1. Lindsey Graham
2. Lamar Alexander
3. Saxby Chambliss

I don’t know these states, I don’t pretend to know them.  But my hope would be good conservatives who believe in what Ted Cruz believes in will take on this challenge.

My home state of Virginia has a much weaker, but still strong, Mark Warner running for reelection in 2014 and we must do better than running 1990s retreads like we’ve done for every Senate election (including this one).  I haven’t heard anything about who wants to get in this yet because of our 2013 statewide races other than Gov. McDonnell.  I know we can do better than that.

Still, I think every conservative across the country is basking in the glow of Ted Cruz tonight!

Cruz was endorsed by Ron Paul and Rand Paul on May 13th, and endorsed enthusiastically.  As much as many want to deny it, a part of the Tea Party does come from the Paul movement.  Not all.  But some.  As the  ”Ron Paul” movement now morphs into the Liberty Movement there is a real chance that these two distinct conservative movements, with much in common, can work together to take over the Republican Party.  Cruz is a perfect example of this . . . both the Tea Party and the Liberty Movement have common enemies –  a dismissive media, entrenched political power in DC and statehouses across the land, and establishment Republican officeholders who care more about power than principle.

Another good example is the grassroots coalition being put together by Ken Cuccinelli in Virginia.  In the recent congressional district conventions that elected members to the state central committee (and thus, control of the party) Cuccinelli worked studiously with Paulites in the state to beat back the establishment and take over the state central committee.  Winning the SCC meant that conservatives in Virginia control the party and we won’t see Establishment meddling in his Convention fight against Bill Bolling.

I’m excited in hoping Cruz can pull this monumental upset over Dewhurst.  He’s a scholar and someone I’m confident will go to the Senate not to beg for table scraps but to defend the Constitution.  His campaign has been a home for all conservatives of every stripe and that is how he looks like he might be overtaking an entrenched incumbent in a superstate like Texas that.  If Cruz pulls this off, I think it is by far the biggest feather in the cap of the Tea Party.  It is bigger than Florida because, as catchy as the nickname many RedState folks coined, its unfair to compare David Dewhurst to Charlie Crist.  Dew would never have embraced Barack Obama, for starters.  But Dewhurst is a conservative pre-Tea Party and one of those conservatives that have seen the ground shift from underneath them.  Cruz could be the best senator on Capitol Hill – he has constitutional insight of Mike Lee, the political balls of Jim DeMint, and the future of Marco Rubio.

Let’s get this done, Texas!

Today, Marchi put this on Facebook . . . which he took at the Charlottesville Farmers Market:

As stated in a front-page post, now State Sen. Tom Garrett was one of the leaders in fighting election fraud and I would hope someone like him will step forward and look into this.

A little back-story first.

Both Bill Bolling and Bob McDonnell were elected in 2005, Bolling as LG and McDonnell as Attorney General.  For the first two years or so afterwards, McDonnell and Bolling were circling each other eyeballing and jockeying for position to run for governor in 2009.  Late in 2008, Bolling announced he would forgo the race and run for reelection, endorsing McDonnell  in a deal where McDonnell would endorse Bolling in 2013.  Meanwhile, then-State Sen. Ken Cuccinelli raced to the nomination for AG and joined the ticket that swamped Deeds-Wagner-Shannon in 2009 in a historic sweep just one year after Barack Obama and Mark Warner carried with them Reps. Tom Periello, Glen Nye, and Gerry Connolly into Congress.  Cuccinelli has always been coy about his future after 2009.  He maintained in public that he planned to run for reelection as AG, but rumors persisted of a Senate race this year, or possibly in 2014 against Sen. Warner.  In the meantime, all was a-go for Bolling to run for governor with McDonnell behind him.  It broke several months back to Cuccinelli had chosen to run for governor in 2013, upsetting “The Deal” struck by Bolling and McDonnell (Cuccinelli was not a part of this deal, in fact the McD people recruiting ex-US Attorney John Brownlee to run for AG against Ken in 2009).  McDonnel quickly endorsed Bolling.

The other part of the story is what happened with the State Central Committee and voting for the method of nomination.  I don’t know if it is the same in other states, but the debate over convention vs. primary among Virginia Republicans is always very nasty.  Back in 2010-11 time-frame, the State Central Committee (SCC) voted for the method of nomination for the US Senate race in 2012 AND the statewide offices in 2013 to be a primary.  What made this odd was that between 2012 and 2013 would be district conventions in all 11 CDs to decide new members of the SCC.  Basically, the incoming SCC was disenfranchised from making this decision by the previous one.  I’ve only been active in Virginia politics for about six years now, but to my knowledge something like this has never happened before.

