I like Sarah Palin. I voted for her. I might (but only might) vote for her again in the future. But I do not feel guided by this endorsement.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has endorsed Rick Perry for re-election, calling him the "true conservative" in a primary election showdown with fellow Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison.

Palin, who electrified the GOP base as the party's vice presidential nominee last year, has strong support among the party's social conservatives. Her endorsement appeared aimed at undercutting Hutchison's appeal with GOP women. Both groups will be important in picking the party's nominee in next year's Republican primary.

Sorry, Sarah, but Rick Perry lost my vote when he decided to play doctor with every little girl in Texas. He lost my vote with his wishy-washiness on border issues. He lost my vote when he lied about property tax reform and implemented a ruinous business tax. None of that is particularly conservative in my book. IÂ’ll stand with Kay Bailey Hutchison instead.

Posted by: Greg at 01:03 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I have long been a Michael Steele fan. He is, dare I say it, my kind of Republican – a guy who is interested in reaching out to everyone, regardless of gender, ethnicity, or religion, without compromising on the essentials of conservatism. To the degree that his race matters to me, it is a plus – if it helps him to reach out to African-Americans who are skeptical of the GOP, that makes it a positive factor – but it certainly is not a negative to me and most Republicans with whom I have worked over the year. I supported him for GOP chairman, and am pleased by his victory.

And I must say that I like what I hear from him in this new position. We Republicans have needed a chairman who has grassroots support and the courage to say what it really means to be a Republican – that we are a party that supports human life, civil rights and civil liberties, and a strong national defense.

Posted by: Greg at 01:14 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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And counting.

It is easy to project yourself as a clean politician after making your debut in South Side Chicago with buddies like Rahm Emanuel. US president Obama has appointed more than 17 lobbyists after talking big on anti-lobbyist Governance and rooting corruption out of the American Government.

And Barry Hussein has only been president for 14 days – meaning that he has given more than 1.2 waivers a day. At this rate he will be employing every lobbyist in Washington by the time the 2012 election rolls around.

And then there is the pair of tax cheats and the guy who urged Clinton to give dicey pardons.

In other words, this is shaping up to be one of the dirtiest administrations ever.

Is it time to appoint the special prosecutor yet?

H/T Hot Air

UPDATE: Here's a partial list -- though it doesn't include some of the appointees or Tom Daschle, who was a lobbyist in all but name.

Here are former lobbyists Obama has tapped for top jobs:

• Eric Holder, attorney general nominee, was registered to lobby until 2004 on behalf of clients including Global Crossing, a bankrupt telecommunications firm [now confirmed].


• Tom Vilsack, secretary of agriculture nominee, was registered to lobby as recently as last year on behalf of the National Education Association.


• William Lynn, deputy defense secretary nominee, was registered to lobby as recently as last year for defense contractor Raytheon, where he was a top executive.


• William Corr, deputy health and human services secretary nominee, was registered to lobby until last year for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a non-profit that pushes to limit tobacco use.


• David Hayes, deputy interior secretary nominee, was registered to lobby until 2006 for clients, including the regional utility San Diego Gas & Electric.


• Mark Patterson, chief of staff to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, was registered to lobby as recently as last year for financial giant Goldman Sachs.


• Ron Klain, chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden, was registered to lobby until 2005 for clients, including the Coalition for Asbestos Resolution, U.S. Airways, Airborne Express and drug-maker ImClone.


• Mona Sutphen, deputy White House chief of staff, was registered to lobby for clients, including Angliss International in 2003.


• Melody Barnes, domestic policy council director, lobbied in 2003 and 2004 for liberal advocacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the American Constitution Society and the Center for Reproductive Rights.


• Cecilia Munoz, White House director of intergovernmental affairs, was a lobbyist as recently as last year for the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic advocacy group.


• Patrick Gaspard, White House political affairs director, was a lobbyist for the Service Employees International Union.


• Michael Strautmanis, chief of staff to the presidentÂ’s assistant for intergovernmental relations, lobbied for the American Association of Justice from 2001 until 2005.

Posted by: Greg at 12:51 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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“Obama 1260” is no more – the victim of ratings so low that they were virtually unmeasureable.

Program Director Greg Tantum says he thought the station could work because of enthusiasm over Obama, but that ratings collapsed to a level that could not be measured after the election. But ratings nearly doubled, he says, at...conservative station, WTNT, which features Laura Ingraham and Bill Bennett. Tantum said he will move Schultz to WTNT to give him another shot.

In other words, it isn’t that commercial stations are not trying to program liberal talk – it is just that no one wants to listen. Good grief – if it cannot succeed in reliably blue Washington, DC and the liberal suburbs in Maryland and Virginia, is there really a market for such programming?

And notice – the station manager is trying to keep one of the liberal hosts going by moving him to an existing conservative talk station. My guess? Ed Schultz will not go over well there. You know, sort of like a decision to program a bit of baroque chamber music on a hip-hop station. After all, that isn’t what the listeners are tuning in for.

H/T Hot Air, NewsBusters

Posted by: Greg at 11:45 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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ItÂ’s awful, isnÂ’t it, that President George W. Bush and his invited guests spent Super Bowl Sunday chowing down on $100 steaks in a White House heated to sauna temperatures while people were freezing to death in Kentucky due to a natural disaster to which FEMA has not been dispatched.

Oh, excuse me – that is President Barack Obama.

Tell me – will any white entertainer have the “courage” of Kanye West and make the claim that this FEMA non-response is because Barack Obama hates white people who vote Republican? Of course not – that would be RRRRAAAACCCCIIIISSSSTTTT!!!!

The Anchoress points out the non-response of the Obama administration to this humanitarian catastrophe – and the media’s willing complicity in it.

Posted by: Greg at 11:43 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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On Good Morning America, Diane Sawyer took a pair of soundbites, uttered nearly a week apart, to make it appear that Rush Limbaugh’s animosity towards Barack Obama is based upon race. In doing so, she took them out of context – and ignored words that made it clear that ideology, not ethnicity, were at the heart of his opposition to Obama.

On Monday morning, ABC’s “Good Morning America” gave Limbaugh’s “I hope he fails” comment a racial slant by editing it in a deliberately misleading way.

In an interview with Sen. John McCain on Monday, anchor Diane Sawyer described Limbaugh’s “I hope he fails” comment as “another big issue in the news.”

She then tossed to a sound bite comprised of two separate comments made five days apart, which ABC joined together. The edited comment made it sound like Limbaugh wants Obama to fail because heÂ’s black.

HereÂ’s the ABC version of LimbaughÂ’s comment:

Limbaugh: “I don’t need 400 words. I need four. I hope he fails.”
[Edit]
“We are being told that we have to hope he succeeds, because his father was black, because this is the first black president, we’ve got to accept this.”

Looks damning – until one notes that the entire monologue from which the first snippet was pulled dealt with the policy implications of the Obamist platform, and why he views it as bad for America. Indeed, the words which followed indicated that “ideas and policies are what count for me, not his skin color, not his past, not whatever ties he doesn't have to being down with the struggle, all of that's irrelevant to me.” That certainly undercuts the racial argument raised by the creative editing job – which is why those words were left on the cutting room floor.

Posted by: Greg at 11:40 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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