I wanted to do it, but that was back when Democrats seemed invincible and it looked for a while like no GOPer would seriously challenge Harry Reid. What a difference a year makes, huh? We’ve got a lot of people who want Harry’s job. Here are the three front-runners:

Sue Lowden. A 30 year Nevada resident (and thus, by local standards, almost a native), Lowden has been a television anchorwoman, businesswoman, philanthropist and Chair of the Nevada GOP. Lowden currently leads the crowded GOP field and, in polling, would handily defeat Reid in November.

In health care, Lowden favors the common-sense approach to reform which must include such things as tort reform and insurance portability. Low taxes and spending cuts are favored over the Democrats tax-and-spend insanity. On social issues, Lowden is a pro-life Catholic and a defender of marriage. On national defense, Lowden believes that a strong military is good for America and the world.

Danny Tarkanian. College hoops fans might find that name familiar – Danny is the son of legendary UNLV basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian. A resident of Nevada for 37 years, Danny played college basketball and is an attorney, businessman and has parlayed his family name in to the Tarkanian Basketball Academy which teaches kids the values of hard work, team spirit and good sportsmanship.

Tarkanian has actually provided a list of federal budget items ripe for cutting, thus taking the normal GOP program of tax and spending cuts a big step further. Tarkanian is also a supporter of the move to audit the Federal Reserve. Pledged to tax reductions, Tarkanian also favors tort reform, portability and inter-state purchases to help bring health care costs down. Tarkanian is pro-life, strong on the 2nd Amendment and figures that immigrants should present themselves at a US Embassy rather than just waltzing across the border.

Sharron Angle. A resident of Nevada since she was 3, and spent her career in education – including running a small, K-12 Christian school – until politics started to call her in the 1990’s.

A fierce defender of constitutional principle, Angle once sued the Governor of Nevada over his attempts to unconstitutionally raise taxes without the mandated 2/3 majority in the legislature. While that case was lost – thanks to activist judges who simply ignored the law – it marked Angle out as someone to be relied upon whenever government decides to take a short cut. Concerned not so much with the nuts and bolts of what is, after all, an unconstitutional power-grab by Reid’s ObamaCare, Angle is determined to see that the laws – all of them – be enforced in accordance our deepest constitutional principles.

So, there are the top three – I in no way wish to downplay the rest of the candidates, but space only allows a certain number. Any supporters of those candidates are welcome to state their case in the comments. Given that the primary isn’t until June, there is plenty of time for a savvy person to rise – and as such happens, we’ll take a closer look. Meanwhile, any of these three fine Republicans would be massive improvement over Harry Reid – and that is the most important thing: getting rid of Reid.

Because its becoming a nightmare for the Democrats:

Kent Hancock can’t remember tougher economic times in the two decades he’s sold used cars in California’s Central Valley.

He brings home less than half the money he cleared a few years ago and has dipped into savings to keep his business open. Hancock, 41, blames politicians for doing too little to get the economy back on track and hopes they are “sweating it a little bit. They should. It shouldn’t be a guaranteed job.”

Hancock’s frustration is evident throughout the nation’s most populous state. Just a year ago, the Democratic Party looked at California as a base for adding to its majorities in Congress. Now, it could be a the place where it loses them.

Even Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, widely viewed just six weeks ago as a shoo-in for re-election to a fourth term, now faces the toughest race in her 28 years representing California in Congress…

…Republicans…have expanded their takeover list.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who’s recruiting Republicans to challenge incumbent California Democrats, said he has no worries that the GOP will lose any of the House seats it now holds in the state. Democrats, he said, will have to focus on keeping seats in perennially competitive districts in other states.

“They have too many of their own members playing defense and needing money,” McCarthy said.

Democrats were, of course, working from the assumption that their wins in 2006 and 2008 were a positive vote in favor of Democrat policies. The truth is they were a negative vote against President Bush and, far more importantly, against business as usual in Washington. Now that Bush is gone, the only thing people have to vote against is business as usual – Democrats had about a 6 month window of opportunity in 2009 to show they were going to change things.

