Sue Jeffers and I will be on FM100.3 KTLK tomorrow from 9 to 11 AM. We’ll be filling in for Dan Conry. Sue and I will be discussing Precinct Caucuses and the importance of fiscal conservatives showing up. We’ll go over some of the process as well as discus the Republican Party Platform and some resolutions to change it.

Tune in TOMORROW morning, 9 to 11 AM on FM100.3 in the Twin Cities area, or listen online.

And feel free to call in 651-989-KTLK.

That was the line I had to repeat a dozen times last night to the pushy and rude RNC fundraiser last night that called my house. I was watching the debate, seeing John McCain out smug/snarky/dirty cheapshot like the Clintons…. and yes LIE about Mitt Romney, and there is just no way I can support him or the National Party with money if he gets the nomination. Mitt Romney is an amazing man, if I was in his seat last night, I would have probably clocked McCain. His restraint was Presidential in the light of the disengenuous and misleading lies that McCain repeatedly launched last night. I’ve talked to other people today too who are simply amazed at how nasty McCain is getting, and are losing respect for lots of people who are for some reason endorsing McCain.   Clearly for some principles don’t matter, nor does McCain’s history of hampering the conservative cause.  

I switched back to an old theme. Too many seasoned citizens had trouble viewing the last one.

Pawlenty gobbles up $850K of campaign donations in 07.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s reelection campaign pulled in more than $850,000 last year, more than he has ever raised during a year when he wasn’t on the ballot.

Pawlenty’s political operation ended the year with $375,000 in the bank, after spending $648,000 on items including fundraising and radio ads that opposed tax increases proposed by legislative Democrats, according to a summary released Wednesday by the campaign. About 14,000 people donated.

Not the gobbling, but the issue advocacy?

(I still believe Pawlenty is on the VP mission. )

Huh? What is AAA talking about now? Has he officially gone nutter?

No, for a lot of you out there sending emails and sharing the pondering of just what the heck we are to do this election season, we need to remember all is not lost just because a Democrat in elephant’s clothing (that’s McCain) appears to be the presumptive nominee. (No the fat lady isn’t singing, but if Rudy does endorse McCain, she is warming up (regarding Romney there))

Reps. Bachmann and Kline are solid principled conservatives who do have tough reelections ahead of them. They will get little to zero national or state party help so we the grassroots will have to pick up that slack to carry them over the line.

With Rep. Ramstad hanging it up, we have a chance to get a real conservative there in the 3rd.

Democratic Rep. Walz,  is beatable in the 1st, he got lucky in 06. There are 2 guys taking a run at him, Sen. Dick Day (meh), and Brian Davis who reminds me A LOT of Bachmann.

The MN House is a target rich environment for Republicans. Well, there are so few Republicans, you couldn’t help but say that. Especially when the DFL admittedly overreached last session. There are 134 races across the state, and I know that each and every local Republican party BPOU and candidate would love your help.

So don’t take off your sneakers. Don’t pack up your bat and ball to go home. Get local. The House of Representatives both in Minnesota and in Washington are where you can really send a conservative message. They are called the People’s House because the are elected in smaller districts so they have to be better representative to the electorate.

That’s you my fellow conservatives. You are the electorate and have to bust your butt in order to get good conservatives elected so the agenda can be reflective of our common views. If you can’t live with the POTUS nominee, (and neither can I if it is McCain) then we will all have to find another great conservative to help get elected. Maybe our grassroots effort is focused on Congressional seats and MN House races.  You don’t have to help McCain, not matter how badly some people say you do. It is still America, and you can allow your principles to guide your decisions.

But you do have to help out the candidates who do represent the principles and values you hold dear. You can’t sit it out on them too. We did that in 2006, and look at the mess it created. What’s great is that there are a lot of good candidates out there. They don’t even have to be in your District for you to help them.

So let’s all take a deep breathe. McCain may get the nod, but that doesn’t mean principled conservatives can take the election off.  Oh, and if you aren’t one of the dozen or few people who listen to Sean hannity, don’t bother tuning in, he was on his knees today talking about he has been wrong and McCain has been right all along.  The voters spokeHannity said, we all have to shut up and support McCain. I couldn’t take anymore, so i flipped over to Medved….. I had to double check to see if my radio actually  responded because he too was  attacking Rush for not shutting up and selling his soul to support McCain.  That one lasted about 12.5 seconds before I just turned the radio off and listened to the whoosh of hot air blowing out of the vents in my truck.

In conclusion, you do not have to sell your soul and support McCain should he get the nod. Frankly, it isn’t over yet. 36% of the people who “SAY” they are Republicans for the Primary in the state that has one hell of a hard figuring out how to vote picked McCain by 5%. That ain’t a mandate, and it sure as hell ain’t enough for me to fawn all over McCain as some sort of gOD.

So what if I won’t be invited on those conference calls, or to the fancy parties. At least I still have my principles. And, I’ll make a far larger difference with my time, money, and effort in a more local race in the first place, and so can you. So no one can take their ball and go home. You don’t have to drink the McCain koolaid.