In the district conventions that just wrapped up last month, Ken Cuccinelli-endorsed candidates swept nearly every seat (each congressional district gets three representatives elected at the district conventions as well as a CD chairman, also elected at the district convention) up for grabs.  Ken has made known that he prefers a convention because its cheaper and it will allow him to spend the first six months of 2013 digging into the party and organizing 20,000 new volunteers.  He’s trying to build a district by district organization at the grassroots level.  A primary would be just a glorified food fight with another Republican where they just spend money and attack each other (that is their thinking, at least) instead of organizing.  Bolling has gone all-in for a primary, mostly because polling has shown that Ken would SMASH him in a convention.  Bill needs a primary to get indy voters in there who might not like Ken’s reputation to have a chance.  What is interesting is that in 2009 Bolling seemed to have no such philosophical issues with a convention (he was challenged in that convo and he won easily), nor in 2008 when he was chairman of that convention eagerly sought by his ally Jim Gilmore for the US Senate nomination that year.

So that brings us to today.  Word is that Bill Bolling has threatened told RPV Chairman Pat Mullins he plans to sue the Republican Party of Virginia if the SCC (which Mullins oversees) changes the nomination method from primary to convention.  What makes this matter is that Bill Bolling has been, since 2008, Mitt Romney’s biggest champion in Virginia and he is currently his State Chairman.  Virginia is an absolutely critical state for Romney to capture from Obame in order to win the presidency.  There are not a ton of good scenarios where Romney can get to 270 electoral votes without Virginia (though there are a few).  It is simply shocking that Romney’s own state campaign Chairman would sue the state party and siphon away precious dollars so they can defend themselves (well into the high $thousands$) for his own personal politics.  That would hurt the candidate who’s campaign he is chairman of.  How can we look at ourselves in the mirror if Obama is reelected because he wins Virginia again, and the party had to spend months and dollars defending itself in a lawsuit from the chairman of Romney’s state campaign!  The selfishness and desperation is frankly stunning.

Shining sunlight on this situation is the best thing I can do, I would hope anyone who reads this that lives in Virginia (or doesn’t) will contact LG Bolling’s office in Richmond and beg him not to enable Barack Obama to win Virginia by putting his own personal political ambitions ahead of defeating the most liberal and reckless Administration in history.

The state motto of Wisconsin:  ”Forward”

Nothing else really needs to be said.

(I posted this on my own personal blog as well)

So that gets me to my point.  Would it be improper for a presidential nominee to select a Supreme Court justice?  I understand that it has never been done before and that there is a perception that the judiciary is above politics, but constitutionally it a co-equal of three.  Presidents have been senators, congressmen, governors, and generals.  Why not a judge?

The first thing I know what will come up is the “impartiality” of the judge being compromised.  Yet I expect senators and congressmen and governors to act to represent all the people and not just the ones that voted for them.  Furthermore, judges generally come out of politics in some way or another.  Some, like Justice O’Connor, were actually politicians.  Others, like Justice Thomas, were members of the executive branch by political appointment.  Most all of them were law partners or lawyers aligned with various politicians.  Let’s break down the political backgrounds of our justices:

• Chief Justice Roberts:  Served as deputy solicitor general in Bush White House
• Justice Alito:  Deputy attorney general, deputy solicitor general, US Attorney for New Jersey
• Justice Scalia:  General council in Nixon Administration, Deputy Attorney General
• Justice Kennedy:  Private practice and university professor
• Justice Thomas:  Assistant to Missouri AG Danforth, legislative assistant to then-Sen. Danforth, assistant Education secretary, chairman EEOC
• Justice Ginsburg:   General Counsel ACLU
• Justice Breyer:  Counsel to various congressional committees and deputy AG
• Justice Sotomayor:  Private practice and judge
• Justice Kagan:  US Solicitor General

So of our current Justices, only two (Sotomayor and Kennedy) have no political background.  Furthermore, all of them shared the hyper-political experienced of being nominated and approved by the US Senate for various jobs including their present one.  Justices are an integral part of a political town and they often just as capable, if not moreso, of handling power.

The problem is that there is no real precedent.  The Supreme Court is, when occupied by famous politicians, generally where careers end.  William Howard Taft, Charles Evans Hughes, and Hugo Black are three of the biggest political names I can think of that ended up on the Court.  The only real name of any consequence I could think of was antebellum political figure John McLean of Ohio.  He ran for various political presidential nominations over and over.   Another problem is the distaste many may have for injecting politics in the Court.  I would argue that there is no part of the government where politics is injected more is the Court.

