUL: Ron Paul with 1305 votes, and 9.1%
6. THOMPSON: Tommy Thompson, 1,039 votes, 7.3%
7. THOMPSON: Fred Thomson with 203 votes.
8. GIULIANI: Rudy Giuliani with 183 votes.
9. HUNTER: Duncan Hunter with 174 votes.
10. MCCAIN: John McCain with 101 votes.
11. COX: John Cox with 41 votes.

Do The Bart Man

If you frequent PPH, you have probably already seen this.

POTUS candidates likened to Simpsons characters according to The Krusty Konservative

John McCain – Maude Flanders – she’s died on the show and no one really misses her.

John Cox – Dr. Nick Riviera – he’s a charlatan who only fools a small minority of people into believing he’s a legitimate practitioner of his trade.

Mike Huckabee - Ned Flanders – he’s a good guy. He’s nice, friendly and everyone likes him… but he’s completely non-threatening.

Mitt Romney – Dredrick Tatum – the reigning heavyweight champion of the world with a MAJOR problem.

Tommy Thompson – C. Montgomery Burns – he’s dying and everyone knows it, but he’s just not quite dead yet. And yes, that means Steve Grubbs is Waylon Smithers.

Rudy Giuliani – Homer Simpson – He screws up all the time but for some reason everyone still loves him.

Tom Tancredo – Ralph Wiggum – he’s a minor character who’s wildly popular with die-hard fans.

Sam Brownback – Principal Skinner – he’s kind of a dork and no one respects him.

Fred Thompson – Dr. Julius Hibbert – he’s big and jovial and he’s trying to figure out what’s wrong with the body (politic).

Newt Gingrich – “Sideshow” Bob Terwilliger – he’s a smart guy with TONS of baggage.

Quote of the Week

Seen on a bloggers signature over at CoPols

"For those of you who do not know what a blogger is, it is someone with a laptop, an axe to grind, and their virginity." - Steven Colbert

Ron Paul is up... on TV

Today, Congressman Ron Paul went up on the airwaves with his first set of 30 second TV ads in Iowa.

The ads are running in Cedar Rapids and Des Moines markets.

Iowa Straw Poll Predictions

In the spirit of the moment, I am going to add to the white-noise, by releasing my own predictions for this Saturday's Iowa Straw Poll.

1. Mitt Romney
2. Fred Thompson
3. Rudy Giuliani (tie)
3 Tom Tancredo (tie)
4. Ron Paul
5. John McCain
6. Mike Huckabee
7. Sam Brownback
8. Duncan Hunter
10. Tommy Thompson
11. John Cox

Sour grapes in CO-5

The Denver Post has a puff piece on the continued sour gapes of Jeff Crank and his supporters, over Doug Lamborn's victory in last years primary.

Crank and his supporters are sore losers. Lamborn has done a good job so far, in his first months as a minority Congressman. He has represented his constituents and their conservative values well.

Party insiders agree:

Lamborn has support from his constituents, said Greg Garcia, chairman of the El Paso County Republican Party. That county's voters represent about 80 percent of Lamborn's district.

"When I talk to people and ask them, 'How do you think we're doing?' Doug Lamborn is talked about very positively," Garcia said.

Even liberal business groups, a natural "constituency" for former Chamber of Commerce hack Crank, are happy with Lamborn.

Lamborn, he said, has used public appearances and mailings to let voters know his congressional efforts, which many have praised.

"He has supported business issues and Realtor issues," said Terry Storm, chief executive of the Pikes Peak Association of Realtors, which so far is happy with Lamborn.

In fact the piece even goes so far as to claim that Crank is already a primary candidate, in a photo caption.

Jeff Crank candidate for Colorado's 5th congressional district at a meeting sponsored by NFIB at Broadmoor in Colorado Springs on Monday. (Post / Hyoung Chang)

Crank is very clearly only in this to appease his Mount Rushmore sized ego, and not represent the people of Colorado's 5th Congressional District.

If Crank was actually interested in doing the right thing, and not feeding his ego, he'd run for a state house of state senate seat. But he's not interested in that. He's going to take his principles compromising agenda (endorsed gay candidates and tax hikes, while claiming to be conservative) and run a sore-loser primary campaign.

Musgrave getting some Greeley love

The Greeley Tribune has a great piece on the re-branding of Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave.

From the piece:

"I would say that I think Congresswoman Musgrave is a lot more visible than what she was given credit for even previous to 2007," said Dick Wadhams, chairman of the Colorado Republican Party. "I think she worked hard before this, but I also would concede that she does seem to be at least having more visible events in the district."

Both sides believe it's good for more constituents to hear Musgrave's beliefs, so more people will know where Musgrave stands -- a good thing to her staff, who believe most people in the region agree with her, and a good thing from the perspective of Democrats, who believe most people don't.