They didn’t. All they did was show that they are even worse than the Republicans who were rejected. It is not now a matter of can the Democrats win in 2010, but whether or not they can limit their losses to something manageable – limit them to keeping a narrow Congressional majority, that is. It is getting ever more questionable that they’ll be able to do this in the House, and there are starting to be some road maps to a GOP Senate majority, though that is still a 10-1 against prospect (much better than the 1000-1 prospect it was even 6 months ago).

As I said, 2010 is all about The People vs The Powerful – or, to use Senator Brown’s better formulation, The People vs The Machine. Anyone who can cast themselves as the agent of reform in 2010 will win unless running against the most entrenched liberals in the most overwhelmingly liberal districts in the nation – the vote for the PATRIOT Act reauthorization told the tale on how many such there are: less than 100 votes against.

2010 is getting to be very fun…

From Rasmussen:

For the second straight week, Republican candidates lead Democrats by nine points in the latest edition of the Generic Congressional Ballot.

The new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 44% would vote for their district’s Republican congressional candidate while 35% would opt for his or her Democratic opponent.

Democrats haven’t led the “generic ballot” at Rasmussen since June 21st, 2009. If this holds true though November, then it will be a very fun and interesting election night.

Democrats still can turn this around – at least to the point where GOP gains are kept to the “first midterm” norm, which would not be enough for the GOP to capture either house. To turn it around, however, would require an abandonment of ObamaCare as well as a clear move on the part of Democrats to clean up government.

You see, its not just ObamaCare and the economy driving this. What is turning the usual weakness of the “in” party in to a potential meltdown is the perception among the populace that the government is corrupt and only out for itself and the well-connected. Pelosi promised the most ethical Congress in history while Obama promised transparency and a new bi-partisanship. Not only have they not delivered on their promises, but they’ve actually made corruption and partisanship worse than before.

Trouble is, they can’t really do it – as Pelosi and Reid are hip deep in the corruption and influence peddling of DC, while Obama simply doesn’t recognize that there is actually another party out there he has to work with (Chicago has been under one-party rule for many decades, and that is where Obama learned politics). To do the things necessary to save the Democrat’s day is beyond the capability of the Democrat leadership – and thus the hocus-pocus about “party of no” and other such political tricks. They can’t change and thus earn renewed power, so they are hoping to bamboozle the people.

It won’t work – the people are awake.

So much for us becoming a party of toothless, southern knuckldraggers:

The state’s loneliest Republicans – those who languish in the navy blue regions from Northampton to Nantucket – are shaking off their years-long malaise and rebuilding a political machine in the land of Birkenstocks and Priuses.

“People are coming out of the woodwork saying, ‘We’ve been Republicans in hiding and now we want to be out and help,’ ” said Jeffrey Hopkins, chairman of the City Republican Committee in the old Democratic union stronghold of Fall River.

In the wake of Scott Brown’s victory in his Senate campaign versus Martha Coakley, a surge in interest in the GOP has come from longtime Republicans, independents, Tea Party activists and even Democrats, dazzling many organizers.

Early interest, of course, does not a resurgent party make – but each journey really does begin with the first step. Electing Senator Brown was Step One.

The plain fact of the matter is that the Democrats obtained their pow in 2006 and 2008 by flat out lying about themselves and, of course, a relentless campaign of slander against President Bush…they threw so much garbage at him that in the public mind, some of it stuck…and given the way the Congressional GOP blew it, our defeat was pretty much inevitable. But that doesn’t change the fundamental fact that only via lies were Democrats able to obtain their majority and elect Obama. The lies have now been exposed.

They ran centrist and are governing leftist. They figured that they could continually bamboozle the people until they got a solid majority completely dependent upon government, and then they’d be in forever. Didn’t work out that way – by means of the New Media grafted upon the innate distrust of government among Americans, the Democrats have been stymied.

