Ann Coulter: A thinking Republican’s holiday gift

Her column is here — all tied up in red, white and blue.

Hallelujah! More loopholes found in campaign finance law!

Do as I say, not as I do

The co-author of McCain-Feingold seems to regret ever crafting such restrictive policies now that he seeks a cash infusion into his presidential campaign coffers.

Although he has inexplicably vowed to further strengthen the campaign finance law, John McCain’s allies have found new loopholes in the very language he helped write—and they’re using them to reel in huge contributions to assist him in competing in the match-up with Barack Obama—who has now disavowed the public spending limits he pledged to abide by.

The Wall Street Journal reports that one tactic involves a Republican Party fund aimed at electing governors that has started marketing itself as a home for contributions of unlimited size to help Sen. McCain.

The Republican Governors Association isn’t subject to restrictive limits, and has long gathered up large donations from individuals and companies. Now it is telling donors it can use their contributions to benefit Sen. McCain in some key battleground states.

That makes the group “the best way to help McCain,” says donor David Hanna, who gave $25,000—more than 10 times the legal cap of $2,300 for direct gifts to presidential candidates.

The imprudent 2002 campaign law restricts donations to presidential races, purportedly to curtail the influence of wealth. In fact the law is regarded by many as tightening a noose on First Amendment free speech guarantees.

New man at the helm

Major McShakeup—with additional changes in the works—is the second juggling of key personnel this year. The campaign has also abandoned plans to install 11 regional managers.

Read the AP account, including details, concerns and reasons, here.

Keeping up with those pesky bills can be such an annoyance

Newsweek reports on unpaid property taxes mounting for four years on a La Jolla oceanfront condo property. Humorist Andy Borowitz provides some comic relief.

Stopping by for a necessary chat

In a rare nod to Christian conservatives, John McCain stopped in for a visit with evangelists Billy and Franklin Graham. He had previously inflamed this core religious voter base during his 2000 presidential campaign when he condemned the Revs. Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell as “agents of intolerance.”

The article in the Washington Post put it this way: The Republican presidential candidate, who is actively courting religious voters and trying to reassure skeptical conservatives, visited privately with the Grahams on the grounds of Little Piney Cove in the Blue Ridge Mountains in western North Carolina.

His earlier inflammatory comments, although later reconsidered and softened, resulted in an entrenched distrust which caused McCain to finish last out of nine Republican candidates in a straw poll last year at the socially conservative Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C. They’ll be meeting again September 12-14, 2008.

Whether the gathering will be convinced of his change of heart remains to be seen. Check out the Focus on the Family voter scorecard linked on the Family Research Council’s website and scroll down to the individual House and Senate members for a illuminating look at votes cast.

Sizing up the GOP VP options

Evaluating Romney and other contenders

Jonathan Martin of Politico has his experienced finger on the Republican pulse, backed up with some insider information, that makes this a must-read for political aficionados.

Remember Richard Kimball? No, not “The Fugitive,” the candidate

Revealing comments show longtime commitment to amnesty, opposition to employee verification

The Washington Times reviews archived editions of the Arizona Republic to provide revealing coverage from the 1986 senate debates between candidates John McCain and Democrat Richard Kimball.

The article documents the fact that McCain opposed the passage of the 1986 amnesty bill.

Yet speaking recently to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials he brought up that bill: “In 1986, we passed a law that said we would secure the borders and gave amnesty to a couple, three million people. I supported that legislation way back then.”

Far from supporting it, McCain didn’t only vote against the bill, he used charged language to criticize it. The Arizona Republic quoted him as saying the bill’s requirements for employers to verify workers “would institutionalize discrimination.”

It wasn’t amnesty he opposed; rather the provision to verify workers to authenticate employment eligibility.

In a related article in the same publication, McCain told the Hispanic group NALEO that passing an immigration bill to legalize illegal immigrants is “my top priority, yesterday, today and tomorrow.”

He recently held a late-night, closed door meeting with Hispanic leaders in Chicago assuring them he would push through congressional legislation to liberalize federal immigration laws if elected.

McCain is scheduled to speak to the ethnic separatist group, La Raza July 14, 2008. Colin McNickle director of the editorial pages at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review writes about the lapse of judgment in addressing such a radical group.

Waging an uphill battle on the web

“It can be a little lonely,” says supporter

Ryan Mitsotakis is 19 years old, a sophomore at New York University and — as his Facebook page practically screams — a stalwart John McCain fan. He’s also a history buff, which is why he reaches back a few decades to describe his life as a McCainiac on the Internet.

“Think of the Battle of Bastogne, a central part of the Battle of the Bulge, during World War II,” he says, recalling the overwhelmed Allied forces in 1944 Belgium. “Obama supporters far outnumber McCain supporters, and it’s like, it feels like, we’re under siege.

“It can be a little lonely.”

Read the rest of the Washington Post article here.

Amnesty and open borders? Exactly what we need

Twenty people have been killed in three days in the border town of Juarez, Mexico–directly across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas. Associated Press reports the city is home to the violent and aggressive Juarez drug cartel

According to a recent report by CNN’s Lou Dobbs, at least 24 people were killed over one weekend last month, some brutally mutilated or decapitated. Nearly 4,200 people have been killed in the 18 months since the Mexican government declared war on the drug cartels. Of those, 450 were government officials, prosecutors and law enforcement officers.

Watch this video for a stunning report.

Sorry, this is not “just a region.” We are two sovereign nations, “my friend.”

New Cronkite Eight poll shows surprisingly slim home state lead in presidential race

Addressing the conservative base could shore up the narrow margin for John McCain among Arizonans as he enters the crucial waning days in the race for the White House.

The latest KAET Cronkite-Eight Poll provides these stunning figures:

McCain 38%

Obama 26%

Undecided 34%

The campaign is obviously aware of these lagging numbers, given the statement made earlier this month in which he referred to Arizona as a “swing state,” and adding Arizona to its list of 24 “battleground states.”

McCain had a 50-39 percent lead over Obama in a Phoenix-based Behavior Research Center poll released May 23, 2008.

As Arizona’s favorite son, McCain’s numbers should be escalating rather than plummeting. He could reach out to conservatives in his own party to ratchet them up.