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Three leading Republican governors on Monday defended the heated exchanges and vigorous protests taking place at health care town hall events across the country. "I think you see a heightened emotion and passion and, you say anger, because people are scared," said Hawaii GOP Gov. Linda Lingle, during a conference call with reporters organized by the Republican Governors Association. "You're talking about hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts in spending on Medicare, and that's why you see members of the AARP separated from their leadership on this issue, because they're scared," the Hawaii governor said. "The heightened anger is...

BEDFORD – The Republican party needs to rebuild itself from the bottom up, said Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour last night before addressing a gathering at a New Hampshire State Republican Committee reception. "You're in the White House for eight or 12 years, you become a top-down party, I don't care if these are Republicans or Democrats. When you get out, you're liberated to rebuild your party from the bottom up," he told reporters before a reception at at C.R. Sparks, which was closed to the press. Barbour assumed chairmanship of the Republican Governors Association yesterday, following South Carolina Gov. Mark...

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour has assumed the chairmanship of the Republican Governors Association, CNN has learned. Barbour immediately takes over as head of the national Republican campaign organization following South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford’s announcement he was leaving the post. Sanford acknowledged Wednesday that he had an extramarital affair with a woman in Argentina. “The news revealed today hurts all of us who have gotten to know Governor Sanford over the years and so it is with regret that the RGA accepted Governor Sanford’s resignation as chairman,” Barbour said in a statement obtained by CNN that will be distributed Wednesday...

During an emotional news conference, SC Gov. Stanford said he is resigning as chairman of the Republican Governors Association.1 minute ago from BNO Headquarters

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — If the Republican Party is in danger of being marginalized as a conservative, white male Southern enclave, is Haley Barbour — the longtime Washington power broker and current Mississippi governor — the best person to turn things around? Many rank-and-file Republicans and party leaders say yes, as the 61-year-old Barbour prepares to ramp up his national profile this month with back-to-back trips to the early presidential voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire. Barbour will headline fundraisers in both states, but says the visits are part of his duties as incoming chairman of the Republican Governors...

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Republican Gov. Rick Perry said Thursday that he expects to see a number of states follow his home state of Texas in pushing resolutions that will “assert their independence from the federal government.” “If this administration gets its way, we’ll all be the same. We’ll all be the way Washington wants us to be,” Perry said on a call with Gov. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) and roughly 20,000 callers sponsored by the Republican Governors Association, and billed as Tea Party 2.0. Asked by a caller about his support for a Texas state House resolution reaffirming the state's sovereignty under the tenth...

Is anyone interested in participating???

Hoping to recapture the grassroots energy of last month’s “tea parties,” Republican Govs. Mark Sanford of South Carolina and Rick Perry of Texas will host a tele-town hall Thursday that’s being dubbed “Tea Party 2.0.” The Republican Governors Association said it is expecting 30,000 people to participate in the town hall, which will take place roughly one month after the much-publicized anti-tax tea party rallies held in hundreds of locations across the country on April 15, the tax filing deadline. Sanford and Perry will each speak for several minutes before opening up the town hall to up to an hour-long...

At TEA Parties across the country, hundreds of thousands of citizens declared that our taxes are too high, our federal government is too big, and our states' rights are being trampled upon. We were there and we want to keep the movement growing. Join a free telephone call with Governors Mark Sanford of South Carolina and Rick Perry of Texas to collaborate on our plan to fight for freedom and win America back.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will miss a chance to chat up President Obama this weekend because she's cancelling plans to attend the White House Correspondents' dinner, but she's got a good excuse. Palin on Wednesday declared a state of emergency because of record flooding in Eagle, Alaska. "It's basically wiped out a town," Bill McAllister, Palin's communications director, told CNN. Palin was slated to be a guest of Fox News at the annual dinner. McAllister confirmed Palin will stay in Alaska this weekend and will no longer attend Saturday night’s annual press dinner headlined by Obama this year for the...

Republican fundraiser Fred Malek invited Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, both potential GOP presidential candidates in 2012, to break bread together at his McLean, Va., home Friday night. Sanford’s office confirmed he’ll be there. Palin is staying back in Alaska due to serious ice-jam flooding and instead sending her husband, Todd. He’ll also take her place at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Palin’s office said Thursday. . . . . . The idea of the dinner at his Crest Lane home is to help party donors shopping for a 2012 candidate. . . . ....

