John McCain Promises Sheriffs' Group He Will Appoint Federal Judges With A "Proven Commitment To Judicial Restraint". That GLADDENS My Heart.

Read more here, and check out the excerpt below (oh, by the way, IGNORE the demagoguery):

U.S. Sen. John McCain told a national group of sheriffs meeting today that if elected president, he will appoint federal judges who have a “proven commitment to judicial restraint” and won’t make laws from the bench.

“They will be the kind of judges who believe in giving everyone in a criminal court their due – justice for the guilty and the innocent, compassion for the victims, and respect for the men and women of law enforcement,” McCain said during a 22-minute speech at the National Sheriffs Association convention at the downtown Marriott hotel in Indianapolis.

McCain criticized a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down a Louisiana law that allowed the death penalty in the case of violent child rapes. In a split decision, the justices said capital punishment should be reserved only for murder cases.

“They substituted their judgment for that of the people of Louisiana, their legislators, their governor, the trial judge, the jury, the appellate judge, and the other four members of the U.S. Supreme Court,” McCain said. “It’s a peculiar kind of moral evolution that disregards the democratic process, and inures solely to the benefit of child rapists.”

He called the decision jarring but warned that it is “exactly the kind of opinion we could expect” if Democratic Sen. Barack Obama is elected president.

But Obama has criticized the court’s decision as well, saying it is wrong to apply a blanket prohibition on the death penalty where states want to impose it.

Senator Mitch McConnel Reminds You To Vote On Tuesday. So Do I.

Here's the email from OUR Senator:

Osi,

I am writing to ask for your vote on Tuesday, May 20th in the Republican primary.

This is a critical election year, and I need your support to make sure we have a strong showing heading into the general election campaign.

The polls will be open on Tuesday from 6:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. You can find polling place information here.

I also need your help to spread the word about the primary election. Please take a moment to send an e-postcard to your family and friends reminding them to vote. Sending an e-postcard takes just a minute or two, and it’s a great way to get involved and help the campaign.

Thank you for your encouragement and support.

Sincerely,

Mitch McConnell
United States Senator

P.S. Primary Election Day is Tuesday, May 20th. I am asking for your vote, and I need your help to get our fellow Republicans out to vote. Please take a moment to send an e-postcard encouraging your friends and family to vote on Tuesday.

Paid for by McConnell Senate Committee 2008
www.TeamMitch.com

Comment: On behalf of OUR Senator, I am asking you to please vote for him on Tuesday.

John McCain Tells Republicans The Truth: There Is Global Warming

The presumptive (I use that term because of what Ron Paul's supporters have in store for John McCain) Republican nominee and "Maverick", John McCain, has acknowledged -- to the chagrin of some Republicans, I'm sure -- that global warming is undeniable and the country must take steps to bring it under control while adhering to free-market principles.

Riding on the "truth express", John McCain said:

"For all of the last century, the profit motive basically led in one direction - toward machines, methods and industries that used oil and gas," said McCain. "Enormous good came from that industrial growth, and we are all the beneficiaries of the national prosperity it built. But there were costs we weren't counting, and often hardly noticed. And these terrible costs have added up now, in the atmosphere, in the oceans and all across the natural world."

Taking a swipe at President Bush, McCain said:

"I will not shirk the mantle of leadership that the United States bears. I will not permit eight long years to pass without serious action on serious challenges. I will not accept the same dead-end of failed diplomacy that claimed Kyoto. The United States will lead and will lead with a different approach - an approach that speaks to the interests and obligations of every nation."

As for animals knowing more than people appear to know, John McCain said:

"You would think that if the polar bears, walruses, and sea birds have the good sense to respond to new conditions and new dangers, then humanity can respond as well."

Then demonstrating that the Maverick may be back, McCain said:

"As never before, the market would reward any person or company that seeks to invent, improve, or acquire alternatives to carbon-based energy," he said. "More likely, however, there will be some companies that need extra emissions rights, and they will be able to buy them. The system to meet these targets and timetables will give these companies extra time to adapt - and that is good economic policy."

My comment: The Maverick is back, at least, to protect the environment, and we applaud him.

Speaker Newt Gingrich Speaks TRUTH To Republicans. Read "My Plea to Republicans: It's Time For Real Change To Avoid Real Disaster."

Here is the entire piece:

My Plea to Republicans: It's Time for Real Change to Avoid Real Disaster
by Newt Gingrich
Posted: 05/06/2008

The Republican loss in the special election for Louisiana's Sixth Congressional District last Saturday should be a sharp wake up call for Republicans: Either Congressional Republicans are going to chart a bold course of real change or they are going to suffer decisive losses this November.

