Guess Who Wants To Be President?

See if you can figure out who said the following in a speech at a GOPAC gathering last night:

Americans had elected us to change government, and they rejected us because they believed government had changed us. ...

Hypocrisy, my friends, is the most obvious of political sins. And the people will punish it. We were elected to reduce the size of government and enlarge the sphere of free and private initiative. Then we lavished money, in a time of war, on thousands of projects of dubious, if any, public value. We responded to a problem facing some Americans by providing every retired American with a prescription drug benefit, and adding another trillion dollars to a bankrupt entitlement. We increased the size of government in the false hope that we could bribe the public into keeping us in office. And the people punished us.

We lost our principles and our majority. And there is no way to recover our majority without recovering our principles first.

Give up? Here's a little bit more:

Common sense conservatives believe in a short list of self-evident truths: love of country; respect for our unique influence on history; a strong defense and strong alliances based on mutual respect and mutual responsibility; steadfast opposition to threats to our security and values that matches resources to ends wisely; and confident, reliable, consistent leadership to advance human rights, democracy, peace and security.

We believe every individual has something to contribute and deserves the opportunity to reach his or her God-given potential. We believe in increasing wealth and expanding opportunity; in low taxes; fiscal discipline, free trade and open markets. We believe in competition, rewarding hard work and risk takers and letting people keep the fruits of their labor.

We believe in work, faith, service, a culture of life, personal responsibility. We believe in the integrity and values of families, neighborhoods and communities. We believe in limited government in a federal system, individual and property rights, and finding solutions to public problems closest to the people.

We believe in the rule of law and equal justice under the law, victim’s rights and taxpayers’ rights, and judges who interpret the Constitution and don’t usurp, by legislating from the bench, the public’s right to elect representatives to write our laws.

Common sense conservatives believe that the government that governs least governs best; that government should do only those things individuals cannot do for themselves, and do them efficiently. Much rides on that principle: the integrity of the government, our prosperity; and every American’s self-respect, which depends, as it always has, on one’s own decisions and actions, and cannot be provided as another government benefit.

Stand up for these values. Argue our principles for our country’s sake and not just ours. We are the party of Lincoln, Roosevelt and Reagan. Take on the big problems. Don’t hide from hard challenges. Act on principle. Show Americans there are things that matter more to us than our incumbency. Do the right thing, and the politics will take care of itself.

Still stumped? Here's a hint:

[Trent f'ing] Lott defeated [Lamar!] Alexander 25-24 on a secret ballot vote within the Republican Conference after running a late-starting, below-the-radar campaign. Alexander had claimed to have sufficient commitments to take the post and worked furiously to hold those votes, but an informal whip team including backers such as Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) put Lott over the top.

Here's another hint: It's not Tom Coburn. It's also not anybody who takes seriously the principles he so hypocritically proclaims, unless medialingus is one of them. And it's definitely not anybody who will EVER be the Republican nominee for president of the United States.

I'll give you some more time....