Free Republic

Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the well-funded group co-founded by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is seriously considering a months-long television, radio and direct-mail campaign against Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor, one of four Democrats who opposed expanding a background check for guns. The goal: Make an example of him. Senior members of Mayor’s Against Illegal Guns met at length Sunday to debate potential responses to the failure of President Obama’s gun regulation package, including a watered-down background check provision that fell five votes short. In addition to Pryor, three Democratic senators abandoned Obama: Max Baucus of Montana, Mark Begich of Alaska...

George H.W. vs. Bill was Bush/Clinton I. Jeb vs. Hillary could be Bush/Clinton II. And if we’re very lucky, George P. will win his race for Texas land commissioner and Chelsea will ease into public service with a Senate seat in New York or something and we’ll be on track for Bush/Clinton III circa 2032. Two points about this. One: It’s proof of how insatiable the media’s appetite for dynastic politics is (especially Democratic dynasties) that this is biggish news today even though she said the same thing six months ago. You get the feeling that Chelsea could go on...

Recently reporter Thomas Edsall - who has spent most of the last 30 years covering politics for the Washington Post and the New Republic - had some advice for the GOP. He draws upon some recent polling data to argue that "the Republican Party can afford to marginalize . . . Christian right leaders because evangelical social conservatives . . . are not going to vote Democratic." Thus, he reasons that Republicans can, as he puts it, "concede defeat in the culture war" in the hopes of picking up more socially liberal voters. Mr. Edsall might want to check with...

Of course! Democrats love to promise expensive things for free. Free healthcare, free cell phones, free money. Why not free college? Meet Bill Halter who’s running for governor of Arkansas. The emphasis below is mine. Bill’s letter to Arkansans Young adults who receive a college degree today on average can expect to earn $1 million more over the course of their working live than similarly situated Arkansans who do not. But Arkansas currently ranks 49th out of 50 states in the percentage of our workforce with college degrees – behind Mississippi and ahead of only West Virginia. And we’re not...

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has revealed to Newsmax that he is looking at a possible bid for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016. Asked in a Newsmax TV interview if he is considering another White House run, Huckabee declares: “Yeah, I’m not ruling it out at this point. “I’m not sitting around having meetings with the strategic team, but it’s something I will certainly look at and I’m talking to some people just to determine whether it’s a kamikaze raid or whether it has potential and possibility.” Huckabee, who was governor of Arkansas for more than a decade up...

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee insisted in an exclusive interview with Newsmax TV that GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney will be a “pro-life president” and he also predicted that Republicans will step up their campaign in the critical swing state of Ohio in the days leading up to the election. “I do believe that people know that this is not the front and center issue for Mitt Romney, never has been. But they’re comfortable that he really is going to be a pro-life president,” said Huckabee on Wednesday...

This year’s cast of GOP convention speakers could be future rivals, each jockeying for prime positioning in case 2016 opens up, Republican strategist Steve Schmidt said on MSNBC Monday night. The emerging five: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Rep. Paul Ryan. “All of these people in their own right are people who may have presidential aspirations and the ability to run a formidable campaign,” he said. “You maybe see the next generation of rivalries in the Republican Party.… You may see them all previewing what’s going...

The Army has revoked the Special Forces military occupational specialty of an Arkansas political candidate who claimed he served as a Green Beret in Iraq and Afghanistan. Kenneth Aden, a Democrat running against incumbent Rep. Steve Womack for Arkansas' 3rd District, has said in interviews he served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan as a Green Beret, though a DD-214 and other documents he released to substantiate the claim only raised questions. In a statement Tuesday, a spokeswoman for the Special Warfare Training Center at Fort Bragg, N.C., said Aden was dropped from Special Forces training in April 2008 "after failing...

LITTLE ROCK — In Arkansas, it’s the Republicans who are trying to make political hay out of the U.S. Supreme Court’s affirmation of the federal health care law, a big victory for the Democratic president’s signature policy issue. Reaction from Arkansas Democrats has been muted, likely an election-year reflection that the law known as Obamacare is as unpopular in the state as its namesake. GOP officials brushed aside any notion that the high court’s ruling had repudiated their vehement opposition to the law as a takeover of health care. “To the people of Arkansas I say this: I heard your...

