Sam Brownback

While researching a story this weekend, "McCain Learning Curve; MLK, Rebel Flag, Slavery," I was reminded of a bit of campaigning that McCain had done in October of 2007:

Senator and GOP candidate for president John McCain told The Examiner Wednesday that he supports a planned resolution by fellow GOP Senator Sam Brownback to apologize for slavery. Presumably, McCain was too busy helping Brownback draft the resolution to show up to the candidates' forum at historically black Morgan State University in September.

From the same article:

"They were federal policies," Brownback told the Boston Globe on Monday. "They were wrong. The only way for us to move forward . . . is at the end of the day acknowledging those, taking ownership for it, and asking for forgiveness."

Since I wondered at the time whether McCain was just pandering, or was he really behind the measure, I thought now would be a good time to find out what ever happened with the bill. The most recent news report, from February 27, 2008, has Brownback and Iowa Senator Tom Harkin set to introduce the measure this Spring:

So far, they have 14 Senate backers, including Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama. A similar House measure introduced last year has 120 co-sponsors.

After the jump, where is McCain now on this issue?

It's a little like the American Civil War. Friend against friend, brother against brother, and now blogger versus blogger at the Democrats largest online community:

Objecting to the tone of attacks against Mrs. Clinton and her supporters on the blog, the diarist called for a "writers strike."

"This is a strike - a walkout over unfair writing conditions at DailyKos. It does not mean that if conditions get better I won't 'work'' at DailyKos again," Alegre wrote, promising to come back only "if we ever get to the point where we're engaging each other in discussion rather than facing off in shouting matches."

As you can imagine, this generated a lot of discussion. Is this Hillary's fault for not bowing to the inevitable delegate lead for Obama heading into the convention. Or are Hillary supporters following the time honored tradition of Ronald Reagan in 1976 and never saying die. Also quite possibly saving the Democratic party's strongest and most electable candidate (which they say is Hillary).

As a conservative Republican, this is fun to watch, and I only wish they could both lose. It's also an inevitable side effect of a long drawn out campaign fight where things just get nastier and more personal as they go on. We've seen it in the Ohio state Democratic blogosphere. The big question here is that when the nominee gets resolved, will the sides come together and support the nominee and let go of the rancor. I think yes, although it will be much easier if Barack Obama is the nominee. The enthusiasm gap between Clinton and Obama pales in comparison to the enthusiasm gap between the Republican and Democratic parties this year.

Well the headline is not exactly right, but us childhood fans of Wile E Coyote and Roadrunner cartoons can't resist. Here's what Bill Clinton did say about his smart, smart wife:

"The reason she ought to be president, over and above her vision and her plans is that she has proven in every position she has ever had in life, whether it was in elected office or not, that she is a world-class genius in making positive changes in other people's lives," he said.

... As opposed to the garden variety run of the mill local-class geniuses you see on every street corner. But what is the evidence Mr. Clinton?

We've been waiting for this endorsement for a long time as Senator Brownback said he would announce his endorsement the day after he resigned. And that was weeks ago. Today the endorsement came down, and it was for John McCain.

The Brownback campaign let it be known that he would publicly announce an endorsement for the 2008 GOP primary the Friday after he ended the campaign. That was now a week ago and there is still no endorsement. Yesterday, Brownback spent an hour with Rudy Giuliani. Is a Giuliani endorsement deal in the works?

As the first commenter on this PM post pointed out, the most likely effect of the Brownback dropout is a boost for the Mike Huckabee campaign. The truth is that between Huckabee and Brownback, one of them is redundant. They were both going after the religious conservative vote, when the real concern for most of those folks is keeping Hillary from being elected.

And between the two, Huckabee had the marginally better story. The simple fact of the matter is that governors win presidencies and senators do not. So Huckabee edged out in front of Brownback and built from there. As Thoughts of a Regular Guy pointed out, Brownback's stand on immigration reform probably did not help either.

The Associated Press (AP) is reporting that tomorrow Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) is expected to announce he is no longer seeking the Republican nomination for the White House.

The AP notes:

Brownback, a longshot conservative contender, had trouble raising money to compete in the race. He is expected announce his withdrawal in Topeka, Kan.

He raised a little more than $800,000 in the third quarter of this year, his lowest quarterly amount since entering race. He has brought in more than $4 million overall and is eligible for $2 million in federal matching funds.

Life on the campaign trail can indeed be lonely for a presidential candidate struggling to gain traction.

The photo above captures Republican Sam Brownback speaking to a sparse audience at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., Tuesday. To be fair, there were at least 11 more people on the right side of the room, not pictured here.

Still, this can't bode well for the Brownback campaign. What does the Republican senator from Kansas need to do to capture the voters' interest? Or is it a hopeless case? Leave your comments below.