The facts are clear and compelling.

Saturday's loss was in a district that President Bush carried by 19 percentage points in 2004 and that the Republicans have held since 1975.

This defeat follows on the loss of Speaker Hastert's seat in Illinois. That seat had been held by a Republican for 76 years with the single exception of the 1974 Watergate election when the Democrats held it for one term. That same seat had been carried by President Bush 55-44% in 2004.

Two GOP Losses That Validate a National Pattern

These two special elections validate a national polling pattern that is bad news for Republicans. According to a New York Times/CBS Poll, Americans disapprove of the President's job performance by 63 to 28 (and he has been below 40% job approval since December 2006, the longest such period for any president in the history of polling).

A separate New York Times/CBS Poll shows that a full 81 percent of Americans believe the economy is on the wrong track.

The current generic ballot for Congress according to the NY Times/CBS poll is 50 to 32 in favor of the Democrats. That is an 18-point margin, reminiscent of the depths of the Watergate disaster.

Congressional Republicans Can't Take Comfort in McCain's Poll Numbers

Senator McCain is currently running ahead of the Republican congressional ballot by about 16 percentage points. But there are two reasons that this extraordinary personal achievement should not comfort congressional Republicans.

First, McCain's lead is a sign of the gap between the McCain brand of independence and the GOP brand. No regular Republican would be tying or slightly beating the Democratic candidates in this atmosphere. It is a sign of how much McCain is a non-traditional Republican that he is sustaining his personal popularity despite his party's collapse.

Second, there is a grave danger for the McCain campaign that if the generic ballot stays at only 32 % for the GOP it will ultimately outweigh McCain's personal appeal and drag his candidacy into defeat.
The Anti-Obama, Anti-Wright, and Anti-Clinton GOP Model Has Been Tested -- And It Failed

The Republican brand has been so badly damaged that if Republicans try to run an anti-Obama, anti- Reverend Wright, or (if Senator Clinton wins), anti-Clinton campaign, they are simply going to fail.

This model has already been tested with disastrous results.

In 2006, there were six incumbent Republican Senators who had plenty of money, the advantage of incumbency, and traditionally successful consultants.

But the voters in all six states had adopted a simple position: "Not you." No matter what the GOP Senators attacked their opponents with, the voters shrugged off the attacks and returned to, "Not you."

The danger for House and Senate Republicans in 2008 is that the voters will say, "Not the Republicans."
Republicans Have Lost the Advantage on Every Single-Issue Poll

A February Washington Post poll shows that Republicans have lost the advantage to the Democrats on which party can handle an issue better -- on every single topic.

Americans now believe that Democrats can handle the deficit better (52 to 31), taxes better (48 to 40) and even terrorism better (44 to 37).

This is a catastrophic collapse of trust in Republicans built up over three generations on the deficit, two generations on taxes, and two generations on national security.
House Republicans Should Call an Emergency, Members-Only Conference

Faced with these election results, the House Republicans should hold an emergency members-only meeting. At the meeting, they should pose this stark choice: Real change or certain defeat.

If a majority of the House Republicans vote for real change, they should instruct Republican Leader John Boehner and his team to come back with a new plan by the Wednesday before the Memorial Day recess. This plan should involve real change in legislative, communications, and campaign strategy and involve immediate, real action, including a complete overhaul of the Congressional Campaign Committee. The House Republican Conference would then vote for the plan or insist on its revision.

If a majority of the House Republicans are opposed to acting then the minority who are activists should establish a parallel organization dedicated to real change. This group should focus its energies on creating the changes necessary to survive despite a conference with a minority mindset that accepts defeat rather than fights for real change (which is what we had when I entered Congress in 1978).
Nine Acts of Real Change That Could Restore the GOP Brand

Here are nine acts of real change that would begin to rebuild the American people's confidence that Republicans share their values, understand their worries, and are prepared to act instead of just talk. The Republicans in Congress could get a start on all nine this week if they had the will to do so.

1. Repeal the gas tax for the summer, and pay for the repeal by cutting domestic discretionary spending so that the transportation infrastructure trust fund would not be hurt. At a time when, according to The Hill newspaper, Senator Clinton is asking for $2.3billion in earmarks, it should be possible for Republicans to establish a "government spending versus your pocketbook" fight over cutting the gas tax that would resonate with most Americans. Lower taxes and less government spending should be a battle cry most taxpayers and all conservatives could rally behind.