Now comes the really hard part – hitting them with so much truth that they are wrecked as a party for a generation. Of course, key to this is doing as much as we can to clear out our own political barnacles. Most of them have already gone but we must be wary as 2010 advances that we don’t replace old RINOs with new RINOs.

We can do this – we can take our country back and return it to the Founder’s vision. If we work hard. If we keep the faith. If we remain true to what we profess.

And 2010 marches on:

Republican candidates are showing surprising financial strength in Congressional districts held by Democrats in the Northeast that party leaders have singled out as ripe for what could be critical gains in the November election.

Some of the most competitive races are taking shape in the New York metropolitan region.

In the 19th Congressional District, north of New York, the Republican challenger, Nan Hayworth, an ophthalmologist, has amassed about $519,000, slightly more than the roughly $451,000 that the Democratic incumbent, Representative John J. Hall, has in his campaign coffers…

And on it goes. Of course, money doesn’t equal victory – but after having been outspent by the Democrats in 2008, it is telling that the GOP in the Northeast is getting such traction. Remember, the leftist story line is that unless the GOP goes left, we’ll become a regional party of the South. And yet, as the GOP base has tacked further right and started to drag along the GOP leadership, Republican prospects are rising all over…including in the more liberal areas of the country.

Could it be that the left is wrong?

Could it be that the sun rises in the east?

Anyways…

The battle for November is really not even begun and we can expect Democrats to find yet new depths in the political gutter to try and derail conservatism. We won’t win this in a walkover, boys and girls: if we win, it will only be after a very hard, very long fight with determined political opponents.

But, 2010 is still getting more and more fun, all the time…

This clueless:

Let’s go through the president’s fascinating logic here, shall we? The Republican nobility has completely misrepresented the king’s intentions, thereby creating a most unfortunate situation where the peasants don’t trust him and his Democratic court anymore. And what’s more, these common folk are in such a tizzy that they have left the Republican noblemen in Congress with absolutely no wiggle room; for if these Republicans concede anything now in an effort to improve the lot for all, they will be in hot water back home.

Earth to Barack Obama: It isn’t the Republicans on Capitol Hill that have blocked your attempts to put America on the path towards government-run health care. It was the American people — the same people that punished your party in 1994 when they tried to pull this stunt the last time. And it wasn’t because they were told that it was “some wild-eyed plot to impose huge government in every aspect of [their] lives,” or that “this guy is doing all kinds of crazy stuff that’s going to destroy America.” They figured that stuff out on their own.

Obama – and the rest of the Democrats – do seem to be laboring under the assumption that the TEA Party was created and controlled by the GOP. The believe this because they know that no one on the left is permitted to form a grass roots organization without the specific permission of leftist leaders. Not understanding how the people can self-organize, our Community Organizer in Chief is all at sea about what is happening.

Obama seems to have gone to that GOP retreat in the hopes of getting the GOP to call of the dogs. To get our side to calm down the TEA Party people and allow some version of Obamacare to go through. Sorry, Barry, it can’t be done. Two reasons:

1. We don’t want to do it – or, at least, those in the GOP who want real reform rather than “bi-partisanship” don’t want to do it.

2. Couldn’t do it, even if we wanted to. If you’ve got a phone number to the Grand Poo-Bah of the TEA Party movement, you let us know…as far as we can tell, its a disparate group of patriots working independently on a common cause. If it has a leader, its Sarah Palin – but even she doesn’t call the shots.

The American people are in revolt against the government – Rasmussen’s latest polling for Presidential job approval shows a marked improvement for Obama on the “Strongly Approve” metric since the SOTU. The problem is that all he’s done is win over Democrats – Independents are less supportive now than they were before the SOTU. No one is buying the liberal line any more – and no one is fooled by MSM attempts to paint the TEA Party as some sort of extremist fringe.

The times, they are a-changing. Get used to it, liberals.

