For a slow news day, let's dig into the gop12 vault for some of the more obscure and (more or less) relevant things that have happened in the past few years.
December 2008 -- Charlie Crist gets married and puts out a... well, not a press release, but it's about as romantic as one.
"She's a beautiful first lady. I couldn't be more excited.... it's a great night for Florida and it's a great night for us."
February 2009: In an interview with Politico, Haley Barbour doesn't want to play favorites.
Q: So who are the John Englers, the Christie Whitmans, the Bill Welds of this moment for the Republican Party?
A: There are a lot of them, but you know, it doesn't serve any purpose for me to try and rate my colleagues against each other. I'm not stupid enough to do it.
March 2010: Jim DeMint likes Jeb.
"He would be a great president. He'd probably be the best on the list, if he didn't have the Bush name.... If he is interested, I'd sure be interested in talking to him."
June 2009 (aka better times) John Ensign sends three tweets while in Iowa.
a. Just toured an embryo transfer facility which helps make our milk and beef industries more productive.
b. It was great to get back to some of my roots as a veterinarian -- even had a calf suck on my finger.
c. Now off to Le Mars Blue Bunny ice cream. Big decision. What flavor or flavors to choose?
February 2009: Mitch Daniels pushes the Legislature to adopt rules designed to give teachers more immunity on issues of classroom discipline.
"It is time Indiana said to its children, sit down and hush up.
To their parents: if your child is causing trouble and harming some other student’s education, take it up with your kid, not the teacher or principal.
And to the lawyers, butt out."
August 2010: Bristol Palin defends her Mom's decision to resign by telling a protester that, sure, her Mom isn't representing Alaska anymore, but that's because "she's representing the United States."
April 2009: Jeb Bush chides those in the GOP who keep pining for the good old days.
"There's been a nostalgic look back by conservatives reminiscing about the good old days, which is nice but entirely irrelevant for the concerns of everyday Americans living in a 21st century that is radically different than life was even 20 years ago."
December 2009: Sarah Palin slams Mike Huckabee for having commuted Maurice Clemmons' sentence many years ago:
“It’s absolutely tragic and just unfathomable what has happened there, and I do feel bad for Huckabee.
But it was a horrible decision that he made.”
December 2008: Newt Gingrich begins his run for President.
"I think there is a gay and secular fascism in this country that wants to impose its will on the rest of us, is prepared to use violence, to use harassment. I think it is prepared to use the government if it can get control of it."
April 2009: Stuart Rothenberg is mortal.
.... there are no signs of a dramatic rebound for the party, and the chance of Republicans winning control of either chamber in the 2010 midterm elections is zero.
Not “close to zero.” Not “slight” or “small.” Zero.”
September 2009: Rick Santorum's media consultant, John Brabender, says there's a Santorum-shaped hole in the 2012 field.
"You get the sense that there is this longing for someone to emerge. It is amazing to me the encouragement that he is getting."
October 29: Bernie Quigley compares Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin's book titles.
There is hubris and a kind of conspicuous arrogance to it [Romney's book title: No Apology: The Case for American Greatness], which he asks us to wear with our chests out.
.... Going Rogue, however, suggests a new direction, a new adventure, something just ahead there in the great unknown. It is a very good title and speaks in essence to the frontier spirit of those who venture beyond the Hudson River or the Beltway. Rugged individualism; going alone — Emerson and Goldwater — is suggested. It opens to the future.