After a poll released this week showed President Barack Obama only beating his Democratic primary opponent John Wolfe Jr. by seven points, 45 percent to 38 percent, in Arkansas's Fourth Congressional District, state Democrats moved to practically disenfranchise Arkansas voters. "[D]elegates Wolfe might claim won't be recognized at the national convention," national party officials are telling state Democrats. Wolfe is being accused of not following the party rules. “They want a coronation,” Wolfe tells THE WEEKLY STANDARD. “They’re conflating [Obama] with the party. Are we supposed to call him ‘Dear Leader’? Is this some kind of North Korea thing?” Wolfe...

President Barack Obama faced a stiff challenge from an unlikely opponent in the Democratic presidential primary in West Virginia on May 8. A federal inmate in Texas drew 42 percent of the Democratic vote in the Mountain State — about 52,000 votes to Obama’s 70,000. While the President squeaked by with a victory in West Virginia, he could lose an upcoming Democratic primary in Arkansas where he faces an opponent who polls show is running a competitive race. Tennessee attorney John Wolfe, who is an official candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2012, is drawing a surprising amount of...

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said Monday that Mitt Romney may be the Republican Party's "most electable" presidential candidate and dinged Texas Gov. Rick Perry for comparing Social Security to a "criminal enterprise." Huckabee's endorsement remains one of the most coveted among Republicans this election season, as the former pastor brought droves of evangelical Christians to the polls for his 2008 presidential run. On Monday, Huckabee noted what some see as another potential hurdle for Perry: his seeming likeness to President George W. Bush, the last Texas governor to occupy the White House. "It gives the Democrats the opportunity to...

Many linked his decision to his desire to run for governor in 2014, but insiders also recognize that next fall Ross was about to be confronted with the strongest challenger of his congressional career, in the person of Republican Tom Cotton of Yell County near Dardanelle. That’s the same place that was made a household name in True Grit, as in “My name is Mattie Ross of near Dardanelle in Yell County.” But the story of Tom Cotton which is about to unfold in his congressional campaign is strictly nonfiction. A rural Arkansas farm boy, Cotton made his way to...

A poll unveiled this week from American Research Group shows that three Republican presidential candidates -- U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas and former Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska -- are gaining serious momentum in Iowa, site of the first presidential caucus. Bachmann, who declared her candidacy in June and has been surging in polls at both the national and state levels, topped the poll with 21 percent. Former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts placed second with 18 percent. Paul, who was the Libertarian candidate in 1988 and ran for the Republican nomination in...

I took a much needed break this weekend with friends and family and so I wasn’t around to blog the big news. Mike Huckabee is out of the running for the Presidential nomination. Now, I said as early as February 22nd that I was betting Huckabee wouldn’t run. So I’m happy to have a winning prediction under my belt. But besides that, this really shakes up the calculus for 2012. Iowa is now going to be wide open, and it leaves the “not Mitt Romneycare” position as one much easier to fill. The question is, who does this benefit? Palin?...

Well it would seem that Republicans in Congress blinked agreeing to a last minute deal where they compromised everything and Democrats gave nothing. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is doing a victory lap, and President Obama was thankful that funding Planned Parenthood was avoided. "We protected the investments we need to win the future. At the same time, we also made sure at the end of the day this was a debate about spending cuts — not social issues like women’s health and the protection of our air and water. These are important issues that deserve discussion, just not during...

Anyone who thinks presidential ambition is an incurable condition hasn’t spent much time lately with Mike Huckabee. The man who came in second in the 2008 GOP primary isn’t exactly ruling out another run in 2012. But he doesn’t sound all that eager to jump right back into the fray, either. “I’m not one who thinks the future of the world is depending on whether I run for president,” the former Arkansas governor said in an interview. The truth is, there were many things about the presidential campaign grind that Huckabee didn’t much like the last time around. Don’t look...

