GOP

Rick Davis on the line up of speakers for the GOP convention:

"I think one of the things that is important, especially for John McCain, as unique a politician as he is, is to demonstrate the diversity and differences of ideology I would say of our party," Davis said. "I think one of the things that people forget about is we are not a very monolithic as a party. We really want to show some of that."'

Let's see this melting pot of "diversity" Davis is talking about:

Looks like a bunch of old white guys to me. And what about the differences in ideology? The only ideology these guys have is wanting more wars. Yeah this is a shining example of the GOP platform - kill everyone in the name of whatever excuse they can make up!

Good, now can the Democrats move to remove him from their caucus?

It looks like a lot of Republican Senators are scared to be seen with their ilk:

Nine of 12 targeted Republicans running in the most competitive Senate races this fall are either skipping the Republican convention in St. Paul, Minn., or have not decided whether to attend.

Among those who will not attend are Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, who is not close to presumptive presidential nominee Sen. John McCain of Arizona, and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who is a McCain loyalist. Stevens and Collins will use the convention week to focus on their campaigns.

Also sending regrets is former Rep. Bob Schaffer of Colorado, running for the seat being vacated by retiring GOP Sen. Wayne Allard.

Six others -- Sens. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, John Sununu of New Hampshire, Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina and Gordon Smith of Oregon and challengers John Kennedy of Louisiana and Rep. Steve Pearce of New Mexico are still on the fence. Their spokesman offered responses ranging from "there are no plans yet" to "no decisions have been made."

That's an interesting list. Even though they won't be in attendance at the America Destroyer Republican Convention, we all know they are still very much in love with the party.

That's not the words of some pundit or blogger, that is the word from past and present GOP leadership:

Shellshocked House Republicans got warnings from leaders past and present Tuesday: Your party’s message isn’t good enough to prevent disaster in November, and neither is the NRCC’s money.

The double shot of bad news had one veteran Republican House member worrying aloud that the party’s electoral woes — brought into sharp focus by Woody Jenkins’ loss to Don Cazayoux in Louisiana on Saturday — have the House Republican Conference splitting apart in “everybody for himself” mode.

Gingrich also has a message for them - watch going negative:

Gingrich said Republicans cannot rely on the popularity of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, to carry them to victory in November. And he warned that attacks on Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and on the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s former pastor, could backfire.

“The Republican brand has been so badly damaged that if Republicans try to run an anti-Obama, anti-Rev. Wright or, if Sen. Clinton wins, anti-Clinton campaign, they are simply going to fail,” Gingrich said. “This model has already been tested with disastrous results.”

Perhaps the Clinton campaign should have listened to Gingrich. People are tired of these sideshows in politics - they are worried about things that really affect them.

When a group of former White House aides formed a political advocacy group called Freedom's Watch last summer, its initial wave of ads featured battered Iraq war veterans pleading for support for President Bush's "surge" of troops. Last month, the theme changed dramatically as the same group splashed dark, grainy images of illegal immigrants across television screens in northern Ohio, attacking a Democratic candidate's position on the divisive domestic issue. Freedom's Watch has loudly announced that there will be no limits to what it might do. From its $15 million summer ad campaign defending the Iraq strategy to its six-figure effort in the House special election in Ohio, the group has put Democrats on notice that its agenda will go far beyond the conservative principles of its largest financial backers.

Comes this little gem:

In a case some say reveals political backscratching at the courthouse, a Texas Supreme Court justice saw his arson-related indictment thrown out Friday at the request of a scandal-plagued, but fellow Republican, prosecutor.

The move outraged the grand jury foreman, who threatened to reconvene the panel and issue the charges again.

State District Judge Brian Rains dismissed the indictment handed up Thursday against Justice David Medina and his wife related to a fire last summer that burned down their suburban Houston house and damaged a neighbor's. The Medinas were in serious financial trouble.

And the Republicans wonder why their base is staying at home or just leaving their party? It's because they have bred this culture of corruption deep into their roots. Thank people like Tom Delay for that.

The Republicans are now worrying about a deadlock at the convention.

During Katrina all the talk from the right was how recovery and victim aide needs to be in the hand of the private organizations like the Red Cross and churches. The problem is that they rely upon donations of ordinary citizens. That would work good if we had an economy that could afford us the luxury of giving to our favorite charities, but we don't. Now the Red Cross is feeling the pinch, and getting ready to cut nearly 1,000 jobs.

Well the GOP had their debate last night and this is what it looked like:

Romney, Thompson, McCain and Giuliani all choose to do fundraisers instead of answer questions in front of black voters. Not really shocking - we already know they are the party of "white Christians", they just decided to reaffirm this.