Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) (Zuma Press) Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), whose state has the second-highest unemployment rate in the country, just held a conference call with reporters, in which she expressed her belief that Republicans have cynically joined together to stop the jobs bill, also known as the tax extenders package or H.R. 4213, to keep the unemployment situation bad, or possibly make it worse, for their own electoral gains in the fall. Image by: Matt Mahurin Share Here is a flash transcript of some of her remarks: On Republican obstruction: It’s an extremely maddening and concerning time right now, and frankly we need your help. We’re in a situation where, after spending at least eight weeks on the floor trying to pass this jobs bill, which focuses on creating jobs as well as helping people … not one Republican is willing to help us stop this Republican filibuster. We’ve spent a tremendous amount of time and discussions to get just one person to join us. And we don’t have that. So, we will be voting again today to stop the filibuster and we have every anticipation that we won’t have the votes. It is very clear that the Republicans in the Senate want this economy to fail. They see that things are beginning to turn around. You know the numbers. When this president took office, we were losing 750,000 jobs a month. … Now we are gaining jobs. … Unfortunately, and cynically [on their part], in cynical political terms, it doesn’t serve them in terms of their elections if things are beginning to turn around. I believe when you look at this bill, which is all paid for — we raised revenues to pay for it — the one piece that is technically not paid for [is the federal unemployment benefit extensions and] that is done in a way that we have always done it, … [those are] always categorized as an emergency. And, frankly, if 15 million people without jobs is not an emergency, I don’t know what is. On who Republicans are helping: When you look as well underneath they are protecting wealthy investors, corporations sending jobs overseas and big oil companies — because we have included provisions to close tax loopholes in each of those areas. Republicans are standing with them at a time when we desperately need to keep this economic recovery going and we desperately need to help people who are hurt. In Michigan, it’s estimated that by the end of this month we’re going to have 87,400 who are going to lose help, temporary help, in their unemployment benefits, by the end of this month. That’s literally the difference between somebody keeping a roof over their head, food on the table and a little gas in the car to go look for work. I’m frankly outraged about what has been happening. On what will happen if the bill fails: We will put this temporarily aside. We have no choice. We met every single objection, we’ve negotiated — we’ve tried to meet what we’re viewed as concerns on the other side. Every time we tried to do that they changed the concerns. We can come back to it in a moment’s notice. … [But] we will temporarily put it aside. We’re going to move on to another jobs bill, focused on small businesses. On the impact of Republican intransigence: They’re willing to take down the people of this country with them. Republicans are out of work too. There are Republicans’ and Democrats’ businesses that need the access to capital and [other provisions] in this bill. On the White House’s involvement in pressing Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Olympia Snowe (Maine) and Scott Brown (Mass.), viewed as the most likely Republicans to switch: They’re very strongly pushing to get this passed. The negotiations have been primarily been with senators at this point. But the president and the White House are on the phone multiple times a day with the [majority] leader Sen. [Max] Baucus (D-Mont.). On what this augurs for future jobs bills: This is an extremely bad sign, because, based on the inability to get at least one Republican — in the past, we’ve had the ability to work, certainly, with members of the Republican caucus and get people of good will, willing to negotiate. The fact that’s not happening now and everything seems to be turned over to [Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)], it appears that everybody in the Republican caucus has gone purely into election mode [before] the fall. If they can stop the recovery from occurring, if they can create as much pain as possible, people will be angry and will not vote at all or will vote against those in the majority. This is a very cynical political strategy and I sure hope it doesn’t work. On continuing to fight: My hair is even redder than ever. This is about real people. This is not some political, cynical game here.

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Stabenow: Republicans in ‘Cynical Game’ to Crater Economy by Stopping Jobs Bill

Story County treasurer wins GOP primary DesMoinesRegister.com Both campaigned partly upon a $291 million investment scam involving Iowa's largest employee retirement system, accusing Fitzgerald of lax oversight. … and more

GOP candidates criticize state treasurer's oversight DesMoinesRegister.com Two Republican candidates for state treasurer are pointing to a recent $300 million investment scam …

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GOP candidates criticize state treasurer’s oversight – DesMoinesRegister.com

Two polls – Rasmussen and a private poll by Tony Fabrizo — show Marco Rubio gaining a double-digit lead on Gov. Charlie Crist (R-Fla.) in the GOP primary for U.S. Senate. The incredible aspect of Rubio’s steady progress is that it has come without paid TV media or a fundraising advantage. Blog buzz, Twitter, Facebook, talk radio, local activism fueled by Tea Parties — all of that has turned Rubio into the sudden frontrunner for a race he was encouraged to drop out of.

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Rubio’s Surge

The butt of many jokes since Indiana RNC committeeman James Bopp introduced it last year, the RNC 10-point test for candidates has been scrapped. That’s according to CNN’s Peter Hamby , reporting from the RNC meeting in Hawaii.

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RNC ‘Purity Test’ Withdrawn

Foes of Gov. Charlie Crist (R-Fla.) are pouncing on this interview , in which host Jimmy Cefalo gives the governor a chance to distance himself from Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) — an early endorser of Marco Rubio, Crist’s primary opponent — and Crist whiffs. But it’s not as bad as Crist’s enemies are saying. “Why do you think you’ve been painted as a moderate Republican as opposed to a John McCain-like Republican?” asks Cefalo. “As opposed to someone like Jim DeMint, for example?” “I really don’t know,” said Crist. “Probably because it’s the political season.” As I said, this interview is being pushed hard by Crist foes — Erick Erickson of RedState tweeted it this morning and sent at least a few reporters scrambling to see what Crist actually said. The ease with which Rubio opponents can launch missiles at Crist is the most interesting part of this story. Crist doesn’t make it too hard. Given a chance to attack the stimulus package, he says it “was the right thing to do” and stands by his support. “Do I think everything in the stimulus is great? Of course not. Not many bills are perfect.”

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Charlie Crist: A Pro-Stimulus Republican in the Mold of Jim DeMint

At a luncheon held at the Heritage Foundation, Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) was cautiously open to the idea of a three-year non-defense discretionary spending freeze floated last night by the White House. “I never met a spending freeze I didn’t like,” said Pence. The first he’d heard of the concept, he said, came at a December 2009 meeting at the White House when Republicans suggested it. Rather than dismissing the idea as a political stunt, Pence was ready to take some ownership of it. “I’d welcome a sincere attempt at a spending freeze.” Pence also joked a bit about how the media covered conservatives. “The New York Times reported that there were a few thousand on the mall on 9/12,” said Pence. “Fox News reported that there were a billion.”