2. Redirect the oil being put into the national petroleum reserve onto the open market. That oil would lower the price of gasoline an extra 5 to 6 cents per gallon, and its sale would lower the deficit.


3. Introduce a "more energy at lower cost with less environmental damage and greater national security bill" as a replacement for the Warner-Lieberman "tax and trade" bill which is coming to the floor of the Senate in the next few weeks (see my newsletter next week for an outline of a solid pro-economy, pro-national security, pro-environment energy bill). When the American people realize how much the current energy prices are actually a "politicians' energy crisis" they will demand real change in our policies.


4. Establish an earmark moratorium for one year and pledge to uphold the presidential veto of bills with earmarks through the end of 2009. The American people are fed up with politicians spending their money. They currently believe both parties are equally bad. This is a real opportunity to show the difference.


5. Overhaul the census and cut its budget radically. The recent announcement that the Census Bureau could not build an effective hand-held computer for $1.3 billion and is turning instead to 600,000 temporary workers to do a paper and pencil census in 2010 is an opportunity to slash its budget, shrink its bureaucracy, and turn to entrepreneurial internet-based companies to build an information-age census. This is an absurdity that cries out for bold, decisive reform (see my YouTube video "FedEx versus federal bureaucracy" for an example of what I mean).


6. Implement a space-based, GPS-style air traffic control system. The problems of the Federal Aviation Administration are symptoms of a union-dominated bureaucracy resisting change. If we implemented a space-based GPS-style air traffic system we would get 40% more air travel with one-half the bureaucrats. The union has stopped 200,000,000 passengers from enjoying more reliable air travel to protect 7,000 obsolete jobs. This real change would allow the millions of frustrated travelers to have champions in congress trying to help them get places better, safer, faster.


7. Declare English the official language of government. This real change is supported by 87% of the American people including a majority of Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and Latinos. It is an issue of national unity that brings Americans together in a red, white, and blue majority.


8. Protect the workers' right to a secret ballot. The vast majority (around 81%) of Americans believe that American workers have a right to have a secret ballot election before they are forced to join a union. Last year the House Democrats passed a bill that would strip American workers of the secret ballot. A new bill should be introduced reaffirming that right, and it should be brought up again and again until marginal Democrats are forced to vote with the American people against the union power structure.


9. Remind Americans that judges matter. Senate Republicans should mount an ongoing fight (including a filibuster of other activities if necessary) to get the American people to realize that liberals want to block all current judicial appointments in order to maximize the number of left wing radical judges they can appoint if they win the White House. This issue has three advantages. It reminds people that judges matter and that a leftwing radical Supreme Court would be bad for the values of most (70 to 90 percent, depending on the issue) Americans. It shows the Democrats are not engaged in fair play. It arouses the activism of those who have been disappointed by Republicans and have forgotten how bad a liberal Democratic Presidency would be.

What Is at Stake

No Republicans should kid themselves. It's time to face up to a stark choice.

Without change we could face a catastrophic election this fall.

Without change the Republican Party in the House could revert to the permanent minority status it had from 1930 to 1994.

Without change, the majorities of Americans who support the Republican principle of smaller, more efficient, smarter and fairer government will be in for a rude awakening.

It's time for real change to avoid a real disaster.

The "May Day Massacre": Can Liberals Govern in a Global Economy?

Despite the poor outlook for conservatives in our elections this November, there is encouraging news from across the Atlantic. The conservative wave sweeping Europe hit England last week when the liberal Labor Party suffered its worst local election results in 40 years.

Boris Johnson became the first Conservative Party member elected mayor of London when he defeated Labour candidate "Red" Ken Livingstone. In contests for more than 4,000 local seats across England, Conservatives captured 44 percent of the vote, compared to 25 percent for the Liberal Democrats and just 24 percent for Labour.

This Conservative victory in England comes on the heels of a history-making rout of the Communists and the Greens in parliamentary elections Italy two weeks ago. And the Italian results follow center-right victories in France (Sarkozy) and Germany (Merkel). The countries of so-called "old" Europe are turning away from the liberal high tax, big government policies that have crippled their economies and are turning toward pro-growth, pro-competitive center-right solutions.

All of which raises the question: Can the Left successfully govern in a modern, global economy? The voters of Europe seem to be saying no.

Your friend,

Newt Gingrich

P.S. -- Father's Day is just around the corner and there are great gift ideas available at great prices at Newt.org. Just click here to order personally signed copies of my new novel, Days of Infamy, as well as Pearl Harbor and Real Change. With the purchase of either of these three personally signed books, you can get a signed copy of Gettysburg for only $5. If you buy both a personalized copy of Pearl Harbor and Days of Infamy, you will receive a signed Gettysburg for free!

