Frist's Exit Creates Void For Southern Republicans

[question everything]

The Wall Street Journal

Frist's Exit Creates Void For Southern Republicans
By DAVID ROGERS
November 30, 2006; Page A3

(snip)

For Republicans, Mr. Frist's departure underscores the absence of any major center-to-right Southern figure in the party's presidential field thus far. Virginia Sen. George Allen had been in position, but he lost his seat in November's elections. Among the remaining contenders, Arizona Sen. John McCain, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, and Rudolph Giuliani, the former New York City mayor, all are outsiders to the region and each could face problems reaching out to the Christian conservative voters who have been such a force behind President Bush.

Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee could try to fill the gap, and Newt Gingrich may emphasize his Georgia bona fides. "A candidate from the South brings a certain advantage," said Mr. Huckabee, who isn't expected to make any final decision until after leaving office in January. "For me it's a double benefit. I am from the South and a governor has an executive viewpoint compared to a senator with a legislative mindset." In Florida, where the legislature is already talking about moving up the primary to give voters more say in picking presidential candidates, there is sure to be more speculation about the future of Gov. Jeb Bush, the president's brother.

"We all know small-state governors from the South can't win the presidency," joked Republican strategist Whit Ayres, who nonetheless cautioned about overstating the region's impact. But the idea of having no one in the field riles Southerners, who have long dominated Republican circles. "That won't cotton well down here," said David Hill, a Republican pollster from Texas. "Southerners will wake up one day and realize they don't have a horse in the race."

(snip)

Within the Senate, the man who could most gain from Mr. Frist's departure is Sen. Sam Brownback, a Kansas Republican with strong ties to social conservatives. But Mr. Brownback, who will soon make an announcement about his own presidential intentions, lacks the fund-raising ability of Mr. Frist and risks being more easily typecast as a product of the far right.

(snip)


URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116481520747135782.html (subscription)

[alfredo]

1. Newt Gingrich will be their great white hope.

[question everything]

2. Poster boy of "family values" with wife number, what, now, 3?

[MADem]

4. Great big fat white disgrace, more likely. That dipshit needs to get computer literate

He has NO IDEA what's out there on the internets about him, bubbling up right at the top, see? He's living in a pre-computer bubble, he's out of the loop. I doubt he'd be so cavalier if he realized how much is out there about him....and most of his sex partners are still alive, and I doubt they're thinking kindly of the fat little shit.

http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/usa/newt-gingrich/

Oh, heck, enjoy the full Google experience, here!!! http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=newt+gingrich+oral+sex

[question everything]

6. Doesn't he have a Ph.D in something? Economics?

I've always looked at a graduate degree or, for that matter, at any degree, as the ability to search and to reach a conclusion based on one's studies.. Also being open to new findings in one's field.

And this should knowing that there are new methods of finding and disseminating information.

[MADem]

10. A PhD in Blow Jobs, more likely....see, he's LAZY, too NT

[alfredo]

7. Seeing him using his mother's kitchen sink as a spitoon

really turned me off him. So disrespectful.

[Cosmocat]

8. BINGO ...

The big winner, at least in his mind, from this last election that took down Santorum and Allen, was good old Nwet ...

[alfredo]

9. he's got that small forehead you see in televangelist like

Jim Bakker, Pat Robertson, or corrupt pols like Ernie Fletcher.

[Dr.Phool]

3. Newt Gingrich-David Duke '08

Has a nice good ole boy ring to it.

[Erika]

5. Maybe the South GOP thinks they should keep running racial ads

Sublimal but evidently effective. They kept Harold Ford out from representing the South.