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Mike Pence: ‘I’ve Never Met a Spending Freeze I Didn’t Like’

The new Quinnipiac Poll has Marco Rubio, the conservative Republican who’s ridden a wave of good press in his Senate campaign against Gov. Charlie Crist (R-Fla.), surging into the lead. Powered by a big lead with self-identified “conservatives,” Rubio leads Crist by three points. The trendlines, since October: Marco Rubio – 47 percent (+12) Charlie Crist – 44 percent (-6) Just as positive for Rubio — in a trial heat with likely Democratic nominee Kendrick Meek, he has moved from a statistical tie to a nine-point lead. If there’s any doubt that this is a referendum on conservative values more than candidates, Crist’s favorable rating among Republicans is actually higher than Rubio’s: Crist has a 64-27 rating, while Rubio has a 53-4 rating.

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Rubio Leads Crist in Florida

Citizens United’s David Bossie reacted to his massive win in the Supreme Court: Today’s U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing Citizens United to air its documentary films and advertisements is a tremendous victory, not only for Citizens United but for every American who desires to participate in the political process. As our case amply demonstrates, campaign finance legislation over the last two decades has imposed, as Justice Kennedy put it, a “censorship . . . vast in its reach.” By overruling Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce and striking down McCain-Feingold’s ban on so-called electioneering communications, the Supreme Court has made possible the participation in our political process that is the right of every American citizen – a right that had been severely curtailed under McCain-Feingold. This is a victory for Citizens United, but even more so for the First Amendment rights of all Americans. The fault line on this issue does not split liberals and conservatives or Republicans and Democrats. Instead, it pits entrenched establishment politicians against the very people whom they are elected to serve. And Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.): I am disappointed by the decision of the Supreme Court and the lifting of the limits on corporate and union contributions.  However, it appears that key aspects of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) , including the ban on soft money contributions, remain intact. That’s the entire McCain statement.

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McCain and Citizens United React to SCOTUS

Club for Growth President Chris Chocola is beseeching Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), who has long been thought of as a contender for a Senate seat in his state, to run against Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.). Mike Pence is the kind of pro-growth hero that the Senate and the nation need right now. His leadership in the House over the years has been invaluable, and I certainly don’t want to lose that.  But Tuesday’s stunning upset in Massachusetts confirms that Indiana is a winnable race for a principled advocate of economic freedom and limited government. One thing to take away from this: the Club blasts Bayh for, among other things, “the $2 trillion federal health care takeover.” Bayh is one of the Democrats currently waffling and talking about spiking the bill. But he voted for the Senate legislation. So any hope that he can get political credit for waffling seems incredible distant — every attack ad about the bill works against him anyway.

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Club for Growth: Run, Pence, Run!

Building off Matt’s excellent post about today’s outbreak of GOP enthusiasm for torture and lawlessness, check out this just-released paper from Ken Gude at the Center for American Progress separating myths from facts about the military commissions, civilian courts, and interrogations with lawyers present. For instance, here’s Gude arguing against former Attorney General Michael Mukasey: The evidence from recent terrorism investigations proves Judge Mukasey right that access to lawyers does not interfere with interrogating suspected terrorists. Nothing prohibits interrogations to continue after a suspect is given access to an attorney. In fact, terrorist suspects have given what U.S. officials call “ an intelligence goldmine ” after meeting with attorneys. Brent Vinas, an American convert to Islam captured in Pakistan in 2008 and turned over to the FBI, has proven to be one of the U.S. government’s most valuable sources of information about Al Qaeda. From the moment Vinas was in American custody he had all the access to attorneys and other rights afforded criminal suspects, and he still produced what one intelligence official called a “ treasure trove ” of information about Al Qaeda. In more than 100 interviews with counterterrorism officials, Vinas provided information that led to a Predator drone strike that killed a suspected militant, and his information has allowed counterterrorism officials “to peer deep inside the inner workings of Al Qaeda.” David Headly—also known as Daood Gilani—was arrested in Chicago and charged in connection with the 2008 Mumbai attack that left more than 150 people dead. Headly pleaded not guilty, but he is cooperating with prosecutors and helped U.S. officials uncover a plan by Lashkar-e-Taibi to unleash a similar attack in Copenhagen, Denmark, targeting the newspaper that printed cartoons of the prophet Mohammed. Meeting with his attorney has not prevented him from providing intelligence information that disrupted at least one terrorist plot. After all, detainees give up information in plea deals. A related point made in a recent post of mine : reading a detainee his Miranda rights doesn’t stop interrogations. It just means information used from those interrogations can’t be used in court.

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CAP: You Can Give a Detainee a Lawyer and Get Good Intel

Josh Kraushaar , Mike Allen, and Jim Vandehei get the rumor mill churning with their report that Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), considered a dark horse 2012 candidate for president, is now looking at a 2010 run against Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.). None of them have quotes from Pence that point more to 2010 than 2012 (”American people are telling Washington, DC enough is enough”), or more than this assertion: Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), who now might draw a challenge from Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) said the party needs to rethink its entire approach to governing. Whether or not Pence runs, this is the sort of thing the GOP needs — credible threats against incumbent Democrats to scare them into voting down their party’s agenda. Bayh, who’s never lacking for a platform to trash his party for not governing in a “moderate” enough way, is a good target for this.

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Mike Pence for Senate?

From a rental car in Massachusetts, TWI’s intrepid David Weigel sat down with The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein yesterday for a Bloggingheads.tv session to talk about — what else? — the Senate special election in the Bay State and its potential implications for health care reform. Watch after the jump.

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David Weigel vs. Ezra Klein on Bloggingheads.tv

BOSTON — That, via Alex Isenstadt and Josh Kraushaar, is the number that defined the Massachusetts Senate race more than anything else. From the primary through last Sunday, Scott Brown held 66 events of varying size. Coakley held 19. Typically, a front-running campaign might hold fewer events to minimize the snafus that might occur and affect the race. The incredible thing about Coakley’s verbal and visual stumbles is that none occurred while stumping in Massachusetts. Her (perhaps unfairly mangled) “no terrorists in Afghanistan” malapropism happened during the final debate. Her gaffe about preferring to meet local politicians than to “stand outside of Fenway, shaking hands, in the cold” was made in a Boston Globe interview. When she left the trail last week for a Washington, D.C., fundraiser — one of the most baffling campaign decisions I’ve ever seen — she got negative storylines about lobbyist ties and the accidental knock-down of a conservative reporter. And her stumbles about whether “devout Catholics” could work in emergency rooms and who Curt Schilling was both happened in radio interviews. In retrospect, Coakley had plenty to gain by working the campaign trail. By avoiding it for weeks, she created a massive opening for Scott Brown.

