HEY BIG SPENDER! REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES SPENDING LIKE DRUNKEN SAILORS

OK, for those who even knew he was in the race, Virginia ex-Gov. James Gilmore dropped out today. No money. McCain doesn't have any either and most pundits have already said kaddesh over campaign's cold, stiff corpse. By publicly announcing Friday that the U.S. is in grave danger from the authoritarian tendencies and treasonous machinations of the Bush Regime, he may not have exactly withdrawn from the race... just from the Republican Party. (I guess he was always just a Libertarian anyway.)

The big Republican donors are betting on Giuliani. And, of course, Romney's got the Mormons pumping money into his campaign-- lots of it. Aside from the $9 million Romney lent his campaign out of personal wealth, all he's getting now is coming from Utah. According to today's Washington Post "Of the top 25 Zip codes where he raised the most money, four were in Utah, including a haul of more than $200,000 around Salt Lake City."

The x factor is slick corporate lobbyist Freddy Thompson, grievously damaged last week when he was exposed for having stealthily lobbied for abortion groups, while mouthing anti-choice platitudes for the Republican base. Still there is a great deal of big GOP money out there for him. He's a huge pay-for-play proponent and every wealthy Republican crook knows Thompson be as good for fast and loose... deals as Giuliani.

Both Giuliani and Romney have done their best to move the key decision-making playing field into Florida. Not only is it a huge state, it's a state viewed as the ultimate burial ground for both Thompson, who insulted the Cuban population-- a major part of the Republican base-- and for McCain, who's campaign chair, Rep. Bob Allen, was just arrested propositioning a male police officer in a public toilet. The accusation that McCain's man in Florida offers strange men in public rest rooms $20 to allow him to go down on them is bad enough but the fact that he is an outspoken and virulent homophobe and was the author of a bill to toughen up penalties against exactly the kind of lewd and lascivious behavior he was engaging in-- his Sexual Predator Elimination Act-- is probably too much even for Floridians. One might not be blamed for questioning McCain's judgment in regard to the kind of people he would hire to run his administration.

Each one is spending more money in Florida than the other contenders even have overall! Giuliani spent around $400,000 there and Romney more than double that.

Florida's elevated status owes to its new Jan. 29 primary date, which places it one week ahead of the crush of early primaries in delegate-rich states such as California, New Jersey and New York. The date change was finalized in May, and appeared to have a direct effect on the way candidates are approaching spending decisions at this early stage.

...Strategists said the state has the potential to restore momentum to a candidate who performs below expectations in Iowa and New Hampshire, or to provide a boost to a contender who opts out of one or more of the first early contests.

Giuliani's campaign announced last month that he would not participate in the Ames straw poll in Iowa in August, and polls in that state show him far behind Romney. Giuliani advisers seem to have adopted a strategy of looking beyond Iowa, and have been most aggressive in the states that will vote on Feb. 5, including California and New York. The campaign announced this week that it had added full-time staffers in Florida, California and Illinois.

But they're spending everywhere. The race for the GOP nomination is still wide open and if "None of the Above" were running, he'd win by a landslide. Romney-- knowing he has a bottomless financial well in the form of ruthless Mormon will to get their man in the White House-- spent almost everything that came in-- over $2 million more than Giuliani in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada, the 4 early states. In each of those states he has a huge advantage of Giuliani. Giuliani is spending all his money on raising more money-- $2.2 million on fundraising consultants alone!