JIM DEMINT CALLS OUT AL GORE DURING BLIZZARD

Jim DeMint, Republican Senator from South Carolina, has issued a much-deserved jab at Al Gore using Twitter. The fact that Allegory is nowhere to be found as the concept of Global Warming is being dealt body blow after body blow is not lost on DeMint who sums it up in one little sentence.

Via The Hill, DeMint's tweet:

It's going to keep snowing in DC until Al Gore cries "uncle"

Where are you, Al?

Seriously, when one's views are being assailed in conjunction with strong evidence to back up those refutations, the advocate of those views - in this case, Allegory - should be defending those views even more aggressively.

Allegory has instead chosen to hibernate.

h/t to Lynn Woolley

SHERIFF JOE ARPAIO BLASTS JOHN MCCAIN

John McCain's Republican challenger, J.D. Hayworth hasn't even officially announced that he's running - that will happen on February 15th - and the race is already heating up. Joe Arpaio is the underdog sheriff who has been quite the thorn in the side of the Federal government by unapologetically enforcing immigration laws in Maricopa county and has officially endorsed Hayworth while simultaneously blasting McCain's liberal track record.

National Journal reports:

Maricopa Co. Sheriff Joe Arpaio is urging GOPers to shelve Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) in favor of ex-Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R), a challenger attacking from the right, in a new letter sent to primary voters.

"Senator McCain has served this country admirably but it's time to replace his moderate or even liberal positions on taxes, the border, social causes and big bank bailouts with a consistent conservative like J.D.," Arpaio writes in the letter. ""I just wish Senator McCain had run as hard against Barack Obama as he is against a conservative like J.D. That could have prevented the harmful, liberal agenda we are all now suffering through."

Yes, he's a divisive figure but Arpaio is likely to garner more support from the rising Tea Party movement than will McCain. Not to beat a dead horse but this very well could put informal Tea Party leader Sarah Palin in the untenable position of being the face of a movement that is likely going to aggressively support the opponent of the candidate she will be stumping for - John McCain.

In opposing Hayworth, Palin will also be opposing illegal immigration enforcer and underdog, Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Palin should have stayed out of this one.

h/t to Hot Air

TEXAS GUBERNATORIAL: TEA PARTY CANDIDATE SOARING

Unless you live in Texas, the name Debra Medina may not be familiar. However, she is one of three Republican candidates participating in the primary this March. The other two are incumbent Rick Perry and sitting U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. Medina is not a career politician and has been making surprisingly steady progress. Helping her greatly was winning legal challenges that allowed her to participate in the debates.

On a side note, Hutchison was the loser in both debates in my view. In particular, her stance on abortion was pathetically explained and thanks to tough questions, she got penned in on the abortion issue and had to admit she supports Roe v. Wade, although she continued to deny that while admitting it at the same time.

For a while, Medina was not taken seriously but she has been ginning up quite a bit of support, mainly by being accessible to practically every type of media outlet. Now, seemingly out of nowhere, she may soon overtake Kay Bailey Hutchison according to the Politico:

Tea party-backed candidate Debra Medina is closing on Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in Texas’s Republican gubernatorial primary, increasing the odds the race led by Gov. Rick Perry will be thrown into a runoff.

According to a survey out Tuesday by Public Policy Polling, Medina, a nurse who’s now a businesswoman, had the support of 24 percent of likely Republican primary voters, trailing the three-term senator by only 4 percentage points. Perry, who leads Hutchison by double-digits in several polls, got 39 percent in the latest survey.

It was only a few short days ago that Medina had 16% of the vote with Hutchison at 33% so this is a massive swing. Having watched both debates, I can say I'm not surprised by Hutchison's drop.

Two things of note here. First, there is much to be excited about with Medina. She's a strict constitutionalist and a big supporter of state's rights. She doesn't believe a concealed handgun permit should be required to carry a concealed handgun. She thinks that the property tax should be abolished and she's a strong pro-life candidate. However, the Ron Paul crowd is strongly behind her and that is when my antenna goes up. She also seemed to waffle on the issue of gay marriage in a way not all that dissimilar from the way Hutchison waffled on abortion in debate #2. It struck me as inconsistent that Medina would come out as a strong pro-life advocate while also saying that she believes marriage is a sacrament between a man and a woman without saying that should be the law. She seemed to defer to what voters wanted without taking the next step.

The second aspect to Medina that should be watched is the heavy support she gets from the Pauliens. If Ron Paul gave a speech with the first half being about domestic policy, to include immigration, the Federal Reserve, and the dangers of big government, clear thinking conservatives would stand and cheer. If the second half of the speech was about foreign policy and why the Islamists hate the west, those same clear thinking conservatives would likely roll their eyes and walk out.

It's funny that the "The Creature from Jekyll Island" is one of the books at the top of the Pauliens' reading list because Ron Paul is like Jekyll and Hyde.

Ironically enough, Sarah Palin, the current leader and champion of the Tea Party movement is supporting Ron Paul's son Rand in senatorial bid in Kentucky. As many are learning, an ACORN doesn't fall far from the tree (Obama quote). Rand is not all that dissimilar from his dad. It might be sending a bit of a conflicting message for Palin to be stumping for Rick Perry in Texas and Rand Paul in Kentucky while the Pauliens in Texas overwhelmingly support Medina. Now that the race is getting much closer, Palin could be in stumping for the candidate the Tea Party movement opposes, as she will be doing in Arizona, stumping for McCain when J.D. Hayworth is the Tea Party favorite.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. The Tea Party movement is HUGELY unpredictable and growing exponentially almost by the day. I believe Palin is making a BIG mistake by jumping into these Republican dog fights this early. If Medina and Hayworth continue to garner Tea Party support, making it a race in Texas and Arizona respectively, Palin could find herself in a pickle.

An example of where Palin is doing the right thing with the Tea Party movement is in Minnesota, where she is supporting Michele Bachmann. She's on safe ground there. In my view, her endorsements of Republican candidates in the primary season came far too soon and it may just come back and bite her.

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