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MA-Sen: 66 to 19

The anti-GOP activists who used to be called “Billionaires for Bush” showed up at Republican Senate candidate Scott Brown’s “People’s Rally” in Worcester, Mass., yesterday and chanted ironic slogans and staged loud, “funny” arguments for Brown — “I support Scott Brown because I can’t afford the payments on my yacht!” After a point, Brown’s staff had enough of them, and tried to block their signs. The video below the jump shows what happened next, as Brown supporters jeered and called for them to be left along because, hey, they were going to lose in three days anyway.

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MA-Sen Video: No Love for ‘Billionaires for Brown’

A Survey USA poll has Tim Griffin, the former U.S. attorney from Arkansas who resigned over the 2007 scandal over the politicization of appointments, up by 16 points over Rep. Vic Snyder (D-Ark.). The reason for Snyder’s trouble is, no surprise, the unpopularity of health care reform legislation in a district that went heavily for the McCain-Palin ticket.

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U.S. Attorney Scandal Figure Leads Big in Congressional Bid

A reversal from the Nashville, Tenn., event , which has battled back a lot of criticism of its organizers’ finances and its lack of media access. Media will be allowed in, but still not allowed to ask questions.

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Press Allowed Into Palin’s National Tea Party Convention Speech

California Republican Chuck DeVore’s aggressive strategy to be seen by conservative activists as a RINO-slaying hero seemed to get a boost today when former Rep. Tom Campbell (R-Calif.), whose run for governor had been flagging, switched over to the Senate primary . It was certainly a vote of no-confidence in Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO and GOP Senate candidate who announced this week that she had $2.7 million in the bank for her first-ever electoral bid. But I’d expect the Fiorina camp to try and box out both candidates by attacking the 2005 California budget. DeVore, a California assemblyman, voted for it . As Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s (R-Calif.) finance director, Campbell helped muscle it through . So the events of today make Fiorina the only female candidate in the race, the best-funded, and the only one not tainted by GOP decisions of the past–probably a better position than she had on Monday.

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A Fiorina Opportunity in California?

Ben Smith and Jonathan Martin confirm that Sarah Palin’s honorarium for speeches is $100,000, two first class plane tickets and one economy class ticket. On the west coast she cuts the cost to $75,000, and she waives it for charitable events. But that backs up a week of rumors about Palin’s fee for her National Tea Party Convention speech. Greg Mueller tells Smith and Martin that Palin’s “doing nothing different than former Vice President [Al] Gore, former President Clinton, and former Joint Chiefs [of Staff] Chairman Colin Powell,” but the Tea Party Convention situation really is different. For example, Bill Clinton did not receive an honorarium to speak at last year’s Netroots Nation conference in Pittsburgh. Some of the speakers at CPAC regularly charge for speeches, but waive it for that event. Charging political activists for a speech like this is unusual.

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$100,000 for Palin

The big, Drudge-approved video from last night’s Massachusetts Senate debate is this one , in which GOP candidate Scott Brown says the seat he’s running for is “not the Kennedy seat and it’s not the Democrat’s seat — it’s the people’s seat.” I’ve been following the race for a while and this struck me as odd for two reasons. Reason No. 1: Democrats have fretted for a while now that Martha Coakley’s sleepy campaign hasn’t sold Democrats on the necessity of voting on Jan. 19 to preserve Ted Kennedy’s legacy. And here’s a viral video of the GOP candidate dismissing the idea that voters should preserve Kennedy’s legacy. A fist-pump moment to Kennedy-haters, but there are far fewer of them in Massachusetts than Kennedy-lovers. Reason No. 2: Back on December 29, Brown launched his general election ad campaign with a commercial called “Different People, Same Message.” It began with President John F. Kennedy — who held this seat from 1953 to 1961 — talking about his 1962 tax cuts, and continued by fading into Brown finishing Kennedy’s speech, in his words. Not only did it give away the fact that the Kennedy name remains very, very popular in Massachusetts, it gave Democrats an opening to thwack Brown when he turned around and said, as he did in this debate, that it was unfair to compare him to George W. Bush (”I’m Scott Brown!”) and unfair to call this the Kennedy seat. Coakley, who’s missed a lot of opportunities, missed that one too. Brown then: Brown now:

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It’s Not the Kennedy Seat, Except When It Is

For $9.99 — not including shipping — you can purchase a Sarah Palin embryo ornament from Etsy.com. “Sarah’s got a gun  and a nice pair of…glasses,” says the designer, whose other “baby’s first” ornaments include characters from “Twilight.” This one is “just for fun, no political statements being made here.” etsy.com More on Palin’s appeal to opponents of abortion rights here .

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The Sarah Palin Embryo Ornament

The liberal group — which recently campaigned for liberal Democratic senators to kill a health care bill that didn’t include a public option — is asking its members to help Democratic candidate Martha Coakley in the Massachusetts special election for Senate. The Republicans are pulling out all the stops in the special election to fill Ted Kennedy’s seat, because if they win, they’ll be able to stall health care reform. Election Day is January 19th. Can you contribute to help Democrat Martha Coakley hold on to Senator Kennedy’s seat? On Monday, before there’d been polling on the race, some smart Republicans told me that the lack of outside interest in the election was a boon — liberals had been lulled to sleep, expecting a Coakley landslide, while conservatives were going full-out for Republican Scott Brown. The newfound liberal interest/panic is, on balance, bad news for Brown. The full appeal:

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MoveOn Rolls Into Massachusetts

Public Policy Polling, conducting an automated poll on the Massachusetts Senate race, is finding good data for Republican candidate Scott Brown. According to PPP’s Tom Jensen, Democratic candidate Martha Coakley’s sleepy campaign–which is increasingly starting to irritate party strategists who trusted her to lock the race down early–has resulted in an electorate that’s more Republican than usual and more anti-health care reform than the state as a whole. Brown, one of the few Republicans of stature in the state, has a 60 percent favorable rating–a result of his own ads and of being basically ignored by Coakley. Writes Jensen: This has become a losable race for Democrats- but it could also be easily winnable if Coakley gets her act together for the last week of the campaign. Complacency is the Democrats’ biggest enemy at this point and something that needs to be overcome to avoid a potential disaster.

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Pollster: Massachusetts Has ‘Become Losable’ for Democrats

In Afghanistan, seven minutes after tweeting about a meeting with G en. Stanley McChrystal, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) decided to tweet this : Here’s a press release about the poll — not usually the sort of things politicians brag about.