Get local. Go to Caucus. Get elected a Delegate. bust your arse for a good MN House candidate who is as conservative as can be. If that doesn’t work, no, you can’t go sit on the couch. Find a good conservative and help them.

(Yes, I purposely left Sen. Coleman off this list. More on that later, possibly)

Hugh Hewitt has a good post up that appears to be an email from Florida. It talks about the potential fracturing of the GOP over the Presidential race. This was a key portion that needs to be spread wide and far to all levels of the party. (emphasis mine)

Much of the disarray comes from the take-no-prisoners attitude of Evangelical Republicans who impose litmus tests on abortion, gay marriage, etc and proclaim that only candidates who meet their specifications will be supported.  Rush Limbaugh recently added fuel to this fire by proclaiming that he might not support any Republican candidate because all were insufficiently conservative. John McCain’s recent success lends credence to Limbaugh’s prediction that the Party might split over the nomination.

At a recent Republican Committee meeting here in Orange County, I asked if there was room in the Party for me, a conservative Christian who believes in the separation of church and state.  The clear answer, disguised in evasive language, was ‘no.’ If that view is widely held among Republicans, we need a new conservative party.

What is needed is a Republican Party that recognizes differences of opinion on a wide variety of issues but concentrates on the 80% of the issues that draw broad support.  The Democrats coalesce around populist issues like universal healthcare, government funded social security, taxing the rich, taxing more, and supporting the middle class. Don’t Republicans have a set of common values that can produce principles that not only unite the Party but appeal to a broad base of voters?  The problem is, no one talks about the areas of agreement: everyone emphasizes the differences.

So how does a McCain or Romney put the band back together again with out shouting down those with differing opinions? For many whose path I have crossed, Romney former support of abortion is an absolute disqualifier.  For others Huckabee’s Pastor in Chief campaigning breaches the imaginary separation of Church and state. And movement conservatives of limited government zeal see McCain as a foe to the cause due to his Senate career.

So how do we unite with out losing our principles?

For many of us, we use a weighted scale to grade the candidates. Energy and Al Gorish policies are much more important than others. So reaching 80% of agreement is impossible, unless we throw out our opinions on the biggest issue facing America for generations to come, minus the war on terror.  The energy policies being pushed by McCain, Hckabee, and to a lesser point Romney are little different than the Democrats. The way we see it, we lose either way. America that we grew up in, will be gone forever if we now ban everything that gave us the advantage that let America rise to the top. The only way America will remain great and free is to remain free with the ability to set ourselves apart from the rest of the world.

yeah, yeah, the war. Great, get them to put changing energy policy back in the fridge and focus on security issues, and I will gladly stop worrying about the Al Gorification of America.

So Rudy is (likely) out now. The race is down to 2, Romney and McCain. Um, yes, some pundits have it correct, Huckabee is in the bag for Huckabee. He won’t say anything about McCain is and nasty towards Romney in the same way McCain is.

Rufini is jumping ship to Romney, and frankly that is the only choice left. It seems some are jumping to McCain at the polls and with endorsements, and if Rudy does endorse McCain as reported he will, so much for any good graces with the base he courted for the last year. But anyways, there is only one real choice for principles. Granted it is as much a trial balloon as it is a gut feeling, but we know what we will get with McCain.

The big question is, can I support Romney? Rufini, a decades long Rudy admirer can.

But Romney would do everything that McCain would on the war, and he would be vastly more conservative on everything else.

So the question is, do I cling to principle, hope they will be fulfilled, or pray McCain isn’t our next Dole?

I’m going to bed now and hoping I wake up tomorrow and Fred Thompson gets back into the race.

So my current cell phone is tarded again and I am sick of Verizon. I have had too many bad interactons with terrible staff at their stores, and their plans are now getting outrageous! I currently have a Palm Treo 700 and like it other than it is pretty destructible. They usually only last me for about 2 months where they work flawlessly, after that they tend to have a mind of their own, unless of course you never use the thing.  Anyways, is anyone out there an iPhone user? I am considering the switch and would like some input. 

Read this article and tell me why in the world this one state has so much trouble with voting. Am I missing the news here in Minnesota on these sorts of problems during election time, or what? I can’t remember anything like the many problems cited in this one story in the early hours of Florida’s Primary today.

So that leads me to ask the question if they really should be allowed to vote since they can’t even seem to get the mechanics of it right. Is it really that hard to vote? Do we have super human people running elections here in Minnesota and just take it for granted?

How hard can it be?

(satirical humorous jab folks!!!!) 

Did you note the independent who voted illegally for McCain? Can you say recount?

Let’s just file this one away in our memory banks shall we?

Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar (MN) is a deeply partisan politician who has a one party mindset. The NYT caught her reaction to the President’s SOTU last night. Note how she wasn’t talking about the goals laid out by teh President to work on ‘together’ with Congress for the good of the American people, instead, she plays politics.

“It’s an end, but it’s also a beginning,” said Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota. “Somewhere in that chamber was the next president.”

In 6 years, please dig deep back into your memories for this quote when she is trying to say she is not a liberal partisan.