In a radio interview on Monday, Mike Huckabee said that President Obama was a) raised in Kenya; and b) as a consequence of this Kenyan upbringing, probably indoctrinated with anti-Western views by his father and grandfather and their stories about the Mau Mau uprising of the early 1950s. When the comments made national news on Tuesday, Huckabee, through a spokesman, claimed that he'd "simply misspoken" and that he'd "meant to say the president grew up in Indonesia." This explanation made little sense, because Huckabee hadn't merely said the word "Kenya" -- he'd discussed at length and in detail some of...

Mike Huckabee is the Hamlet of the 2012 presidential cycle. The former governor of Arkansas says he really, truly has not decided whether to run for the Republican nomination, and we believe him. He says he’ll decide this summer. His just-released book, “A Simple Government,” and accompanying book tour – which happens to include six stops in Iowa and five in South Carolina, two early nominating states – would appear to point to “yes.” But at a tea with reporters Wednesday sponsored by the Monitor, he seemed to plant the seeds for “no.” First, let’s go through the reasons Mr....

Does Mike Huckabee really hate Mitt Romney so much he'd run for president just for the chance to throw haymakers at his old rival? As a new poll shows the two Republicans running neck and neck against President Obama in the 2012 presidential race, the rivalry between Romney and Huckabee that began during the 2008 campaign resurfaced Monday when Politico published a story titled "Huckabee throws a Mitt fit." Click to enlarge Associated Press Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee From the archive News analysis: Analysis: Why Jon Huntsman Jr. may be running for president – Jan. 31, 2011 Huckabee: Israel...

According to a new poll, 51 percent of Republicans who intend to vote in their party's primaries do not believe that President Obama was born in the United States. Among these birthers, Mike Huckabee is the preferred candidate with 24 percent of the vote, followed by Sarah Palin at 19 percent, "someone else" at 15 percent, Newt Gingrich at 14 percent, and Mitt Romney at 11 percent. Unfortunately for the birthers, though, Huckabee, the winner of the birther primary, has made it clear that he doesn't subscribe to such conspiracy theories. As he said on Geraldo at Large on July...

When former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee ran for President in 2008, he did so in the guise of a conservative. But those of us who listened closely to his speeches heard a message that was far from compatible with the ideals of limited government and expanded liberty: two benchmarks of conservatism by any measure. Instead we heard Huckabee openly support a nationwide, federally mandated smoking ban, and expanding the powers of the federal government to mandate limits on carbon emissions via cap and trade. Because of the exponential growth things like a national smoking ban and cap and trade legislation...

"There are vast amounts of territory that are in the hands of Muslims, in the hands of Arabs. Maybe the international community can come together and accommodate" the Palestinians --Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, Feb. 2, 2011 Once and possibly future GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee visited Israel last week. A hallmark of many politicians running for president is expressing support for symbolic measures that hold deep meaning for various ethnic or religious groups. One typical example is promising to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Israel's capital. The State Department maintains the embassy in Tel Aviv...

Supporters of Sarah Palin seem to view her as the second coming of Christ, and given her self-appointed code name of "North Star," it seems that she agrees with them. Speculation on a 2012 presidential run by Palin almost sounds as if her candidacy is divinely ordained. Next thing we know, she'll tell us she was born in a barn because all the hospital beds were occupied. Not so fast, cautions Politics Daily. Mike Huckabee could pose fierce competition for Sarah Palin, even among those Republicans who, inexplicably, think she's a well-qualified candidate. Ever play that game on long road...

In 2008, Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee emerged from a crowded field of Republican presidential hopefuls to win the Iowa caucuses and become the preferred candidate of social conservatives. Could Huckabee play the dark horse again in 2012? A sampling of opinions as to how Huckabee presence (or lack thereof) will shape the fight for the Republican nomination: •Under The Radar Politico's Jonathan Martin and Ben Smith note Huckabee's position right now is similar to where he was at this point in the 2008 cycle, operating in relative obscurity while boldfaced names like Mitt Romney, John McCain, and Rudy Giuliani gobbled...

