After driving incumbent GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski to the brink of defeat in Tuesday’s Alaska primary, dark horse Senate candidate Joe Miller attributed his surprise showing to the “sweat equity” of volunteers and voters’ recognition that the United States already has gone bankrupt.

And he contends that the media’s depiction of the race as a Murkowski-Palin family feud was a “manufactured story.”

In an exclusive Newsmax interview, the staunch fiscal conservative laid out one of the key messages of his campaign: that the nation has “gone bankrupt.”

Below are the results of the primaries that took place today nationwide:

• Arizona – Senator John McCain defeated J.D. Hayworth in the GOP primary. McCain will now take on one of four Democratic challengers whose name is not known as of this posting.
• Arizona – Governor Jan Brewer defeated Matthew Jette and Buz Mills. She will take on Terry Goddard in the November general election for the Governor seat.
• Florida – Marco Rubio easily defeated two little-known opponents. He will take on Kendrick Meek (Democrat) and Charlie Crist (Independent/RINO) in November.
• Florida – Rick Scott narrowly beat Bill McCollum and will represent the GOP in the November race. He will face Alex Sink in the mid-terms.

The tea party movement will revolutionize the GOP – and the nation’s political landscape in the process, says former House Majority Leader Dick Armey.

Armey, now the chairman of FreedomWorks, and FreedomWorks President Matt Kibbe predicted in an exclusive Newsmax.TV interview that America’s 1 million-plus tea partyers will reform the GOP and remake it into a force serving the cause of liberty rather than breaking away and forming a third party.

Keep liberal politics out of Texas! Come learn how you can help Governor Perry stand strong for Texas values.  

Date: Thursday, August 26th

Time: 11:15 a.m.

Location: Clem Mikeska BBQ

1217 South 57th St., Temple, TX 76504

Please contact our Central Texas Field Director to RSVP!

Jon McClellan – Central Texas Field Director

281-793-4558

JonMcClellan@RickPerry.org

*Light appetizers and drinks will be provided

This statement was issued by Move America Forward earlier today:

Move America Forward condemns Senator Boxer for claiming to support military families when she has been anything but a friend to our troops throughout her career. Few members of congress have been as insulting and demeaning to high ranking military officers as Senator Boxer.  Still fewer members of congress have the audacity to say a life of dedicated military service is comparable to that of a career in congress.

By associating herself with the Military Family Caucus, Senator Boxer is attempting to confuse and deceive the American public into believing that she supports the troops. We know from her ridiculous ‘Don’t call me ma’am’ statement earlier this year that she thinks highly of herself and her position, but this is the absolute height of hypocrisy as she has consistently failed to support our troops and their missions.

Looking back over this Senator’s career, you’ll see a pattern of trampling and demeaning the brave men and women who serve in our military.  She is quick to criticize them whenever they are being attacked, and she is conspicuously absent when they need her support.  Her supposed leadership of this caucus is no more than a political gimmick to distance herself from her most recent comments about the military that were both shameful and insulting.

The Military Family Caucus is a noble effort, but Senator Boxer is no friend to the troops or their families and her title as part of the caucus does not make up for her lack of support or leadership for military families in the past.

We doubt very seriously that this maneuver will fool anyone.  Rather, it will be seen for exactly what it is – a transparent and insincere attempt to curry favor from a group for which she has never shown interest or respect.

Some news tidbits from Hollyweird and other entertainment enclaves:

Another in a growing list of Hollywood actors has come out of the conservative closet.

James Caan recently made it clear he does not count himself among those in the entertainment field who embrace the liberal label. On the contrary, the veteran actor is considerably right of center.

“I’m an ultra conservative,” Caan confessed at the opening of the Hollyshorts Film Festival in Los Angeles.

“I’m not a god**** Hollywood liberal, I’m not,” proclaimed the actor who portrayed Sonny Corleone in the 1972 classic “The Godfather.”

Caan, however, says he is not among “all those actors who like to find a stage to push their agendas.” Questioned about California’s Proposition 8 and the federal judge’s decision that held the voter ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional, he told the Pop Tarts website, “I don’t want to comment on that. I’ll let those other geniuses do that. … They don’t have political science degrees. … I certainly don’t. I’ll leave it to Sean Penn or Barbra Streisand to comment on that.”

Incidentally, Hollywood liberals had better not mess with Caan. He has been a serious practitioner of martial arts for nearly 30 years, and trained the Culver City Police Department in fight techniques.

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While appearing on HLN’s “The Joy Behar Show,” Rob Schneider let slip his aversion to former fellow “Saturday Night Live” writer-cast member and current Democratic Senator Al Franken.

We’re talking the same Al Franken who, according to some reports, may have become a U.S. senator partly because of the illegal felon vote in Minnesota’s Twin Cities.

Guest host Shaun Robinson was taken by surprise by some of Schneider’s remarks.

Robinson brought up the performer’s famed ‘SNL’ bit, jokingly asking him “to apologize for creating that character.”

“People are still doing that when you`re going to the copy machine,” Robinson pointed out.

“That was about 19 years ago or something,” Schneider said. “I was on ‘Saturday Night Live’ when they had more cast members than audience members. You know it would take them half the show [to introduce everyone], feature player Adam Sandler, and another half-featured player David Spade and feature player Rob Schneider and Al Franken — of course, Senator Al Franken. What a [expletive deleted] he is.”

“Oh, my goodness,” the host exclaimed.

“I`m glad — I actually mean that,” Schneider replied.

This is an actual invitation – a letter, actually –  from South Carolina State Senator Mick Mulvaney, which was sent to Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Will she accept the invitation? You be the judge:

Madam Speaker,

According to an article by the Associated Press (“Pelosi stumps for Democrats as GOP fires away” – August 13, 2010) you are currently campaigning actively for many embattled House Democrats. The article also notes that you are doing this even though many consider you to be a “divisive” figure. As much as I oppose your agenda, I can appreciate such forthrightness.

Therefore, I invite you to come to the 5th District of South Carolina. As you know, it is the home of your Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt.

Mr. Spratt certainly qualifies as a loyal supporter of yours. As I am sure you are aware, he has voted with Democrat leaders 98% of the time the last few years. He was there when you needed him on the bailouts, cap-and-trade, and most especially on health care. Many of us in South Carolina remember his impassioned introduction of you on the night of the final vote of that historically bad bill. Certainly, by any measure, he has earned your support in this election.

Although Mr. Spratt originally took the position that Obamacare was indeed a bad bill, it seems that you were able to convince him that the real problem is that folks just don’t understand the new law well enough. In that spirit, I would welcome the opportunity to have you and Mr. Spratt, together, educate us on the supposed virtues of government-run health care. Since you and Mr. Spratt apparently believe that South Carolinians and other Americans are “uneducated” about the new law, why not come to South Carolina and explain the merits of its massive tax hikes and unconstitutional individual mandates?

I realize that South Carolina is a long way from San Francisco, but I think Mr. Spratt could benefit from your help when explaining his recent voting record. So, again, I invite you to add the 5th Congressional District of South Carolina to your list of campaign stops. We look forward to having you.

Sincerely,

South Carolina State Senator Mick Mulvaney