You gotta love the candidates for RNC chair.

Gay-rights activist and talk-radio host Michelangelo Signorile has posted an amusing piece of audio of Ken Blackwell during the Republican National Convention, telling Signorile that homosexuality is a compulsion that can be "restrained," and he's quite confident he would be able to suppress it within himself -- though of course he's never had any sort of problem like that.

"I've never had to make the choice because I've never had the urge to be other than a heterosexual," Blackwell said, "but if in fact I had the urge to be something else I could have in fact suppressed that urge."

(Via The Hill)

The candidates for Republican National Committee chair have been talking about how to effectively campaign in the era of YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. But it looks like they're having problems with technology that first became widespread back when Eisenhower was president.

A C-Span staffer has informed us that the RNC voted to close today's meeting, which is being held as a forum for the leadership candidates, and eject the cameramen and press so it won't be carried on TV or elsewhere.

The Republican National Committee members obviously want to hear some Frank discussion of the issues and the state of their party -- so much that they don't want the public hearing what's said.

Bush Snubbing Obama At Blair House For Obama-Hater John Howard
The Washington Post reports that the the reason the Bush Administration isn't letting Barack Obama stay in the Blair House is that they are hosting former Australian Prime Minister John Howard, and will be giving him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Fun fact about Howard: He is a staunch Iraq War supporter who said in early 2007 that if he were in al-Qaeda he would be praying as much as possible for an Obama victory and for the Democrats in general.

Obama Holding Press Conference, Meeting With Bush And Ex-Presidents
Barack Obama is holding a 10:15 a.m. ET press conference in Washington, during which he is expected to make announce the creation of a new Chief Performance Officer at the White House, who will monitor the effectiveness of agencies. Later on he will attend a private lunch with President Bush and the three living ex-presidents: Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton.

Biden Going To White House To Meet With Bush The Elder
Joe Biden is headed to the White House this morning for a closed-door meeting with former President George H.W. Bush. Afterwards, Biden will be holding private meetings at the Obama D.C. transition office.

New Poll: The Ex-Presidents All Have High Approval Ratings
A newly-released CNN poll finds that large majorities of Americans approve of how all three living ex-presidents handled their jobs: Bill Clinton is at 69% approve to 31% disapproval, George H.W. Bush is at 60%-39%, and Jimmy Carter is at 64%-33%. With two presidents who were defeated for re-election enjoying such high ratings -- and one of them with a poisonous surname right now -- one does have to wonder if there's hope for George W. Bush.

Burris To Meet With Reid And Durbin
Roland Burris is set to meet with Harry Reid and Dick Durbin today, in an effort to negotiate his seating in the Senate. "We are requesting that Senate leaders resolve this matter to avoid legal action and award Senate appointee Burris with the full privileges of a U.S. senator," Burris' lawyer said in a statement.

RNC Holding Special Forum for Chairmanship Candidates
The Republican National Committee is holding a special session in Washington today, which will serve as a forum for the six candidate running for RNC chair. The meeting was called by RNC members, specifically to host the candidates and hear about how they will reinvigorate the party.

Landrieu Snubs Vitter At Swearing-In
Roll Call reports that Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) declined to have her scandal-plagued GOP co-Senator David Vitter next to her at her swearing-in yesterday. Instead, she was escorted to the well of the chamber by Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and retiring Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM).

Will Ferrell To Do Bush Impression On Broadway
The Bush years may be coming to an end -- but the Bush-parody years are not, with Will Ferrell taking his Bush impression to Broadway in a new show entitled "You're Welcome America: A Final Night With George W. Bush." Ferrell told CNN: "He's arrogant with a school-boy attitude, and combine that with the fact that he is commander in chief -- and, unfortunately, it's very funny."

It's now becoming clear that there is a good-sized contingent of Republicans who are openly defending Chip Saltsman, the former Tennessee GOP chairman and candidate for RNC chair who sent out a CD to committee members that includes a parody song called "Barack The Magic Negro."

• Mike Huckabee, for whom Saltsman served as campaign manager, has chimed in to defend Saltsman against the charge of racism, while at the same time acknowledging that "Chip should have been more careful" in picking the CD. "It shouldn't be the main factor in the RNC race," Huckabee wrote on his blog.

• Another person defending Saltsman has been Mark Ellis, the GOP state chairman in Maine -- not the sort of place you would automatically expect someone to stick up for this: "When I found out what this was about I had to ask, 'Boy, what's the big deal here?' because there wasn't any."