Politico's Martin and Smith remind the political world not to forget about Mike Huckabee when looking ahead to the 2012 GOP presidential contest. Dial down the deafening Sarah Palin buzz for just a moment: The most consequential decision in the 2012 Republican presidential sweepstakes could be whether Mike Huckabee decides to run again – and associates say the former Arkansas governor may well take the plunge. If Huckabee gets in, he will unquestionably be a force to be reckoned with in the fight for the nomination. He’d be the undisputed frontrunner in lead-off Iowa, where he won by nine points...

Mike Huckabee puts on his best Rodney Dangerfied routine, whining to Ben Smith and Jonathan Martin that no one shows him any respect as a 2012 contender: "I just don't understand how it is that a person can read these polls day after day and the narrative is constantly everybody but me," he told POLITICO. "Whether I do it or not, the fact is that if one looks at the overall body of information that's available, nobody would be in a better position to take it all the way to November." There are a few good reasons for this. Most...

Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor who had a good run during the 2008 Republican presidential primaries before Sen. John McCain went on to win the nomination, is thought by some in the White House to be the likely GOP nominee. But he hasn't been getting the kind of excited frequent media attention of Sarah Palin and this has apparently begun to bother him. According to Politico.com which interviewed Huckabee, he expressed some consternation: “The polls are consistently favorable, putting me either at the top of every poll or right near it. It’s hard to ignore that, having swum in...

Maurice Clemmons, the former Arkansas prison inmate who gunned down four police officers in Washington is back in the news, and it's not the kind of news good for potential presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. Seattle Times reporters have completed a new book on Clemmons and it illustrates even more graphically how thoroughly unsuited for clemency Clemmons was when Huckabee extended it — without consulting prosecutors first. Even as he was writing letters proclaiming his rehabilitation, Clemmons was extorting other inmates, assaulting them and participating in gang rapes. There's more, lots more. Paired with Wayne Dumond, he makes a matching set...

Arkansas, you run deep in me. That's a line from the state song. But this week, red ran deep in this Blue Dog state that is just this side of wacky. No doubt, Bill Clinton has to be crying somewhere. His home state slipped completely down the rabbit hole. On Tuesday night, Democrats were hyperventilating as the party lost several state offices along with two congressional seats, seven state senate seats and 16 state house seats. Both houses of the state legislature remain Democratic, but some Democrats are worried that a few conservative colleagues might flip Republican in exchange for...

EDITOR’S NOTE: The writer is addressing the question, Should Hillary Clinton challenge President Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2012?The latest buzz flitting among the Georgetown salons is that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will switch jobs with Vice President Joe Biden and take his place on the Democratic ticket in 2012. That’s one of the tidbits being peddled by Bob Woodward to promote his new book “Obama’s Wars” and it has Democratic loyalists desperate to salvage a rapidly failing Obama presidency atwitter with unbridled joy. As a rumor, it’s intriguing. As common sense, it doesn’t pass Logic 101....

In a speech Tuesday night at a pro-life event in Houston, former presidential candidate Sarah Palin said abortion is an "essential" issues for the pro-life movement in the 2010 elections. Palin said it is important to take advantage of the opportunity the elections present to mitigate President Barack Obama's pro-abortion agenda. Palin said Obama has been responsible for "the biggest advance of the abortion industry in America" thanks to the ObamaCare bill that includes abortion funding, she said, according to CNN. She added Obama is "the most pro-abortion president to ever occupy the White House," "That's why it's essential that...

After weeks of keeping himself in the headlines and growing more explicit about his intentions to run for president in 2012, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee touted himself as the Republican front-runner, The Hill reports. Speaking on "Fox News Sunday," Huckabee attempted to remain elusive about his presidential ambitions, but showed he is closely watching his poll numbers. "I end up leading a lot of the polls," Huckabee said. "I'm the Republican that clearly at this point does better against Obama than any other Republican." About his presidential run, Huckabee added: "I haven't closed the door. I think that would...

Rogers Mayor Steve Womack finished first in the 3rd Congressional District Republican primary Tuesday, but couldn’t avoid a runoff with state Sen. Cecile Bledsoe of Rogers. Womack had more than twice as many votes as Bledsoe, but couldn’t secure at least 50 percent of the vote in an eight-candidate primary to avoid the June 8 runoff. Bledsoe edged former state legislator and Fort Smith attorney Gunner DeLay by 158 votes for second place and a spot opposite Womack in the runoff.

