I just got this email from Mike Huckabee…

Last night was a reminder of what a tough year this will be for Republicans. The loss of the Congressional seat in Mississippi was tough. We had a great candidate, but the Democrat very effectively ran as a pro life, pro 2nd amendment conservative. I’m convinced that for the GOP to have wins this year we have to focus on specific issues and not party building (for us) or party bashing (against them).

What do you think the GOP needs to do to reverse the slide in support and start winning elections? LINK

You know, Mike. A few months ago, you spent a great deal of time talking about Vertical Politics: policies and issues which were neither right nor left, but were about lifting everyone up. Is was an effective message. We conservatives truly believe that conservative principles are the very essence of Vertical Politics. The abandonment of conservative principles by the Republican Party is the main reason for the election losses.

There’s more.

High gas prices, the war, and the overall general funk that I tie up in a neat little ball called “Bush Fatigue.” The general public blames the Republicans for all of the ills in the world, and the President won’t defend himself or the Party. And even when he tries, he is so inarticulate that we cringe every time he steps up to the microphone.

Mike, we’ve been waiting to go on offense since the budget battle of ‘96. But, one by one, we’ve watched our leadership get picked off by a sex or money scandal, and all our time has been spent on defense. And then we get junk coming out of the Congress like Foley, Abramoff, Delay, Ney, and Cunningham… and uncontrolled spending, and bigger and more obtrusive government programs … illegal immigration out the wazoo, and the President, as well as our presumptive nominee, on record as supporting a path to citizenship for those who have entered here illegally (just doing jobs Americans won’t do, my foot), even going so far as to tie the hands of the border enforcement agents charged with a near impossible and thankless task. The fact that Compean and Ramos are still in a jail cell irks us to no end.

The fact is, we’re mad, Mike. But not so much at the Democrats. They aren’t doing anything that we don’t expect out of them. They’ve behaved disgustingly, and continue to do so. No, we’re mad at the Republicans for not carrying the fight to the Democrats. We vote for men and women who promise to fight the good fight when they are back home campaigning, but when they get to DC, they seem to be interested only in being liked by the opposition, lining their pockets, or getting their groove on. Our elected representatives have refused to stand up and fight for our principles, and we don’t see any real advantage to returning them to DC.

I’m going to tell you something else, Mike. If John McCain doesn’t get off this global warming kick, he’s going to need a heck of a lot of crossover voters in order to win — because there are a whole bunch of us who will not vote for him if he stabs us in the back. Again.

from NYT, via Free Republic…

WASHINGTON, July 28 — Two summers ago, on a Congressional trip to Estonia, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton astonished her traveling companions by suggesting that the group do what one does in the Baltics: hold a vodka-drinking contest.

Delighted, the leader of the delegation, Senator John McCain, quickly agreed. The after-dinner drinks went so well — memories are a bit hazy on who drank how much — that Mr. McCain, an Arizona Republican, later told people how unexpectedly engaging he found Mrs. Clinton to be. “One of the guys” was the way he described Mrs. Clinton, a New York Democrat, to some Republican colleagues.

Mrs. Clinton and Mr. McCain went on to develop an amiable if professionally calculated relationship. They took more official trips together, including to Iraq. They worked together on the Senate Armed Services Committee and on the issue of global warming. They made a joint appearance last year on “Meet the Press,” interacting so congenially that the moderator, Tim Russert, joked about their forming a “fusion ticket.”

Politics being what it is, there is more friction than fusion. As the 2008 presidential campaign begins to take shape, with Mr. McCain and Mrs. Clinton at the top of the polls for their parties’ nominations, they are increasingly underscoring their differences on issues like the war in Iraq and port security. Advisers to Mr. McCain have put a stop to his inviting Mrs. Clinton on trips.

Whether their friendship is based on anything other than the respect of one political professional for another, or the opportunity to strike a tone of bipartisanship for public consumption, is unclear. But the interplay between the two senators, both well known and both with compelling personal narratives and a knack for infuriating their own parties’ bases, could determine the tone of the 2008 presidential race and make it less personally vicious than the last two campaigns.

Read more

The author and chief proponent of much of the tangled web of campaign finance rules and regulations, has decided that he can continue write the rules as they apply to his campaign while on the fly.

Last summer, McCain asked to participate in the public financing system when his campaign hit the skids after the immigration amnesty debacle. After his request was approved by the FEC, he was scheduled to receive some $5.8 million. The money, however, would not come without strings attached. The restraints on fundraising as well as the state-specific spending limits imposed by the law, would mean that McCain has been in, or is close to, violation of the law since Super Tuesday.

According to campaign finance lawyer Marc Elias, “At this point, (McCain) is in the matching fund system. Right now, there is no mechanism for the commission to turn off the spigot.”

Team McCain has decided to make an aggressive move, “ignore the limits and hope that when the FEC is eventually reconstituted, it will ‘exercise its prosecutorial discretion and dismiss any complaint’ over a plain violation of the law” source. “I will make no further requests for matching-fund payment certification and will not accept any matching-fund payments including the initial amount and other amounts certified by the commission in connections with my campaign’s previous submissions,” said McCain in a letter to the FEC last week.

It may indeed prove to be a successful maneuver. It is interesting that in addition to supporting Global Warmists, McCain’s behavior reveals yet another commonality with Albert Gore. When confronted with a clear violation of campaign finance laws, he seems to be claiming, “There is no controlling legal authority that says this was in violation of law.”

See Also: McCain Walk vs McCain Talk

Here is a great explanation of Defending the Right to Keep and Bear Arms from Mike Huckabee.

Here is how “The Maverick” John McCain Defends the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

See the difference?

Now, Go Forth, and VOTE!!!