Charlie Crist, Florida's popular first-term governor, faces conservative opposition in next year's GOP Senate primary.

Paul Steinhauser
CNN Deputy Political Director

As primary battles go, this one's pretty ugly.

The intra-party Republican fight in Florida between Gov. Charlie Crist and former state House Speaker Marco Rubio is full of fireworks.

Here's a taste:

"As Marco Rubio speaks to Florida TaxWatch today, I would like to remind everyone that while his words might sound credible, his record certainly is not. From supporting the largest tax increase in Florida history to the hundreds of thousands Rubio has squandered in taxpayer dollars, there are good reasons Rubio has tried to hide his record," says Andrea Saul, the Crist campaign's communications director.

Rubio campaign spokesman Alex Burgos declares, "Charlie Crist will need to spend every last cent trying to convince voters that his support for wasteful stimulus spending, cap-and-trade schemes, tax increases and liberal judges are acceptable Republican practices."

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Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele

Kevin Madden and Kristen Soltis
Politico

As unemployment hovers in the double digits, the nation’s federal deficit continues to tick upward, with the Obama administration projecting a $1.8 trillion federal spending deficit for the 2009 fiscal year alone. That unrestrained spending of taxpayer dollars and piling federal debt has had an important political consequence: a potentially toxic political environment for Democrats heading into 2010.

While the everyday American confronts a sour economy with a sense of conservatism — cutting back on excess expenditures, doing more with less — congressional Democrats and the White House have confronted it liberally: a $787 billion “stimulus” targeted toward the public sector, a proposed trillion-dollar health care bill and billions upon billions more of federal taxpayer dollars directed at bailouts. What’s most troubling is there seems to be no end in sight.

Democrats have offered up a gift in the form of disgruntled independents, the growing and mobile political force currently in possession of both parties’ political fortunes. Both anecdotal and empirical evidence demonstrates these voters are highly concerned with the policies that have flooded the country with debt and red ink.

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RNC members have drafted what's being described as a 'purity' resolution.

Peter Hamby
CNN Political Producer

Conservative members of the Republican National Committee are circulating a new resolution that calls on party members to stand up to President Obama's "socialist" agenda and would prohibit RNC funds from going to GOP candidates who disagree with elements of a proposed ten plank ideological platform.

The language of the proposal is still being tweaked ahead of January's RNC Winter Meeting in Hawaii, where it could be submitted for a vote before the full committee.

Here are a few of the proposed policy positions:

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Republican National Committee identifies ten (10) key public policy positions for the 2010 election cycle, which the Republican National Committee expects its public officials and candidates to support:

(1) We support smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama's "stimulus" bill;

(2) We support market-based health care reform and oppose Obama-style government run healthcare;

(3) We support market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation;

(4) We support workers' right to secret ballot by opposing card check;

(5) We support legal immigration and assimilation into American society by opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants;

Keep Reading for the full text of the RNC's proposed resolution...

Sanford impeachment measure to be formally considered.

Peter Hamby
CNN Political Producer

A special House committee in South Carolina will formally consider an impeachment resolution against Gov. Mark Sanford for the first time next Tuesday, the Republican chairman of the committee told CNN Friday.

The resolution, filed by a handful of House Republicans earlier this week, will be examined by an ad hoc committee of seven lawmakers from both sides of the aisle.

The group will meet for the first time next week, after Sanford provides the legislature with the results of a state Ethics Commission investigation into the governor's travel expenses, Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Harrison said.

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Mary Matalin
CNN Contributor

In today's publishing market, "Going Rogue" is a fat book at 432 pages, at a high price point of $28.99, with a massive (rumored 1.5 million) first printing, launched on the book world's version of a Royal Tour, where Oprah is Queen of the Universe and Barbara Walters is Duchess of the D.C.-Manhattan cognoscenti.

In today's political market, well before it was officially released, "Going Rogue" was reduced to a pinprick-sized, petty insiders squabble. How do we square these disparate perspectives?

As a person with alternating publisher and political hats, who knows the players but wasn't inside the John McCain campaign, who cares deeply about the current conservative movement and the future of the country (which are inextricably intertwined), may I offer a few thoughts to the friends on CNN.com's site?

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Richard Kim and Betsy Reed
Special to CNN

Sarah Palin begins her manipulation of the readers of her book "Going Rogue" in the title, embracing as a badge of honor the accusation leveled at her by McCain campaign staffers during the last bitter days of election 2008 - even though she's exemplified the political insider throughout her career.

In "Going Rogue," she describes the campaign as disorganized and defeatist and writes that Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain's aides had a "jaded aura" about them.

She's a "diva" who is "playing for her own future and sees herself as the next leader of the party," one anonymous McCain staffer alleged at the time. Now, Palin wants payback.

