Last we heard from former Bush speechwriter-turned-Washington Post line columnist Michael Gerson, he was attacking Tea Party activists and yours truly for criticizing his old boss/mentor Karl Rove’s Christine O’Donnell-bashing.

See: Rove aide: Kneel before The Architect, you puny website operators & Tea Party ingrates.

Well, Rove’s Beltway water boy took to his WaPo perch again this weekend to re-litigate the midterm election results on behalf of his boss and damn the Tea Party movement, Jim DeMint, and Sarah Palin:

O’Donnell and Angle were gifts of Sen. Jim DeMint and Sarah Palin to their party. Tea Party enthusiasm and shallow ideological purity were supposed to be better than outdated, “establishment” attributes such as achievement, wisdom or qualification. This approach to politics is expected of DeMint, who has gained national prominence by accusing his Republican colleagues of compromise. Coming from Palin, however, it is a threat to the Republican future.

In the past, Palin embodied the populist style of the Tea Party movement while espousing a fairly mainstream Republican ideology. On economic, social and foreign policy, Palin seldom strayed from a simplified, popularized Reaganism. The Mama Grizzly may have been ferocious, but her talking points came from the Heritage Foundation instead of from shadier corners of the right.

This election season called that perception into question. Palin’s support for O’Donnell showed poor political judgment. But Palin went further, also endorsing Constitution Party gubernatorial candidate Tom Tancredo in Colorado, one of the most divisive figures in American politics.

More on all that in a second.

For his part, DeMint struck back forcefully, turning the tables on the GOP trash-talkers:

MR. GREGORY: Well, and I, I want to ask you about some specific areas of–issue areas of the agenda. Before I do that, another question about the tea party. You were active in supporting tea party candidates around the country. You had some, some big winners around the country that you campaigned for. There are some of them. But you also had some notable losses, particularly in the Senate, and I want to single one out. You were behind Christine O’Donnell, who lost, of course, in Delaware. And here was the front page of the Wilmington News Journal on Wednesday after the election. The banner headline, “No taste for tea.” And frankly, there’s been some backlash about your support for her. Politico reported it this way this week: “A bloc of prominent senators and operatives said party purists like Palin and Senator DeMint had foolishly pushed nominees too conservative to win in politically competitive states. …

`If you think what happened in Delaware is “a win” for the Republican Party then we don’t have a snowball’s chance to win the White House,’” that’s Senator Lindsey Graham, also from South Carolina. “`If you think Delaware was a wake-up call for Republicans then we have a shot at doing well for a long time.’” Do you think the tea party actually cost the Republican Party control of the Senate?

SEN. DeMINT: That is a very silly thing to say, David. The tea party are responsible for just about every Republican who was elected around the country. This time last year, if people’ll think about it, we were concerned about holding our own. Many thought Republicans would fall below 38 in, in the Senate. So I supported all the Republican candidates, including Christine O’Donnell. Unfortunately, she was so maligned by Republicans, I don’t think she ever had a chance. But we had historic gains in the Senate and in the House, so…

MR. GREGORY: Senator, you’re not really saying that it was just lack of Republican support that tanked her candidacy, are you? This is a woman who said on national–in an ad that she was not a witch.

SEN. DeMINT: Well, I think we did see in the, in the wake of her primary win, a number of Republicans suggest she was not a viable candidate. That, that did make it difficult for her to start on the right foot. But all over the country we saw candidates like Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania, Marco Rubio in Florida, Rand Paul in Kentucky, we saw candidates that were supported by a tea party in, in a new active wave of, of citizens change the face of the Senate. This is what Republicans have needed for a long time, a new, young Republicans, Cuban-American senator. We’ve got African-American congressmen. This is a huge change for the Republican Party, and I think it’s going to be very positive for our country.

Indeed, Tea Party activism and enthusiasm at the state and federal levels created the grass-roots wave that everyone in D.C. is now taking credit for in the election afterglow. Outside the Beltway, DeMint and Palin worked tirelessly on the ground to support the conservative wave while Beltway GOP elites of Gerson’s ilk fretted and moaned on the sidelines.

Moreover, Palin boldly defied the Rove machine and lent support to conservative third-party candidate Tom Tancredo in an effort to help spare us Democrat governor-elect John Hickenlooper and the Soros-ization of Colorado . Tancredo ultimately lost, but so many of us taxpayers here in this state will be forever grateful for Palin’s help. Gerson sneers at Tancredo as “one of the most divisive figures in American politics.” But in a manner of just weeks, Tancredo managed to unite former and current Republican officials and leaders in Colorado and across the country, libertarians, Tea Party activists, immigration enforcement advocates, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, and 48 percent of unaffiliated voters behind his upstart candidacy.

Senate GOP/Tea Party-backed candidates O’Donnell, Angle, and Ken Buck (whom Gerson curiously omits from his column…because he happens to be a Tea Party-backed candidate that Rove actually supported) may also have lost, but the very valuable silver lining for conservatives is that their campaigns put liberal, big government Republicans — and Democrats — on notice. We’re watching and we will hold them all accountable. Buck’s opponent, Democrat Sen. Michael Bennet, certainly got the message. When his ads weren’t viciously attacking Buck as anti-woman, they were preposterously accusing him of wanting to raise taxes. That’s right. Bennet the Obamacare/bailout/stimulus supporter campaigned as the smaller government candidate.

Further, Doug Brady at Conservative 4 Palin makes an excellent point about the hypocrisy and self-contradiction of Gerson’s broadside on Palin’s endorsements. The Gerson/Rove faction simultaneously attacks her for being too pragmatically calculating and too wildly ideological. Which is it?

