If Ron Paul would give Mike Huckabee all his money ...

then maybe the goofball Republicans could have a chance at holding onto the White House:

Once considered a minor candidate in a large field of candidates, Paul is now close to breaking a $12 million fundraising goal for the final quarter of the year as his volunteers stage an Internet money-raising event Sunday tied to the anniversary of the 1773 Boston Tea Party.

Paul, the only candidate to release up-to-the-minute tallies of campaign receipts, has raised $11.4 million for this three-month period.

If the Texas lawmaker beats his target, he will have raked in more campaign cash than the other GOP contenders did at the end of the latest reporting period, including early front-runner Rudy Giuliani, who raised $11.6 million.

Anthony Corrado, a campaign finance expert at Colby College in Maine, said that Paul could well end up leading the GOP presidential pack in fundraising for the final quarter, which ends Dec. 31.

"Ron Paul has had remarkable success raising money this year," said Corrado.

Poor Huck; he's got ephemeral "polling support" but no caysh:

Until today, Huckabee's homepage had a "December 15th" goal of $1,150,000. Then today, perhaps as they saw it might not make it, they changed it to a "December" goal! This means it appears that they've nearly accomplished their goal in half the time, when in fact they failed to meet the original one!

Paul will likely raise $4 or 5 million bucks today; Huckabee can't raise a million in a month.

Will Huck get the dough if he winds up at the top of the conservative scrum? Sure. But Republicans are right to fear his nomination. He would be crushed next November.

I think Paul's fundraising and national grassroots appeal is certainly real. His endorsement of the eventual nominee will be coveted. A spot as vice-president on the GOP ticket is plausible. Paul is literally the only Republican candidate generating any real excitement, and has already reached the point of significant viability. Just not as the party's nominee for president.

Paul would destroy the Republicans by running as a Libertarian at this point, with still no better chance of getting elected than if he happened to wind up the GOP standard-bearer. He is, similar to the blimp pictured in the link above, inflating rapidly to the role of kingmaker, well-positioned to make considerable demands of the nominee. I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing -- today --, because Paul is the anti-neoconservative. His influence as potentially the vice-president could bring a quick end to the folly in Iraq, prevent war with Iran, and close the sad chapter of 21st-century American neo-imperialism executed by the Bushies.

There's considerable independent and crossover appeal in a McCain-Paul ticket, IMHO. They might even be a less nasty bunch to go against in a general.

Nope. Sorry. That last sentence is just too unrealistic.

Update (12/17): Six mmmmmmillion dollars yesterday. From 30,000 donors. He's gone past $18 million for the quarter.

IOKIYAR (and it's not a blowjob in a blue dress)

‘Sleeping with the boss’ common at KBR in Iraq:

Working in Iraq wasn't always an adventure for Linda Lindsey.

"If you wanted to get a promotion you didn't necessarily have to have the qualifications,” remembered Lindsey, a former KBR contractor. “You just needed to be sleeping with the person who was doing the hiring.”

Let's pause here a moment and review The Rules (Republican version 2.008):




Continuing ...

Though she did not know Jamie Leigh Jones, the young KBR contractor who says she was drugged and gang raped by colleagues, Lindsey said Jones’ allegations are not surprising.

“Where I was at and when I was there it was very, very upsetting,” Lindsey recalled.

In a sworn affidavit for the Jones case, Lindsey said: “I saw rampant sexual harassment and discrimination."

“Well, first of all, a boss saying that he hired a woman because she told him that she puts out," she added.

Her affidavit also said: "When anyone would report an incident of abuse or harassment, they would be threatened with a transfer to a more dangerous location."

Lindsey said complaints made it back to KBR's Houston headquarters, but the people causing problems in Iraq were never removed.

That left many women workers, Lindsey said, feeling helpless.

If you're a "fat, lazy, and old" (his lawyer's words, not mine) white man who shoots two people in the back with a 12-gauge, or a male KBR employee in Iraq, donchyoo worry 'bout a thing. But if you're anybody else, you're fucked. Wrong place/wrong time/wrong color/wrong political philosophy; raped, tortured, killed, too bad for you.

Makes a person wonder why he would be concerned about something as relatively inconsequential as whether his vote counts or not.