To choose the likes of John Boehner and Roy Blunt, with all respect for these men's abilities, would be to not make any choice at all. This is the same leadership we've had, and we need new leaders who have held a true reform vision since elected.

It's great that Congressman Blunt admitted yesterday at Heritage that he was mistaken in voting for NCLB in 2001, but guess what? At the end of the day, he is responsible for his vote on that and a host of other isses on which we became the party of big government.

Mike Pence recognized NCLB was wrong at the time, as he did with the Medicare bill in 2003, and made a stand on conviction. We need men and women who can SEE, and will DO, what is right when the chips are down, not talk about what one "should have done" at a lecture five years later.

Mike Pence is the finest man I have ever met. I have known him since 1988 and believe me, no one can hide ugly kinks in their armor for that long! If Mike Pence were not the genuine article, something, somewhere, would have surfaced by now.

Actually, it's a toss-up as to who is a better person; Mike Pence or his wife Karen.

On the other hand, the GOP minority is more conservative than the GOP majority (assuming those who replaced an R in an R open seat stay the same level of conservative). There were 9.0% GOP with an ACU rating below 70, now it is 8.5%. There were 20.2% of GOP between 70 and 86 inclusive (87 being the GOP average), now it is 17.4%. It was 70.8% of the GOP was at or above the GOP average of 87 on the ACU life time rating, now it is 76.1%. All of the above is assuming the current 13 undecided come out the way they are leaning now (3 dem incumbents hold, 1 rep incumb loses and the other 9 rep incumbents hold). So in summary, the GOP had 70.1% at the party average or better on the ACU rating and now has 76.1% at or above the same average. Consider this the hard core 35% conservative of the house total (meaning it would be very hard for Nancy to put together a bill that could sustain a veto). Nancy will have about 3.9% of the house as GOP who would likely be amenable to a "deal" assuming amenability is associated with ACU ratings.

Nancy on the other side will go from a 67.3%

This is good news. We definitely need to clean house in the Republican Leadership....

The problem is twofold. First, in really tight races, getting out the base tends to be the more effective strategy than diluting the message. Mostly, though, it's that those who hold power over a long time tend to forget what brought them there.