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The RNC chairmanship race, with its new controversy surrounding a CD with a song entitled "Barack The Magic Negro," appears to be calling into question just how able the party will be to effectively oppose the first black president without coming off as racist.

The Politico reports that some RNC members appear to be rallying behind chairmanship candidate Chip Saltsman, after he sent all of them a gift CD that included the racially-charged song. Committee members from Oklahoma to Alabama and even Maine are now going on the record defending Saltsman, and some observers think current RNC chairman Mike Duncan and Michigan chairman Saul Anuzis may have damaged their candidacies by denouncing the CD.

Stuff like this really does bring us back to a strong possibility of what the GOP's prospects could be in the coming years. They may just be going through one of the classic cycles of a governing party that is kicked out in a landslide: The overall party base has shrunk, and the people left over prove to be the least fit candidates to actually clean up the mess. If this is true, the GOP is facing a long time in the wilderness.

Gaza Crisis Posing Tough Questions For Obama And Bush
The fighting in Gaza is shaping up to be the first international crisis facing Barack Obama -- and he hasn't even been sworn in yet, while the Obama transition team is thus far deferring to the Bush Administration on the question. "As the fighting in Gaza shows, however," the New York Times points out, "events in the world do not necessarily wait for Inauguration Day in the United States."

Obama Goes To The Bathroom
The traveling press pool on Barack Obama's attempted Hawaii vacation have thus far documented the president-elect visiting a high school friend, getting some food -- and going to the bathroom.

Klobuchar: Senate Should Seat Recount Winner, Pending Litigation
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) is calling for the Senate to provisionally seat the winner of the state's recount -- who at this point looks like it will be Al Franken -- even though the race won't be officially settled due to an expected post-recount election contest in court. Minnesota law officially prohibits a full certification of a victory until a contest proceeding is over, which could prevent the seating of a Senator for weeks or perhaps even a month or two.

Terry McAuliffe -- And His Money -- Making Mark On Virginia Gov Race
The Washington Post reports that Terry McAuliffe's fundraising operation is making a big impact on the Virginia gubernatorial race, with many observers believing that he could spend up to $80 million on the race. Randal Kirk, major state Democratic fundraiser who has committed to supporting McAuliffe, said that McAuliffe can instantly appeal to voters: "He has an astonishingly strong personality."

RNC Members Call Special Meeting To Host Candidates
In the latest sign that the race for RNC chairman is really heating up, committee members have for the first time ever called their own special RNC meeting, without orders from the national party. The meeting is being held as a forum for the candidates now running for the chairmanship, so it shouldn't come as a shock that it was called outside the auspices of the national leadership -- after all, the current party chairman Mike Duncan is in a tough fight for re-election against a wide field of challengers.

Caroline Kennedy: "You Know"
Ben Smith points out that during her interview with the New York Times, Caroline Kennedy used the phrase "you know" to fill in pauses a total of 142 times.

The Republican Party is starting to react to the recent actions of Chip Saltsman, a candidate for the RNC chairmanship who sent a gift bag to committee members that included a CD with a satirical song called "Barack The Magic Negro." Not surprisingly the reaction has been mostly negative -- but not entirely:

• The current RNC chairman Mike Duncan, who is seeking re-election against a wide field of challengers, was quick to condemn Saltsman. Duncan declared that the 2008 election was a "wake-up call for Republicans to reach out and bring more people into our party," and that he was "shocked and appalled" that anyone would think this was appropriate.

• Michigan GOP chairman Saul Anuzis, who is also a candidate, said the CD was in bad taste. "Just as important, Anuzis said, "anything that paints the GOP as being motivated in our criticism of President-elect Obama by anything other than a difference in philosophy does a disservice to our party."

• Interestingly enough, Saltsman does have one prominent defender in rival RNC candidate Ken Blackwell, one of two black contenders for the chairmanship, who blamed "hypersensitivity in the press regarding matters of race." Blackwell also added: "When looked at in the proper context, these concerns are minimal."

Duncan and Anuzis have some obvious reasons to condemn Saltsman, besides basic morality: They would want to simultaneously show they can take the moral high ground, while also discrediting one of their rivals. As for Blackwell: If Saltsman implodes, his supporters might just appreciate Blackwell having stuck up for their guy.

If one of the Republican Party's challenges is how to effectively oppose the first black president without coming off as racist, one of the candidates for RNC chair is hardly off to a good start -- he is now distributing a CD that includes a racially-charged song called "Barack, The Magic Negro."

