GOP ‘B-Team’ Takes Jabs at Top Tier Candidates

Some of the lesser known Republican candidates appear to be starting to take shots at the big three candidates in the GOP. One of these men have my vote in the New Hampshire primary, I just haven’t decided which one.

I ask everone out there to look at these candidates also, not to just vote for someone with name recognition.

From cnsnews.com:

By Fred Lucas
CNSNews.com Staff Writer

(CNSNews.com) – Touting his conservative credentials, former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore borrows a phrase from an unlikely source:

“I will represent the Republican wing of the Republican party,” Gilmore said, a variation of a quote first made famous by Howard Dean, now the Democratic National Committee chairman, when he ran for his party’s 2004 presidential nomination. Dean complained that other Democrats in the primary race weren’t liberal enough.

Now, in the early stages of the 2008 presidential contest, the top GOP presidential candidates find themselves increasingly the targets of the “B-team” of candidates, as the lesser known Republicans take aim at the policies of the perceived frontrunners — Sen. John McCain of Arizona, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

There’s good reason for the criticism, Gilmore said at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C., on Saturday.

He noted that McCain opposed President Bush’s tax cuts in 2001 and favors an immigration policy that critics view as amnesty; that Romney endorsed then-Massachusetts Sen. Paul Tsongas for president in 1992 and said he didn’t want to return to the economic policies of Ronald Reagan; and that Giuliani supports registration of guns and backed Democratic New York Gov. Mario Cuomo’s failed reelection effort in 1994.

“These people who are anointed the frontrunners are fine men and served loyally in their positions — but they are not conservatives,” said Gilmore, also a former chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Gilmore was one of five “B-team” candidates to criticize the leading trio while speaking at the conservative event.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said Friday that conservatives may be asking themselves, “Dude, where’s my candidate?”

While admitting he lacks the name recognition and financial backing of the big three, Huckabee observed that “if celebrity and money were the most important factors in becoming president of the United States, then Paris Hilton would be president.”

Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas appeared to enjoy the most visible support of the lesser-known GOP candidates, based on the number of people at the conference waving signs with his name on them. In CPAC’s annual straw poll, Brownback came in third place with 15 percent of the vote.

Addressing the conference Friday, Brownback pledged to “rebuild the family and rebuild the culture.” He also promised to replace the current income tax code with flat tax and to end abortion if elected.

“Life begins at conception, biologically,” Brownback said. “With any luck, on the Supreme Court we are just one vote shy of overturning Roe v. Wade.”

Unlike some of the other candidates, Brownback didn’t take as many shots at the big three.

Conference attendees differed in their opinions on the type of candidate the GOP should nominate in 2008.

“Republicans will not win with just the party line,” said Joe Hannan of West Milford, N.J. “We need a moderate candidate like Rudy Giuliani. The people in charge of the Republican party knew we’ll need a more moderate candidate to win.”

But Art Kelly of Manassas, Va., said he hopes that someone other than McCain, Giuliani or Romney emerges.

“I don’t think the field has been narrowed at all,” Kelly said. “None of those three are acceptable to me. I would be hard pressed to say these guys are in the center. They’re liberal. They might be in the center for Massachusetts and New York.”

He conceded that in McCain’s case, he has been “good on spending and has spoken out on earmarks.”

While the top candidates generally have been more measured in their comments, the long shots have less to lose in speaking their minds — and they did so over the weekend.

“If a judge can look at a sonogram and not see a valuable human life, I will not appoint that person to the federal bench,” another “B-team” candidate, Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, told the enthusiastic crowd Friday.

Immigration reform crusader Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado – yet another 2008 aspirant – took the podium to applause from mostly one section of the crowd, but he revved up the broader audience during the speech.

“It’s great to celebrate diversity,” he said. “It’s when we make a state religion out of it that’s a problem,” he said, drawing laughter and applause.

Tancredo also poked fun at the top tier candidates, and their bids to shift to the right despite their questionable conservative records.

“I’m not surprised, with the rush to the right, the conversions that are made,” he said. “But conversions are supposed to happen on the road to Damascus, not the road to Des Moines” — a reference to the 2008 Iowa Caucus.