The news:

Allahpundit noted the likelihood of J.D. Hayworth’s primary challenge to John McCain last night, and today the AP makes it official … or officially non-official. While emphasizing that he didn’t want to officially declare his candidacy — which would create a set of legal obligations that he’s not quite ready to assume — Hayworth quit his radio show on air and later stated his intention to challenge McCain:

Former Arizona Congressman J.D. Hayworth says he is planning to run against John McCain for his U.S. Senate seat.

Hayworth, a Republican, told The Associated Press late Friday he stepped down as host of his radio program on KFYI-AM, a conservative radio talk show in Phoenix. Legally, he would not have been able to remain host of the program and be an active candidate. …

“We will formally announce at a later time, but we’re moving forward to challenge John McCain,” he said. “I think we all respect John. I think his place in history is secure. But after close to a quarter-century in Washington, it’s time for him to come home.”

It’s not the first time that a former member of a major-party presidential ticket found himself challenged within his party for his existing Senate seat the next cycle. The same thing happened, ironically, to one of McCain’s closest friends in the upper chamber, Joe Lieberman. Lieberman lost his primary to Ned Lamont, who mostly self-financed from his personal fortune. Lieberman won the seat in the general election by running as an independent, but still caucuses with Democrats, even though Lieberman campaigned for McCain in 2008.

This is why McCain is so keen to have Brown and Palin campaign for him – but Hayworth does make a strong point just in the fact that McCain has been there so long: perhaps it is time to allow someone else to take a hand at it? None of us are indispensable and the times have changed mightily since McCain first came to the Senate. Maybe its time that Arizona had someone more in tune with the current state of affairs?

I respect John McCain and I voted for him in 2008 – but simply because he is a Republican Senator doesn’t mean he should always be a Republican Senator. McCain should ponder the way things are and whether or not he’s really the best man to represent Arizona’s interests in what will be a revolutionary political period.

UPDATE: At Noonan for Nevada I expand on the concept of ending “career politicians”.

The news:

One is a former vice presidential candidate who has been vilified in much of the press. The other is a former two-term vice president who has been celebrated in much of the press. So which is more respected by the public at large?

In the Wall Street Journal/NBC poll released a few days ago, pollsters Peter Hart and Bill McInturff asked, “I’m going to mention some people who have served in public life at some point in the past decade. Please tell me which one or two of these people, if any, you have the most regard and respect for.” The list was filled with the predictable answers. The president was on top, named by 28 percent of respondents. Colin Powell was also way up there. But the striking thing is that Sarah Palin, after all the criticism that has been directed at her, finished tied for sixth place, respected by 13 percent of respondents, and Al Gore, after all the praise that has been directed at him, was in eighth place, respected by eight percent. (The poll was taken just before the global warming fiasco in Copenhagen, which seems unlikely to have a positive effect Gore’s ratings.)

Caveat: being better respected than Al Gore is akin to being better respected than a crazed chimpanzee – but, hey, the MSM is what set up this contest.

I give some thoughts on this over at Nevada News and Views

Pay attention, Democrats:

…Ensign refuses to bow out and step down and Doug Hampton has been unable to gain ground in forcing him out – especially with no one apparently pursuing the matter aggressively in any kind of official capacity.

It appears now that the only way for Hampton to bring Johnny Casino down is if his wife, Cindy Hampton, finally comes forward and speaks. If she validates her husband’s story and says she felt pressured in the situation in any way thanks to Ensign’s power and position….it’ll be lights out for Nevada’s self-righteous/self-absorbed Republican U.S. Senator.

Speaking of which, in response to the Nightline story last evening, Ensign released only a short statement, saying that Hampton’s allegations “are full of half-truths and untruths.”

Really, John?

In that case maybe you’d do your constituents the favor of appearing before the Nevada media and answering some legitimate questions, such as, “Exactly which allegations Doug Hampton made are half-truths and which ones are untruths and exactly why are they untrue?” Or are you just going to continue stonewalling us?