More:

While her beliefs have stayed consistent, her work with Democrats has been mostly friendly this year. She's appeared on more than one occasion with Udall, the U.S. representative and Democratic Senate candidate from a town outside that liberal bastion, Boulder. She has bucked other members of her party and joined with U.S. Rep. John Salazar, another Democrat, to oppose the U.S. Army's stalled plan to expand its training site in southern Colorado, inside Musgrave's district.

Musgrave said at a meeting last month that she's always worked well with Democrats; the media just never focused on it, so she took matters into her own hands. To that end, her staff started a newsletter in February called "Bi-Partisanship Works."

The e-newsletter, sent by Musgrave's communications director Aaron Johnson, highlights work she is doing with the other side. The first e-mail went out Feb. 9, and similar newsletters have followed about once a week.

One could argue, however, that many of her bipartisan actions are things that can hardly be called controversial. For instance, Musgrave recently joined the Congressional Bike Caucus.

Other bi-partisan actions have been more controversial, however. Musgrave caused a stir in the delegation with her opposition to the Army's plans to expand its training site at Piñon Canyon in southern Colorado, which led to nasty comments by U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado Springs, a friend of Musgrave's.

Even more obvious than the newsletter has been Musgrave's renewed focus on her constituents, which includes photo-ops like pumping gas and pouring coffee, but also attempts at substantive events like "listening sessions" on the local economy and the farm bill, among other topics.

Good for Musgrave for working hard to re-brand herself, while still sticking up for conservative values. These sort of news stories will go a long way toward Musgrave's upcoming re-election campaign.

Splurgin Video

Hilarious post from our buddies over at PPH

Paccione Hurts America

Humorous post from PPH

Angry Angie Paccione has been blaming Congresswoman Musgrave for an awful lot of weird things lately. She’s even gone as far as to have a Big Bird make appearances protesting obscure votes. So we did our own research and found some strange coincidences regarding Angie Paccione and her past.

Angie Paccione graduated from college in 1983 and can’t seem to specify her whereabouts during the failed coup d’état in Grenada around that same time. She suddenly reappeared and joined the Women’s American Basketball Association and two years later it crashed and burned. Again, Paccione vanished around 1986. Suddenly war broke out in Lebanon. The war seemed to be in stalemate. Suddenly Paccione reappears, this time in Colorado. Then our economy crashes. In 2002 Paccione took office. Coincidentally this was the exact time SARS broke out across the United States.


Ever since Angie Paccione was born, bad things happened across the globe. We don’t feel it’s a coincident because we use Paccione’s campaign’s logic.

Romney Wrong on Guns, AGAIN

From the National Association for Gun Rights:

“Wrong Again Romney” proves he doesn’t like guns or know anything about them

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney continues to display his contempt for gun owners. In yesterday’s Foster’s Daily Democrat, Romney made convulated statements about the Second Amendment, but reinforced his earlier positions that citizens can't be trusted with many types of firearms. To make matters worse, Romney clearly has no understanding of firearms or the basic firearms laws of this country.

"No one is suggesting that automatic weapons be made available to the public. No one is suggesting that automatic weapons be made legal," Romney said at a town hall meeting in a school gym. "I support the Second Amendment. I support the ban on (automatic weapons). They're not connected with a fundraising event where they're using weapons not available to the public."

Wrong again, Gov. Romney. Automatic weapons are legally owned by hundreds of thousands of citizens across the country, who have undergone extensive background checks from local and national law enforcement and are heavily -- and unconstitutionally -- regulated in their use, travel and possession. The 1934 National Fire Arms Act allows anyone who purchases a $200 federal tax stamp after passing a background check to possess a fully automatic weapon (often called NFA weapons ), which are all registered with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Currently, there are 366,000 of these firearms legally owned by Americans (Small Arms Review, Feb. 2007).

There is no documentation that a legally owned and registered NFA weapon has been used in the commission of a violent crime.

NFA weapons (legal machineguns) are different from the so-called "assault weapons" Gov. Romney banned in Massachussets in 2004, a fact lost on Romney as he stumbled through a legal briar patch in yesterday's comments.

"I've held the stick on an F-16 fighter jet. That doesn't mean I think the public ought to be flying F-16 fighter jets," Romney said.

Wrong again, Gov. Romney. The Constitution is clear: our right to keep and bear small arms “shall not be infringed”. That document explicitly protects citizen's rights to own firearms, with no "sporting use" requirement stated.

Romney apparently believes that the Second Amendment protection only applies to duck hunters.

Romney has a long history of supporting gun control. He signed the permanent Massachusetts assault weapons ban and was a vocal proponent of the Brady Gun Registration Act, the Feinstein Assault weapons ban, and many other infringements upon our Constitutional right to keep and bear arms.