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour (R) confirms that Republican state governors and top Congressional leaders have been actively coordinating the talking points used to oppose Democratic policies put forward by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and President Obama. "When you got the White House you become a very much a top down party, now we're trying to rebuild as a bottom up party and governors are integral in that and members of the House and Senate realize that," Barbour said Tuesday in an interview with the Hill. In the latest effort, leadership aides tell The Hill that South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford...

COLUMBIA, S.C. — For a millionaire, Gov. Mark Sanford has a reputation for frugality that borders on the extreme. Former employees say he has been known to require his staff to use both sides of a Post-it note. When Mr. Sanford was a congressman, he slept on a futon in his office and returned his housing allowance. And when, after he moved into the Governor’s Mansion here, tax collectors declared his family’s home on Sullivan’s Island a secondary residence subject to a higher tax rate, he appealed and won. Now, with his threat to refuse more than $700 million in...

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford have largely conservative support (a few say they are moderates). Regardless, why have both signed deals with an environmental advocacy group to administer their respective states' programs to confront global warming?   The two Republican executives have followed the example of more liberal governors by inviting the nonprofit Center for Climate Strategies to advise their climate change action groups. The states' respective panels consist of dozens of "stakeholders" who will consider greenhouse gas-reducing measures. The groups will approve most of those action items, then pass them on to state lawmakers...

GOP governors turn down $66M in aid for jobless. MONTGOMERY - Despite Alabama's rising jobless rate, Gov. Bob Riley on Monday rejected $66 million in the federal economic stimulus funds earmarked to help states fund unemployment benefits. Riley made the announcement after returning from a National Governors Association meeting in Washington, where he and other governors met with President Barack Obama Sunday night. An influential legislator accused Riley of playing politics, along with other Republican governors in the South. But Riley said the stimulus law requires states to change their laws to expand jobless benefits to those who don't normally...

Obama’s economic stimulus package is causing quite the stir among America’s governors, particularly the Republican ones. The New York Times reports: "Republican governors split sharply over the weekend over how to respond to the economic crisis, a debate whose outcome will go a long way toward shaping how the national party redefines itself in the wake of its election defeats of recent years."   It looks like the Republican governors are dividing along the lines of moderates and conservatives. The epitome of moderate Republicans, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was one of the biggest advocates for the stimulus actually poked a...

While Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-Calif.) has always been something of a loner within the GOP, never has it been as obvious as in the last few days. Indeed, at the National Governors Association meeting, it’s been hard to tell he’s a Republican at all. He spent Saturday on a University of Virginia panel with Gov. Ed Rendell (D-Pa.), and in private meetings with Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and energy czar Carol Browner. He skipped the Republican Governors Association dinner that evening, an event most GOP governors attended. On Sunday evening,...

Republican Governors Step Up Attacks on Obama Economic Policies Feb. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Republican governors attacked President Barack Obama’s economic policies, warning that the $787 billion stimulus package will saddle states with obligations they can’t afford. Obama’s “short-term” thinking and deficit spending are “digging yet another hole for ourselves,” said South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, a Republican, on “Fox News Sunday.” He said he may not accept all of the $8 billion in stimulus money designated for his state. Democrats criticized that approach as insensitive. “This is about real people who, through no fault of their own, are laid off...

Two videos, one from this morning and the other from 1990, tracking the evolution of a Republican icon. I’m no expert on Milton Friedman, but I imagine he’d find the “emergency” rationale for higher taxes rather highly nuanced indeed. Exit question: When Schwarzenegger calls on the GOP to be “team players” by acquiescing in The One’s agenda, how long does he intend for “the game” to last? Until the emergency passes, whenever that is, or for Obama’s entire term?

The Republican governors gathered Saturday night for a dinner in Washington, D.C., in advance of their Monday fundraising gala and in the midst of the winter meeting (with their Democratic colleagues) of the National Governors’ Association. Saturday’s event with many of the nation’s prominent GOP governors in attendance (Sarah Palin and Arnold Schwarzenegger were not present, however) was time for some celebration and for an economics tutorial from featured speaker Steve Forbes. There were two causes for celebration: first, an announcement from Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour that $10.25 million had been raised by the Republican Governorss Association (RGA), and second,...

"All of us are committed to working with President Obama to pull our nation's economy out of the ditch that George W. Bush ran it into," [Democratic Governor of Maryland Martin] O'Malley said. "If some of the fringe governors don't want to do that, they need to step aside and not stand in the way of the nation's interests." The line drew a rebuke from Sanford, the Republican Governors Association chairman. "I think in this instance I would humbly suggest that the real fringe are those that are supporting the stimulus," Sanford said. "It is not at all in keeping...