Governor Palin recorded a last-minute robocall for Tancredo in an effort to persuade Maes’ supporters to vote for Tancredo and not waste a vote on Maes, which would only help the liberal Democrat. But [Gerson] finds fault with this decidedly logical and pragmatic move by Governor Palin.

Therein lies the logical trap in which [Gerson] has ensnared himself. With Christine O’Donnell, [Gerson] accuses Governor Palin of putting principle above political reality. However, by throwing last-minute support to Tancredo in a last-ditch effort to prevent a Democrat victory, Governor Palin is now guilty of putting political reality above principle or something. You can’t have it both ways, Champ. I continue to be amazed by the proclivity of establishment types, whether Democrat or Republican, to contradict their own talking points and contort themselves into pretzels when attacking Governor Palin.

To be sure, the “principle above politics” meme is one the establishment has been pushing and will continue to push in their effort to prevent Governor Palin from crashing their cozy little party. Since when did political expediency become more noble than adhering to one’s principles? Is this really how Ronald Reagan felt? Michael [Gerson] evidently thinks so. So too does Peggy Noonan who claims an ability to divine Reagan’s thoughts due, presumably, to her stint as a White House speechwriter a quarter century ago.

Both she and [Gerson] are wrong, of course, and it’s this kind of thinking by our self-anointed superiors in the Washington establishment over the past 22 years that has resulted in America’s inexorable drift toward European-style socialism. To be sure, the drift is a bit faster under Democrat control than under Republican control, but the direction doesn’t change. The ruling class in both parties are fine with this sorry state of affairs, and will do everything they can to continue it. They see Governor Palin and the entire Tea Party movement as an existential threat to their way of doing business. That they should, because their party is coming to an end, and the political earthquake which took place on Tuesday is just the beginning.

One last point: The Rove machine and Beltway/Manhattan establishment continues to trash the conservative Tea Party candidates who lost their high-profile bids.

But notice how silent they are on the shellacking that McCain favorites Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina took in California. Fiorina pandered to Jesse Jackson and radical gender/racial politics. Whitman flip-flopped on immigration and fawned over Van Jones, before failing to manage her illegal alien maid problem properly. The pooh-bahs considered these liberal Republican women to be winning candidates who would appeal to the center and give the GOP a fighting chance in the basket case now dubbed the “Lindsay Lohan of states.”

Where is the introspection about these loser bids? Who takes responsibility for fielding two unlikeable candidates who reinforced the GOP stereotype of out-of-touch, condescending corporate magnates seeking to buy office and donning conservative clothing only when expedient, just like their chief GOP establishment advocate, John McCain?

Oh, wait. I know the answer:

Silence, you know-nothing blogger peon and KNEEL BEFORE THE ARCHITECT!

***

Okay, one last, last point while we’re settling scores: Rove has questioned Palin’s “gravitas” for promoting her home state of Alaska in a multi-part TV series.

Yes, God forbid Republican women look like they enjoy their lives and their families and the natural resources and gifts America has to offer outside of D.C. and away from the boardroom.

How out of touch can these Beltway boys be?

WaPo reporting with 10 percent of precincts in:

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper has won the Colorado governor’s race after a campaign in which the GOP nominee imploded and a third-party candidate made a late surge.

Hickenlooper is a former brew pub owner who benefited from the collapse of GOP nominee Dan Maes. Immigration hard-liner Tom Tancredo got in the race as a third-party candidate and couldn’t overcome Hickenlooper’s widespread popularity.

Maes won the Republican primary but suffered a series of campaign gaffes, including questions about his murky law enforcement history and his views on U.N. global warming conspiracies involving bicycles in Denver.

Denver Post:

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper took the early lead in the Colorado governor’s race as the first returns came in tonight.

Hickenlooper was leading with 51.7 percent, or 181,589 votes. Tom Tancredo of the American Constitution Party was pulling 38.1 percent, or 133,643.

That sample is considered too small to be statistically significant. Still, at least 400 people packed into the Pinnacle Club broke into hoots and applause every time the giant TV screen showed Hickenlooper ahead in early returns.

Republican Dan Maes was drawing just 8.8 percent of the vote (31,087). The stakes are high: The Colorado GOP falls to minor party status if Maes garners less than 10 percent of the vote.

And the state Colorado GOP will deserve whatever comes to them.

The Tancredo surge was a miraculous campaign. Tancredo pulled together a wide coalition in a matter of weeks, kicked a well-oiled fund-raising operation into gear, attracted local and state GOP leaders and devoted taxpayer/limited-government/immigration enforcement/libertarian activists, and added big-name endorsements that came in late in the game. But it wasn’t enough to overcome some loyal Republicans’ reluctance to vote outside their partisan comfort zone.

Long-term lesson: Tea Party groups need a systematic, reliable mechanism for fully vetting candidates to avoid another Maes mess.

Get to work!

“It is better to be an outsider than to compromise your principles.”

U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Littleton) today sent in an application for the new conservative professor job at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Tancredo, a former teacher, was excited that the liberals on the CU staff decided to diversify their educational programs.

I should be the clear favorite for the job, Tancredo said. Who doesnt want a slightly used Congressman, with a 98% lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union, educating their children?

As for his references, Tancredo listed conservative commentator Pat Buchanan as well as the entire Minutemen organization.

The Tancredo suggested curriculum would include Western Civilization and the threat of Islamofascism, English Only 101, and American Assimilation, which would replace Chicano and ethnic studies.

Tancredo also plans to secure the border around the CU campus with a 20 foot high fence.

More at RMN.

