Republicans Look To A Future Without Bush

I don't believe that Yahoo saw the irony in that headline. There are a lot of folks looking toward that day, some with regret, some with glee.

The story talks about the meeting last week of the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in Memphis. I call it, "How a nice Yankee boy wound up in Memphis during the CUSA Tournament with Chris Matthews, 1800 Republicans and all of the 19 year-olds who couldn't afford Spring Break in Florida or Mexico." Suffice it to say that Graceland was not the most surreal moment of the week.

1. Hundreds of stickers proclaiming, "Bill Frist is My Leader." How can that not make you pause? Frist is the red-state Hillary, only carrying more baggage. How often does Ken Mehlman want to see the "Terri Schiavo's Okay" videotape?
2. John McCain says that a straw poll two years out foretells nothing and hat the Pres needs party support through a difficult time. He urges the delegates to not vote for him but to write in Bush's name.
3. Bush finishes tied for third in the straw poll.
4. Matthews is Honorary Duckmaster at The Peabody Hotel for a day.
5. Trent Lott is doing his level best to keep Newt G. from taking the party elder role from him.
6. 1800 Republicans in the city and there was no talk of; a) TABOR, b) More guns in the hands of law-abiding yada yada, c) Ethanol (except to support the Pres' call for increased use of, oh, and a 3 page article in the Times Courier about the success Brazil has had weaning itself from the influence of other countries by using mandates and incentives to encourage development of flex-fuel vehicles and ethanol production and using the vegetable waste to generate the heat for production and selling the excess), d) Russ Feingold.
7. I spent three days in the same town as Mike Huckabee, Lindsey Graham, George Warner, and Mitt Romney and the world just kept on spinning. Easy enough.