Republicans are faced with a dilemma. South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford is mooted as a GOP presidential contender. During the stimulus debate he told President Barack Obama, to his face, that the Palmetto State wanted no part of a spending blowout that would be harmful to the economy, to taxpayers, and to the dollar. He even traveled to Capitol Hill to stiffen Senate Republicans against the plan. Florida Gov. Charlie Crist is mooted as a GOP presidential contender. During the stimulus debate, he made clear the Sunshine State couldn't wait to get its hands on the stimulus booty and joined...

As I wrote below, I've been surveying Republican governors for their thoughts on the stimulus. Again, so far Mark Sanford of South Carolina and Rick Perry of Texas are the only governors explicity opposed. There's no question that with many state budgets overwhelmed that this has put governors in a tight spot. One press flack told me not for attribution that the governor privately had grave misgivings about the bill, but the political reality is that it is likely going to pass so they were publicly in the position of fighting for their state's fair share of tax dollars. I...

NEW YORK -- Most Republican governors have broken with their GOP colleagues in Congress and are pushing for passage of President Barack Obama's economic aid plan that would send billions to states for education, public works and health care. Their state treasuries drained by the financial crisis, governors would welcome the money from Capitol Hill, where GOP lawmakers are more skeptical of Obama's spending priorities.

Hope and change? He did forgive Lieberman — although Lieberman never accused him of palling around with terrorists. Which, of course, he did. The governor is planning a trip to Georgia to campaign on behalf of Georgia Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss early next week on her way to Philadelphia to meet with her old foe, President-elect Barack Obama. Obama is meeting with governors of both parties in Philadelphia to talk about the ailing economy. It’s not clear how many governors are going to attend the Obama event, which the National Governors Association helped put together.

Nov. 13, 2008: You know you’re Nationally popular when you (Gov. Palin) get offered a $7 million book deal and the paparazzis start following you. Governor Perry where is your huge book deal and paparazzi photos? Gov. Palin Miami RGA Paparazzi Photos:Gov. Palin Sizzles in Short-Shorts Poolside in MiamiFull Set of Miami Pollside Paparazzi Photos Updated of previous FR “The Dirt” thread:GOP Governors Pull the Plug On Palin's Press Conference (The RGA Dirt) C-Span RGA Miami Full, Uncut, and Uncensored Video:11.13.08: Republican Governors Association News Conference - - Gov. Rick Perry’s Speech; Gov. Sarah Palin’s Speech; Gov. Palin’s Q &...

"Number one, we have got to stop defending the kind of spending and out-of-control spending that we would never tolerate in the other side. You know, when voters tell us that they trust Democrats more to cut their taxes [and] control spending, that tells you something is wrong with the Republican Party. We've got to match our actions with our rhetoric. "Number two, we've got to stop defending the kinds of corruption we would rightfully criticize in the other party. The week before the election, our most senior senator is convicted on federal charges - and that's only the latest...

MIAMI - Republicans gathered last week to talk about what went wrong in the Nov. 4 election and how to fix it, and the two highest-profile leaders - Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin - offered sharply different recipes for a comeback. Crist's message: Racial inclusiveness, bipartisanship and civility offer the clearest path for the GOP's road to recovery. "It worked in Florida," Crist said. "It could work nationally." Palin put forward a harder line: Tough adherence to the party's ideological principles. Republicans, she said, should start on the road back by dogging the Obama administration and...

The Talk Shows Sunday, November 16th, 2008 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Sens. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and Byron Dorgan, D-N.D.; Gov. Tim Pawlenty, R-Minn.; former Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, R-Md. MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich.; Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala; T. Boone Pickens, chairman of the energy investment fund BP Capital.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.; Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala.; Gov. Bobby Jindal, R-La.; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga.THIS WEEK (ABC): Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, R-Calif.LATE EDITION (CNN) : Reps. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., and Marsha Blackburn,...

The Republican Governors Conference Press Guidelines promised that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin would “take approximately 20 minutes of questions” at today’s morning press conference. Instead, this press conference, attended by 150 local and national media and taped by 26 video cameras, disintegrated into a fiasco when Texas Governor Rick Perry shut it down after only five minutes and four questions. Eight other governors assembled on the stage, all men, seemed visibly uncomfortable with the “Palin at center stage” format. When Perry stepped in front of Palin at the podium to announce it was over just as it was getting started,...