Update 4:35pm Eastern. Tancredo tells Cavuto that Romney’s immigration plan is “viable, that he’ll stick with it, and that he has the best shot.”

Update 3:10pm Eastern. A source tells me Tancredo has endorsed Romney. Still checking.

Yep. More from the Des Moines Register:

U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo announced today he’s ending his long-shot bid for the White House.

The Colorado Republican made his exit from the race official at a press conference this afternoon in downtown Des Moines. He’ll throw his support behind GOP candidate Mitt Romney, he said.

And via Allah, Rep. Tancredo will be on Neil Cavuto’s show today at 4pm Eastern to talk about his decision.

Will be interesting to see how he squares his endorsement now with his campaign’s criticism of Romney for supporting amnesty in July.

Rep. Steve King endorsed Thompson when Romney expected it. Rep. Tancredo endorsed Romney defying some expectations that Thompson would get his vote.

Lots of interesting back stories to be told someday.

Update 3:03pm Eastern. Tancredo speaks. Despite his warning about the clear and present danger of open borders, his message “has fallen on deaf ears in the highest office of the land.” He’s ecstatic about the fact that great progress has been made during his presidential campaign. “The Tancredo campaign has already won,” he says, quoting Newsweek’s assessment.

***
It’s expected that GOP Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado will drop out of the GOP presidential race this afternoon. The “major announcement” will be made in Des Moines at 2pm Central time.

Some observers suggest that Tancredo, like friend and fellow immigration enforcement advocate Iowa GOP Rep. Steve King, might throw his support to Fred Thompson. Would Tancredo’s supporters follow? It’s not a given. Three other candidates–Duncan Hunter, Mitt Romney, and Ron Paul– rank higher than Thompson in Numbers USA’s assessment of the candidates’ proven records on immigration and border security (as opposed to their election-year promises).

Tancredo has led immigration enforcement forces in recent years, but he’s more than a single-issue lawmaker. Among presidential candidates, he scored the highest on the American Conservative Union’s lifetime record ratings. And as National Review former editor John O’Sullivan put it in October when Tancredo announced his retirement from the House:

But immigration is not the sole issue of concern to Tom. He is a conservative across the board. And conservatives who differ with him on immigration can still rest assured that his voice and vote will support their general issues. When the immigration debate took off for the second time two years ago, some on the “open borders” side quietly dismissed Tom as one of the Yahoos who were supposedly the main opponents of the legislation. Tom may occasionally have misspoken, as we all do. But the barnstorming talk he gave to the “values voters” showed that there was real political talent in this modest American. So does his command of his constituency. With almost the entire national, state, and media establishment against him, he still racks up overwhelming victories at home. If he had not decided to retire Congress of his own accord, he could have held the seat until death supervened.

Tancredo’s exit comes as Congress guts the border fence, the Border Patrol remains under siege, and shamnesty proponent John McCain rebounds. Where do conservatives who take homeland security seriously turn?

I don’t need a candidate with whom I agree on 100 percent of the issues. At the very least, however, I’d like a candidate who doesn’t share the Left’s utter contempt for, apathy, or sheer condescension toward grass-roots Republicans and immigration enforcement activists. Character counts. Steadfastness counts. A spine would help. So would genuine passion and energy.

Tom Tancredo has all of that. He’ll continue to play an important role in American life, perhaps in the U.S. Senate. Because of his relentless crusading for secure borders and restoration of the rule of law, immigration will not disappear from the presidential race’s radar screen after his exit–despite the GOP elite’s fervent desire that the issue die down and noisy activists go away.

For that, we owe him great thanks.

***

Here’s Thompson on the campaign trail today, sounding Tancredo-esque.

John O’ Sullivan has a nice tribute:

I’m sorry that Tom Tancredo is retiring from Congress. He’s never been a favorite of the Corner, but I know him quite well and think very highly of his bravery, decency, and devotion to principle. Tom is an NR conservative of long standing—one of those people like Jim Talent who learned their conservatism at the feet of WFB. He is also one of the main reasons why immigration is now at the center of public debate. When he arrived in Congress, it was an issue that had been left fallow. He promptly established and built up a bipartisan immigration caucus that, first, forced the issue onto the main political agenda, and then blocked the White House and the two party leaderships from pushing through a misbegotten “comprehensive” reform that was really open borders in drag. (To be fair, he couldn’t have done this without the assistance of George W. Bush.)

But immigration is not the sole issue of concern to Tom. He is a conservative across the board. And conservatives who differ with him on immigration can still rest assured that his voice and vote will support their general issues. When the immigration debate took off for the second time two years ago, some on the “open borders” side quietly dismissed Tom as one of the Yahoos who were supposedly the main opponents of the legislation. Tom may occasionally have misspoken, as we all do. But the barnstorming talk he gave to the “values voters” showed that there was real political talent in this modest American. So does his command of his constituency. With almost the entire national, state, and media establishment against him, he still racks up overwhelming victories at home. If he had not decided to retire Congress of his own accord, he could have held the seat until death supervened.

Rep. Tom Tancredo, one of my favorite Republicans, was the lone GOP presidential candidate who showed up at a NAACP presidential forum. The Detroit Free Press reported:

Earlier in the day, and standing in the middle of 10 podiums, nine of them empty but waiting for Republican candidates, U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo asked, “Do you think we should wait a few minutes to see if these other guys show up?”

The Colorado Republican was the only one of 10 GOP candidates who accepted an invitation to speak at the convention.

“Do they know something that I don’t know,” Tancredo said. “The fact is that I know something that they don’t. We may not agree on all issues, but we do have a very common cause – that the playing field is level for everyone, and the gates of opportunity are open for all.”