It's not yet clear who will emerge the victor in this Republican Party version of "Thunderdome." But it's telling that Palin intends to twist the meaning of "rogue" - an untrustworthy and unprincipled person - into its very opposite.

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Matthew Continetti
Special to CNN

Sarah Palin appears on Oprah on Monday to mark the launch of her book, "Going Rogue." She'll follow up with an extensive interview with Barbara Walters, a multicity book tour and appearances on the Fox News Channel and talk radio.

She'll grab plenty of headlines. As you read about Palin's old-media tour, it's important to remember that she's also a pioneer in the political use of new social media. Not that she gets any credit.

Sometimes the most important revolutions are the quiet ones. This is especially true in the case of technology, which has a way of sneaking up on us.

Take cell phones, for example. A decade ago, they were a luxury item. Suddenly, everyone seemed to have one. What had once been a sign of status became commonplace, all with hardly anybody noticing - and without any central direction.

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Gov. Charlie Crist, pictured alongside Sen. John McCain, endorsed and campaigned for the Obama stimulus

David Frum
CNN Contributor

The Republican fratricide in the November 3 special election in upstate New York may prove just an opening round of an even more spectacular bloodbath in Florida in 2010.

In New York, Republican feuding lost the party a seat in the House of Representatives. At stake in Florida is not only a senatorship - but very possibly Republican hopes for 2012 as well.

The battle in Florida pits Gov. Charlie Crist against former Speaker of the Florida House Marco Rubio. Both men claim to be conservative, pro-life, tax cutters. On the issues, they would seem to agree far more than they disagree.

But on one issue they have disagreed passionately: President Obama's fiscal stimulus. Squeezed by his state's desperate fiscal condition, Crist endorsed and campaigned for the Obama stimulus. Inspired by his conservative ideology, Rubio opposed stimulus.

Now Rubio is the darling of conservatives nationwide. Just this week it was announced that he would keynote next year's annual CPAC conference in Washington. He has been profiled on the cover of National Review, endorsed by the Club for Growth, and feted by radio talk show hosts.

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Program Note: Don't miss Anderson's conversation with the book's authors Scott Conroy and Shushannah Walshe tonight. AC360° 10 p.m. ET.

Scott Conroy and Shushannah Walshe
'Sarah from Alaska'

Introduction: Lights Out

IN A CONDOMINIUM SUITE at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel, Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin read over the election night victory speech that she would never have the chance to deliver. Thank you all so much. And thank you, America, for the great responsibility that you have given to President-elect John S. McCain.

It was just minutes before the stirring moment when the official results would begin to trickle in, but as the sun descended toward the desert horizon, her fatigue must have been crushing. Palin’s two months on the trail had been not just physically exhausting but mentally draining. This short, strange trip had tested her in ways that might have broken even the most hardened political pro, and she had suffered more than her fair share of setbacks and embarrassments.

Still, it was Palin’s gripping story and alluring personality that had breathed life into a once flatlining campaign. Her addition to the ticket had sparked a flood of donations, standing-room only crowds at rallies, and a surge in the polls for the Republican ticket. But along with Palin’s many positive contributions to the campaign had come as many ruinous malfunctions. In the final hours of this frenzied voyage, she would discover just how expendable she had become, as the McCain campaign was literally about to turn the lights out on her.

How had she skyrocketed so quickly into the stratosphere of American politics? Who had really been at fault for her many public stumbles? And what was it about Sarah Palin that drew such passion from both her fans and her foes? Even with the benefit of the thousands of hours of media attention that had been devoted to her candidacy, the heat of the moment did not afford the perspective for anyone to answer these questions adequately, least of all the candidate herself. On this last night of the campaign, Palin remained focused on the momentous judgment that the American people were about to deliver.

Even by presidential-campaign standards, Palin’s last two days had been borderline inhumane. She had started her Monday morning outside Cleveland, Ohio, and made her way across the Lower 48 to rallies in Missouri, Iowa, and Colorado, stopping twice in Nevada, before catching an overnight flight to Anchorage. Then she staggered to the finish line here in Phoenix. While mapping out the final days, Palin’s aides had suggested it might be more practical for the governor to vote absentee, rather than make the sixteen-hour Alaska detour, but she insisted on casting her ballot in her home state. A few paragraphs down, the victory speech became more personal, adding a touch of humor about her famously low-key husband. We were ready, in defeat, to return to a place and a life we love. And I said to my husband Todd that it’s not a step down when he’s no longer Alaska’s “First Dude.” He will now be the first guy ever to become the “Second Dude.”

Palin and more than a few of her aides had earnestly believed all fall that they could come from behind to win the thing, even though McCain’s top advisers knew the near collapse of the financial system in October likely foretold the Republican ticket’s doom. Yes, the crowds that had greeted her were enormous and passionate, and, yes, there was always hope that God would answer her prayers and grant her just one more miracle in what had been a string of unlikely successes in her short political career. But the recent polls were uniformly grim.

