Oh, Third District. You're really a bottomless well of fun these days, aren't you?
The latest development in the Mark Souder affair and resulting Republican replacement caucus cluster is a series of Facebook messages sent by Souder to two individuals who promptly released the contents to the media. Stay classy, Northeast Indiana GOP:
The message predicts that Stutzman will win the caucus, although it says newscaster Ryan Elijah is pressing him. It calls Fort Wayne City Councilwoman Liz Brown a sleeper pick, but doubted she would get 10 percent of the early vote.
When talking about his affair with Tracy Jackson, a former staff member, Souder seems to offer contradictory statements. In one paragraph he says that Stutzman knew nothing of the affair and therefore couldn't have blown the whistle. In another paragraph, it mentions that Stutzman or a political consulting firm leaked information of the affair to Fox News after getting information from Jackson's husband, Brad Jackson, a Kosciusko County commissioner.
While the message was sent directly to Clouse and Kirkpatrick, they both said they believed it important to release its contents so voters in the Saturday caucus have all the information they can get before making a decision.
It's been no secret that Stutzman is good friends with the offending staffer's husband, and this whole sordid web of lies and half-truths seems to be leaving no conservative politico unscathed.
Dr. Tom Hayhurst, for his part, is still squarely focused on what's best for the Third District. And while the Republican Party cannibalizes itself in a fiery ball of infidelity and distrust, the door may be opening for a strong Democratic challenge come November.
In other notes from the Republican senate campaign trail, it appears that not only is vehemently anti-government State Sen. Marlin Stutzman a hypocrite when it comes to farm subsidies, but the government cash he's pocketing isn't even flowing into the state.
What could be troubling, though, is that the government money Stutzman received for his family's corn, soybean and wheat crops didn't even go to his home state. Instead, according to a database maintained by the Environmental Working Group, $106K has gone to his family's farm in St. Joseph Co., MI -- just across the border from Stutzman's hometown, Howe.
Meanwhile, back across the border, our good friend and lobbyist Dan Coats has taken a break from not filling out his financial disclosure forms to release his first campaign ad of the cycle. The Journal Gazette gives the nitty-gritty details, but they don't mention the most interesting part of the spot: Dan Coats is going to run on repealing health care.
Say what you will about the final bill, but anyone willing to run on a platform of repeal at this point is just opening a can of worms. Not only would an outright repeal be catastrophic to the thousands of Hoosiers who will already be benefiting from reform by next year, but there's also that little, inescapable fact that repeal is simply not going to happen. You might as well be running on getting rid of taxes.
Which, hilariously enough, I expect one of these guys to do in the next few weeks.
So, last week I was (un)lucky enough to be invited to participate in the WXNT-sponsored debate of all five Republican senate candidates. There was a fine assortment of bloggers from all over the spectrum, and we provided some quality pre- and post-game analysis, if I do say so myself.
My message to Republicans was simple: If you're not Dan Coats, this debate should be all about talking about just how much you aren't Dan Coats.
In other words, it's time to put the pea-shooters aside and pull out the big guns. Go big or go home. All the great clichés.
Unfortunately, the forum itself was a snoozefest, with the only real danger occurring whenever Richard Behney was allowed some microphone time. I wrote on the subject this morning over at the Watchblog:
If I were a rank-and-file Republican in this state - and we all know I'm not - I would be pretty upset. Primaries are supposed to be about vetting candidates, about shaking skeletons out of the closet, and about discovering political weaknesses now rather than in November. And as near as I can tell, the current crop of GOP candidates are so handcuffed by the Ghost of Reagan that they can't see the end result of their largely-positive campaign will be a Dan Coats for Senate campaign in May.
And Democrats will have been able to keep their powder dry, saving those extensive Coats talking points and opposition research files until the general election.
Sylvia A. Smith said much the same over the weekend, and as usual did so more eloquently than yours truly.
Unfortunately for Marlin Stutzman, Johnny Ho' and the rest of the lot, they don't appear interested in listening to my advice -- something they have in common with most Democrats, for what it's worth.
Let's be clear here: State Sen. Marlin Stutzman really is a sympathetic figure in this Republican senate nomination cluster. The guy is a right-wing loon, to be sure, but he seems like a nice enough guy, and he was in this race before being in this race was cool.
And then the North Carolinian Dan Coats got a phone call at his Virginia home from a Texan in Washington D.C., and the rest is history.
All that aside, the last few days have brought to light more than a few stories focusing on Stutzman's tea party problem -- namely, the disconnect between his anti-socialism-government-takeover talking points and the fact that Stutzman's oft-cited farming roots have involved plenty of socialist-government-takeovers. The Washington Post's Right Now blog fills in the blanks:
According to USDA records downloaded by the Environmental Working Group, Indiana State Sen. Marlin Stutzman, who is running for the state's open U.S. Senate seat, received a total of $156,907.54 in subsidies from 1997 to 2006. During the last year for which we have records, he got $13,630 in subsidies.
