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... significant primary races dot the horizon: In Texas, Gov. Rick Perry (a trailblazer in reducing the size and scope of government) seeks to fend off a challenge from moderate Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. In California, conservative Assemblyman Chuck DeVore seeks to paint former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina as an establishment liberal in their race to win the GOP nomination to challenge Sen. Barbara Boxer. In Florida, former House Speaker Marco Rubio is running for U.S. Senate against moderate Gov. Charlie Crist.

When all is said and done, we will have seen a tug-of-war for the heart and soul of the GOP playing out in three of our largest states (by population). Something to note is that the timeline allows for conservatives to focus and transfer their energies from one state to the next. The Texas primary is in March; three months later the battle shifts to California; after that, it's on to Florida for an August primary.

... Newt Gingrich is brilliant, and liberals know it. We conservatives like that. In an era when conservatives are criticized for lacking ideas, Gingrich is an idea machine.

In 1918, Felix Frankfurter was visiting Cliveden, Nancy Astor's country house in England, and listening as she attacked Churchill, who was not there, at length.  At last, A.J. Balfour, a former prime minister, told her: "Nancy, all you can say about Winston may be true, but Winston has ideas, and to a statesman with ideas much shall be forgiven."

To appreciate the extent to which the Environmental Protection Agency under President Obama is a regulator reborn, consider this: EPA officials have begun to cut air pollution by invoking the Clean Water Act. …Long quiescent under President George W. Bush, the agency is churning out initiatives and regulations at a pace that pleases its friends in the environmental movement and frightens many in the business community. (Amanda DeBard, “Obama’s EPA is a regulator reborn,” Washington Times, November 4th, 2009)

Think Progress' Matthew Yglesias clearly doesn't like the American system.  Over the years, he has pointed out time and again that if we had a different system, things would be better (or, at least, more liberal). 

Here's his most recent criticism of our system:

"It's worth taking a moment to appreciate the fact that in a unicameral United States of America, we would now have passed both a comprehensive health care reform bill and also the most important piece of environmental legislation in the history of the world. Now that's not the world we live in. Instead we live in a world where neither of those things have passed and where their prospects aren't clear. But think back on this point the next time you hear someone say Obama is struggling with his agenda because he's not centrist enough, or else that Obama is struggling with his agenda because he's not left-wing enough. The reality is that he's struggling with his agenda because of the way our political institutions are structured."

... praising Marxism and discussing his ties to communists in El Salvador and Nicaragua and the Libyan government. Equally important, Wright is being introduced in the video by Robert W. McChesney, co-founder of Free Press, an organization which has come under scrutiny for its links to the Obama Administration and dedication to the transformation and control of the private media in the U.S.

He called America "land of the greed and home of the slave."

Read the whole thing here.

Also please note this:

*Editor's Note:  The Wright video linked to in Cliff Kincaid's column, Controversial New Video of Obama's Pastor,  has been deleted. But the same video can still be viewed on YouTube in three parts. Here are part one, part two, and part three.  We do not know why the original video was taken down, but have our suspicions.