A few items from the series of tubes this AM:

Skipped the Faux News GOP debate last night; a quick skim tells me Huckabee zinged John Edwards and Rudy zinged Ron Paul.  Some reports from others:

  • From the right, Cyclone Conservatives looks at each contender and Sporer does a debate score card.  Both of them score Huckabee and Giuliani on top.  Cy hasn’t reset his poll, which still shows a Ron Paul landslide.
  • Iowa Voice sums up all the national wingers so you and I don’t have to.
  • Common Iowan looks in from the left.
  • The GOP is culling candidates a bit with no-chance businessman John Cox left out.  The Republican field will probably thin faster than the Democrats because the August 11 buy-a-vote straw poll is a bigger event than the caucus itself.  Looking back to the most recent contested GOP cycle, the summer 1999 straw poll winnowed out more candidates (Elizabeth Dole, Dan Quayle, and Pat Buchanan bolting to Reform) than the caucuses themselves (Orrin Hatch, as if that wasn’t obvious).  I’d expect a similar number of candidates to drop out this August.Other subjects:
  • De facto Republican Joe Lieberman is hosting a fundraiser for official Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine, just after the Democrats have recruited Rep. Tom Allen to oppose her next year.  Kos leads the chorus of blog anger.
  • Next door to Iowa we may see an open seat and special election in northeast Missouri as Swing State Report reports Rep. Kenny Hulshof is a finalist to be University of Missouri president.  A tough district but it was long held by moderate Dem Harold Volkmer who fell to Hulshof in the massacre of `94.  Hulshof won 61-36 last year with a lefty independent siphoning off 1%; Senate winner Claire McCaskill took 46% in the district.