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The Modesty of John McCain

I was surprised that Sarah Palin, who has twice passed on chances to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference, agreed to keynote the National Tea Party Convention. Undoubtedly the Tea Party event has more to offer her financially–tickets for her speech, as I reported last month, are selling for $349 . But while CPAC is a well-established event with a filter for extremism, the Tea Party event is an unknown quantity. And right on cue, the conspiracy-minded site WorldNetDaily is joining the program , with Editor-in-Chief Joseph Farah getting a plum Friday night speaking slot. To be asked to speak at the first national tea party convention is a great honor for me. I believe the tea party movement is a powerful and righteous social and political force that can help take America back from the grips of out-of-control and tyrannical central government. It’s also a personal privilege for me to be on the same bill with Gov. Sarah Palin and so many other distinguished leaders and friends such as Judge Roy Moore, Rep. Michele Bachmann and Phil Valentine. Two months ago Farah appeared on the same stage as Bachmann and other conservative House Republicans to promote WND’s “pink slip” campaign against Congress, and political reporters pretty much ignored it. And WND has sponsored CPAC in the past. But CPAC has explicitly ruled out a “birther” forum at this year’s event, and some Republican activists have called for conservatives to cut ties with the birth certificate and conspiracy-obsessed WND. And here you’ll have Sarah Palin, giving her first political speech in months, on the same stage as Joseph Farah.

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WorldNetDaily and Palin, Together At Last

In his quick-turnaround book “Right Now,” Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele is notably less kind to former House candidate Dede Scozzafava than he was during the NY-23 special election. His post-election annoyance with the activists who forced Scozzafava out of the race doesn’t make it in. After the jump, from page 26:

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Steele vs. ‘Disloyal’ Scozzafava

One more point about the Rasmussen poll that’s refocused some attention on Massachusetts. On Nov. 24, 2009, Rasmussen did the last big poll on the Democratic primary for the special election. Coakley led the field with 36 percent support to 21 percent for Rep. Mike Capuano (D-Mass.). Pollster Scott Rasmussen saw some evidence of stagnation. In early September , she earned 38% of the vote, while Capuano only received seven percent (7%) support. But they were the only two out of five candidates polled at that time who ultimately declared for the race. While Coakley appears to have gained no ground over the past two-and-a-half months, she may be in a good enough position in a four-person race to come out the clear winner. Rasmussen’s analysis was correct, but his numbers understated support for Coakley. She won 47 percent of the vote to 28 percent for Capuano and a total of 25 percent for other candidates. More revealingly, she won 310,227 votes out of 664,195 cast. Brown, facing a token challenge in the GOP primary, won 145,465 votes out of 162,706 cast. All of this is to say that Brown supporters admit (or admitted before more polling came out) that their best shot at the race is for Coakley to blow her advantage and for disgruntled Democrats to stay home. Unless there’s a reason to believe that Democrats are much more frustrated than they were a month ago, there’s no reason to think Coakley’s turnout machine will falter in the home stretch.

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Rasmussen and Coakley

Rep. Parker Griffith (R-Ala.) On Tuesday morning, Politico broke the news that Rep. Parker Griffith (Ala.) was switching from the Democratic Party to the GOP. For Les Phillip — a Tea Party activist who’d been waging a Republican campaign for Griffith’s seat since August — it was “manna from heaven.” “This is why we do the things we do,” Phillip told TWI . “This gives us a chance to judge his entire record. If he wants to play on this side of the hall, our voters are very aware of the issues and we hold everyone accountable.” Image by: Matt Mahurin Before Griffith had even explained his decision in a brief mid-afternoon press conference, Phillip made it clear to TWI that the switch would do nothing to deter his bid. If anything, it gave his insurgent campaign — which has won the support of Mike Huckabee’s HuckPAC — a new argument against the first-term congressman. “This is an act of desperation to maintain power,” said Phillip. “It’s exactly what people in this district are sick of. When someone lied before, and now says he’s telling the truth, well, was he lying then, or is he lying now?” Griffith’s switch — the first time a Democratic congressman has made this jump since Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-La.) did in 2004 — has been welcomed by the national GOP. In no time at all, party leaders made the connection between Griffith’s move and the progress of a health care bill that looks set to pass the Senate on partisan lines. (Griffith voted against the House’s version of the legislation.) “When a member of Congress decides to leave a 258-seat majority to join a deep minority,” said Rep. Eric Cantor, the party’s whip, in a statement, “it is a sure sign that the majority party has become completely disconnected from seniors, young workers and families in America.” At the same time, conservatives in Washington and in Griffith’s district told TWI that they had serious reservations about backing a man who’d spent only 11 months as a House Democrat. In that time, they argue, Griffith’s votes against cap-and-trade, the economic stimulus package and the Lily Ledbetter Act were sullied by his votes for spending and earmarks. Phillip was not alone — all of Griffith’s Republican challengers have announced that they are not dropping out of the race. In a statement on Parker’s switch, National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) notably neglected to swing the committee’s endorsement to the newest member of the House GOP conference. “We’ve known for a long time that Parker Griffith’s principles are either for sale to the highest bidder or can change depending on how the poll results are looking,” said a spokesman for Mo Brooks , a county commissioner who’d gotten some early support from the NRCC, in an interview with Politico. “He seems to speak out of both sides of his mouth.” The harsh reactions of Brooks and Phillip were in line with the reactions of activists in Alabama’s fifth congressional district. “He’s an S.O.B.,” said Dale Jackson, a conservative radio host who’s posted a banner reading “Parker Griffith Cannot Be Trusted” on his Website. “He’s a liar. Michael Steele should be ashamed of himself. The NRCC should be ashamed of itself for not coming out and immediately repudiating this guy. He was unacceptable a year ago and he’s acceptable now? A year ago, they were saying this guy was a murderer.” The “murder” charge that Jackson referred to came from ads that the NRCC ran in 2008, accusing Griffith of “warehousing” cancer patients and letting them suffer to increase his profits. Other Griffith critics, however, have focused on his voting record as a reason to support some other candidate in the GOP primary. Erick Erickson, editor of the influential RedState.com, posted a link to Griffith’s requested earmarks and challenged fellow conservatives to “pick this guy off and get a real Republican in that seat.” Andy Roth, vice president of government affairs at the Club for Growth, reacted to the Griffith news with a blog post detailing how he’d voted to keep spending items in the stimulus package. “It was a factual post,” Roth explained to TWI. “It was not stating any opinions, except that he’s not really that conservative for someone who claimed to be a conservative Blue Dog Democrat.” Griffith’s seat, said Roth, was “on the radar” of the fiscally conservative 527 before his decision, and it remained on the radar. Activists back in Griffith’s district were pleased by the potential support for a challenge to Griffith. “Personally, I do not plan on supporting Parker Griffith,” said C hristie Cardom, a lead organizer of Huntsville, Alabama’s Tea Party group. “I do not consider him a constitutional conservative, which is the beginning of my criteria for our next congressman. To earn my vote, Parker Griffith would need to start by convincing enough Democrats in the Senate or House to vote against ObamaCare and kill it. If he stops ObamaCare, Cap & Trade and other extreme socialist and detrimental agendas, I will consider voting for him.” Brooklyn Burgess, the executive director of the state’s branch of the conservative Eagle Forum, told TWI that Griffith was falling into a familiar role — that of the “big-government” politician who changes parties without changing stripes. “I’d expect him to become another [Alabama Sen.] Richard Shelby in terms of bringing pork home and spending,” said Burgess, referring to the senator who left the Democratic Party after the GOP’s 1994 sweep. “I think Griffith will hurt the conservatives who were running for this seat. If he wins I think he’ll become another big-government Republican we can’t get rid of.” Steve Gordon, an Alabama conservative activist who worked on former Rep. Bob Barr’s (R-Ga.) Libertarian presidential bid last year, tentatively attacked Griffith, using some of the same language as Burgess. “What seems to be a GOP victory at first may well become another liberal victory in the long term,” Gordon wrote in a post for the Alabama Republican Liberty Caucus. “Unless Parker Griffith starts voting like a true fiscal conservative, Alabama could be stuck with another entrenched big-government Republican congressman.” Griffith, who never faced an easy road to re-election in 2010, lacks some of the advantages of previous party-switchers. When Alexander switched from the Democratic Party to the GOP in 2004, he waited until hours before the candidate filing deadline to make the change. That deprived the blindsided Democrats of a chance to recruit a strong challenger. When Shelby made his switch in 1994, it was with the knowledge that Republicans were taking over the Senate and in the position to give him more influence. Griffith’s switch not only puts him in the minority; it pits him against an active and demanding Republican base that has made it clear throughout 2009 that candidates and incumbents needed to pass several tests to win their support. “There’s two great candidates running against Griffith,” said Richard Barry, a conservative activist at the Liberty House, a hub of grassroots activism in Alabama-05. “He’d be my third choice.” To win the votes of Alabama Republicans, Barry said that Griffith needed to bump up a “50/50″ voting record to a 90-percent conservative record, and to become more “aggressive about stopping the tyranny and the socialism.” “If he’s out in front fighting the health care bill, I’d put my arms around him,” said Barry. “If he did a Joe Wilson — you know, ‘You Lie!’ — hey, we’d applaud him. If he pulled that we’d consider supporting him.”