P.P.S. -- The Days of Infamy book tour took me to New York City last week where Callista took some great pictures of us on the set of Hannity and Colmes, The View, The Daily Show and others. You can view them here.

My comment: I can live with a Newt Gingrich as Vice President.

John McCain Wants To Control Illegal Immigration, And We Love It!

Watch the video above.

Senator John McCain Will Make His First Visit To Kentucky Next Week. Details To Follow.

Senator John McCain, the Republican Party nominee for President will make his FIRST visit to Kentucky next week. No details have been released, though the visit will be on Wednesday and to Inez.

As soon as more details are released by his campaign, they will be posted here.

On Tax Day, John McCain Promises A Flat Tax If Elected. I Say: GREAT. Now He Needs To Promise To Rid Us Of The IRS.

John McCain is making a speech on the economy in Pittsburgh (I'll embed later). One of the first things he has promised is that we will be offered a choice of a flat tax or the current tax.

I say GREAT on the flat tax idea.

But he needs to promise to rid of us of the IRS, too.

John McCain Speaks The TRUTH To IDOTS, Says Barack "Obama 'Absolutely' Qualified To Be President".

Enough said.

John McCain is "absolutely" a REAL man, an AMAZING man of integrity.

And you know what the naysayers are, don't you?

John McCain releases first general election ad.

Watch it and tell us what you think.

BREAKING news: It's official, as John McCain clinches Republican nomination.

Will someone please tell Mike Huckabee to hang it up already?

Update, 8:35 P. M.: Well, I'll be. Mike Huckabee is doing a press conference, which sounds like he has "seen the light" on this one.

John McCain receives endorsement of Televangelist John Hagee.

Read the endorsement here.

While this is a significant endorsement for John McCain, I wonder how the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) feels about the Pastor of a church endorsing in a political arena. Just my thoughts.

Conservatives' Conservative, U. S. Senator Tom Coburn: Iraq war "probably a mistake".

Read about it here.

That is NOT comforting news for ANY pro war Conservative to hear!

Rothenberg Political Report: Clear advantage for incumbent, Senator Mitch McConnell.

Read the report and Stick with Mitch.

John McCain wins in Wisconsin and claims mantle of Republican nominee.

And he is right. Delegate shows him at 908 delegates to Huckabee's 245. He needs 1191, or 283, while Huckabee needs almost a thousand.

But like I have been saying, in the very likely scenario of a John McCain versus Barack Obama race, whether McCain succeeds depends on who he chooses for his Veep candidate. In that and other regard, this and this cannot help but spell BAD news for McCain at this point.

As expected John McCain gets George Bush, Sr.'s nod -- a no brainer.

The endorsement is a no brainer, and probably doesn't make a difference at this point.

In Kentucky, a SENSIBLE point of view.

Don't you think?

George Will, a pretty reliable REAL Conservative, pens a great op-ed.

Here it is. Enjoy:

Hillary, Huckabee make us recoil

By George F. Will
The Washington Post

WASHINGTON -- With metronomic regularity -- the rhythm may arise from some strangely shared metabolic urge, which may explain the mystery of their marriage -- the Clintons say things that remind voters of the aesthetic reason for recoiling from them. Aesthetic considerations even cause many Republicans -- a coarse commercial breed, they are notoriously insensitive to higher things, but they are not immune to the repulsive -- to hope, against three decades of evidence, that Democrats can be sufficiently sensible to nominate Barack Obama, even though Hillary Clinton would be more vulnerable to John McCain.

Last week, in his ten-thumbed attempt to prevent his wife's Louisiana loss, Bill Clinton said that Obama has made "an explicit argument that the '90s weren't much better than this decade." The phrase "explicit argument" was an exquisitely Clintonian touch, signaling to seasoned decoders of Clintonisms that, no matter how diligent the search, no such thought could be found, even implicitly, in anything Obama has ever said. In his preternatural neediness, Clinton, an overflowing caldron of narcissism and solipsism, is still smarting from Obama's banal observation, four weeks ago, that Ronald Reagan was a more transformative president than Clinton.

Then in Virginia last Sunday, his wife, true to the family tradition of "two for the price of one," contributed her own howler to the growing archive of Clintoniana. She said she is constantly being urged to unleash her inner Pericles: "People say to me all the time, 'You're so specific. Why don't you just come and, you know, really just give us one of those great rhetorical flourishes and then, you know, get everybody all whooped up?' "

It must be wearisome. But surely people are "all the time" pestering her about being so substantive. It is a stronger word; she should tweak her fable in future tellings.