Since the Weekly Standard launched in 1995, there’s one scenario the conservative magazine hasn’t yet faced: Democrats in control of both the White House and Congress. But that’s what lies ahead in just two months, leaving staffers there and at other media outlets on the right bracing for a period on the outside. looking in. The Weekly Standard has long supported the national ambitions of John McCain, going back to the 2000 primary race, and boosted Sarah Palin a year before she was well known to the Lower 48. Nevertheless, editor William Kristol, speaking from the Republican Governors Association meeting,...

Sarah Palin was not scheduled to arrive for another 30 minutes, but by 9 A.M. last Thursday more than a hundred journalists from around the world had gathered in a large ballroom at the InterContinental Hotel for a chance to ask her a question. Palin had been at the hotel the previous day, to tape interviews with Wolf Blitzer and Larry King. Everywhere she went in Miami a media caravan followed close behind, hoping for an impromptu question-and-answer session--something the McCain campaign leadership had not permitted her during the campaign. For political reporters, Palin remains something of an enigma. The...

The “Republican governor eyeing a presidential run in 2012” appears to be Minnesota’s Tim Pawlenty. Pawlenty used his time at yesterday’s roundtable discussion to cast himself as the “modern” Republican while casting aspersions on the traditional conservative message, calling for outreach to the “new demographics,” deriding the GOP for allegedly being 15 years behind in the use of the Internet, and calling for the party not to be led by “a crank.” Pawlenty appears to have John McCain’s penchant for attacking conservatives rather than those in the other party. Pawlenty in Miami was publicly angry, agitated, and even cranky, possibly...

Sarah Palin was not scheduled to arrive for another 30 minutes, but by 9 A.M. last Thursday more than a hundred journalists from around the world had gathered in a large ballroom at the InterContinental Hotel for a chance to ask her a question. Palin had been at the hotel the previous day, to tape interviews with Wolf Blitzer and Larry King. Everywhere she went in Miami a media caravan followed close behind, hoping for an impromptu question-and-answer session--something the McCain campaign leadership had not permitted her during the campaign. For political reporters, Palin remains something of an enigma. The...

11.13.08 MSNBC Hardball Video - Will the GOP Back Palin? (11:33 minutes) - - Is Palin the future of the Republican Party, or does the somewhat chilly reception she's received from her fellow governors at the Republican Governors Association Conference in Miami suggest tougher times ahead for her? Discussion by moderator Chris Matthews, Pat Buchanan, and Republican strategist Mike Paul. They also discuss what GOP changes are necessary. The conversation becomes heated between Buchanan and Paul. Watch how RGA Chairman Gov. Rick Perry of Texas jumps in and rudely cutoffs off press questions to Gov. Palin. Transcript

By Friday afternoon, Gov. Sarah Palin had already left sunny and warm Miami, as well as the cold shoulder she got from at least one governor running for president, to return to freezing but politically warmer Alaska. Palin skipped the governors’ vote this morning that elected, HUMAN EVENTS has just learned, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford the new chair of the Republican Governors Association, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour vice-chair, and Florida Gov. Charlie Crist chair of the RGA’s February 2009 Annual Gala in Washington, D.C. HUMAN EVENTS was first to report yesterday that RGA Chair, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, remarkably...

Post-election, the former VP nominee strips down and soaks up some rays in Miami.Posted on 11/14/2008 12:39 PM by Celebuzz Things may not have worked out so well for Sarah Palin in the election, but John McCain's former running mate is already experiencing sunny days again. The Alaska governor—who caught some heat for her expensive campaign wardrobe—hit the pool in Miami in considerably less ostentatious clothes yesterday, donning a pair of skimpy shorts while basking in the tropical climate of Florida. The 44-year-old former beauty queen was in town for a gathering of the Republican Governors Association yesterday, where GOP...

Pawlenty in Miami was publicly angry, agitated, and even cranky, possibly because he found himself at odds with the far more conservative tone of every other speaker here. Hundreds of RGA members, who paid thousands of dollars to attend this Conference, wildly applauded “red meat” conservative pronouncements by speakers and not the more moderate and conservative-jabbing words by Pawlenty. And then there’s his “Palin problem,” real or imagined, that hit the fan yesterday in front of the national media, possibly upon the insistence of Pawlenty himself, as the above-reported comments to CNN by an anonymous presidential aspirant indicate.