You can contrast this to the fact that after Barney Frank was found to have paid a prostitute for sex, hired him as a staffer, moved him in to his house and wrote letters on his behalf to the parole board he was re-elected with 66% of the vote in 1992 and has been continually re-elected since then by wide margins. Ensign: creepy guy who acted immorally. Frank: creepy guy who acted immorally. Ensign: roundly condemned by his fellow Republicans. Frank: lauded to the skies by his fellow Democrats. What is wrong with this picture?

This was the point of Caucus of Corruption – not that there isn’t corruption in the GOP, but that in contrast to the GOP, Democrats rarely call their own to account, and then only when their erring members risk losing an election. We really do have to fight corruption in politics – but we won’t get anywhere until Democrats get on board.

Politico reports on the recent Republican Governors Association meeting:

While Republicans posted two hard-fought gubernatorial victories on Nov. 3, McDonnell’s path to victory is the one that most encourages the GOP, a remarkable case of a social conservative who made his name in politics as an abortion opponent yet managed to reverse a Democratic trend in Virginia and shellack his opponent by nearly 18 percent while largely steering clear of cultural issues.

As rejuvenated GOP governors gathered at a resort outside Austin for their annual strategy session there was little doubt who they wanted to spotlight. McDonnell was shown off at nearly every public event, paraded before the reporters, consultants and lobbyists here as the example of how Republicans can find swing state success in the Obama era.

There are two lessons we can take out of the McDonnell victory:

1. Run away from social issues and talk up the economy.

2. Remain firm on social issues but also hammer the Democrats on the economy and government reform.

If we take “1″, we’ll lose. While some people of RINOish tendencies might want to pretend they can win without social conservative support, the plain fact of the matter is that McDonnell won his crushing victory because he had on board social conservatives, economic conservatives and independents who don’t feel strongly either way, but who like to vote for people who appear trustworthy – had McDonnell abandoned his social conservatism, he might not have won at all, and if he did win, it would have been by a narrow margin.

So, there is a “McDonnell Path” to victory for the GOP – but it requires courage; the courage to stand fast for what one believes is right while also working hard to appeal to people who might not be with you on all issues, but are open to supporting you because of the plans you bring to the table.

I keep reporting this because it is becoming astounding:

Republican candidates maintain a six-point advantage over Democrats in the latest edition of the Generic Congressional Ballot.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 44% would vote for their district’s Republican congressional candidate while 38% would opt for his or her Democratic opponent.

In my political experience – which goes back more than two decades – I’ve never seen the GOP leading in the “generic ballot” either by such a wide margin, nor over such a long period of time. The normal expectation is for a bit of flux in such matters – especially at a time like this when everything is up in the air and the GOP lacks firm leadership – but all we’re seeing for months now is the GOP maintaining an edge. And do keep in mind that these polls usually understate GOP strength.

Of course its still way early and of course 2010 can turn on a lot of different things – but right now I’m beginning to wonder if we should start thinking in terms of a big victory? It’ll have to be fought for, and fought for very hard…but if we do fight hard, why can we not score a victory of historic proportions? Perhaps the tide is not just turning in our favor, but that a GOP wave is building?

Time – and our actions – will tell.

UPDATE: And even liberal pollsters are picking up on Obama’s decline.

Only a couple months behind the curve, but better late than never:

Republicans have moved ahead of Democrats by 48% to 44% among registered voters in the latest update on Gallup’s generic congressional ballot for the 2010 House elections, after trailing by six points in July and two points last month.

Rasmussen has it a 43/37 split in favor of the GOP – and Rasmussen is polling “likely voters”. Bottom line: the GOP is gaining strength as Democrats screw up everything. Question: will the GOP leadership put together the necessary message and candidates to capitalize on this? Remember, we’re not called “the stupid party”, for nothing.

This, I think, can now been seen as a consistent trend – the GOP is leading, thus far, in the overall 2010 contest:

Republican candidates have stretched their lead over Democrats to six points in the Generic Congressional Ballot.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 43% would vote for their district’s Republican congressional candidate while 37% would opt for his or her Democratic opponent. Republicans have held the lead for over four months now.

