GOP dinner

Don't Mention The War



John McCain as Basil Fawlty:

With one glaring exception, the field of Republican presidential candidates who spoke at a forum in Des Moines on Saturday that effectively launched the campaign for the 2008 Iowa caucuses tiptoed around the biggest issue facing the country.

U.S. Sen. John McCain was the lone candidate among the nine to give full-throated support to President Bush's effort to turn the tide in Iraq.

The Real Register Political Reporter Tom Beaumont is the only one to take that lead; the Overrated One went with a Crown Underwhlmed angle.

Other coverage:

Iowa Politics has audio of all speeches. I'm not up for that this morning but a nice public service. Also nice writeups of everyone. Except of course Duncan Hunter who was stranded (not) in Iowa.

Gazette pulls out a couple plums. Almost everyone picked up on:

``Rudy McRomney is not a conservative and he knows he's not a conservative,'' former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore said...

but no one else noted:

Gilmore said, drawing a murmur of boos.

And they pull out

Illegal immigration is out of control, Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo said, and offered a three-word solution: ``Enforce the law.''

Mike Glover, the underrated one, offers this red meat:

Brownback used props, displaying a massive copy of the nation's tax code and saying "this should be taken behind the barn and killed with a dull ax."

Seriously, I swear, I'm going to get out to a GOP event soon.