The best Save the GOP posts of January 2005… drumroll please…

[NEW ADDITION]
Sorry missed one earlier
Nature of Terrorists - Mike Shutze Jr.
How Republicans Win - Mark Harris
A Conservative President - Alex
Roberty KKK Byrd - Alex
Protesters Stupidity - Gary Livacari
GOP Feud over Foreign Policy and Immigation - Mark Harris
Abortion Break Down in New Senate - Alex
Chafee Going Down- Alex
Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys - John McCormack
Dean for DNC Chair, Should We Be Afraid? - Mark Harris
Kissinger on Iraq - Mike Shutze Jr.
Gay Marriage & Broken Windows - Mark Harris
Iran Cheers Bush Inaugural - Gary Livacari
Catch an Illegal Immigrant Day - Alex
Moderate? Islam? - John McCormack
Gloria’s Gone- Gary Livacari

The Breakdown:
Alex - 5
Mark Harris - 4
Gary Livacari - 3
John McCormack - 2
Mike Schutze Jr - 2

I will put up a poll shortly to vote for which of these you think deserves top honors. Congrats to Alex for his five entries.

No matter who wins the CRNC (College Republican National Committee) post it looks like the true losers are CR’s across the country as no one of real integrity and knowhow has stepped up to take over the organization.

Candidates so far…
1. Paul Gourley - CRNC Treasurer
Pros: Knows the ins and outs of the operation having already been on the CRNC
Cons: Signed off on the shady, shady, shady fundraising scheme.
2. Dan Centinello - Chairman, NY
Pros: Calling for fundraising overhaul
Cons: ?
3. Michael Davidson - Chairman, CA
Pros: Calling for fundraising overhaul
Cons: ?

I am going to try to interview these three so stay tuned, but none has really stepped up yet to cast off the shadowy underpinnings of the fundraising scandal while still being able to keep the CRNC a quality institution.

A CRNC candidate should, ideally, stand for:
*Total overhaul of the CRNC finances - not just their fundraising program but a tighter grasp on expenditures
*More work training actual chapter chairs and providing assistance to chapters
*Principles on the issues,
*Not a media hog - certainly should be on the news but to many CRs the CRNC has just turned into a giant platform for the officers to get their face on camera
*Not a Climber - this will be near impossible but ideally the chair should realize his personal amibitions are meaningless, and its more about moving the principles
*Emphasizing campus issues - The CRs should be more than a slave mill for local candidates, rather it should work on changing campuses. Sadly, few CR clubs advance key conservative issues anymore, that is left to Leadership Institute papers, and other unaffiliated clubs.
*Charachter / Ethics - The CRNC needs to focus on making sure its leadership is of the highest caliber ethics, not this non-sense, we’ve heard re: this scandal, “Everyone does it.” First, I’ve done some direct mail and while it usually is shady and annoying, this is way beyond the pale.
*Leave Primaries Alone - Anyone just needs to look at the dabacle that was Pennsylvania’s Toomey v. Specter primary that the CRNC needs to make sure that the CR state feds stay out of primaries.

As this chilling story in Human Events, it appears that Bush is willing to raise the tax rate on SS to achieve partial privitization. Now I know what many people will say, short term pain for long term benefit. Well they said the same thing about that Medicare bill that is now a flatout disaster.

Conservatives have to keep the heat on because this could get real bad for us real quick.

vs.
Now I have been for a long time a defender of Rick to a certain extent, because I believed that even with his sellout of conservatives he was one of the best we could hope for but the newly release National Journal ratings show quite otherwise. His 70.8 rating puts him a whole 21 points below the highest ranked Senator (Don Nickles, oh how we will miss thee, though Coburn is just as good if not better… I digress..)

Rick’s problem from a purely political standpoint is that no one loves him any more, except some of the party hacks. Leftists hate him because they view him as an extremist and rightists deal with him cautiously due to his recent drift to the left. So from a campaign standpoint you are in a bad spot, because you get all the downsides of being a “real” conservative without any of the benefits. The other side hates you more than life itself and the people who you want to get you re-elected view you as a bit of a Benedict Arnold. Could Santorum still win? Sure. But at this juncture my bet lies with Casey (if he runs) or any real solid candidate the Dems can put up.

This is the unholy alliance NR ran a cover story on a while ago.

“A veteran civil rights lawyer was convicted yesterday of smuggling messages of violence from one of her jailed clients — a radical Egyptian sheik — to his terrorist followers on the outside. The jury deliberated 13 days during the past month before convicting Lynne Stewart, 65, who testified during her trial that she believed violence was necessary to rid America of its ‘entrenched, voracious type of capitalism.’ Stewart was found guilty of charges that include conspiracy, giving material support to terrorists and defrauding the U.S. government. A left-wing activist known for representing radicals and revolutionaries in her 30 years on the New York legal scene, she faces up to 20 years in prison.”

Read more here.