Voters not affiliated with either party continue to heavily favor Republicans, 43% to 20%.

its in those Independents where our 2009 victories came from, and the more Obama, Pelosi and Reid push left, the more those Independents will swing behind us.

Krauthammer gets it very right:

…November ‘08 was one-shot, one-time, never to be replicated. Nor was November ‘09 a realignment. It was a return to the norm — and definitive confirmation that 2008 was one of the great flukes in American political history.

The irony of 2009 is that the anti-Democratic tide overshot the norm — deeply blue New Jersey, for example, elected a Republican governor for the first time in 12 years — because Democrats so thoroughly misread 2008 and the mandate they assumed it bestowed. Obama saw himself as anointed by a watershed victory to remake American life. Not letting the cup pass from his lips, he declared to Congress only five weeks after his swearing-in his “New Foundation” for America — from remaking the one-sixth of the American economy that is health care to massive government regulation of the economic lifeblood that is energy.

Moreover, the same conventional wisdom that proclaimed the dawning of a new age last November dismissed the inevitable popular reaction to Obama’s hubristic expansion of government, taxation, spending and debt — the tea party demonstrators, the town hall protesters — as a raging rabble of resentful reactionaries, AstroTurf-phony and Fox News-deranged.

Some rump…

The stars aligned perfectly for the Democrats in 2008 – there was not one additional thing which could have been added to give them a better advantage. And yet their vote total, while a solid win, was fairly modest. The sort of result you’d expect from two evenly matched parties who slugged it out with enthusiasm. Actually, the GOP was in terrible shape in 2008 – short on money, lacking enthusiasm, with an unexciting standard-bearer; and yet, had just a couple things gone right, McCain would be President right now.

But Obama and his Democrats choose to treat their victory as a mandate for change – and not just a mandate for any, old change, but for very ardently leftist change. This in spite of the fact that one of the prime reasons they won was because they hid their leftist agenda behind a fog of centrist rhetoric and the MSM played cover for them. They didn’t win on a leftist platform, but immediately proceeded to govern on one. The reaction we’ve seen is completely natural – the people are not leftist; never have been, never will be. We’re Americans.

Added to this and intensifying the effect has been the stunning incompetence of President Obama. I was discussing this with a friend yesterday and our hope is that Obama is a puppet…because if he’s not, then he’s just a plain and simple idiot. If Obama is lucky, hardly anyone saw that presser in the wake of the Ft Hood attack – my wife saw it live and was just disgusted by it; listening to it on the radio later I was stunned at the complete obtuseness of the man. To talk up Indians while America is in shock over mass murder is, well, just the most amazingly dumb thing imaginable. But this isn’t the first time such things have happened. I’m actually a bit worried that Obama simply will not get the hang of being President and that we’ll be stuck with a moving disaster until January of 2013.

Be that as it may, the playing field has tilted back towards the center/right. But it has not tilted back towards the GOP. The Republican party still has a long way to go to earn the trust and respect of the American people – even though the GOP is likely to score some impressive gains next year, it won’t matter much unless the people actually trust the GOP to do the right thing, once back in power. The people are in the process of taking back their government – our job, as Republicans, is to simply assist them in this task and then carry out the long-needed reforms being demanded. We do that, and we’ll route the left for good in this nation.

Interesting:

Illinois Rep. Mark Kirk penned a memo to Republican poobah Fred Malek hoping to secure an endorsement from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for his Senate candidacy, according to a copy of the memo obtained by the Fix.

After noting that Palin will be in Chicago later this month to appear on “Oprah”, Kirk writes that “the Chicago media will focus on one key issue: Does Gov[ernor] Palin oppose Congressman Mark Kirk’s bid to take the Obama Senate seat for the Republicans?”

Kirk goes on to write that he is hoping for something “quick and decisive” from Palin about the race, perhaps to the effect of: “Voters in Illinois have a key opportunity to take Barack Obama’s Senate seat. Congressman Kirk is the lead candidate to do that.”

