From State. Sen. David Schafer’s blog:

There will be a meet-and-greet for Fred Thompson tomorrow, Tuesday evening, at 6:00 p.m. at the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce building in Duluth. It is sponsored by the Government Affairs Committee of the Chamber. The event is open to the public (and the media). The Chamber building is located across the parking lot from the Arena, and the reception will be held on the first floor, in the John D. Stephens room.

I’m there.

Erick Erickson interviewed Fred Thompson and has put up the “FredCast” part one on RedState. Fred answers some great questions and is very straightforward and conversational.Part two will be posted tomorrow. Check it out!

Governor Ed Rendell (D-PA) has shut down the State Government today over the inability to reach a 2007-2008 fiscal budget agreement between he and the Republican controlled state legislature. The disagreement stems over Rendell’s insistence year after year to constantly raise taxes and have the State spend beyond its means. The difference this year is that the Republicans are saying, NO!

Gov. Ed Rendell shut down the Pennsylvania government late Sunday over a budget stalemate with the Legislature that partly hinges on his energy plan for the state.

“I sincerely hope that this will be a one-day furlough, and I have reason for optimism,” Rendell said at a news conference Sunday night, though he declined to be more specific.

Monday morning, the shutdown set in as the partisan battle of wills between the Democratic governor and Republicans who control the Senate entered the ninth day of the new fiscal year. Lacking an approved state budget, the state has lost the authority to spend money on nonessential services.

With Rendell’s order, state workers deemed not critical to health or safety were furloughed without pay.

AP

Finally, we have Pennsylvania Republicans standing up for some form of fiscal responsibility. After the clean sweep of RINOs in the 2006 Republican Primary, the State Senate has shifted right of center and apparently the wake up call they received from voters forced to them all to grow a pair and finally stand up to the Democrat Governor’s tax and spend policies. In the past, the State’s Republican leaders capitulated and voted for “Spendell’s” liberal tax and spend agenda, but not this time.

“We have a $650 million surplus in Pennsylvania,” said Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, a Republican. “There’s absolutely no reason why we can’t have a budget agreement. We could have had a budget earlier but for these ancillary issues.”

The centerpiece of Rendell’s energy plan would place a surcharge on electricity use for a fund for alternative energy programs and electricity conservation. Republican legislators and some Democrats oppose the surcharge and accused the governor of holding state employees hostage to force them to approve it.

“I can’t believe that a man who would call himself governor would do this to state employees,” said Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, a Republican.

Human Events is speculating that Hagel and Warner might hang it up next year and retire from the U.S. Senate. It’s a reasonable conclusion. Hagel has ruined himself in Nebraska. He already has a strong primary challenger in Nebraska who is beating him in the polls and John Warner hasn’t bothered to start fund raising for next year. I say good riddance to both of them. They haven’t been reliable to the party on many issues and we can do better, especially in Nebraska, being such a conservative state.

On Hagel:

State Attorney General Jon Bruning has already signaled he is running for the Republican nomination regardless of what Hagel does. A day after my lunch, the July 4 Pancake Breakfast for Nebraska Republicans was held for the 29th year in a row in Omaha. An attendee at the breakfast told me that “the Bruning people were out in force. They must have had 25 people in T-shirts for Bruning and numerous others handing out stickers. And Bruning came and walked the parades. Hagel was there as well, but with no support except for his chief of staff, Lou Ann Linehan.”

On Warner:

After thirty years in the Senate — exceeding the tenures of past Old Dominion Sens. A. Willis Robertson, Carter Glass, and Harry Byrd, Sr. and Jr. — John Warner really has no reason to stay on. With odds favoring a Democratic majority next year, the chances of the 80-year-old senator regaining a key committee chairmanship are slim.

The worst-kept secret in the state is that Rep. Tom Davis of Northern Virginia will run if Warner calls it quits. The two are close (longtime Davis political operative John Hishta ran Warner’s re-election bid in ’96, the last time he was seriously challenged for renomination and in the general election) and sources close to both men expect Warner will give Davis a heads-up on his retirement announcement.

What Warner cannot do for Davis, however, is what he did for himself in 1996: determine the venue for the Republican nomination. Under very unique party rules, an incumbent GOP office-holder can call for a primary or convention as the means of nomination but, if there is no incumbent, it is up to the state committee of the party to say what the procedure is. When Warner ran eleven years ago, he called for a primary as a means of settling his challenge from former Reagan budget chief Jim Miller; with no party registration in Virginia, voters who consider themselves independents and Democrats could come out to support Warner, who had irked conservatives on numerous occasions. He won renomination by a margin of 2-to-1.

Should Warner step down next year, it is almost a foregone conclusion that the state committee, top-heavy with conservatives, will opt for the convention system. This does not bode well for Davis (lifetime American Conservative Union rating: 70%), whose positions on abortion and the issues of federal employees have irked Republicans on the right.

It would seem early on that Romney has his game on in Iowa with the best infrastructure in place and a sizable lead among the other candidates.

Six months before the Iowa caucuses, Mitt Romney has taken a commanding organizational lead in this traditional kick-off state.

Arizona Sen. John McCain’s financial difficulties have forced him to dramatically scale back his Iowa campaign, and it’s not clear whether former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani or ex-Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson will fully engage in the Hawkeye State caucuses.

That leaves Romney as the sole representative of the GOP top tier to commit to the traditional Ames Straw Poll and offer himself to voters for up close and personal inspections.

The former Massachusetts governor has 20 full-time staffers, coordinators in most of the state’s 99 counties, and a group of about 50 “super volunteers” that has already swept through the universe of likely caucus-goers with initial phone calls and have begun going door to door in key precincts.

His effort got a big boost last week when McCain, down to just $2 million cash on hand, halved his Iowa staff to seven to save money.

Politico

If you read anything about the global carbon guilt fest that occurred this weekend, read this liveblog by Mark Hemingway over at NRO. Example:

12:39: Holly Hunter does a PSA about how buying digital music is more environmentally friendly because there is no oil wasted in making plastic CDs and energy is saved by not physically transporting discs around. While this is true, I doubt the music industry is thrilled by this message. Also, isn’t Al Gore on the board of Apple, which just happens to be the largest digital-music retailer?

12:59: Another PSA, this time horrendously exploited children prattling on about global warming. One very young girl bemoans that her children may never see a blue sky or green grass. It’s a full-frame closeup with tears streaming down her face. Naturally, this causes my wife to laugh uproariously. I knew there was a reason I married her.

Good stuff.

I had surgery a little over a week ago on my right Achilles tendon and as a result I am in a cast and walking on crutches. I missed a couple of days of work for recovery but I am struck by how many people are shocked that I am not still at home laid up on the couch watching Days of Our Lives eating Bon-Bons. The implication being I should take advantage of my situation and not work.

My question is where has everyone’s work ethic gone?