What plans do you have to help Arkansas economically? First, our family is creating jobs (plastics company, tool and die shop, car dealerships (being reinstated as Chevrolet dealer), radio station, and realty company! I will support a do-over of the health care bill with one that includes things I have worked on in the Arkansas Senate (tort reform, insurance competition, increasing number of doctors and nurses with additional educational facilities). I will support helping our community banks to make loans to small business people, I will support efforts that move people into productive work!

Republican Senate candidate Curtis Coleman was on KARN today and had an interesting answer to a question about President Obama qualification to serve. Coleman told the caller that he believes Obama should produce his birth certificate to prove he is qualified to hold office. I followed up with Coleman to clarify exactly what he meant. “Absolutely, the President must produce his birth certificate,” said Coleman. “I will find out what steps are available to require him to do so, and will take those steps aggressively and unrelentingly. I don’t know where the President was born, which is a matter of...

Sarah Palin was in God's Country last night, preaching "revolution" to the Arkansas GOP in exchange for $100,000 or so. The party also gave her an engraved .44-magnum rifle. So that's what you get the quitter who has everything. The Arkansas Republican Party was happy to allow press coverage of Palin's speech, but she overruled them, so the only accounts we have are from reporters' notes. The Arkansas Times took a statistical approach: Number of African-Americans in attendance: 4. Mentions of President Obama: 1. Times Palin mentioned the Republican Party in her speech: 1. Wal-Mart: 7. We have no idea...

While 170 or more voters might have been fooled in the 2009 Values Voter Summit straw poll, it wasn’t Mike Huckabee who came out on top in a recent Washington Post poll of the leader who best reflects GOP values. From CNN: According to the poll, 18 percent of Republicans and independents who lean towards the GOP say the former Alaska governor best reflects core GOP values. In second place, 5 points back, is Sen. John McCain of Arizona, last year’s Republican presidential nominee, followed by former Arkansas governor and 2008 presidential candidate Mike Huckabee at 7 percent, former Massachusetts...

Conservative Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, who is emerging as a top contender for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012, is gaining some attention this week for his comments in defense of President Obama. As first reported on the Huffington Post, Huckabee said some of the recent criticisms of Obama have been unfair and even "shameful." Huckabee made the comments to the Hudson Union Society. "When he [Barack Obama] was at Dover the other day, and went there to pay respect for soldiers, I heard a lot of people on the Right say "Aw, that's just a cheap photo-op."...

State Sen. Gilbert Baker, R-Conway, took off from Conway’s Cantrell Field Thursday morning en route to media appearances in Little Rock, Jonesboro, Texarkana, Fort Smith and Fayetteville as part of his campaign for the U.S. Senate seat occupied by incumbent Democrat Sen. Blanche Lincoln. Baker was speaking during stops in these cities on health care reform and his opinion that government-administered health care will lead to “higher costs, reduced quality and limited patient choice.” On. Nov. 19 Baker is scheduled to hold a $1,000-per-person fundraiser at the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The Arkansas House on Wednesday approved a bill allowing concealed handguns in churches, despite hearing arguments that lawmakers should put their faith in God, not guns. The bill, which passed on a 57-42 vote and now heads to the Senate, removes churches and other houses of worship from the list of places where concealed handguns are banned. Currently, the only private entities where concealed weapons are banned are churches and bars. The bill's sponsor, Rep. Beverly Pyle, R-Cedarville, said she introduced the measure after a series of church shootings across the country. She said it would be up to each...

But now, in its current configuration, President Obama doesn't have a vote to spare, which means Arkansas' own Sen. Blanche Lincoln will be forced to cast some very unpopular votes. She will no longer be able to straddle the ideological fence between a Republican administration and her own party. Lincoln would have been vulnerable heading into 2010 regardless of the outcome of the presidential contest, but with her party taking a decidedly left-of-center approach, many state and national Republicans believe Arkansas could be a GOP pick-up. With respect to the other chamber of Congress, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's majority is...

