Alan Keyes

One constituency in particular has proven especially fruitful for the Republican Party through the years: Prominent football coaches. For whatever reason - a natural sympathy for autocratic leadership, perhaps? - the G.O.P. has had no shortage of sideline generals to showcase through the years, a tradition that the party will renew tonight when former Washington Redskins coach Joe Gibbs addresses the convention just before 9:00.

Other well-known coaches who have assumed prominent roles in Republican Party politics through the years include:

* Bud Wilkinson - Led the Oklahoma Sooners to three national titles and 145 victories - including a 47-game winning streak between 1953 and 1957 - before seeking to parlay his in-state popularity into a 1964 U.  read more »

Fred Thompson, Alan Keyes and Duncan Hunter’s names will not be removed from the Republican primary ballot in New York City, despite an effort by some Board of Elections commissioners in Albany on Friday, and despite the fact that the county boards may take them off.

As I reported then, the state Republican Board of Elections commissioners voted to remove those three candidates, but Democratic commissioners did not vote. When the city Board of Elections voted, they were split evenly along party lines. At the time, there was some question as to what would happen to the city ballots, or if the vote was even valid.

“Ballots are going out as is,” said city Board of Elections spokeswoman Valerie Vasquez. “According to Commissioner Kellner [co-chair of the state Board of Elections], they never met, so that in and of itself would make the action invalid."  read more »