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Conservatives Not Ready to Embrace Party-Switcher

Jonathan Martin takes the measure of libertarians’ enthusiasm for Gary Johnson, the former governor of New Mexico — he left office in 2003 — who has edged back into politics after a long stint as, in the words he used when I last spoke to him, a “businessman and adventurer.” I think Martin is right about how much hope libertarians have for Johnson, but he might under-rate Johnson’s credibility with supporters of Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas). He gave one of the best-received speeches at the Rally for the Republic, the Paul rally held across town from the 2008 Republican National Convention in Minneapolis. Video of his speech is below the jump. Next to Rand Paul, the congressman’s son who is running strong for a U.S. Senate seat in Kentucky, Johnson might be the best-liked politician among Paul supporters — e specially now that Gov. Mark Sanford’s (R-S.C.) career has been shredded by a sex scandal.

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The Rise of Gary Johnson

TWI’s David Weigel appeared on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” once again last night to talk about recent GOP efforts to co-opt the Tea Party message ahead of the 2010 elections. Watch the clip after the jump. Visit msnbc.com for breaking news , world news , and news about the economy

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Tea Parties, the GOP and 2010

Here’s the text of an ad that the Republican National Committee is running on health care, with Chairman Michael Steele doing the voiceover. The Democrats are accusing us Republicans of trying to delay and stonewall their government takeover of health care. You know what? They’re finally right. Republicans are trying to stop this disastrous health care takeover. Republicans are trying to keep the liberals from creating yet another entitlement program, spending yet another trillion dollars. America’s already seen the results of this year’s “binge spending” by the Democrats: our economy’s in deep trouble and our jobs are evaporating. Now Democrats want a health care bill that will raise taxes, cut Medicare, and increase premiums. Democrats know America doesn’t want this health care takeover, but they’re arrogantly trying to jam it down our throats. This is our last chance to stop them. Contact your Senators. Make Washington listen to you. Log on to GOP.com. Make Washington listen, before it is too late. The “party of no” label, as an attack, is always conditional on the popularity of the issue that’s being said “no” to. With opinion running roughly three to two against a health care reform bill, the RNC’s going all in on “no.”

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RNC: Yeah, We’re Obstructing

Jonathan Martin and Manu Raju’s fun story about the surprisingly oppositional role Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has played this year includes what has to be a cheeky quote from Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.). I don’t know whether he’s angry about his loss or whether he’s preparing himself for the next presidential run. The odds of McCain — who will be 76 years old when voters go to the polls in November 2012 — mounting a third presidential bid are, needless to say, not good. In passing, Raju and Martin mention McCain’s “damaging criticism of the Democrats’ climate change plans when he was an early supporter of cap-and-trade legislation.” This might be the most important decision McCain has made. In 2008, when environmental legislation had little chance of surviving presidential vetos, it was the sort of thing that self-identified mavericks like McCain and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) latched onto. In 2009, with Democrats ready to actually pass environmental legislation, it’s transformed from a “common sense solution” issue to a “liberal” issue — and thus of no interest for the likes of McCain.

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McCain 2012

Jim Geraghty finds it — the party is doing rather well in special elections for state legislative seats, taking them by a two-to one margin over the Democrats in 2009. That is, if nothing else, a good barometer for voter enthusiasm. In Kentucky, where Republicans held on to a state Senate seat this week, the Democratic candidate had a longer resume and more funds — and lost handily. Not an auspicious sign in a state that was seen at the start of 2009 as one of the Democrats’ prime opportunities for a U.S. Senate seat gain.

