RUDY McROMNEY

HateFest, USA is in full swing and the hard core right wing loons are whooping it up back in DC. They're filled with hatred for everyone-- even themselves! "Leading conservatives yesterday attacked the Republican party as big-government, free-spending coddlers of illegal immigrants and said the country's conservatives should withhold support from the GOP's current slate of presidential nominees to force them to the right. Extremist kooks from the furthest edges of the political spectrum, like Ohio nut-case Ken Blackwell, are urging conservatives not to endorse anyone in the Republican ran for the presidency.

Conservatives said they are frustrated and angry, and blamed the GOP's massive losses in the 2006 elections on Republicans who deviated from a hard-line conservative agenda. The mood puts added pressure on a slew of GOP presidential candidates set to speak to the meeting today.
Social conservatives are leery of Giuliani, who supports abortion rights, and of McCain, who authored a campaign finance law that limits interest groups' financial influence in political campaigns. Romney's evolution to a socially conservative agenda pleases some religious conservatives, but some are still unhappy with his earlier, softer positions on gay rights and abortion rights.
Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee has disappointed fiscal conservatives for signing tax increases on gas and cigarettes, while Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas has been criticized for his support of an immigration bill that conservatives insist would give amnesty to illegal immigrants.

Jim Gilmore was the first Republican presidential hopeful to publicly state that the 3 top-ranked party candidates are "phony conservatives." The convention has nicknamed them Rudy McRomney. Gilmore will release an ad that will be posted on his website and Youtube tomorrow that singles out Romney, Giuliani and McCain and says that these "three leading challengers for our party's nominating may be good men, but they simply do not share our conservative values... John McCain has fought conservatives time after time, even invoking the rhetoric of class warfare to oppose the Bush tax cuts. Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney both repeatedly opposed core conservative values to win elections in New York and Massachusetts. ... It's for these reasons that I intend to pursue our party's nomination for president (and) I will represent the Republican wing of the Republican Party." Isn't that cute?

And, predictably the hero of the nutfest was none other than Shooter who managed to fire up hundreds of extremist maniacs drawing cheers by "ripping Democrats for their anti-war stance and obstinance." As usual, Shooter did best when serving up red meat to the fanatics on a score of hot-button rightist issues-- but received only tepid applause when he conveyed greetings from Bush, who wouldn't dare show his face at the meeting.

Why not? Well... the new CBS News/New York Times poll shows Bush with a 29% approval rating at the end of February. Only 23% approve of his handling of Iraq , two percent less than approve of his overall handling of foreign policy. (I wonder what the 2% likes. Iran? North Korea? Sudan? ) And, believe it or not a full 24% of Americans approve of the way Bush is handling health care. One has to wonder what planet they live on. (62% of Americans say they think the Democrats are most likely to improve the health care system; 19% of the public thinks the Republicans will make it better. I'm not making that up-- and I have no idea where these people live. They can't all be in Utah.) The same poll shows that 14% of the public has an unfavorable view of the Democratic Party (presumably not enough have been reading about Hoyer and Emanuel and Baucus yet). How do the Repugs do? Well, 74% of the American people have an unfavorable opinion of the GOP.


UPDATE: WHY CALL IT HATEFEST? MEET ANN COULTER

Right wing heroine Ann Coulter was, predictably, running her mouth along with Giuliani, Brownback, Huckabee, Romney, Shooter, Hunter and the rest. A typical Coulter moment caught on CSPAN just now: "I would talk about Edwards but I've heard that you have to go into rehab if you use the word 'faggot.'" No wonder McCain is boycotting the whole crazy event! Have Giuliani, Brownback, Huckabee, Romney, Shooter, or Hunter distanced themselves from Coulter and her comments? I bet not. For the record, Edwards is straight. I have to go to a meeting now so I don't have time to list all the homophobic Republican closet queens who are close with Coulter and her closeted pal Matt Drudge-- such as Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Congressman David Dreier (R-CA), Congressman James McCrery (R-LA), not to mention ex-Republican congressmen Ed Schrock (VA) and Mark Foley (FL) and scores of top GOP staffers from Ken Mehlman, Dan Gurley, Jay Banning to Jay Timmons, Kirk Fordham and Jeff Berkowitz, just name a few off the top of my head.

JUST IN: Ann's video. Look at that Adam's apple! And by the way, Coulter's candidate-- Mitt Romney-- refuses to disassociate himself from her and her hateful and vicious comments. Is Romney that desperate to show he's a conservative that he has decided to run on a gay-baiting platform. These people have no shame at all!