There’s speculation on the US site, VP Watch, this evening that Barack Obama might be considering the former general and 2004 contender for the presidential nomination - Wes Clarke - for the VP slot. This is the report: “Gen. Wes Clark’s slogan — “Securing America’s Future” — is the theme for the night Barack Obama’s running mate is scheduled to speak at the Democratic National Convention. Clark’s political action committee is called WESPAC — Securing America’s Future. It could just be a coincidence. After all, Clark appeared to dash his hopes of running with Obama in late June when he...

The state GOP chairman says a Little Rock health care executive who lost the Republican primary for an Arkansas congressional seat in 2006 is considering running against Democratic Senator Mark Pryor. Tom Formicola of Little Rock is forming an exploratory committee for a potential run against Pryor, who is seeking a second term in November and has not yet drawn any major party opponents. Dennis Milligan, chairman of the Republican Party of Arkansas, said Formicola approached him after Milligan initially said he thought the GOP would be unable to field a candidate against Pryor. Milligan provided copies of a statement...

Via the folks at the Trinity Foundation/Wittenburg Door, there is a report that GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee reached out to televangelist Kenneth Copeland for some fundraising help. Copeland is one of several televangelists under investigation by U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and a proponent of the so-called "prosperity gospel." Trinity cites a blog post by former George H.W. Bush staffer Doug Wead to the effect that Huckabee called Copeland during a ministers' conference last week that Copeland was hosting. Wead reports: "Copeland, carefully observing all the laws governing non profits, as a private citizen, re-convened a private meeting, turned...

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, polling a distant fourth in the upcoming Florida primaries, continued to attack former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, while offering implicit support for his other rival, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in his appearance on "Fox News Sunday." When asked to take sides on a dispute between Romney and McCain over whether the former Massachusetts governor called for a timetable for withdrawal in Iraq last April, Huckabee sided squarely with McCain. “Dishonest? I’ve never seen John McCain say something that is just blatantly untrue,” Huckabee said. Huckabee later praised McCain, saying “we have a civil approach to...

That's the name of a new anti-Huckabee web site started by former Thompson staffer Darrel Ng. Jonathan Martin has more on the site: Now that his candidate is out of the race, one Thompson staffer has gone the next stop and is actively working against Huck. Sorta. Darrel Ng, perhaps the heartiest and most dogged of Thompson's aides and somebody who logged many a mile on the Fred bus, has launched a website called "Boycott Chuck Norris." Yup, Ng now wants people to show their disregard for Huck by not patronizing any companies that use Norris as a pitchman. The...

Oh boy one has to believe that Huckabee will be getting some blow-back from this. These push polls have even brought out the South Carolina Attorney General to make this statement: “Last evening the Associated Press reported that that an out-of-state special interest group, Common Sense Issues, had launched a massive push polling effort disparaging John McCain and other candidates for president. In their push poll, Common Sense Issues makes several misleading claims regarding John McCain’s record.“Allow me to set the record straight. In the U.S. Senate, John McCain has been an unwavering voice for the rights of the unborn....

Apparently, small government Republicans [Huckabee’s] aides are wary of New Hampshire. “It’s all no tax, no government there,” said Bob Wickers, a top strategist. “It’s not ideal.” But they believe that the message of economic anxiety that he preaches will help in Michigan’s primary on Jan. 15 and in states in the South, which have high poverty rates in addition to strong groups of social conservatives.” Mike Huckabee is skipping New Hampshire because it’s too fiscally conservative. Instructive, yes? Huckabee’s brand of identity politics is as dangerous as anyone else’s - after nearly eight years of a fiscally liberal Republican...

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is already attacking the politician who appears to be his chief rival in New Hampshire, Arizona Sen. John McCain. On MSNBC's Morning Joe, Romney attempted to spin the Iowa caucuses as a defeat for John McCain, lumping McCain with Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton as the big losers. "The Washington insiders are being rejected," Romney said. Romney placed a distant second to former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. McCain and Fred Thompson were in a virtual tie for third. Romney continued to say that placing ahead of big-name candidates Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, and McCain in Iowa...