The point of this exercise is to outwardly wonder if someone like Mitt Romney shouldn’t look at someone like Samuel Alito to be his running mate.  If executive and legislative branches can interchange with each other and the judiciary, why can’t the judiciary interchange the other way?  We all know its a fallacy that politics is not a part of our judicial system.  The judiciary might be loaded of men and women of the left and the right that are smarter and more capable of handling our country than the current crop of politicians we are forced to choose between.

Thoughts?

Seriously, Rick Perry?  This guy claims to be the vanguard governor of the 10th Amendment and limited government, and then his own state offers up one of the very brightest lights of the new limited government movement in Ted Cruz and what does he do?

Ugh.

Is nothing sacred anymore?

I came to Dr. Paul because here in Virginia I saw as men like Tom Davis (my congressman for years), George Allen, Jim Gilmore, Jerry Kilgore, and other “leaders” in Virginia became part of the establishment, and have constantly put aside conservative principles in order to win elections.  Many of them lost because of that.  On a national level, I tried to cheer on George W. Bush even as the knowledge of spending grew and grew.  The last hurdle to cross was reconciling my support of these wars in the past with my desire to see them end now.  I came t Dr. Paul because the Republican Party at every level I was engaged in let me down over the last 10 years.  What I was hoping and praying I would hear out of the mouths of these leaders is what I was now hearing from Ron and Rand Paul, what I read about in their books, and what they were saying at debates and in the media.

There are two wings to the Ron Paul movement . . . the 2008 wing and the 2012 wing.  I am apart of the 2012 wing that have found about 3/4 of his views compatible with mine.  Many of the 2008 wing are the caricature folks here at RedState and other main stream conservative outlets mock (and in many ways, justifiably so).  But Ron Paul’s campaign became more than just a fringe movement this time around, and the proof is in the money they raised and how long they outlasted the competition.  Folks like me, who are Republicans and want to stay Republicans, we we waiting and watching how Mitt Romney moves forward.  I’ll got ahead and say this too, many of us don’t necessarily see a huge difference between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.  We want to see what Romney is going to do to be more than just a stuttering attack debater who pours millions into attack ads.  And before I get flamed further for supporting Ron Paul on RedState, I AM going to vote for Mitt Romney, let me make that clear.

But what I am saying is that unlike any of the other candidates who ran for president, Paul developed a full vision of conservatism that will move on without him and one that I dearly hope Republicans will envelop (at least in part) to finally begin to differentiate ourselves from the failure of compassionate conservatism.  I have a good feeling about it.  When I look at people at all levels on the Republican Party – from Rand Paul to Tom Coburn on the federal level, to someone like Ken Cuccinelli on the state level – I can see the Paul Movement’s message being accepted more broadly within the Republican Party.  New faces will emerge as its champions and it will evolve from its raw presentation by Dr. Paul, but I urge Republicans not to turn away from his message or his movement.  No candidate is perfect and mainstream conservatives have been willing to accept a few flaws here and there if the general movement towards constitutional conservatism (in 2010, RedState itself embraced Rand Paul).

I believe the more liberty-centric constitutional conservatism is the future of the Republican Party.  Ron Paul, to many of us, has been its most emphatic and consistant (if flawed) champion.  This constitutional conservatism is the antidote to the failed stain of big government, compassionate conservatism.  Many, many people who believe in this are Ron Paul supporters.  I see a common attack on sites like RedState is that Paul is subverting the will of the people.  I can understand the frustration, but really what they are doing is running within the rules of the parties within the states and doing everything by the rules.  Its on Republicans for either a) not knowing their own rules, or b) being too arrogant or lazy to do everything properly.  But I ask a deeper question.  These folks who are doing this are conservative, and running as conservatives.  Here in Virginia, our 3rd congressional district chairman is a Ron Paul supporter, a conservative, and was just elected last weekend.  My question is . . . why not embrace these people who work so hard at knowing the party rules, and being active?  Instead of making fun of them, dismissing them as caricatures of something they are not, why not get that energy pointed in the right direction.  As much as many on hear will hate to hear it, much of the Tea Party was born out of the Ron Paul movement.

Romney will have his chance to make this move with his vice-presidential pick.  And no, I’m not hear arguing for Rand Paul.  I think Senator Paul would turn it down anyways, he has something more important he is working on.  Thus far Romney has indicated that he will be looking for a “boring white guy” type candidate.  There are scores of serious-minded, constitutional conservatives that could add serious juice with many of the Paul supporters.  And again, forget about whatever Ron Paul personally does.  His movement has become about taking over the Republican Party, they will not go third party even if he does.  You don’t put in the hours at these local conventions, caucuses, and mass meetings just go home.  My personal number 1 choice for Gov. Romney would be Sen. Tom Coburn, a conservative statesman who is serious about the most serious issue to 2012 Paul supporters . . .  the debt and government spending.