One of the leading critics of immigration legislation on Congress, Tancredo used his three-minute opening statement to talk about the issue, calling it one of the most serious domestic problems facing the nation.

“The federal government refuses to do its job,” he said.

The audience gave Tancredo a standing ovation, more because he was the only Republican to show up, rather than approving of his stance on issues.

Unfortunately, Tancredo makes the mistake of assuming that NAACP leaders believe in a “playing field [that] is level for everyone.” They don’t.

Still, I give Tancredo a salute for appreciating that sometimes showing up is half the battle.

Anti-Israel protesters are protesting V-Day flower sales in the UK.

Kathleen Parker takes on Eve Ensler: Will you be my vagina-tine?

NRO’s Valentine’s Day symposium asks a group of politics lovers who their one true is (or was). Margaret Thatcher is the top heartthrob.

Rep. Keith Ellison quarrels with Rep. Tom Tancredo. The Hill details the spat over…cigar smoke.

The anti-Valentine’s Day market is booming.

Now, go make yourself a candy heart and show someone the love today:

***

More:

A soldier’s Valentine message from Iraq.

Diana West sends bouquets to some of the bravest infidel women in the world.

Lorie Byrd remembers her grandmother with love.

Love, American Style, at The American Thinker.

Brit Hume says Nancy Pelosi put on a new outfit for her historic moment at the last minute because she spilled chocolate on her suit.

Madame Speaker

Hang in there, Dick

Everything’s already anticlimactic from here. The full SOTU text is up–and so is Democrat Jim Webb’s rebuttal. Allah’s yawning.

Okay, I found something nice to say. There are many extraordinary people in First Lady Laura Bush’s box tonight. Take a look (via NYPost.com):

-Wesley Autrey of New York, a construction worker awarded the city’s highest civilian honor for jumping onto the tracks in a subway station to save a man who had fallen from a seizure.

-Shuqui and Syshe Autrey of New York, daughters of Wesley Autrey.

-Air Force Tech Sgt. Michelle Barefield of Goldsboro, N.C., survivor of three improvised explosive device attacks in Baghdad.

-Pamela Battle of Washington, among the first low-income parents to apply for scholarships under the D.C. School Choice Incentive Program, the nation’s first and only federally funded voucher program.

- Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Corey Firman of Alexandria, Va., who volunteered for more than 30 convoys in Iraq and was subjected to more than 180 incidents of hostile fire.

-Shannon Hickey of Lancaster, Pa., founder at age 11 of Mychal’s Message, a nonprofit organization to further the legacy of her favorite priest, Father Mychal Judge. The New York Fire Department chaplain was killed on Sept. 11, 2001, when hit by debris from the World Trade Center.

-Marine Corps Sgt. Aubrey McDade Jr. of Parris Island, S.C., who received the Navy Cross, the service’s second-highest medal, for heroic actions as a machine-gun squad leader with the 1st Marine Division in Iraq.

-Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class Nathan Thomas of Hollywood, Fla., deployed overseas twice this year to support the Iraq war. He designed a law enforcement tactics video and lesson plans, training more than 500 foreign military servicemen.

-Army Sgt. Tommy Rieman of Independence, Ky., awarded the Silver Star for his actions on a reconnaissance mission in Iraq in December 2003.

Ace of Spades saves everyone the trouble of live-blogging:

Here’s my live-blog on it, delivered in advance:

“He seems uncomfortable and is just repeating many of the same tired slogans of the past, except with even less conviction… Now he’s proposing a raft of pricey new spending initiatives designed primarily to win over the support of those who hate him more — much more — than Osama bin Ladin. Okay, now he’s saying that Mexicans were good, nice people who deserved jobs more than Amercians. He’s saying something in Spanish now I don’t really understand — anyone know what Me casa, su casa means?”

And, of course, for the post-mortem:

“I think he did himself some small amount of good here tonight. He did what he needed to do.”

There.

Time for American Idol.

9:15pm. President Bush: We must have the will to face difficult challenges and determined enemies – and the wisdom to face them together.

Some in this Chamber are new to the House and Senate – and I congratulate the Democratic majority. Congress has changed, but our responsibilities have not. Each of us is guided by our own convictions – and to these we must stay faithful. Yet we are all held to the same standards, and called to serve the same good purposes: To extend this Nation’s prosperity … to spend the people’s money wisely … to solve problems, not leave them to future generations … to guard America against all evil, and to keep faith with those we have sent forth to defend us.

Glenn Reynolds is happy to see earmarks mentioned right up front:

Bush: ” Next, there is the matter of earmarks. These special interest items are often slipped into bills at the last hour – when not even C-SPAN is watching.”

There was a bit of laughter from the audience. I wonder if they were thinking of this:

Pelosi denies CSPAN’s request for cameras on House floor
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, denied a request Friday by CSPAN to install its own cameras on the House floor.

Under the current arrangement, the House cameras are solely operated under the discretion of the speaker, CSPAN Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Brian Lamb told CNN.

The speakers sole control of the cameras “does a disservice to the institution and to the public,” Lamb said in a letter to Pelosi requesting a change.

In a letter to CSPAN, Pelosi responded, “I believe that the dignity and decorum of the United States House of Representatives are best preserved by maintaining the current system of televised proceedings.”

I noticed Nancy’s eyes were fluttering extra-fast for a few seconds there.

9:28pm. Bush is paying lip service to border security and moving forward with amnesty that he won’t call amnesty. Tom Tancredo is shaking his head.

There we go. The magic, meaningless words: “Comprehensive immigration reform.”

Everybody stand up!