Strangeness is a bipartisan commodity at this point in the political season. Both parties' contests are being colored by idiosyncrasies.

Democrats, who consider equality the value before which the virtuous genuflect, worry that their nomination might be settled by "superdelegates," who are more equal than others. These are august people (officeholders, party officials, former luminaries) who, although no one voted to give them the job, get to vote at the nominating convention because liberals believe that if they fine-tune the world's rules with this or that wrinkle, everything will come out just right.

Many Republicans think that, come what may, things will come out the way Providence intends. Daniel Webster said "miracles do not cluster," but Webster did not anticipate Mike Huckabee, whose campaign manager is, evidently, God. Two months ago, Huckabee said he rose in Iowa because of divine intervention (the power that propelled him there was not "human" but the one that fed the multitudes with two fish and five loaves).

Last Saturday, as he was winning the caucuses in Kansas, where many Republicans think Darwin should go back to Missouri where he came from, Huckabee said that the arithmetic is daunting (he must win almost all the remaining delegates to stop McCain), but he shall persevere:

"I know people say that the math doesn't work out. Folks, I didn't major in math. I majored in miracles, and I still believe in those, too."

Although some of his supporters defend him against the accusation of sincerity, it is not unfair to assume that Huckabee, who has made his piety integral to his politics, means what he says. There is appealing clarity, but also a whiff of lunacy or charlatanry, in the theory that the Author of the Universe is writing his campaign story. "The world," wrote the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, "is charged with the grandeur of God." The world, perhaps, but the Republican delegate scramble?

Maybe Huckabee hopes that his credentials as a potential running mate for McCain will be strengthened if he achieves a (strictly speaking) providential victory in the Texas primary. McCain might, however, prefer a vice president who is less directly guided by Providence. And McCain will not long be amused by Huckabee continuing to offer himself as a vessel into which conservatives pour their disapproval of the inevitable.

McCain wants conservatives to take "yes" for an answer -- yes, yes, yes, make the President's tax cuts permanent, secure the borders, find more judges like John Roberts and Sam Alito (judges who would nibble to nothingness McCain's signature achievement, the McCain-Feingold campaign regulations). McCain wants them to take "yes" for an answer quickly, so he can get back to courting independent voters who might decide who becomes president.

Unless God decides. Or "everybody all whooped up" does.

George F. Will is a syndicated columnist with The Washington Post. His e-mail address is georgewill@washpost.com.

John McCain continues his march to the Republican presidential nomination.

Senator John McCain continued his winning ways yesterday by winning all three states in contest. He won the primaries in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia (Washington, D. C.). Meanwhile, his challenger, Gov. Mike Huckabee, vows to continue fighting -- a losing battle, if you ask me.

Join John, if you will.

An election warning to FALSE Conservatives.

Last November's state elections pitted a sitting Republican Governor, Ernie Fletcher, against a Liberal challenger, Steve Beshear. While the election was a referendum on Fletcher and his merit system fiasco, it was also about his credentials as a REAL Conservative. Remember, Fletcher's comment, which angered many in his party, that he had employed over 61% Democrats in his administration, and also his penchant for handing out millions of dollars that many people said was a ploy to salvage his doomed re-election.

These actions, including others, were enough to expose Fletcher as not a REAL Conservative. In fact, I heard Conservatives proclaim as much, and conclude that the election was between two REAL Liberals, hence giving them NO REAL choice. If you do NOT believe me, ask around, and also look at the election statistics released yesterday.

According to Trey Grayson, "Statewide turnout was 37.8% for the general election, marking the lowest turnout in modern history for a Kentucky gubernatorial election cycle."

Continuing, Trey said that "Turnout in the 2003 general election, the most recent comparable election, was 40.2%. Turnout for the 2004 and 2006 general elections were 64.7% and 49.5%, respectively."

And the counties with the highest and lowest turnouts? Franklin County had the highest turnout percentage with 59.7% of registered voters turning out to vote. Martin County had the lowest turnout percentage with 19.3%. (I guess you know who Franklin County wanted to run out of town!)

Statewide, Democrats beat out Republicans -- 40.8%, 36.2% -- and voters listed as “other” turned out at 21.6%.

So much for some people who attributed Fletcher's loss to a HUGE Democratic turnout, and a small Republican turn out!! The voting statistics prove them WRONG. That is because Democrats surpassed Republicans in voting by 4%, yet the Democrat won by nearly 20%.

Got that?