It's official, Kenny (BoyToy) Mehlman's replacement has been anointed by our Dear Smirkin' MisLeader. Mel (Empty-Suit) Martinez is the new partime RNC Chair. He of the infamous Terry Schiavo memo. And, yes, another Lobbygate - Bob Ney - Jack Abramoff tainted Republican. Oh, and he's also caught up in a little campaign finance scandal of his own involving corporate embezzlers in S. Fl. But I'm sure that's someone else's fault.... Great choice Smirky! I'm enjoying the hell out of watching you flush your Repugnant crime syndicate down the ol' swirly slip and slide...

Bush Announces Sen. Martinez Next RNC Chairman
Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.), a close WH ally and a Cuban American, will take the job of general chairman of the RNC, Bush announced to reporters at the WH this afternoon. The appointment comes in the wake of an election that yielded shrinking GOP support from Hispanic voters. Martinez, a first-term senator, will remain in office and serve as the party's chief spokesman and fundraiser heading into the 2008 elections. Mike Duncan, the RNC's current general counsel and a former party treasurer, will manage day-to-day operations and be elected chairman in January, Bush said. The current co-chair, Jo Ann Davidson, will continue in that post... (more)

Counsel to GOP Senator Wrote Memo On Schiavo Martinez Aide Who Cited Upside For Party Resigns
The legal counsel to Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) admitted yesterday that he was the author of a memo citing the political advantage to Republicans of intervening in the case of Terri Schiavo, the senator said in an interview last night. Brian H. Darling, 39, a former lobbyist for the Alexander Strategy Group on gun rights and other issues, offered his resignation and it was immediately accepted, Martinez said. Martinez, the GOP's Senate point man on the issue, said he earlier had been assured by aides that his office had nothing to do with producing the memo. "I never did an investigation, as such," he said. "I just took it for granted that we wouldn't be that stupid. It was never my intention to in any way politicize this issue."

Martinez, a freshman who was secretary of housing and urban development for most of President Bush's first term, said he had not read the one-page memo. He said he inadvertently passed it to Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who had worked with him on the issue. After that, officials gave the memo to reporters for ABC News and The Washington Post. Harkin said in an interview that Martinez handed him the memo on the Senate floor, in hopes of gaining his support for the bill giving federal courts jurisdiction in the Florida case in an effort to restore the brain-damaged Florida woman's feeding tube. "He said these were talking points -- something that we're working on here," Harkin said...

The bonus of this flawed selection is that it has the base (AL Qaida, pun intended) in an uproar. Seems he's soft on them criminal illegal immigrant types. A kos blogger has posted a few gems gleamed from various flying monkey blogs, or you can read what they are howlin' 'bout here and here.

Added bonus, AmeicaBlog points out that while he puts on an anti-gay homohysterical public face, he has no propblem whith gay republican staffers....