[writeblock]

"Sorry, but no - the solution to the problem of the party being too leftist is NOT to turn farther left. I'm a gun owner and will not vote for a gun grabber. Period!"

You are dealing with slogans, not political realities. It's simply a fact that no conservative candidate would be politically viable against the Dems who are considerably stronger this time around. The general public is exhausted from the Bush years and there is every indication it is fed up with the GOP. Fundraising in the party is way down. Many red states are turning purple or even blue--OH is just one example--and this is not only because of politics, but also because of changing migration patterns. So we run the risk of Hillary winning--and securing an even more strongly Democratic Congress in the bargain. Only Rudy can help us avoid this disaster since only he would appeal across the board to blue staters. Besides, he's not going to grab your gun. He is not for any new federal interference and is on record regarding this. In fact your best bet would be a Rudy candidacy since he alone would win back the Congress and keep the Dems from meddling with gun ownership. We can count on John Boehner and Mitch McConnell to do the rest.

[durasell]

That's the issue, isn't it? The choice of sticking by principles and losing or compromising and having a fighting chance.

[chadwimc]

There are party hacks in Ohio who call people like me "traitors" because I won't blindly support a candidate with an "R" next to their name. A pox on the Ohio Republicans and their houses. We as Americans deserve everything we get in 2008.

[BlackElk]

If anyone thinks that Rudy has "coat tails" to bring back a GOP Congressional majority in either or both houses, how many of NYC's 50 Councilmanic Districts were held by Republicans during Rudy's 8 successful years as Mayor???? Not many. Before anyone thinks that NYC is liberal across the board, think twice because NYC has many conservative neighborhoods.

Rudy is not a party building kind of guy. He would never have done the cross-dressing performance if he had been one. Whatever his drawbacks, he is an extremely effective law enforcement kind of guy and a genuine NYC guy with moxie and an attitude that makes him respond to being tread on by treading twelve times as hard on the offender.

I think that the appointment of Rudy Giuliani as Attorney General (without meaningful Rudy input on judicial appointments or social issues) will be regarded as one of the very best appointments by President Fred Dalton Thompson, along with the SCOTUS appointments of Janice Rogers Brown and two similar 45 year-old nominees to be named. In the first two years of the Thompson administration, the two of them will show the backbone and determination in confronting Demonratic Congressional pipsqueaks and America's Islamofascist enemies that will make Americans proud of institutionalizing a Republican Congress and Senate.

Hopefully, President Fred Dalton Thompson will also appoint a Secretary of State who will rub our enemies' noses in it and put an end to the culture of diployak enemy butt-smooching that seems to be the very definition of the generally useless State Department.

We can also do better than Boehner and we ought to. Mike Pence, anyone????

As John Paul the Great used to say (echoing St. Paul): Be Not Afraid! OR: (less elegantly) Stuff the pessimistic crepe hanging.