Other low moments so far: The commander-in-chief mentioning “battery research,” “wood chips,” “agricultural waste,” and “global climate change.” Inspiring rhetoric from those overworked White House speechwriters.

9:35pm. Bush: ” With the distance of time, we find ourselves debating the causes of conflict and the course we have followed. Such debates are essential when a great democracy faces great questions. Yet one question has surely been settled – that to win the war on terror we must take the fight to the enemy. To win the war on terror, we must take the fight to the enemy.”

Applause.

Pelosi reaaaally didn’t want to stand up.

Here we go. The things that need to be said:

In the minds of the terrorists, this war began well before September 11th, and will not end until their radical vision is fulfilled. And these past five years have given us a much clearer view of the nature of this enemy. Al Qaeda and its followers are Sunni extremists, possessed by hatred and commanded by a harsh and narrow ideology. Take almost any principle of civilization, and their goal is the opposite. They preach with threats … instruct with bullets and bombs … and promise paradise for the murder of the innocent.

Our enemies are quite explicit about their intentions. They want to overthrow moderate governments, and establish safe havens from which to plan and carry out new attacks on our country. By killing and terrorizing Americans, they want to force our country to retreat from the world and abandon the cause of liberty. They would then be free to impose their will and spread their totalitarian ideology. Listen to this warning from the late terrorist Zarqawi: “We will sacrifice our blood and bodies to put an end to your dreams, and what is coming is even worse.” And Osama bin Laden declared: “Death is better than living on this Earth with the unbelievers among us.”

These men are not given to idle words, and they are just one camp in the Islamist radical movement. In recent times, it has also become clear that we face an escalating danger from Shia extremists who are just as hostile to America, and are also determined to dominate the Middle East. Many are known to take direction from the regime in Iran, which is funding and arming terrorists like Hezbollah – a group second only to al Qaeda in the American lives it has taken.

The Shia and Sunni extremists are different faces of the same totalitarian threat. But whatever slogans they chant, when they slaughter the innocent, they have the same wicked purposes. They want to kill Americans … kill democracy in the Middle East … and gain the weapons to kill on an even more horrific scale.

In the sixth year since our Nation was attacked, I wish I could report to you that the dangers have ended. They have not. And so it remains the policy of this government to use every lawful and proper tool of intelligence, diplomacy, law enforcement, and military action to do our duty, to find these enemies, and to protect the American people.

This war is more than a clash of arms – it is a decisive ideological struggle, and the security of our Nation is in the balance. To prevail, we must remove the conditions that inspire blind hatred, and drove 19 men to get onto airplanes and come to kill us. What every terrorist fears most is human freedom – societies where men and women make their own choices, answer to their own conscience, and live by their hopes instead of their resentments. Free people are not drawn to violent and malignant ideologies – and most will choose a better way when they are given a chance. So we advance our own security interests by helping moderates, reformers, and brave voices for democracy. The great question of our day is whether America will help men and women in the Middle East to build free societies and share in the rights of all humanity. And I say, for the sake of our own security . . . we must.

In the last two years, we have seen the desire for liberty in the broader Middle East – and we have been sobered by the enemy’s fierce reaction. In 2005, the world watched as the citizens of Lebanon raised the banner of the Cedar Revolution … drove out the Syrian occupiers … and chose new leaders in free elections. In 2005, the people of Afghanistan defied the terrorists and elected a democratic legislature. And in 2005, the Iraqi people held three national elections – choosing a transitional government … adopting the most progressive, democratic constitution in the Arab world … and then electing a government under that constitution. Despite endless threats from the killers in their midst, nearly 12 million Iraqi citizens came out to vote in a show of hope and solidarity we should never forget.

A thinking enemy watched all of these scenes, adjusted their tactics, and in 2006 they struck back. In Lebanon, assassins took the life of Pierre Gemayel, a prominent participant in the Cedar Revolution. And Hezbollah terrorists, with support from Syria and Iran, sowed conflict in the region and are seeking to undermine Lebanon’s legitimately elected government. In Afghanistan, Taliban and al Qaeda fighters tried to regain power by regrouping and engaging Afghan and NATO forces. In Iraq, al Qaeda and other Sunni extremists blew up one of the most sacred places in Shia Islam – the Golden Mosque of Samarra. This atrocity, directed at a Muslim house of prayer, was designed to provoke retaliation from Iraqi Shia – and it succeeded. Radical Shia elements, some of whom receive support from Iran, formed death squads. The result was a tragic escalation of sectarian rage and reprisal that continues to this day.

This is not the fight we entered in Iraq, but it is the fight we are in. Every one of us wishes that this war were over and won. Yet it would not be like us to leave our promises unkept, our friends abandoned, and our own security at risk. Ladies and gentlemen: On this day, at this hour, it is still within our power to shape the outcome of this battle. So let us find our resolve, and turn events toward victory.

Action items:

The war on terror we fight today is a generational struggle that will continue long after you and I have turned our duties over to others. That is why it is important to work together so our Nation can see this great effort through. Both parties and both branches should work in close consultation. And this is why I propose to establish a special advisory council on the war on terror, made up of leaders in Congress from both political parties. We will share ideas for how to position America to meet every challenge that confronts us. And we will show our enemies abroad that we are united in the goal of victory.

One of the first steps we can take together is to add to the ranks of our military – so that the American Armed Forces are ready for all the challenges ahead. Tonight I ask the Congress to authorize an increase in the size of our active Army and Marine Corps by 92,000 in the next five years. A second task we can take on together is to design and establish a volunteer Civilian Reserve Corps. Such a corps would function much like our military reserve. It would ease the burden on the Armed Forces by allowing us to hire civilians with critical skills to serve on missions abroad when America needs them. And it would give people across America who do not wear the uniform a chance to serve in the defining struggle of our time.