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The Invisible Republican Comeback

A month ago, “The Persecution of Sarah Palin” author Matthew Continetti argued that Sarah Palin’s lousy poll numbers didn’t matter because maybe, just maybe, she could reverse them. In last month’s Gallup poll, Ms. Palin had a 48% unfavorable and 41% favorable rating among independents. Not good, but not insurmountable. Flip those percentages, and they could be serving moose burgers in the White House in 2013. Today, we have a CrossTarget poll from New Hampshire that finds a plurality of Republican primary voters frowning on a 2012 run by Palin. Continetti’s response : [Forty-two] percent of respondents said Palin shouldn’t run in 2012. But 36 percent said she should — and 22 percent had no opinion on the matter (which is a little odd, frankly, since Sarah Palin seems to be one topic on which everyone has an opinion). In other words, Palin has to bridge a six-point gap. Not impossible. It’s true that strong candidates can turn around negative numbers–in 1980, Ronald Reagan overcame many polls that found Republicans were worried about his age–but this is getting silly. In 2005, polls found majorities of all voters, and huge majorities of Democrats, ready to back a Hillary Rodham Clinton candidacy in 2008. In 2009, Palin defenders are left arguing, as Continetti does here, that the fact that 47 percent of Republicans think she’s up to the job of president is fantastic news for her.

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It’s Always Good News for Sarah Palin

Rep. Mike Castle (R-Del.), the last major Republican office-holder in the very blue home of Vice President Joe Biden, is set to announce whether or not he’ll run for the U.S. Senate in 2010. Politico reports that he’s in. As I noted last week, Castle’s numbers have been softer than you’d expect from a pol who hasn’t lost an election in this state since he entered politics in the 1960s. He ran 24 points ahead of the McCain-Palin ticket last year; he’s only leading likely Democratic candidate Beau Biden (son of the vice president, state attorney general) by five points. Nonetheless, a seat that Republicans had no chance at will become a seat they have a real chance at.

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Delaware Republican Running for Senate

On a morning conference call, I got a chance to ask Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-Minn.) about voter registration, voter fraud, and his new PAC’s political adviser Sara Taylor. In the Bush administration, as a White House political director, Taylor got tangled in the scandal over the firing of U.S. attorneys who, the attorneys claim, were fired because they would not file lawsuits alleging voter registration fraud on the eve of the midterm elections. As a strategist for Bush’s campaigns, Taylor had “do not forward” letters sent to voters’ addresses to see if they bounced back, thus giving GOP poll watchers pretext for challenging their registrations — a process known as “caging.” I asked Pawlenty whether he and his PAC would push for voter registration reform along the lines of his own state’s fairly straightforward process, which allows registration up to and including Election Day. (Thanks to my colleague Graham Moomaw for typing it up.) “One potential corrosion of our freedom and liberty is to have the democratic system, the election system, being undermined or becoming even partially fraudulent or lacking in credibility,” said Pawlenty. “We have electronic scanners in Minnesota. The ballots that were cast last time through the scanners were 99.9 or so percent accurate. There were no problems with them and the individuals who cast those ballots had to present themselves at a polling place in person and with at least some, you know, screens around identification and proper voting.” Pawlenty went on to say that “all the problems in Minnesota in the Franken-Coleman [Senate] race related to the absentee ballot process.” “I’ve been told that in 2006 there were 12,000 absentee ballots cast in our state,” said Pawlenty. “That’s a high number based on a historical number, so keep that in mind, 12,000 in 2006. In 2008, there were almost 300,000 absentee ballots cast in our state. Now this is a process where people are supposed to use absentee ballots because they’re unavailable in their voting area on Election Day because they’re out of the state, they’re on business travel, or they’re medically or physically unable to show up. So you can see in a presidential race, you know, an increase of say 10 percent or 20 percent or something like that from 2006. But what you saw is approaching this 3,000 percent increase, in absentee voting in Minnesota … obviously something very extraordinary occurred and what occurred is you had grassroots organizations come in here and use the absentee ballot process as a substitute for voting by mail. And, almost all of the problems … in the Franken-Coleman case come out of these absentee ballots.” Pawlenty circled back to my question about whether his own state’s voter registration system should be a national model. “Same-day registration in Minnesota would be fine if we had more stringent identification requirements,” he said, “specifically photo ID. We don’t require, and we should require in Minnesota, photo ID. So it’s not that the timing or the day of it is the problem. It’s making sure that we welcome any legal person who’s entitled to vote, to vote. We just need to make sure it’s appropriate. Now, we don’t have a history or tradition in Minnesota of a lot of voter fraud or these kinds of concerns but this Franken-Coleman experience, particularly as related to the absentee ballots, gives us pause. So, it’s not so much a same-day registration issue as it is making sure the registration, and the identification that goes along with it, is rigorous and appropriate.” I told Pawlenty that I’d asked the question in the context of him hiring Sara Taylor to work for his campaign, and wondered whether he agreed with the priority she, and the Bush administration in general, placed on poring over voter rolls for alleged registration fraud. “Absolutely,” Pawlenty said. “We should aggressively, at the state and federal level, enforce voter fraud concerns and to aggressively investigate and enforce voter fraud concerns. Because if we allow any corrosion to the integrity of the system, it calls into question the entire credibility of the results of the election and ultimately the pillars of the democracy. It is extraordinarily important. It goes to the core credibility and acceptance of our democratic system. And if people are going to question the outcome and say it was derived by fraud, as opposed to the will of the people, you’ve undermined a core tenet of democracy. It’s very concerning. Now, so to answer your question, we should make it a critical priority.”

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Pawlenty: I Support Sara Taylor-Style Focus on Voter Registration Fraud

Yesterday, TWI’s David Weigel appeared on MSNBC’s “The Ed Show” to talk about his reporting on this past weekend’s “How to Take Back America” conference in St. Louis. In case you missed it, you can watch the video after the jump. Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News , World News , and News about the Economy – You can follow TWI on Twitter and Facebook .

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David Weigel and Ed Schultz Talk About ‘How to Take Back America’

ST. LOUIS — Former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-Ark.), speaking to a very friendly dinner crowd at the “How To Take Back America” conference, said that he’d “nearly had an Elvis moment” watching this week’s United Nations general assembly sessions and spoke about pulling out of the world organization altogether. “It’s time to get a jackhammer and to simply chip off that part of New York City,” said Huckabee, “and let it float into the East River, never to be seen again!” That remark got him a standing ovation, and Huckabee went on to suggest de-funding the U.N. entirely. “It’s time to say enough of the American taxpayer’s dollar being spent on something that may have been a noble idea, but has become a disgrace!” said Huckabee. “It has become the international equivalent of ACORN and it’s time to say enough!” Huckabee continued, suggesting that the U.N. be handed over to one of the nations that attacked America. “Let’s end the diplomatic excesses that these people enjoy,” he said. “Let any country that is willing to spend the money that the United States is hosting–let them have it. Give it to the Saudis and let these diplomats suck the sand out of the Saudi desert for a few summers and see if that’s where they’d like to go, and make their ridiculous speeches.”

