American Glob

There’s been some talk around the web that if Lisa Murkowski loses the Republican nomination for US Senate in Alaska that she might try to run as a Libertarian. Apparently, the Alaska Libertarian Party has said thanks but no thanks. Eric Dondero of Libertarian Republican broke the story today…

The Executive Committee of the Alaska Libertarian Party held an emergency meeting yesterday to discuss the contested primary results in the Republican Senate primary. All 5 board members met in an undisclosed location in northeast Anchorage to hammer out a decision as to how to move forward.

Friends of Lisa Murkowski approached the ALP early Wednesday morning immediately after the Tuesday primaries, feeling out if there was any possibility that the Senator could appear on the Libertarian line for the fall election, as a third party candidate. Other supporters of the Senator, including at least two longstanding members of the Libertarian Party, also called to lobby ALP Chair Scott Kohlhaas to keep an “open mind,” on the issue.

Kohlhaas was immediately innundated with Alaska and national media over the matter.

On Sunday morning, over coffee and donuts, the ExComm voted unanimously, 5 to 0 to deny the Senator the ballot line. There was no malice intended. ALP Chair Kohlhaas has repeatedly stated that she is a nice lady, and the ALP was flattered by the offer.

Robert Stacy McCain, who knows Dondero, offers some juicier details at his blog and makes a gutsier choice in his post title.

Murkowski’s opponent, Tea Party backed Republican Joe Miller, has a slight lead but absentee ballots have yet to be counted.

Allahpundit at Hot Air describes the inherent catch 22 in all this….

Irony of ironies, if Miller wins the primary then the one person in Alaska who can probably guarantee his victory in the general is … Lisa Murkowski, by endorsing him and asking her supporters to back him in a show of party unity. (She has major centrist appeal, drawing 38 percent of indies, 32 percent of Republicans, and even 27 percent of Democrats in a three-way race.) Think Murky will be willing to put all this behind her and help the GOP by declaring “It’s Miller time” in Alaska?

Read more on this at Memeorandum.

Ken Mehlman, the campaign manager for George W. Bush in 2004 and former chair of the RNC has come out as gay. You know what? Good for him…

Ken Mehlman, President Bush’s campaign manager in 2004 and a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, has told family and associates that he is gay.

Mehlman arrived at this conclusion about his identity fairly recently, he said in an interview. He agreed to answer a reporter’s questions, he said, because, now in private life, he wants to become an advocate for gay marriage and anticipated that questions would arise about his participation in a late-September fundraiser for the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER), the group that supported the legal challenge to California’s ballot initiative against gay marriage, Proposition 8.

“It’s taken me 43 years to get comfortable with this part of my life,” said Mehlman, now an executive vice-president with the New York City-based private equity firm, KKR. “Everybody has their own path to travel, their own journey, and for me, over the past few months, I’ve told my family, friends, former colleagues, and current colleagues, and they’ve been wonderful and supportive. The process has been something that’s made me a happier and better person. It’s something I wish I had done years ago.”

Maybe he was listening to what Paul Ryan said about the future of the Republican party in April of 2009…

Ryan is promoting, not bending, conservative principles to expand the party.

“If you believe in freedom, liberty, self-determination, free enterprise, I don’t care if you’re a Muslim, Jewish, Agnostic, Christian, gay, straight, Latino, black, white, Irish, whatever. Join us.”

I’ve been saying since July of 2009 that the Republican Party was going more Libertarian and that it was a good thing. I stand by my prediction.

UPDATE: According to Allahpundit of Hot Air, this is old news. Who knew? Not me, apparently.

Read a lot more on this at Memeorandum.

Not a bad idea. You can get the basics from the Washington Post…

CLEVELAND — House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) called Tuesday for the mass firing of the Obama administration’s economic team, including Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner and White House adviser Larry Summers, arguing that November’s midterm elections are shaping up as a referendum on sustained unemployment across the nation and saying the “writing is on the wall.”

Boehner said President Obama’s team lacks “real-world, hands-on experience” in creating jobs that are needed for a full economic recovery. The Republican lawmaker cited reports that some senior aides complained of “exhaustion,” including the recently departed budget chief Peter Orszag.

Of course the money quote comes at 0:46 in the video below. “We’ve tried nineteen months of government as community organizer and it hasn’t worked.”

Read more at Memeorandum.

Which is great news because Rubio is an outstanding candidate and his “independent” opponent Charlie Crist is a liar and a fraud.

Public Policy Polling has the scoop:

Democrats will get their stronger candidate if Kendrick Meek wins the Florida Senate primary tonight as expected- but the biggest winner coming out of the primary may be Marco Rubio. PPP finds he would begin the general election in the lead at 40%, followed by Charlie Crist at 32%, and Meek at 17%. If Jeff Greene were somehow able to pull off the upset tonight it would be much closer with Rubio at 37%, Crist at 36%, and Greene at only 13%.

PPP’s last poll of the race in mid-July found Crist in the lead at 35% to 29% for Rubio and 17% for Meek. Two major developments have shifted the race in Rubio’s direction though. The first is that Democrats are now going for Meek 39-38 where before they were going for Crist 44-35. As Democrats have gotten to know Meek over the course of the primary campaign they’ve generally decided they like him and that’s cut into Crist’s support for the general election.