FYI: That last idea is something we heard support for among officers at the Dagger Brigade when we were embedded at FOB Justice.

9:54pm. Bush mentions saving Darfur. Pelosi pops up.

9:59pm. Bush saluting citizens in the gallery. I liked the Baby Einstein videos, but what is the company’s founder doing there?

A good ending:

Three weeks ago, Wesley Autrey was waiting at a Harlem subway station with his two little girls, when he saw a man fall into the path of a train. With seconds to act, Wesley jumped onto the tracks … pulled the man into a space between the rails … and held him as the train passed right above their heads. He insists he’s not a hero. Wesley says: “We got guys and girls overseas dying for us to have our freedoms. We got to show each other some love.” There is something wonderful about a country that produces a brave and humble man like Wesley Autrey.

Tommy Rieman was a teenager pumping gas in Independence, Kentucky, when he enlisted in the United States Army. In December 2003, he was on a reconnaissance mission in Iraq when his team came under heavy enemy fire. From his Humvee, Sergeant Rieman returned fire – and used his body as a shield to protect his gunner. He was shot in the chest and arm, and received shrapnel wounds to his legs – yet he refused medical attention, and stayed in the fight. He helped to repel a second attack, firing grenades at the enemy’s position. For his exceptional courage, Sergeant Rieman was awarded the Silver Star. And like so many other Americans who have volunteered to defend us, he has earned the respect and gratitude of our whole country.

In such courage and compassion, ladies and gentlemen, we see the spirit and character of America – and these qualities are not in short supply. This is a decent and honorable country – and resilient, too. We have been through a lot together. We have met challenges and faced dangers, and we know that more lie ahead. Yet we can go forward with confidence – because the State of our Union is strong … our cause in the world is right … and tonight that cause goes on.

***

Post-mortems: Over at MSNBC, the left-wingers can’t figure out why Bush articulated the various terrorist threats from both Sunni and Shiite extremists. Chris Matthews pooh-poohed the threat of Hezbollah to America. Guess he missed the Fox News special. Hezbollah is here.

Well, I hope all you open-borders folks are proud of how your young acolytes in academia conduct themselves. They rushed the stage at Columbia University to shut down Minutemen Project co-founder Jim Gilchrist. They briefly disrupted MP co-founder Chris Simcox’s speech at Georgetown by pulling a fire alarm.

And last night, they crashed Tom Tancredo’s lecture at Michigan State University in a violent protest that also included a fire alarm stunt:

A campus discussion about illegal immigration turned violent Thursday evening, when protesters clashed with the MSU College Republicans and Young Americans for Freedom, who sponsored the event.

Kyle Bristow, chairman of the Young Americans for Freedom, or YAF, said he was kicked and spat upon by some of the protesters when he was outside the MSU College of Law, where the discussion was being held.

“It saddens me that my fellow Spartans would display this type of behavior,” he said. “They are racist. It’s sad we need police to come to control these radical leftists.”

Unable to identify the people who assaulted him, Bristow said he wasn’t planning to file a police report.

MSU police were dispatched to the event after an employee of the law college called the department, MSU police Sgt. Brian McDaniel said.

“About 10 to 20 protesters disrupted the event,” he said. “We believe they were responsible for pulling the fire alarm.”

Protesters said they came to show their opposition to controversial Republican congressman Tom Tancredo, of Colorado, who spoke at the event. Before Tancredo arrived and while the event was being set up, protesters gathered on the fourth floor of the law college with signs that read “Ignorant Racist.”

Someone in the building set off a fire alarm twice throughout the evening. After the first alarm was pulled, a few hundred people were evacuated from the building. The person or persons responsible for pulling the alarm could face a misdemeanor or felony charge if caught, McDaniel said.

Randy McPherson, whose sign read “Where’s the wall to keep you out?” came to protest when he heard that the congressman would be speaking.

“God works in mysterious ways,” said McPherson, a food science and premedical junior, after the second fire alarm was pulled. “(Tancredo) shouldn’t be here.”

E.P. at Slapstick Politics sends a video link and background. More at the Denver Post.

You’ll recall that at another Michigan school–Western Michigan University–last year, Pat Buchanan was assaulted by a deranged student who hurled salad dressing at him. Last month, David Horowitz and his bodyguards were attacked by two thugs with a cream pie.

What flavor of liberal intolerance have you tasted today?

Horowitz noted at the annual Restoration Weekend conference:

Leftist ruffians have ensured that if you are a conservative speaker you will never know what might be coming at you. When I spoke recently at Ball State University, it was only a cream pie. I didn’t even see the person who was charging us, but the chief of campus police and Floyd and the policemen present saw her coming and interposed themselves between us, and were drowned by this cream pie. Not a big deal, but three suits had to go to the dry cleaners, and a police officer was cut apprehending the culprits. Refreshingly, they were arrested and had to post bail.

This is the sad state of our campuses.

Indeed, it is. And on and on and on it goes, as Cinammon Stillwell thoroughly documented recently.

When Leftist tries to argue, as they invariably do, that conservatives are as unhinged on campus as they are, ask them to name the last five liberal speakers physically attacked while trying to speak at a college or university.

Do you hear what I hear? Crickets chirping, chirping, chirping.

***
Previous:

The mob wins at Columbia University
Mob rule at Georgetown U.; update: disruption called “minimal”
Mob rule at Columbia University
Liberal thuggery at Ball State U.
Unhinged pie-thrower update
When angry liberals attack
The Buchanan pie incident continued
Campus thuggery continues
The myth of liberal tolerance
Speaking of pies

A moonbat reader e-mailed a taunt earlier this evening:

How’s it feel to be a Loser, Loser?