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Huckabee in St. Louis: Get America Out of the U.N.

ST. LOUIS — Speaking to a packed hotel ballroom at the conservative How to Take Back America Conference, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) said that exposes of “criminal tomfoolery” inside of ACORN could kick off a campaign to “defund the left.” Bachmann was introduced warmly by Phyllis Schlafly, the iconic conservative activist whose Eagle Forum was the chief sponsor of the event. “She’s one of our Republican stars,” said Schlafly, “and some of you came here just to see her.” She got a second introduction from Dick Bott, a conservative radio host who briefly broke down talking about Bachmann’s hospitality to foster children. Taking the stage, Bachmann thanked Schlafly, calling her an inspiration as a mother who transitioned into conservative politics, and said she considered the conference “a farewell party for ACORN!” The community organization group, she said, was the first, not the last, weak link in the liberal establishment. “Defunding the left is going to be so easy,” said Bachmann, “and it’s going to solve so many of our problems.” She praised James O’Keefe III and Hannah Giles, the people behind the ACORN sting. “Hannah and James used Saul Alinsky’s ‘Rules for Radicals’ — that’s the community organizer’s bible — against ACORN! Brilliant!” Bachmann touched on the priorities of Republicans if they retook Congress in 2010, to “pass repealer bill after repealer bill,” to prevent the creation of a one-world currency, and to pull the government back from the “36 percent of private business profits” that she claimed it now controlled. And she said Michigan residents were “depressed enough” without Gitmo prisoners being relocated to state facilities where they could inspire more terrorists. “This is where they learn conversion to Islam!” said Bachmann. “In the prisons!” After the speech, Bachmann had only a few minutes to sign autographs and collect a stack of CDs and books from fans who’d followed her into the lobby. I caught up to her as she headed outside and asked if she had any response to the murder of a Kentucky census worker , having noticed that the Census, a constant target for Bachmann, did not figure into her speech. Bachmann recoiled a little at the question and turned to enter her limo. “Thank you so much!” she said. – You can follow TWI on Twitter and Facebook .

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Bachmann in St. Louis: Defund the Left, Beware One-World Currency

Jesse Watters, the infamous Fox News producer who’s sometimes dispatched to ambush people who’ve said mean things about Bill O’Reilly, made the rounds of the Values Voter Summit–I watched him interview Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) with some of the friendliest questions I’ve ever heard. At the close of that Cantor interview, Watters asked the second-ranking Republican in the House to say something to his “fans” at Fox Nation. “Keep clickin’ on Fox Nation,” said Cantor. What was the point of that? It was one of the interviews contained in Watters’ “behind the scenes” look at the summit, which consists of Republicans like Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), Gov. Rick Perry (R-Texas.), and former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-Mass.) shouting out to readers of the conservative site. “FoxNation.com and my fans there,” said Romney, “they’re the best.” “Fox Nation,” said Bachmann, “you rock!” Whole video after the jump: – You can follow TWI on Twitter and Facebook .

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Fox Nation, Where Republicans Can Hang Out and Do Whatever

It’s hardly a surprise now when Republican leaders align themselves with the Tea Party movement, and the Value Voters Summit has been full of it. Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) got closest to the spirit of the crowd — which had heard wildly diverging estimates of the 9/12 march on Washington all day. “If the national media covers this like it covered the events last weekend,” said Pence, “the headline will be: ‘Dozens attend Value Voters Summit!’” Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) heaped the most fulsome praise on the Tea Party movement, bashing the media for the way it had covered the protests. “You know who these protesters were,” said McConnell, “because you were the people at these town halls … you were the men and women who filled the Mall here in the District to overflowing last Saturday, surprising even the strongest supporters of the event. “You’re the people who prove the politicians wrong when they say that all this activism and unrest was crafted, somehow, in a boardroom, down on K Street. The grassroots movement isn’t astroturf, as they like to put it. It’s something that started at your kitchen tables.” Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) praised the protesters from the stage for “fighting on the fighting lines of what we know is a battle for our democracy.” After his speech, he told TWI that the protests represented an “awakening in America.” “People are beginning to wake up and see a country they don’t really recognize,” said Cantor.

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McConnell, Pence, Cantor, Praise Tea Party Protests

The former Speaker of the House caught a break between Fox News Sunday interviews to travel to China with his wife Callista. The ensuing photo essay is a must-read. Gingrich’s thoughts on the complexity of the Chinese economy are stirring: In Beijing, it occurred to me that Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping’s famous saying, “I do not care if it is a black cat or a white cat as long as it catches mice” (meaning he did not care if policies were traditional Chinese Communist or market capitalism as long as they produced jobs and prosperity) had a long-term implication no one in the dictatorship understood. If the thousands of people in the Forbidden City were now productive cats who were creating wealth and competing in a market economy, they were going to be harder and harder to govern. As I said to one leading Minister “You now have 1,300,000,000 cats learning to be more and more independent decision makers in their jobs and their personal lives. The likelihood that you can discipline them like trained dogs is as unthinkable as trying to train over a billion cats. You will eventually have to decentralize decisions and get them away from the government.” Gingrich’s habit of packing obvious observations as great insights does not stop at the border.

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Deep Thoughts by Newt Gingrich

Walter Alarkon talks to Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.), the freshman Republican who got every member of his party, and all but seven Democrats, to support an amendment to the Transportation and Housing and Urban Development funding bill that prevented any of those funds going to ACORN. How will Johanns follow it up? With more ACORN amendments. First up will be one banning the “use of federal money for ACORN in the Interior and environment appropriations bills.” Then, “a stand-alone bill that would block any federal money at all” from ACORN. The majority of Democrats support the amendments, but Johanns is forcing votes instead of allowing unanimous consent. Why? This involves an organization that has a history of very serious problems. In other words, in order to embarrass Democrats into supporting the use of taxpayer money for a group that was filmed giving tax-cheating advice to undercover conservative activists posing as prostitutes and pimps.

