Beat Hampton!

I'll be watching at Bennigan's over at Seven Corners. Let's just hope that terrible performance against ECU on Sunday was a wake-up call. I think this team got to reading their own press clippings and failed to bring it, something you rarely see out of a Larranaga-coached team. GMU should have crushed those Pirates by 35. Now let's take it out on another crew of Pirates tonight.

Gilmore For Senate

First post since the Advance. Had a wonderful time, met some great folks and worked the Hunter table and chatted it up in the various hospitality suites. Saturday night after the speeches and Straw Poll, I visited Gov. Gilmore's suite. He'd given the best speech I've seen out of him earlier. I've long been a skeptic of Jim Gilmore, due to the budget fight with the Senate when he was governor, and his job at the RNC, and most recently his Presidential run. Then I spoke with him Saturday evening in person at his suite. He was very complimentary of Duncan, and we eventually got to his Senate race. He was very clear that he intends to make a strong effort up here in Fairfax, and I said "All we need to do is get 40% in Fairfax County, and we win!" His response? "I won Fairfax both times in statewide races, I'll win it again. I want 51%!" He was at his best, really engaging people individually.

I was very disappointed in Saxman. Why show up and give a speech saying you're not running? I don't get it. Was he expecting us all to hail him as our savior, then when we didn't, he got cold feet? I doubt he came to the Advance solely to promote his Kitchen Table PAC. Running a statewide race is actual work, Del. Saxman. A lot of it. Remember that if you plan to run in 2009.

As it stands, we have our candidate, Jim Gilmore. I plan to do everything I can to help him. Okay, Mark Warner, let's fight. I think your coronation may be disrupted.

The Republican YouTube Debate

Okay, first off... I cannot believe Anderson Cooper & CNN did not know that Kerr was a Clinton plant. Most of you know how I feel about that con artist Romney, but that was just low. As if we needed any more evidence of CNN being part and parcel of the Democratic establishment (other than Lou Dobbs and Glenn Beck.)

Giuliani and Romney pummeled each other, to my delight. Hopefully they'll expose each as the charlatans they both are and we'll get an actual conservative as the nominee. Huckabee pulled his aw-shucks/man-of-God routine off pretty well tonight, bu his time is coming when he takes a hammering for being the big-government loving Douchebag Conservative that he is. Thompson looked slightly off somehow tonight. Tancredo got about two seconds of screen time, and it wasn't memorable. Just like every other debate, Hunter crushed it when he had the opportunity, but he had precious little time, barely more than Tanc. Ron Paul was his usual slightly unhinged self, but he brings a working knowledge of the founding principles of our Republic, and I respect that. I'm glad he's in the race, it's such a shame he doesn't understand the threat we're facing from Islam. McCain was pretty strong, especially against Romney on toture. I don't happen to agree with him, but he was impressive.

Douchebag Conservatism

Do you know who this man is? He is one of the primary exponents of what I will hereby deem "DOUCHEBAG CONSERVATISM." Douchebag conservatism is a false brand of conservatism advanced by bleeding heart types in the Republican party such as Sam Brownback, Rick Santorum, Mike Huckabee and yes, George W. Bush.

This ideology makes the claim that unconstitutional expansions of the federal government like Medicare, Social Security and the Dept. of Education are somehow "conservative." It somehow has the idea that it's the job of the federal government to do charity work, republican and Constitutional principles be damned. This is all somewhat perplexing for real conservatives.

The whole idea of conservatism melds liberty and limited government with traditionalist ideas. The Goldwater coalition was surely not built on the idea of massive foreign aid to needy third world banana republics and dictatorships, or on having the federal government morphing into Catholic Charities or the United Way, either globally or domestically. As many others have said, if the Republican party starts acting like the Democrats, with ever-growing goodie giveaways (witness the Medicare prescription drug boondoogle Bush has given us) to compete with those proposed by the Dems, the American people will elect the genuine article. But not according to Mr. Gerson, writing in the Post. He thinks the real conservatives are the problem, and we'd better wake up and turn left, or our party will become irrelevant.

No, Mike. Neocons and theocons like yourself are the problem. Stop trying to redefine conservatism and get on the same page as the rest of us, ro stop trying to pass yourself off as such. The answer is to fight the growth of the New Deal welfare state, not just say you can manage it better or try to buy votes with federal largesse. The Constitutional purview of the federal government is to handle national defense, foreign relations, mediate disputes between states, deliver the mail, standardize currency, guarantee liberty, and for the most part otherwise, just sit down and shut up.

Greetings, folks...

Here you'll find my ruminations mostly on politics, but also on sports, and whatever other issues of the day catch my fancy.