- - Gov. Sarah Palin took center stage in the last day of a GOP governors conference where leaders asked themselves where the party is headed -- but did not find clear answers. Two roads diverged in the GOP's path toward the future in a meeting of Republican governors in Miami this week -- and Gov. Charlie Crist took the one for a more moderate party. Still struggling with its party's election defeat, the Republican Governors Association tried to represent a unified front, led by Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. She gave her first national news conference Thursday as she tried...

Here is video of Florida Gov. Charlie Crist talking this morning with Joe Scarborough about Gov. Sarah Palin, and the future of the Republican Party. . . . . . . (Watch Video)

The Republican Governors Association announced its new leadership lineup today after their annual meeting concluded Thursday in Miami. South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford was voted RGA chairman, taking over the top job from Texas Gov. Rick Perry who will now serve as finance chairman. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour is vice-chairman, while Florida Gov. Charlie Crist will serve as chair for the annual RGA gala, and Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue will head up the recruitment effort. . . . Not on the list? Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who also attended the Miami meeting. Some Republican governors grumbled to CNN that Palin’s...

The future of the Republican Party is on display this week in Miami, where the Republican Governors Association Annual Conference is taking place. Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin spoke there Thursday — as did several other GOP up-and-comers. The conference comes at a critical time for the party, just nine days after its worst loss in decades. This is the first time in 14 years that Republicans do not control the White House, the House or the Senate. This, in part, helps explain why an event that usually attracts a few dozen political reporters drew at least 200 this...

November 13, 2008 Categories: Republicans GOP governors broach Haley about RNC chairmanship A group of Republican governors today suggested to Haley Barbour that he reprise his role as RNC chair, but the Mississippi governor demurred. The idea came in a private meeting in Barbour's hotel suite this afternoon in Miami where a group of GOP governors gathered in between public sessions at the RGA. A source in the room said that Barbour quickly knocked down the idea, citing his commitment to Mississippi. Barbour served as RNC chairman from 1993-1997, overseeing the party's capture of Congress in 1994. The conversation was...

CHRIS MATTHEWS: We begin with the Republican Governors Association meeting in Miami today. And with us now, a guest we like to have on the show, Mississippi governor Haley Barbour. Governor Barbour, let me ask you about the South and the Republican Party. You helped build the South as a bastion of Republican strength all these years, but if you look at the map that was put out by "The New York Times" - and I think it's an accurate map - it shows that the only places in the country, the only counties where the Republicans picked up strength...

* Video: Press Conference * Introduced by RGA Chairman Gov. Rick Perry of Texas Videos Speech (3 Parts): (1) | (2) | (3)

From the we-haven't-hit-Palin-enough CNN News Ticker: Some Republican governors tell CNN they were not particularly happy with the way the Republican Governors Association press conference was executed Thursday, saying that they agreed to go as a show of GOP governors’ unity — but they ended up feeling like silent Palin supporters, since it was clearly a press conference called for her. The GOP governors spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity. One called it awkward: “I’m sure you could see it on some of our faces.” Another Republican governor eyeing a presidential run in 2012 told CNN the event was...

In the battle to shape the future of the Republican party, many have suggested a move to the center. In a recent interview, for example, John McCain’s campaign manager, Steve Schmidt, said, “The Republican party wants to, needs to, be able to represent . . . not only conservatives, but centrists as well. And the party that controls the center is the party that controls the American electorate.” Also, David Frum wrote that the GOP must move away from its traditional positions on issues such as abortion and the environment, and adopt a style and tone that is “less overtly...

Letting her hair down: Speaking at the Republican Governors' Association in Miami, Florida, she said the party needed to focus on the governors races in 2010. Asked if she would use her 'new political credibility' for her party, she said: 'I don't know if it's political celebrity, but I want to put to good use my experience that I have. 'We're going to focus here on what we can do as a team as Republican governors.' Talking about last week's election, she added: 'As far as we're concerned, the past is the past, it's behind us. We're focused on the...

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Former Republican vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin sharply questioned expanding the federal economic bailout plan Thursday during her first extended remarks since the end of the presidential campaign. Addressing fellow GOP governors and party leaders at the Republican Governors Association convention in Miami, Florida, Palin criticized the growing list of industries and others seeking federal assistance. "We're hearing now more talk of additional taxpayer bailouts ... for companies, for corporations, perhaps even states now who may be standing in line with their hands out despite, perhaps, some poor management decisions on their part that helped...