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GOP Senator: I’ll Force More ACORN Votes

The White House pushed back a little bit on the “czars” story today, with Press Secretary Robert Gibbs pointing out how , in the past, Republicans like Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) called for new czars to take charge of mounting problems. Alexander has issued a statement pushing right back: The White House staff should review my full remarks before launching an attack.  I made it clear that there have always been a few czars but nothing like the 18 new czars appointed in this administration. Eighteen of the administration’s 32 czars hold new positions that did not exist in previous administrations and were not authorized by law. These czars are unconfirmed by the Senate, unavailable for questioning, and unaccountable to the American people through their elected representatives. They’re the most visible symbol of too many Washington takeovers. The White House should spend less time misrepresenting others’ views and more time answering legitimate questions from Senator Collins, Bennett, myself and others: What are these new czars’ authorities and responsibilities?  How are they being vetted? How will they be accountable to Congress? And so it goes on …

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Lamar Alexander Defends His ‘Czar’ Crusade

Dr. Rand Paul, the Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Kentucky who happens to be the son of Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), is in Washington for two days of meetings, media, and fundraisers. Tonight, Paul is holding a low-cost event at the headquarters of Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform. Details below the fold: Dr. Rand Paul will be in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday September 16th for a fundraiser. It is even rumored that a certain Member of Congress might attend. Will you be there? $25 Standing Room Only. Entry. No Drink Tickets. $50 Bleacher Seats. Entry. 2 Drink Tickets. $100 Box Seats. Entry. 3 Drink Tickets. $200 Ringside. Entry. Open Bar. Business attire please. From Kevin Brett, one of the organizers of tonight’s fund raiser for Dr. Rand Paul: “we’ve been told we’ll be able to ship signed “End the Fed” books to $200 donors, and signed constitutions to $100 donors after the event.”

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Rand Paul Holding Fundraiser in D.C.

At a breakfast sponsored by the American Spectator, I asked Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), the House Republican Conference chairman what I thought would be a yes or no question: Would all Republican members of the House vote against the eventual, Democratic-sponsored health care bill? Pence spent nine minutes talking about Republican ideas. “I think you will see overwhelming Republican opposition,” said Pence. “Will it be unanimous? I defer you to the whip’s office.” I asked again about the suggestion that the Republicans might, possibly, not vote unanimously against a Democratic health care bill as they voted against the stimulus package and the president’s budget. “You should anticipate overwhelming Republican opposition to government-run health insurance,” said Pence. “I didn’t say ‘possibly not’ unanimous. We’ll leave ‘unanimous’ to the other [leadership] offices.” At issue here is a very small number of Republicans. But any number of Republican votes for a health care bill could be pivotal; each one gives an endangered or Blue Dog Democrat room to vote no. – Check out our Senate Public Option Scoreboard here . You can follow TWI on Twitter and Facebook .

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Mike Pence: House GOP Might Have Some Health Care Defectors

Chris Simcox, the co-founder of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, is in D.C. this week — he marched in the “taxpayer march” on 9/12, and he was working radio row at the Federation for American Immigration Reform’s “Hold Their Feet to the Fire” lobbying event. And Simcox, who’s running in the 2010 Arizona Republican primary against Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), told me he expected to kick his campaign into higher gear with Ron Paul-style fundraising organized by Trevor Lyman, the activist who organized Paul’s “moneybombs” during the 2008 presidential campaign. Lyman confirmed the plans, though there are no dates yet for specific fundraisers. “This is a different kind of campaign,” said Simcox. “I think I can tap into that $35 million base.”

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Ron Paul’s ‘Moneybomb’ Guru Working for Minuteman Chris Simcox

If there was any question that Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) was enjoying his newfound celebrity, he was back on Sean Hannity’s syndicated radio show today — his second consecutive appearance. Wilson profusely thanked Hannity for asking his listeners to support him. “They have named me — the Washington Democrats, MoveOn.org — their number one target,” said Wilson. “The bottom line is there’s a witch hunt, and I’ve got good people behind me like Sean Hannity saying we’ve got to get back to the serious issues.” Wilson credited Hannity with a surge of fundraising and support for his campaign, and said that he’d “just got off the phone” with Rep. Bill Young (R-Fla.), a Florida Republican, who told him he had Wilson’s back. “We’re having an impact,” said Wilson, taking credit for the apparent addition of stricter rules against health care for illegal immigrants in the Senate’s negotiations. Hannity accused Democrats of “Chicago-style politics” and “oppo dumps” against the congressman. “Thank you for making a difference for America,” said Wilson. “For freedom!” – You can follow TWI on Twitter and Facebook .

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Rep. Joe Wilson: ‘There’s a Witch Hunt’

Republican lawyer Barbara Comstock , a candidate for a swing House of Delegates seat in northern Virginia, is holding a fundraiser tomorrow in Washington with a special appearance by Karl Rove. Comstock’s ties to the highest levels of Republican power are not exactly a secret—she’s been called a “master of the art of opposition research” for her work, which included a stint with Mitt Romney’s presidential bid and the confirmation campaigns of George W. Bush’s nominees for the Supreme Court. But in increasingly Democratic northern Virginia, Rove isn’t the most popular Republican name. I’ve obtained the an invitation to the event. It’s below the fold, with the contact information redacted. – You can follow TWI on Twitter and Facebook .

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Karl Rove Appearing at Fundraiser for Virginia GOP Candidate

Anything Fred Dicker reports can set people talking in New York, so this piece of informed speculation — rumors that Rudy Giuliani might make a comeback in 2010 by running for the U.S. Senate — is going to bring the spotlight around, again, on the man who blew $60 million for one delegate in the 2008 GOP presidential primaries. “It makes so much sense for Rudy to run for the Senate and not try to go head-to-head with Cuomo,” said [a] prominent Republican. “He’ll have an immediate national platform in the Senate. He can take the lead on homeland security and national defense and, depending on what conditions are in the country in 2012, he could run for president again. Dicker just lets his sources talk, so I’ll point out the obvious — Giuliani is a far different candidate than the man who made a competitive run against Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2000. The presidential race turned reporters loose on Giuliani’s personal life, again, after a long period of 9/11-imbued sainthood. We now know that Giuliani billed the city of New York for trips he took to pursue an affair with the woman he married in 2003; Ben Smith’s reporting of this scandal helped sink the former mayor’s presidential bid. We’ve seen Giuliani give hours of conflicting and apologetic statements about his social views in order to win over the Republican base — less than former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, to be sure, but not what candidates like to take into races where they’ll be asking the electorates of deep blue states to give them filibuster power over court nominees. It’s not completely ridiculous to imagine Giuliani winning office again in a bad year, but to cover him like just another pol seeking a new office is rather strange. Mark Sanford is being hounded by calls for impeachment in a scandal not too different than Giuliani’s.

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Rudy Giuliani for Senate! Or Governor! Or President!