Shaun Kenney

Connecticut Yankee Mark Warner says he’s being considered as Obama’s VP pick, which just sends the depth of his committment to Virginia to new levels of shallowness.

I kid you not. Click here before it goes away!

Jim Hoeft over at Bearing Drift has all the details on the Jeffersoniad Blog Alliance hospitality suite at this weekend’s RPV State Convention.

D.J. McGuire describes what he calls (rightly) the “most creative conspiracy theory I’ve ever seen.“

Apparently, because Bob Marshall prefers nuclear power to fossil fuels, and because he his record against “sprawl” won him the endorsement of the Sierra Club in his House of Delegate races, STD sees the entire Marshall for Senate campaign as a sinister Eco-Nazi conspiracy.

Rappahannod Red gives us this hilarious take:

The Right-Wing Liberal (a conservative blog if you don’t get the pun) had a nice roundup of the desperation of the few remaining Gilmore bloggers who haven’t jumped the sinking ship yet.

Needless to say, Mrs. Kenney informs me that there is a fairly vicious screed from Team Gilmore at the house via snail mail, saying Marshall isn’t a “reliable conservative” and listing votes viewed as favorable by the Sierra Club as one of his many sins.

Sounds like the wheels are coming off to me.

UPDATE: Marshall’s staff has the Gilmore slick… and it looks like something from the hit-and-run playbook. Clearly this hit piece isn’t the hallmark of someone confident of victory.

Bob Lewis reports on what has gone from Gilmore’s crass denial, to open season on Bob Marshall, to… well, a tacit concern from former Governor Jim Gilmore that he might not have the horses to win this weekend:

‘We haven’t tried to overpower the opponent. We simply want to win the nomination.’

From blowout to squeaker? Not exactly the same talking points Team Gilmore was parading before reporters a mere three weeks ago, nor is Gilmore’s weak showing what most political pundits expected from a former RNC Chairman:

A closely contested convention and a narrow margin aren’t what Republicans want as they begin their quest to retain the seat of five-term Republican Sen. John W. Warner. Even in Virginia, where Republicans have won 13 of the past 14 White House races, the GOP is sorely burdened by a deeply unpopular Republican president.

“If it’s even vaguely close, Jim Gilmore will look like he’s in even deeper trouble and will raise even less money,” said professor Larry J. Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics. “If a former governor can’t put away a gadfly state legislator and do it easily, that’s a very bad signal.”

Gadfly indeed, as Marshall has been taking body blows to Gilmore’s record on amnesty, including a recent endorsement for Marshall from Rep. Tancredo amidst several key endorsements.

So what if Warner has the GOP candidates outraised 8:1? Given the fact that Marshall has done more with his $78K than Gilmore has done with nearly 13 times that amount says all we need to know about Marshall’s effacacy this coming November against Democrat Mark Warner.

This ability to mobilze the conservative grassroots is the key to Republican victory in November. Bolling did it, McDonnell did it, the 2006 Marriage Amendment did it — while failure to mobilize conservatives turns into systematic defeat time after time.

In 1993, Mike Farris bumped off the presumptive nominee at a convention in a huge victory for social conservatives. In an election year when conservatives are looking for a reason to stay involved, a Marshall vs. Warner fight sure looks promising.

Seems as if some Democrats are questioning the ideological purity and questionable past of Democratic Senator Jim Webb, mostly by bringing up every single point the press refused to discuss brought up by Republicans in 2006.

The Next Right went live about 24 hours ago. Sign up and sound off!

FINALLY! A worthwhile use for Twitter!

What is it? Twittering the Mars Phoenix project, where NASA is literally task-by-task updating their progress. Pictures, events, or teases on new discoveries.

Now this I like.

You’ve seen this guy before, a Marine blown out of his Humvee in 2005 and was never expected to live the three days it would take to get him home.

He held on for three years. His story is nothing short of amazing. Sadly, Merlin passed away last month during what his friends and family would have considered “routine” surgery — adding skin to his lower lip.

Read it all.

Meet and greet the newest Marshall for Senate endorsee over at The Northern Virginia Conservative, remarkable because this blog had formerly endorsed Jim Gilmore and thought better of it:

A few months ago, I endorsed Jim Gilmore’s Senate candidacy on this blog. This campaign has shown me that he is NOT the man for the job. He is a classic glad-handing establishment politician. The Republican party, particularly here in the Old Dominion, is at a crisis point in terms of not only electoral success, but in terms of its identity. We have lost our way very, very badly the past few years by pandering to a very loud, very boorish social conservative minority, while at the same time making a Faustian bargain with people who are anything but conservative for the sake of winning. The worst part is that we keep losing despite that.

It’s time for a change. Bob Marshall actually took the time to call me personally a week or two ago, and spent half an hour making a powerful case for his candidacy. I part ways with him on some social issues, but he is absolutely right on on just about everything else from fiscal issues to border security and immigration. He does not ever compromise his fundamental principles. It’s just not close.

I can hear the laughter of the more jaded politicos now… a half hour talking to one voter???

Yep.

That’s how much Marshall cares. Name me another politician who would do that for an undecided voter?