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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,...