The GOP lost. Conservatism prevailed. “San Francisco values” may control the gavels in Congress, but they do not control America. Property rights initiatives limiting eminent domain won big. MCRI, the anti-racial preference measure, passed resoundingly. Congressman Tom Tancredo, the GOP’s leading warrior against illegal immigration–opposed by both the open-borders Left and the open-borders White House–won a fifth term handily. Gay marriage bans won approval in 3 states. And as of this writing, the oil tax initiative, Prop. 87–backed by deep-pocketed Hollywood libs, is trailing badly in California.

John Kerry’s late-campaign troop smear galvanized bloggers and talk radio hosts, but it was not strong enough to overcome wider bipartisan voter doubts about Iraq. I’ll weigh in further on the war and the GOP in the morning. For now, I am relinking to two columns by Washington Times writer Diana West that you should read in full and digest:

What President should say to us (part I).
Fighting sharia.

1030pm EDT update:

The only good thing about watching the speech was getting to watch it in the Fox News green room with Colorado GOP Rep. Tom Tancredo, a stalwart immigration enforcement advocate. It was nice to have someone to shake heads along with as empty platitude after platitude was laid on thick. Allah has video highlights of Bush’s speech and brilliant commentary as usual over at Hot Air.

8pm EDT update. Liveblogging. Full text of speech here.
White House page here.

Unintentional laugh line: Most illegal aliens “live in the shadows of our society.”

Unintentional laugh line #2: “We are a nation of laws. And we must enforce our laws.”

Cites border security funding increase.

“The men and women of our Border Patrol are doing a fine job under difficult circumstances.” That I agree with 100 percent.

807 Message to Vicente Fox: “The United States is not going to militarize the border.” But you go ahead and militarize yours, Vicente.

Addresses catch-and-release problem. Detention bed shortage. We’ll end catch and release at the southern border once and for all.

Why just at the southern border? Catch and release is a deadly problem everywhere.

811: Bush has lost touch with reality, arguing that guest worker/amnesty will reduce the incentive to cross the border. Reality check.

814 Bush tosses a bone to Americans outraged by the reconquista desecration of the American flag…paraphrasing…immigrants must “respect the flag we fly.”

816. Bush admonishes others not to exploit immigration for political gain.
Chutzpah.

***

Here’s the White House official speech preview (hat tip: Kathryn Lopez) of the platitudes, non sequiturs, and recycled rhetoric I’ve been deconstructing the last five years:

On the President’s vision for comprehensive immigration reform:

“We are a Nation of laws, and we must enforce our laws. We are also a Nation of immigrants, and we must uphold that tradition, which has strengthened our country in so many ways. These are not contradictory goals – America can be a lawful society and a welcoming society at the same time. We will fix the problems created by illegal immigration, and we will deliver a system that is secure, orderly, and fair.”

On Border Security:

“Since I became President, we have increased funding for border security by 66 percent, and expanded the Border Patrol from about 9,000 to 12,000 agents. . . .we have apprehended and sent home about six million people entering America illegally.

“Despite this progress, we do not yet have full control of the border, and I am determined to change that. Tonight I am calling on Congress to provide funding for dramatic improvements in manpower and technology at the border.”

On the Importance of a Temporary Worker Program to relieve pressure on the border:

“The reality is that there are many people on the other side of our border who will do anything to come to America to work and build a better life. They walk across miles of desert in the summer heat, or hide in the back of 18-wheelers to reach our country. This creates enormous pressure on our border that walls and patrols alone will not stop. To secure the border effectively we must reduce the numbers of people trying to sneak across.”

On enforcing our laws:

“. . . we need to hold employers to account for the workers they hire. It is against the law to hire someone who is in this country illegally. Yet businesses often cannot verify the legal status of their employees, because of the widespread problem of document fraud. Therefore, comprehensive immigration reform must include a better system for verifying documents and work eligibility . . .

“A tamper-proof card would help us enforce the law – and leave employers with no excuse for violating it. And by making it harder for illegal immigrants to find work in our country, we would discourage people from crossing the border illegally in the first place.”

On the President’s opposition to amnesty:

“. . . we must face the reality that millions of illegal immigrants are already here. They should not be given an automatic path to citizenship. This is amnesty, and I oppose it. Amnesty would be unfair to those who are here lawfully – and it would invite further waves of illegal immigration.”

On assimilation:

“. . . we must honor the great American tradition of the melting pot, which has made us one Nation out of many peoples. The success of our country depends upon helping newcomers assimilate into our society, and embrace our common identity as Americans. Americans are bound together by our shared ideals, an appreciation of our history, respect for the flag we fly, and an ability to speak and write the English language.”

On the tone of the debate:

“We must always remember that real lives will be affected by our debates and decisions, and that every human being has dignity and value no matter what their citizenship papers say.”

Too little, too late.

President Bush is continuing the homeland security dog-and-pony charade in his quest to deliver a massive “guest worker”/amnesty plan to the open-borders lobby. A few weeks ago, Bush’s Department of Homeland Security put on a bogus performance of Get Tough Theater with a series of politically timed immigration raids…which, as I predicted, simply resulted in more catch and release of illegal aliens nationwide.

This new last-minute stunt to sprinkle National Guard troops on the border–temporarily, of course, to appease Mexican President Vicente Fox–is more transparent than the Scotch tape used to hold together our dilapidated border fences. (That’s only a slight exaggeration.)