The other big difference is that many Republican voters have moved off the fence and they’ve almost universally moved into the Rubio column. Where Rubio had a 54-23 lead with GOP voters in July, it’s now increased to 69-20. Many Republicans were up in the air between Crist and Rubio previously but whatever they’ve seen over the last month has moved them more firmly into the Rubio column.

Read more on this from other blogs at Memeorandum.

Yesterday, Weekly Standard Editor Fred Barnes, wrote in the Washington Examiner:

For Republicans, the road map authored by Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin is the most important proposal in domestic policy since Ronald Reagan embraced supply-side economics in the 1980 presidential campaign. It’s not only the freshest, boldest, and most comprehensive Republican thinking, it’s also the most relevant. If Republicans adopt the road map as their basic ideological blueprint, it offers them the prospect of a landslide in the midterm election this year, followed by victory in the presidential election in 2012.

A little over a year ago, the Heritage Foundation urged the very same thing…

He’s young, charismatic and conservative.

The Heritage Foundation, a prominent conservative think tank in Washington, has anointed this rising GOP star “the leader of the future of the conservative movement.”

No, it’s not Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty or House Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia.

The man supposedly tasked with carrying the hopes and ambitions of an entire political party is Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis.

At 39, Ryan has become the go-to-guy on policy. SNIP

Ryan is promoting, not bending, conservative principles to expand the party.

“If you believe in freedom, liberty, self-determination, free enterprise, I don’t care if you’re a Muslim, Jewish, Agnostic, Christian, gay, straight, Latino, black, white, Irish, whatever. Join us.”

It turns out the folk music icon behind Alice’s Restaurant, one of the best known anthems of the 1960′s, is a Republican. Arlo Guthrie revealed his political affiliation this weekend in an interview with Gene Weingarten of the Washington Post.

Me: Did you learn your ethics from your dad? [Woody Guthrie] Might it be that this land was really made for just him and a few of his cronies?

Arlo: You know, it’s possible! I’ve heard that song sung at Republican conventions.

Me: Ha-ha-ha-ha!

Arlo: Yeah!

Me: Wait. What were you doing at Republican conventions?

Arlo: I’m a registered Republican now.

We talked a bit longer, Arlo and I, and it was amicable, but it all went by in a blur. My mind was cartwheeling. By becoming a Republican, Arlo Guthrie has shredded the last remnants of my faith that our hippie principles had any lasting meaning. How can he do this to us?

I’m a peaceable man, but if I had a hammer …

If he had a hammer? Is Gene Weingarten suggesting that the idea of Arlo Guthrie being a Republican makes him feel violent? I guess in Gene’s world, you can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant… as long as you’re a Democrat.

Chill out, Gene. Make love not war, man.

Kudos to Arlo Guthrie. By not blindly toeing the line of liberal politics, he is still genuinely counter-culture. How refreshing it is to know that some members of his generation are still capable of thinking for themselves.

Maybe Chris Christie could share his common sense with the Democrats. They seem to be having some budget issues.

From the Journal Editorial Report this weekend:

Barry Goldwater, the conservative libertarian politician who died in 1998, apparently reassumed life shortly thereafter as a boy from southern California.

He is currently 11 years old, attending a public school and has wasted no time in documenting the liberal agenda of his teachers.

Allahpundit of Hot Air isn’t sure if this is real…

Three possibilities. One: This is all deadly serious and on the level, notwithstanding that rather significant final line. Two: This is a grand goof conceived by a budding comic genius, notwithstanding his subdued appearance on Fox this morning. Three: This is a grand goof conceived by his parents or some other adult, which would explain why his essay is so cheeky but his TV performance is so straightforward.

Mr. Goldwater’s current incarnation, 11 year old Sam Besserman, recently wrote an op-ed for American Thinker which can be seen HERE.

Scott Brown.

According to the Boston Globe…

US Senator Scott Brown, who only months ago was a little-known figure even within the tiny band of Republicans in the state Senate, not only catapulted to national stature with his upset US Senate victory, but is today the most popular officeholder in Massachusetts, according to a Boston Globe poll.

After less than five months in Washington, Brown outpolls such Democratic stalwarts as President Obama and US Senator John F. Kerry in popularity, the poll indicates. He gets high marks not only from Republicans, but even a plurality of Democrats views him favorably.

The support for Brown, whose victory became a symbol of voter anger, is consistent with widespread sentiment that incumbents in Massachusetts and Washington “need to be replaced with a new crop of leaders.’’ That statement was supported by 50 percent of those polled, while 28 percent said they trust the incumbents.

Michael Graham, the conservative talk show host from Boston, sees this as a sure sign of the Apocalypse.

Why not?

Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona, is serious about national security.

Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey is serious about balancing budgets. In the video below, he says he doesn’t want to be president so let’s just fantasize.

What’s not to love?

I’m just dreaming out loud here, but they both have more executive experience than Obama and Biden put together. So…