Malek confirmed the authenticity of the memo in an e-mail exchange with the Fix.

Kirk’s memo is tangible evidence of the power of Palin’s endorsement in a Republican primary. Kirk, a moderate by voting record in the House, is clearly very concerned about the negative impact a Palin endorsement of one of his primary opponents could have on his chances at being the party’s nominee for the seat being vacated by appointed Sen. Roland Burris (D).

Just the first instance of this, boys and girls – without TEA Party (and Sarah Palin is a TEA Party hero) support, any moderate to RINO GOPer out there might have a lot of trouble both getting nominated, and then winning in the Fall. Combinations and calculations are adjusting out there.

To Nevada Republicans, especially, but to all Republicans who are crowing loud today – Don’t get too confident.

The TEA Party laid down a marker regarding NY-23:

We are extremely disappointed that the Republican Party (and leaders like Newt Gingrich) has missed the message of the Tea Parties and continues to take conservative voters for granted. We applaud all courageous statesmen (Fred Thompson, Michelle Bachmann, and Dick Armey) and call on other GOP officials to put America’s values over traditional, often corrupt and morally bankrupt, power structures.

I understand the anger – in fact, I agree in principle with it. On the other hand, we need to have a care here. I’m a Republican and it will only by via the Republican Party that our nation will be rescued from Obama’s socialism and returned to our Founders’ constitutional republic. The Republican Party must stop recruiting RINOs on the theory that any “R” will do. The TEA Party movement must learn to be selective in expressing outrage.

As regards NY-23, this was (and is) an excellent means for the TEA Party to show the GOP establishment just how outraged the base is and how we’re not going to take having RINO’s foisted upon us by Beltway insiders who are afraid to fight it out in the realm of ideas. But to take some of the GOP establishment’s actions regarding NY-23 and apply it to the entirety of the GOP leadership is suicidal. Yes, Gingrich should have thought a bit harder – but he’s still one of us, and if we’re to get in to the game of condemnation for the slightest error, we might as well pack it in, go home and get ready for socialism. Meanwhile, in contrast to Gingrich there are many establishment GOPers who made the right choice – making blanket condemnations of the GOP for the failure of some just means we’d be cutting off the best of the best at the knees.

While our hero Barry Goldwater correctly noted that extremism in defense of liberty is no vice, there is a vice in being intransigent. Don’t oppose just to oppose and don’t fly off the handle and condemn just because of a momentary lack of purity. Explain what you want; advise the erring why they’re wrong; work very hard for people who do get it – but leave the political suicide stuff at the door.

New Rasmussen survey:

For the first time in recent years, voters trust Republicans more than Democrats on all 10 key electoral issues regularly tracked by Rasmussen Reports. The GOP holds double-digit advantages on five of them.

Republicans have nearly doubled their lead over Democrats on economic issues to 49% to 35%, after leading by eight points in September.

The GOP also holds a 54% to 31% advantage on national security issues and a 50% to 31% lead on the handling of the war in Iraq.

But voters are less sure which party they trust more to handle government ethics and corruption, an issue that passed the economy in voter importance last month. Thirty-three percent (33%) trust Republicans more while 29% have more confidence in Democrats. Another 38% are undecided. Last month, the parties were virtually tied on the issue.

As the economy worsens – or, at best fails to improve – that last issue will become crucial. The GOP was justifiably hammered in 2006 for corruption – now the Democrats are in charge and more and more people are realizing that while the GOP had corrupt members, Democrats have an endemic problem with corruption coupled with a complete unwillingness to do anything about it (at least we GOPers gave our corrupt members the boot). In the normal course of events, the GOP would have picked up 20-25 House seats next year – a bad economy, a corrupt government and a near-revolutionary ferment in the body politic might make things vastly different.

It will still take GOP leadership to translate all of the elements in to smashing GOP victory – but the ground is being laid, the Democrats are being exposed…and all we have to do is summon the courage and conviction to do what is right.