For all the new tough talk, these additional troops will be barred from actually doing what needs to be done: guarding the border. President Bush is already bowing and scraping to Mexico over the plan before he’s even officially announced it. More details via WaPo:

Officials suggested their mission would be to play a supporting role by providing intelligence, training, transportation, construction and other functions, while leaving the actual guarding of the 2,000-mile line separating the United States and Mexico to the Border Patrol. The National Guard would be a stopgap force until the federal government could hire civilian contractors to take over administrative and support functions from the Border Patrol, freeing more agents to actually hunt for immigrants slipping into the country.

Hold up. It’s been nearly five years since the Sept. 11 attacks. It’s taken the Bush administration this long to acknowledge the need to hire more civilian contractors to relieve the Border Patrol of administrative and support functions?

Only now, on the day the Senate revisits his favored, faltering pet proposals for mass amnesty, does he find it important enough to send a show of military non-force down to the border–a show that was immediately emasculated to satisfy the “American is a continent, not a country” crowd.

White House spokeswoman Maria Tamburri said Bush made clear to Fox that “the United States considered Mexico a friend and that what is being considered is not militarization of the border, but support of border capabilities on a temporary basis by the National Guard.”

The proper White House response to Fox should have been: If it’s good enough for your southern border, it’s good enough for ours.

Oh, and before the open-borders radicals start arguing that there are legal restrictions against National Guardsmen patrolling the border, please note: The few, thin numbers of Guardsmen who are at the border now in fact carry out some of these functions:

Soldiers scout the border from inside the trucks looking for illegal aliens crossing the border into the United States at night. They call the Border Patrol when they have them in sight and track them until they are able to come in and apprehend them or push them back into their own boundaries.

Watching and waiting for threats to come across the border may be tedious, but the Guardsmen on patrol are always patient and alert. After calling in a group of aliens and the Border Patrol responds, the Soldiers move on and look for the next group.

When surveying illegal aliens in the field, they pay attention to whether they are carrying bags or not. They refer to some of these individuals as “mules” when they come through with drugs in homemade rucksacks. Up to 80 pounds of marijuana are carried on an illegal alien’s back, according to Counterdrug officials here. Once they are aware they have been spotted, they may try to ditch the sacks.

See also here.

Where was the president’s sense of urgency to fortify the border when national park ranger Kris Eggle was gunned down in 2002 by drug-runners on the Arizona-Mexican line?

Or when Mexican army incursions were plaguing the Southwest?

And when Border Patrol agents were being shot at?

Or when the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus called for increased troop deployments at the border last year?

Some Bush supporters are admonishing immigration enforcement activists to “tone it down” because the criticism will hurt Bush.

Maybe he should of thought of that all the years when he could have been raiding worksites and strengthening border protection for their own sake. Instead, he has chosen to offer a too little, too late, and all-too-expedient gesture of immigration enforcement as a phony bargaining chip to bribe his base into supporting a historically doomed, dangerous, and utterly unmanageable amnesty proposal.

Tone it down? No, crank it up.

What does he take us for?

You want the American people to buy into “comprehensive immigration reform?”

Message to Congress (since the White House still isn’t listening): Drop the guest worker plan and the amnesty sham. Comprehensive immigration enforcement first. Enforcement now.

No more bull.

***

Grass-roots conservative blog reaction gives Bush two thumbs down. Way down.

Round-up at Polipundit
Right Wing News
Cavalier X
La Shawn will be liveblogging.
Scrappleface spoofs.
Bizzy Blog on more things Bush won’t talk about tonight.
Scott Johnson on the flabbergastingly idiotic Hagel-Martinez bill.
Andrew McCarthy dispenses with the mass deportation canard.
John Derbyshire on the Bush speech: “milk-and-water leaky-bandaid stuff.”
Ankle Biting Pundits: Throwing a bone…

Related:

Tim Graham busts the Washington Post’s Minutemen coverage
Tom Tancredo at Human Events Online: Come home, Mr. President.

Welcome to May 1. It’s the day to hate the Yankees. That is: Americans, not the baseball team. Via Mexidata:

In Mexico, what began as a vague appeal for cross-border solidarity on the Internet is snowballing into a movement as well. In various parts of the country, labor unions, regional and local business groups, and ex-bracero associations are supporting a one-day boycott of US products and businesses.

“For me, the protest serves a double purpose: I get to support the immigrants and I also get to express my slightly anti-Yankee sentiments,” said Mexico City cafe owner Joaquin Garcia Nava.

As in the United States, the Roman Catholic Church is adding legitimacy, voice and presence to the movement. And the bishops of the Mexican border cities of Ciudad Juarez, Tijuana, Mexicali, Nogales, Reynosa, Nuevo Laredo, and Piedras Negras have all endorsed the May 1 action.

Lonewacko keeps track of the who’s who behind the boycott.

My Vent is here.

And we’re maintaining The Multimedia Mother of all May Day Posts over at Hot Air.

Kit Jarrell has a new Guard the Borders blogburst.

Power Line is collecting video reports. Pajamas Media is in LA.

Tom Tancredo imagines What If.

North Carolina got a jump-start with an illegal alien rally yesterday. The Cultural Report has photos and details, and witnessed one zealot urging illegal immigrants to “Break the rules!”

The Open Borders Business List (via AP):

Some big businesses were shutting down operations: Six of 14 Perdue Farms plants will close; Gallo Wines in Sonoma, Calif., was giving its 150 employees the day off; Tyson Foods Inc., the world’s largest meat producer, planned to shut five of its nine beef plants and four of six pork plants.

***

11:35am EDT…

Blogger reports from Slapstick Politics in Denver.

11:59am EDT…Bare Knuckle Politics provides nationwide live video feeds.