Chip Saltsman, the former campaign manager for Mike Huckabee, has distributed a goodie bag to committee members that includes a CD by Paul Shanklin, a writer of right-wing parody tunes who is often featured on Rush Limbaugh. The "Magic Negro" track, which first gathered controversy in the Spring of 2007, featured Shanklin portraying Al Sharpton as an Amos & Andy stereotype, ridiculing white liberals who support Obama.

Saltsman defended the choice of the Shanklin CD, telling The Hill: "Paul Shanklin is a long-time friend, and I think that RNC members have the good humor and good sense to recognize that his songs for the Rush Limbaugh show are light-hearted political parodies."

In a frank and private memo sent today to Republican National Commitee members, the RNC chairman acknowledges that the GOP has grown too addicted to ideology, places politics before policy, and is bereft of ideas -- and that it's imperative that the party shift towards a genuine effort to develop concrete policy solutions to people's problems in order to rescue itself.

The memo, which we obtained from a Republican operative, was written by RNC chief Mike Duncan to explain the RNC's decision -- first reported by Politico -- to create a new in-house think tank called the "Center for Republican Renewal," which is devoted to coming up with new policies and ideas to chart a new direction for the party after November's devastating losses.

The memo -- which reflects just how deep a hole the party finds itself in -- also reveals some concrete details about the new think tank, including the appointment of Steven Duffield, the executive director of the GOP's 2008 Platform Committee, as the organization's new chief.

"Republicans have grown accustomed to having our party recognized as the `Party of Ideas,' but we must acknowledge that many Americans today believe the party is stale and does not deserve that label," reads one of the memo's starker assessments, adding that "we have not used our principles to provide solutions to the kitchen table concerns of middle-class America."

"We must recognize that being the `Party of Ideas' requires daily effort to apply principles to the particular public policy questions of the day," the memo says. "All Republicans have an obligation to develop principled solutions rather than falling back on ideology alone; we must show how our ideology can be applied to solve problems."

The assessment by Duncan, who's running for re-election as RNC chair, is a more straightforward acknowledgment of the party's deeply-rooted problems than we've heard from many of his opponents in the race. One GOP strategist opines to us that Duncan's willingness to speak frankly about such problems, and his creation of the center, could appeal to committee members who will select the next chairman.

The memo also says that the Renewal think tank is creating a "Board of Advisers" that will include former GOP cabinet secretaries, current and former high-level state and federal office-holders, and other Republican leaders. Full memo after the jump.

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It's a pretty amusing sign of just how bad the GOP's travails are and of how much the election of the first black president has shifted the political landscape: The race for chair of the Republican National Committee -- the public face of a party that's not known for racial sensitivity -- is shot through with veiled charges of racism.

The latest? A Republican operative supporting one of the candidates sends us some oppo research that, he vows, will be so damaging that it could help finish off one of the candidates, South Carolina GOP chief Katon Dawson. It's a December 2006 report in the Columbia Star saying that Dawson's son -- gasp! -- was at a debuttante ball at a country club that's all-white as a matter of policy.

The fact that Dawson himself was a member of this club, the 80-year-old Forest Lake Club, is not new. But our operative insists to us that the fact that Dawson's son also attended such a ball -- they are basically social coming out parties for the teenage daughters of well-heeled southern families -- makes the charge more damaging.

The operative tells us that the last thing the GOP needs right now is an RNC chair steeped so thoroughly in certain aspects of southern culture, given that the GOP needs to prove that it's not devolving into a regional rump party held hostage by intolerant elements.

Forget for the moment whether this argument has any merit or whether Dawson's attendance at the ball should matter. It's yet another sign of how much the landscape has shifted that being culturally identified with the south is a liability in the race for GOP chair.

Indeed, Dawson's association with the club has become so much of a problem that his camp is now circulating a letter from a black member of the RNC saying Dawson is no racist. No word back to us from the Dawson camp yet on this stuff.

We now know that the Obama campaign and the DNC had a very good fundraising month for June, banking a total of $92 million in cash on hand -- putting them very close to the $102 million that John McCain and the GOP have between them.

But the more important long-term question is this: Which team is now raising money at a faster rate? What does the overall picture tell us about what things will look like later this fall?

We took a close look at the last six months of numbers, and here's our conclusion: Though the GOP got a big, big head start in fundraising while the Dems were still duking it out, the June fundraising numbers leave little doubt that the Dems are on track to vastly outpace the Republicans -- meaning the Dem team is almost certain to overtake the collective Republican machine in cash on hand by as soon as next month.

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