Congrats to Senator McCain

John McCain did what he had to do tonight with a nice showing in New Hampshire. It appears he beat Mayor Giuliani soundly near his backyard, and the margin over Mitt Romney could be impressive given that Romney has spent a lot of time in the state, and was fairly well-known as the Governor of Massachusetts.

I truly enjoyed having Mr. McCain and Mr. Huckabee on our side of the contest until Saturday night's debate. While Huckabee got in his fair share of wise cracks on Gov. Romney during this weekend's debates, I thought John McCain was particularly short-tempered and angry. They both wisecracked their way through the debate instead of discussing issues.

I sent an e-mail on Sunday to Rush Limbaugh asking him to use the influence of the golden EIB microphone to remind the Republican base that Mr. McCain has not stood with us on tax cuts, immigration, campaign finance reform, or the executive's ability to nominate constructionist judges. I'm sure Rush was flooded with similar e-mails from the heartland.

Rush Limbaugh, Monday, January 7: "Now, I want to remind all my Republican friends that there are many states after Iowa and New Hampshire where the Republican populations are far more indicative of the conservative base, and to get caught up in what happened in Iowa, to get caught up in what's going to happen in New Hampshire as though they're the only two states that matter and that they're going to determine the fallout on both parties is a little bit over the top."

"McCain has been the author of the first official intervention in the First Amendment in this nation's history: McCain-Feingold. He has opposed tax cuts, the Bush tax cuts. So to put that out there in an ad is not an attack ad. It happens to be true. You have all this sensitivity about these attack ads. You don't see Romney whining and moaning about these things. You don't see Fred Thompson whining and moaning about these things. You don't see Rudy whining and moaning. But you do see Huckabee and McCain whining and moaning about this. It's unbecoming, because this is what it is. Politics is what it is. "