Massachusetts: Romney

Here are a few items of interest about some of the folks on my latest Top 25 ranking of GOP 2012 Presidential Nominees. (Also, please note that my latest rankings cleverly included two #18s, but no #23. Oops. Please mentally renumber to compensate.)

--USN&WR's Washington Whispers informally surveyed Republican leaders for long-shot 2012 nominees, and gave a top four of my #1 Tim Pawlenty; #3 Mark Sanford; #7 Jon Huntsman, and #13 Eric Cantor. Also mentioned: #5 John Thune, #21 Jeb Bush, and unlisted Richard Burr.

--#2 Jim DeMint and #10 Rick Perry held what they dubbed "Tea Party 2.0," via teleconference yesterday... which is kind of like if the colonists had protested by sitting in their homes spilling tea on their floors.

It's time to reveal the new rankings of the 25 most likely 2012 Republican Presidential nominees -- updating from my rankings entering 2009, and at the end of February. And get excited, there's a new number one!

It's been an active couple of months for the Presidential wannabes, as they have shuffled to position themselves on the federal stimulus package, the federal budget, the Tax Day Tea Parties, and anything else that provides a platform for posturing.

Then there's the defection of Arlen Specter, who left because GOP primary voters wanted him gone. So... if you're sucking up to GOP primary voters, what's your response? (And if you're hoping to win the GOP Pres.

Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele has reportedly hired Gentry Collins to be the party's new political director. Could be a sign of Romney making inroads with Steele. Collins has been a Romney guy for several years.

Back in 2005, when Romney became chairman of the Republican Governors Association, he made a strategically savvy move in hiring Collins as RGA political director. Why so savvy? Because Collins hails from Iowa, the most important state in Romney's 2008 Presidential plan. Collins was executive director of the Iowa GOP, and ran the statewide campaign for the gubernatorial candidate there in 2002. He was one of the best possible people to have running Iowa's caucus for a GOP candidate, and Romney scooped him up early.

Big, exciting day at CPAC today: Schlafly, Bennett, Coulter, Horowitz, Limbaugh, Santorum, and oh so many more -- plus Romney's attempt to three-peat in the annual straw poll.

But for me the highlight is the presentation of the Conservative Blogger Award, which is going to Steven Gilchrest.

Now, there are good conservative bloggers and bad conservative bloggers, and there are insane conservative bloggers and there are WTF!?!?!? conservative bloggers... and then there's Steven Gilbert.

The first time I came across Gilbert was back in 2004, when he suggested that John Kerry should be court-marshalled and perhaps executed for his actions in Paris, 1970.

Gilbert spent most of that fall obsessed with Kerry's behavior around that time period -- including claims that he plotted to assassinate leaders of the US government.