Republican Sam Brownback will drop out of the 2008 presidential campaign on Friday, people close to the Kansas senator said Thursday.

Trouble raising money was a main reason for his decision, said one person close to Brownback, who requested anonymity because the candidate had not yet announced his plans.

Brownback, a lesser-known conservative contender, is expected announce his withdrawal in Topeka, Kan.

The senator is widely expected to seek the Kansas governor’s office in 2010, when his term — his second — expires. He had promised in his first Senate campaign to serve no more than two terms.

Associated Press

It’s about time.  Now if a few of the other laggards would step aside there might be enough time for the realistic candidates to have actual debates instead of a sound bite contest.

Well I think we just saw what is essentially the end for the Brownback campaign and their longshot hopes. By voting for cloture on the shamnesty bill, he loses any leverage at all on the issue which is HUGE in the GOP primary in Iowa. Brownback has bet everything on Iowa and is struggling to get out of the low single digits. Fred!’s entry into the race was a body blow to his campaign, but this ends any real Brownback 08 rationale.

Its funny a few months ago I thought Brownback might climb his way from the third tier into the second tier, but it has turned out that Gov. Huckabee is the new second tier. We’ll wait to see the fundraising numbers this quarter but unless he has a tremendously above expectations haul I think the campaign is on life support at best.

WASHINGTON — In another sign that congressional Republicans are losing patience with the White House war strategy, two GOP senators Thursday got behind new legislation designed to encourage the Bush administration to reduce U.S. military involvement in Iraq.

Sens. Sam Brownback of Kansas and Gordon Smith of Oregon are cosponsoring a nonbinding resolution by Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) that urges decentralizing the Iraqi government and creating semiautonomous regions for Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds. Biden has been championing the plan for more than a year.

LA Times

I have always thought that Biden had something here when he brought forth this proposal some time ago. Iraq originally was three separate Ottoman regions before it was fused together by the British through permission of the League of Nations following World War I. I honestly believe that dividing Iraq back into three regions based on the separate religious factions may be the only way to bring stability to the area.

Westerners truly underestimate the influence religion has in the Middle East, I think because we are used to a separation between religion and our government. You cannot force these opposing religious factions to coexist under one roof. They have to learn that on their own. Sure, Saddam did it, but he did it with brutality. That kind of end result would render the ousting of Saddam all for nothing.

“Simply put,” Biden continued, “Iraq cannot be run from the center absent a dictator or foreign occupation. If we want the country to hold together and find stability, we have to make federalism work.”

Brownback agreed Thursday, calling the so-called federalism plan “the only political solution that works.”

This is a good idea and I hope the President gives this his strong consideration.

SPARTANBURG - U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback said Monday he is calling every Republican he can in this S.C. county before a presidential straw poll to be held later in the week.

It’s that kind of personal attention the senator from Kansas hopes can take him from obscurity to the front of a crowded field for the GOP’s 2008 presidential nomination.

The straw poll in Spartanburg County will be one of the candidates’ first tests in South Carolina, which will hold one of the earliest presidential primaries in 2008.

Charlotte Observer

It’s definitely possible that Brownback could emerge as a darkhorse candidate, but I honestly don’t believe he could win the general election.  Nothing about the man excites me.  I think he is a boring candidate with little enthusiasm and charisma and his support of amnesty for illegal aliens kills any hope of ever getting me as a supporter.  I think the best thing he could do would be to step aside and let a more viable conservative move in.  I’m still keeping my fingers crossed for Newt.

For all those curious about the presidential try-outs that were the National Review Institute, I’ll leave a few of my thoughts:

• Jeb Bush and Newt Gingrich were the stars of the show
• There is zero excitement behind Huckabee. Saturday night he spent twenty minutes walking around the foyer by himself, no serious presidential candidate would be left unmobbed for twenty minutes.
• People wanted more out of Romney. He was smart, pro-business, and has the presidential look but there was no fire in the belly. Nothing that would motivate folks to get out there and fight
• At the Saturday night session when Jonah Goldberg asked which GOP Presidential candidate was “unacceptable” there was a roar from the crowd about 75% McCain and 25% Giulani. I thought this was a surprising show of weakness for McCain, who made no appearance nor any surrogate appearance at the event.
• Brownback, Giulani, McCain all skipped out on the event and failed to even have a presence there. This was a very interesting development. NR is fairly hospitable to Giulani due to NR’s HQ in New York City and McCain has spent a lot of time trying to reach out to conservatives. The one who missed the biggest opportunity was Brownback, his absence made little sense.

Brownback has officially added the flat tax to his platform. Well Brownback has now officially laid down the gauntlet in the race to the right on fiscal issues. McCain will surely not follow suit, nor would I imagine Giulani, which leaves the question as to what Romney will do. I just am not sure how much passion lies behind the flat tax movement anymore.