gop chairman

The AP is reporting that Michael Steele has dropped out of the race for GOP chairman. Earlier voting was looking very bad for the embattled former chair.

Somehow the Ohio GOP thinks they are entitled to access to the phone numbers, addresses and email addresses of educators in Ohio:

Ohio's Republican Party recently requested the names, home addresses, phone numbers and e-mails of all licensed educators in the state's database.

The Ohio Education Association, a teachers union, obtained a temporary restraining order to halt the release of information. The association says the GOP is trying to violate teachers' privacy.

"It is our association's position that such information is not a public record under Ohio law," said Patricia Frost-Brooks, president of the OEA, which represents 130,000 Ohio teachers.

The GOP says it's merely trying to communicate with educators.

The teachers' unions act like arms of the Democratic Party, said Kevin DeWine, GOP chairman.

I don’t really think this is a “right” for the GOP. It sounds like some serious shenanigans being pursued in an attempt to build up their failing support, with a far more serious potential. Since the GOP is using the “public record” excuse here since Teachers are state employees, then what about judges, firefighters or police? A ruling in favor of the GOP would set a precedent for any political party to obtain such information on those individuals also. Do police officers want their personal contact information so readily accessible? How about judges?

This also seems like a great way to deter people from becoming teachers, something much needed in our nation. Imagine that an aspiring teacher learns that their personal information becomes readily accessible to any power hungry politician. Yeah that is an instant turn off right there.

This from one of the strongest supporters of the war:

Sen. John Warner, the former GOP chairman and influential member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is set to introduce a second resolution Monday that expresses criticism of President Bush's call for a troop increase in Iraq, a move Bush Administration officials have scrambled to avoid.

The resolution -- also sponsored by Armed Services Committee members Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Ben Nelson, D-Nebraska -- tones down some of the language used in a resolution introduced earlier by Sens. Carl Levin, D-Michigan, Joe Biden, D-Delaware, and Chuck Hagel, R-Nebraska, sources involved with crafting the resolution tell CNN.

Warner -- whose clout will likely influence several Republicans on the fence over Bush's Iraq plan -- has so far avoided saying whether he agrees or disagrees with the president's plan, but is said to have been working behind the scenes for some time to build support for a compromise.

So who really wants this surge anymore?