Romney claims to support the Second Amendment, but in the same breath calls for more gun control. You can’t have it multiple ways.

Read the e-mail alert here.

Visit NAGR's Presidential Watch page here.

Lemonade stand robbed

Have we truly sunk this low?

From Drudge: Well-wishers aid Oshkosh boy whose lemonade stand was robbed.

Fred Thompson: Lobbyist

The Washington Post examines some of the ironies of the idea of Fred Thompson for President.

Unlike many Republicans during the 1990s, Thompson easily collected large sums of political donations from lawyers during his Senate career -- more than $1.5 million over eight years. The trial lobby's political action committee gave him maximum $10,000 donations during each of his two Senate campaigns.

Aligning himself with trial lawyers was another seeming contradiction in Thompson's varied career -- a Republican who succeeded in Hollywood, a former lobbyist who lives in Northern Virginia, now positioning himself to run for president as a Washington outsider.

more...

"There will always be a concern that he wants to be the leader of the cobra party, and he was, for a while, a mongoose," said Grover Norquist, head of the Americans for Tax Reform, which supported tort reform and is influential in GOP circles. "He needs to articulate not where he was while practicing law under the tort laws at the time but where he think those laws should go now."

(Eds. Notes: Way to go Grover, compare the Republican Party to poisonous snakes.)
Even more...

Thompson challenged the right of government to compel testimony or search property, according to a review of hundreds of pages of court filings, transcripts and contemporaneous news accounts.

In August 1981, Thompson, on First Amendment grounds, urged the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down an Illinois village's ordinance designed to protect children from marijuana by requiring merchants to get a license to sell drug paraphernalia or pro-marijuana literature. His client was a trade association of merchants who sold smoking goods, novelty items and magazines.

Needless to say, I'm not joining the lemmings rushing to the Thompson band wagon.

Like rats from a sinking campaign...

The Wall Street Journal has a great piece about the further imposition of the disaster that is the McCain for President Straight Talk Express.

Do I hear the fat lady warming up?

I think we can stick a fork in McCain. Sentator McSquish is done.

Dems, Gun Control and YouTube

I was not one of the four CNN geeks that watched the recent CNN/YouTube Sponsored Democrat Presidential debate.

For those you, who like I have a real life, and may have missed this whole spectacle, here's what it was all about.

The Main Stream Media gods temporarily descended from their polyester thrones to allow the unwashed masses -- that's you and me -- to submits questions for the Presidential debate in the form of YouTube videos.

Among the many creative videos and questions was one by Michigan gun owner Jered Townsend. Jered's video included Jered asking the Democrats about their stand on gun control and pictures him holding a well equipped AR-15 rifle that he refered to as his "baby."

Here is video of Jered's question and the hysterical hand-wringing from the Democrat Candidates that followed.


Honestly, I am very dismayed by Jered's video. While I completely agree that we must hold politicians accountable for their actions, I think playing into the stereo-type of "fanatical gun owners" does nothing to advance the cause of freedom and liberty.

I own an Ar-15, and am very proud of it, but I refrain from PDA's and BCDA's (Basic Cable Displays of Affection) with it. Not only does that make the girlfriend jealous, it casts gun owners in an unnecessarily negative light. You may be crazy, but I, sir, am not!

Sadly I suspect that Jered was mostly in this for the publicity. Any one that is part of the gun culture understands that the Democrat party is the party of gun control. I could understand that Joe Colt might not know that Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani are strident anti-gun warriors, but Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton? Please.

Read more about Jered and the YouTube Debate here.

Michelle Malkin weighs in at National Review Online.

Hillman's Capitol Review

If you've ever been disappointed by a meal at a fancy restaurant or researched a major purchase, you know that a big price tag doesn't guarantee the best quality.

Careful consumers want the most bang for their buck - not the most bucks for their bang.

Unfortunately, big-government liberals seem to think that spending is the best benchmark to judge state government and that spending more is always better.

Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute's "Aiming for the Middle" whitepaper concludes that you, Mr. and Mrs. Colorado, are under-taxed to the tune of $3.3 billion a year - maybe more. That's $1,030 a year for every man, woman and child in the state.

And before you write off this outfit as a bunch of crackpots, notice that a former budget director for Gov. Roy Romer is behind this proposal.

Such a massive spending increase - triple the size of Referendum C - would require a 43-percent across the board increase in state income and sales taxes that currently produce about $7.5 billion a year.

Read the rest here.

Romney on Abortion: Reminder

"I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country." Mitt Romney, 1994


"I will preserve and protect a woman's right to choose." Mitt Romney, 2002.

Truth in humor...