Stutzman, who co-owns a farm and fully owns a farm trucking company, was elected to Indiana's legislature in 2002 and has built some national support among conservatives looking for another rising star. On his campaign site, Stutzman trumpets the support of RedState's Erick Erickson and some kind words from Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.).
But the subsidies issue has dogged Stutzman as he courts the support of Tea Party activists.
This is far from the only issue dogging the five-person field of Republican hopefuls -- no, hypocrisy and irony appear to be their calling cards at this point -- but it does highlight the problem with a hyper-conservative movement that is as disorganized and discombobulated in messaging as it is on the ground.
Below is the first image you'll be greeted with if you visit GoMarlin.com, the online presence of Republican senate candidate Marlin Stutzman. The idea, as it were:
A fun way to get the word out and raise money for the Hoosiers for Stutzman U.S. Senate campaign! Sign-up to host a Marlin's March Madness party in your home or in a local gathering place. Invite friends, neighbors and acquaintances to a Marlin's March Madness party, who are interested in helping Marlin win the Republican Primary on May 4th and defeat the Democrat nominee in the fall.
A cute concept, to be sure. There's just one big problem: the term "March Madness" enjoys pretty healthy trademark protection by the NCAA. And as at least one Virginia candidate learned last year, our friends over at the collegiate athletic headquarters aren't exactly charitable with their intellectual property.
[Bob] McDonnell, a Republican, this week on his Web site unveiled a contest called "McDonnell March Madness" patterned after the NCAA basketball tournament.
Problem is that the words "March Madness" are under trademark protection by the NCAA. On Wednesday, Gail Dent, NCAA associate director of public and media relations, said in response to a Bristol Herald Courier inquiry that the organization can allow other groups to use the term through a licensing agreement - i.e. in exchange for big bucks. McDonnell's campaign, however, did not ask.
Furthermore, because the NCAA is a nonprofit organization for tax purposes, it could not grant permission to a politician to use the words in a political campaign.
Sounds like Marlin will be facing many of the same questions. Paging Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, I have a Wednesday story on line one!
While I don't know how I ended up on his mailing list, Marlin Stutzman, the freshman state senator driving around in a Michigan-rented RV in his campaign against Senator Evan Bayh, I did receive a plea for us to go vote on the WFYI poll asking whether he's a viable candidate.
A third Republican has filed paperwork with the Federal Elections Commission to challenge Evan Bayh for Senate in the 2010 election.
The man who helped launch the protest-oriented "tea party" in Indiana is running as a Republican against Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh.
Richard Behney, a 45-year-old Carmel businessman, has filed his candidacy with the Federal Election Commission. Two other Republicans also are in the race: state Sen. Marlin Stutzman, Howe, and Don Bates, a banker from Richmond. Others looking at a run against Bayh include former state Rep. Dan Dumezich, Lake County.
Behney already has a campaign jingle, to the tune of "Hey, Look Me Over," in which a chorus sings that it's time to say "bye Bayh."
We've been talking lately about the will-he-or-won't-he-speak controversy over Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett's involvement with the Indiana Creation Evidence Expo, which will bring together "scientists" and evangelical Christian activists in the name of sending the public instruction of evolution the way of the dimetrodon.
Now, we have evidence that even if Bennett is a no-show, the wing-nut political constituency will be represented in the room.
That's right, it's everyone's favorite Republican candidate for US Senate, Marlin Stutzman. The presumptive GOP candidate is so gosh-darn excited about the event, he's hosting a dinner with fellow punchline State Rep. Cindy Noe.
Representative Noe is on the education committee in the House, for those who doubt the importance of keeping control of that body next year.
As if the website for this event wasn't enough, a quick look at some of the groups behind the operation reveal all you need to know about the scientific validity of these clowns. Take the Institute for Creation Research, which features a story at the moment entitled "Is there some truth to dragon myths?"
There are other reasons to doubt that dragon legends arose from fossil-based speculations. Tales of dragons are almost universal and were incorporated into the historical background of virtually every people group on every continent.3 How could so many different cultures conjure up such similar details in their dragon legends, unless their ancestors actually encountered them?
It would be easily explained if humans had actually seen living dinosaurs.
Uh...right.
In case you were wondering, another featured story is the incredibly relevant "Energy Bill Won't Solve Global Warming." All amidst a site that purports to fight against "bias" in the scientific process.
There is a huge community of Christian scientists who are more than able to fit their faith within the context of responsible scientific exploration, and then there are these folks.
Just like there is a huge community of politicians who are able to balance their personal beliefs with responsible representation, and then there is Marlin Stutzman.
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We've been talking lately about the will-he-or-won't-he-speak controversy over Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett's involvement with the 
