Gingrich not running

I made a somewhat lukewarm prediction last week that Gingrich would not run. Looks like that prediction came true http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,298597,00.html.

Now, on to winning lottery numbers....

Early '08 Observations

I thought I'd post a few comments on my perceptions of the Republican ground game here in Minnesota, as well as a speculation on a oft-named potential Republican candidate.

In terms of the ground game, as far as this activist can tell, only one campaign has one - Romney(1). In the past two weeks, I've gotten two calls from their campaign. The first was from someone purporting to be Scott Romney, Mitt's brother. The approach was interesting. He wanted to know if I had any questions about Romney's position on the issues, or had any other concerns that he could help me with. We probably spent about 10 minutes talking mostly about Romney's healthcare initiative. I told him that there were things about his guy that I liked, and other things that concerned me, but that I was impressed with the fact that he had people already calling activists, and even more so that it was family. This was clearly an informational call, with only a soft sell.

The second call was from someone asking more directly for me to get involved. They started out by saying that Brian Sullivan, Evie Axdahl, and Jack & Annette Meeks had signed on with the Romney campaign. I don't know Evie well, other than in her role as one of our two RNC representatives, but the conservative credentials of Sullivan and the Meeks are not in doubt. I declined this invitation, but it does show that they are working to get organized and lock up activists. One other note: The 'Mormon' thing got brought up by the caller in a very casual way, and I suspect this was done on purpose to gauge if that was an issue for me.

A final speculation. Assuming that the Meeks have signed on with Romney, one might be able to conclude that Gingrich, for all his talk about getting in, is not. Annette worked for Gingrich and is purported to have a good relationship with him. I've got to think that if Gingrich was serious, the Meeks would not have signed on with another candidate at this point. Another conclusion that might be drawn is that they didn't think he could win even if he did get in, a belief held by many, including this commentator. Then again, neither of these could be true, which is why it's merely conjecture.

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(1) I'm sure that our local Paulite will register in with comments about the Ron Paul ground game, and I look forward to those comments. It's merely that 'this' activist has not been contacted by anyone from the campaign with the exception of the Stebbinator.

Rammer Retirement

I'm sure I'll have more to say about this, but for starters...

If nominated, I will not run; if elected, I will not serve; if served, I will either drink, show up in court or both, depending on the circumstances.

Overlawyerd II

I was listening for 2 minutes last night to Hugh Hewitt interview Andy McCarthy about the new Attorney General nominee, what's-his-name.

McCarthy was full of praise for what's-his-name because what's-his-name was the judge at the blind sheik trial and McCarthy was the prosecutor. McCarthy said that since it was a 9 month trial with 2 years of pre-trial motions and a month of sentencing hearings, he got to know what's-his-name very well and now knows he's a terrific nominee.

My response: Hold the phone? A 9 month trial with 2 years of pre-trial motions and a month of post trial hearings? Both McCarthy and what's-his-name are infected with legalitis, a horrible disease that causes you to lose all common sense. This is not a good disease for an Attorney General to have.
No one deserves a 9 month trial. Society does not have the right to commandeer any jurors for that long and no defendant is entitled to an unlimited amount of society's resources to adjudicate his guilt or innocence.

Any judge with common sense would say to the prosecution, "you have a week to make your case. Any case that can't be made in a week is bogus." Then to the defense, "you have a week to make your case." If some higher court says this violates anyone's rights, then that court is nuts too.

Overlawyered

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T'was the fall before the election and all through the House..

The elections were filled with fewer RINO's you see

because Ramstad announced his retirement from office to many a Conservative's glee!

Now the question begs on who will the next candidate be,
Festivus or the Sometime Scribbler de?