So in summation, I guess I’m on here saying that there are many Paul supporters like me who came from the Republican Party’s apparatus and are not nutjob faux-liberal hippies.  We have embraced the constitutional conservatism of Ron Paul and see it as the way to change the Republican Party for the better, move it to the right, and finally dispose of the tawdry legacy of compassionate conservatism.

I await Gov. Romney’s next move.

The raw energy that drove the tea party to victory over victory in 2010 will never be replicated because things change and people learn from both mistakes and victories.  Tactics change, candidates and campaigns evolve.  The tea party movement of 2010 was such raw expression of political power that it push forward just as many flawed candidates (Angle, O’Donnell) as talented one (Paul, Lee, Rubio) . . . and some in between like Miller and Buck.  To suggest that out-right revolt can be replicated in 2012 is foolish.  What the Tea Party needs to do is use the energy of 2010 and envelope the GOP into their movement, not the other way around.

Richard Mourdock is the perfect representation of this movement.

Mourdock is not your classic tea party Senate candidate.  He’s not young, politically inexperienced, from the private sector, or a constitutional scholar.  He’s a politician, and one that has lost as much as he’s won.  But Mourdock IS a conservative and clearly is not afraid to embrace the tea party label.  Mourdock’s embrace of the tea party is something that should be the future of this movement.  Our movement.

Richard Mourdock represents the Tea Party not revolting against the GOP Establishment, it represents the Tea Party taking over the GOP itself.  We should all applaud this movement and help that Dan Liljianquist and Ted Cruz join Mourdock in taking over the GOP.

1.  Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli – I must admit bias.  I am from Northern Virginia and I have volunteered for both his 2007 state senate reelection and his attorney general campaign.  I, in fact, know the man some and admire him personally.  Cuccinelli is taking the big leap next year as he enters a contentious governors race where he will battle with entrenched LG Bil Bolling, a conservative himself with the backing of Bob McDonnell.  But Cuccinelli has taken the lead, and relished the fight, like no other state official battling the regulation of the Obama Administration.  He has attacked the global science hoaxes emenating out of universities, sued to overthrow Obamacare, worked to pass a property rights amendment, and has helped free wrongly imprisoned citizens.  He is the most conservative statewide elected official since George Allen in 1993 but hails from suburban and Democratic Northern Virginia.  He’s the read deal and running for governor rather than the US Senate tells you all you need to know about his intended ambition.

2.  Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell – The heir to Sarah Palin, she handpicked him to run on her reform ticket in 2006, pushed him to run for the House against corrupt appropriator Don Young, and followed her to the governor’s seat in 2009.  Gov. Parnell, from everything I’ve read, has continued Palin’s vision for a conservative Alaska.  He has been THE leader in fighting the Obama Admin on oil and energy regulation.  What the future holds for him is whatever he wants . . . a race against Sen. Mark Begich could vault him to the front of the line as a conservative in the US Senate and but the fluke senator out of office.  I admire Joe Miler greatly, but Gov. Parnell

3.  Kentucky congressional candidate Thomas Massie – This comes from my Paul-ish colors, but Massie has a fascinating story as a local government official who has fought all the entrenched powers by attacking wasteful government spending.  He was an early supporter of Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and spoke for his campaign.  Sending Massie to Congress would give Sen. Paul a key local ally.

4.  Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch – She has made it her vow to protect Gov. Scott Walker in this recall race coming up in June.  I am becoming more and more confident that Walker will win this race and I suspect Klefisch will as well.  But she has been a warrior for Walker, and herself proved a valuable critic of Obamacare after sharing her story of her battle with cancer.  If she and Walker can survive this, she has a shot at being a real star for the right moving forward.

5.  Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi – She has a very similar story as Cuccinelli, except she came out of law enforcement whereas Cuccinelli came out of the state senate.  She has continued the work of Bill McCollum and Florida has lead in fighting Obamacare.  She is smart, telegenic (frankly, she’s a beautiful women), and clearly savy.  Her future seems limitless and her past thus far suggests she would make a marvelous conservative leader.

Now that is the extent of what I can think of off the top of my head.  But since this is a national blog, I’d love to hear what the rest of you all out there think and what other names are out there.  It is more important than ever to ensure that we support young, up and coming conservatives in this approaching era where the establishment will re-take the party apparatus (as if they ever lost it).