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Recently, Sen. Hillary Clinton’s earmark for the Woodstock Museum has gotten a lot of attention courtesy of the Republican Presidential Debate. 

Sen. Clinton and Sen. Schumer both Democrats from New York, included this million dollar earmark in the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education spending bill.  This earmark was destined to create a museum honoring the 1969 Woodstock music festival.  Thankfully, Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) managed to kill this earmark by a voice vote on the Senate floor.

As we have seen time and time again, USA Today uncovered that Allen Gerry, the owner of the Woodstock site, where the museum would have been constructed, made large contributions to Schumer’s and Clinton’s campaigns after the earmark was included in the bill.

On another note, an earmark I questioned on the House floor by Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY), managed to slip by once again on the floor of the Senate. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) offered an amendment to strike Mr. Rangel’s infamous “Monument to Me”, a $2 million dollar earmark to create the “Charles B Rangel Center for Public Service and the Charles Rangel Library at the City College of New York”, from the bill.

After his amendment failed, Sen. DeMint commented that, “Washington has reached the point of absurdity when a member of Congress can create a monument to himself at taxpayer expense,” I’m embarrassed that my Senate colleagues didn’t have the courage today to stand up for taxpayers.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Here are my initial post-debate thoughts ...

Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney both did well, but they always do well.  Mike Huckabee is still the best debater, but there's nothing new there. 

I think Fred Thompson did quite well.  Once again, he ended strong.  People tend to remember the first thing and the last thing they see, and if this is true, Fred Thompson had a very good night.

Tonight, John McCain "the Statesman" showed up.  He was energetic enough to show his virility, yet calm enough to demonstrate gravitas.  He did a terrific job of balancing humor with seriousness, and his classy brand of humor served to underscore his serious points. 

A few months ago his campaign seemed to be starring at the abyss.  Tonight, John McCain may take solace in Winston Churchill words (about the ability to speak) that: “Abandoned by his party, betrayed by his friends, stripped of his offices, whoever can command this power is still formidable.”  McCain may not have as much money as some of the other frontrunners, but this debate demonstrates he is still, indeed, formidable.

When it came time for Fred D. Thompson, the crowd was primed, having listened to his rivals deliver speeches, lasting about 20 minutes each, that the candidates each obviously thought played to their strengths.

Mr. Thompson walked slowly onto the stage, kissed his wife, Jerri, on the cheek, made a joke or two, claimed to be a “consistent conservative” — and said good night. He spoke for four minutes.

“I was really kind of shocked,” said Linda Hoffman, 47, who wore stickers for all the candidates on her blazer, reflecting her indecision. “We were all hoping he would say something we could get behind, but there was nothing.”

That should be a devastating quote, but the truth is it is entirely consistent with almost everything Fred has done since entering the race.

(Did I mention he paid $100,000 for those 4 minutes?)

For Fred's sake, he better open and close tonight the way he finished in Michigan.  

That is, if anybody's watching, anyway ...

As for the rest of the candidates, I am struck by how quickly they are running out of time.  It's almost like an NFL game where one second you have things under control, and then the next second there is like 1:10 left on the clock.  Time is slipping away for the non-frontrunners.  My belief is that it is now time to start pulling out all the stops.

For example, one operative was emailing me today about a recent story in which Mitt Romney actually had the audacity to refer to himself as the "consistent conservative."  (Romney may be a true convert and a great guy, but consistent???)

This operative was offended that I didn't think Romney's audacious claim was particularly newsworthy, since Romney's flip-floppery has been widely covered, already.  He was incredulous that we would allow Romney to get away with this. 

My response to him was that his candidate could make this a story by actually calling Romney a "phony" -- as opposed to merely implying it all the time.  While that would make it newsworthy, my guess is the candidates are afraid to "go negative."

So far, candidates on both sides of the aisle have avoided direct attacks, preferring instead to have surrogates or leaks do the attacking (they've also probably been hoping one of the other candidates would do their dirty work for them).  But it hasn't worked.  The frontrunners have profited from this strategy.  At this point, it seems to me that whether you want to take down Hillary Clinton -- or Mitt Romney -- or Rudy Giuliani -- the other candidates are running out of time. 

Of course, "going negative" could create a backlash (this happened to Dick Gephardt and Howard Dean in Iowa last time).  But sometimes you've got to throw the Hail Mary when nothing else is working and time is dwindling ... 

Whether or not it happens tonight, time is running out.  In the immortal words of the Doors, "The time to hesitate is through."

The Values Voter Summit Straw Poll results are in. Here's the deal. Mitt Romney just slightly edged out Huckabee when you include Internet votes, by less than a half a percent.

No doubt, there is  a dichotomy among conservative opinion as it relates to Mike Huckabee.  Social conservatives, such as those at FRC obviously love him, while he would probably have finished dead last if the Club for Growth had held a Straw Poll last week...

Nearly six thousand votes - 5,775 -  were cast in the first-ever Values Voters Straw Poll at FRC Action*s 2nd Annual Washington Briefing.  FRC Action members had the choice of voting on-line, by mail, or at electronic voting stations during this weekend*s event.  All presidential candidates from both parties were listed on the ballot.  

Candidate Name          Total Votes     Percentage
1.  Mitt Romney                 1,595                   27.62 %
2.  Mike Huckabee               1,565                   27.10 %
3.  Ron Paul                               865                  14.98%
4.  Fred Thompson                  564                   9.77 %
5.  Sam Brownback                  297                  5.14 %
6.  Duncan Hunter                  140                  2.42 %
7.  Tom Tancredo                   133                  2.30 %
8.  Rudy Giuliani                      107                1.85 %
9.  John McCain                              81                 1.40 %

"You know we have some areas of disagreement. We have many many areas of agreement... I'll always be honest to you. I come to you with an open heart and open mind, and I hope you will do the same... You have nothing to fear from me."