She turned her attention to the other set of remarks that had been penned for her, the concession speech. Like the victory address, its very existence would remain a secret after McCain and his inner circle denied her the opportunity to deliver it later in the night.

I wish Barack Obama well as the 44th president of the United States. If he governs America with the skill and grace we have often seen in him, and the greatness of which he is capable, we’re gonna be just fine. And when a black citizen prepares to fill the office of Washington and Lincoln, that is a shining moment in our history that can be lost on no one.

It was a poignant passage in the far less triumphant of the two speeches that Matthew Scully, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, had written in advance of either outcome. A cerebral animal-protection activist, Scully was an unlikely wordsmith for the governor who could field-dress a moose. He had also penned Palin’s game-changing address at the Republican National Convention, field-dressing Obama with charges of arrogance, elitism, and inexperience. This time, however, he was exceedingly cordial in a manner appropriate for the occasion. Palin scribbled in another line with her black pen, dropping a cherry atop the hot fudge sundae: God bless you and your beautiful family, President-elect Obama.

She had first discussed her victory and concession speeches with Scully two days earlier, when they spoke in Room 719 of the Mc – Kinley Grand Hotel in Canton, Ohio. Like Scully’s former boss and many of his predecessors in the Oval Office, Palin was the kind of Christian who felt comfortable expressing her faith in public, which the speech reflected: I will remember all the people who said they were praying for me. She squeezed another handwritten line in the margin, perhaps in an attempt to get the last word in against some of the McCain aides who thought it was better for her to tone down the God talk: You prayer warriors have been my strength and my shield.

The last few weeks had been particularly trying ones for Palin, as public missteps and allegations of selfish motives had accumulated one after another and threatened to define her. But tonight’s speech was her chance to launch the next stage of her political career, and surely her fellow Republicans had seen the excitement she had inspired among the voters; surely they perceived the promise she held for the Republican Party’s future. Still, she knew how important it was to avoid any perception that her own ambitions were anywhere near the forefront of her mind. She had done most of the things she had been asked to do in order to get John McCain elected, but she had only come on board for a small piece of the ten-year odyssey he had begun when he launched his first presidential campaign in 1999. This night was about him. Palin’s antagonists in Washington, in Juneau, and especially in the media would be paying close attention to whether or not she played the good soldier in this final battle of the war…

Editor's Note: The above excerpt was taken from the book, Sarah From Alaska: The Sudden Rise and Brutal Education of a New Conservative Superstar by Scott Conroy and Shushannah Walshe. Excerpted by arrangement with PublicAffairs, a member of the Perseus Books Group. Copyright © 2009.

Sarah Palin remains most recognizable name in the Republican Party.

Candy Crowley
CNN Senior Political Correspondent

She was a high-voltage candidate, lighting a fire in the grassroots of Republican-land - fresh, folksy and fierce.

She famously belittled her party's presidential opponent, Barack Obama, at her coming-out party at the 2008 Republican National Convention: "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities."

Sarah Palin remains a force - the most recognizable name in the
Republican Party, a headline magnet. Just over a year after the defeat of the Republican ticket, the Republican No. 2 is Amazon.com's No. 1 in non-fiction pre-sales. Writer of books, giver of speeches, muser of politics on an unusually active Facebook account. And robo-caller on behalf of a conservative group in this year's Virginia governor's race.

A recent CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll found 85 percent of Republicans say Palin agrees with them on their most important issues. But only 49 percent of independents feel that way.

It's a telling measure of her political reach - and its limits - that
the Republicans who won governor seats in Virginia and New Jersey this year politely rejected Palin's offers to campaign for them.

Both governors-elect owe their victories to huge majorities of
independent voters. Palin's clout is inside the party. In a New York congressional race, she helped push a Republican Party candidate out of the way for a more conservative one. But with that battle won, Palin lost the war - the split made way for a Democratic victory.

These days, Palin is doing selected interviews, the first this week with Oprah Winfrey, to promote her book, "Going Rogue: An American Life," which comes out next week.

Palin is a politician fueled by her celebrity, which is lucrative, but
not necessarily good. "Americans tend not to elect celebrities," said David Frum, a former speechwriter for George W. Bush. "Arnold Schwarzenegger is the exception, but more often than not, people want something in their political leaders that is more steady, stable, and predictable."

Fans and critics inevitably point to Palin's quitting as Alaska's governor, with about a year and a half left in her first term, as her biggest political problem. "Only dead fish go with the flow," she said as she was stepping down.

It's that kind of rogueness that made her a household name, but in the end may make Palin a player who helps shape the party rather than lead it. Of six Republican consultants interviewed - including four who supported the Palin nomination - all see her as playing a part in rebuilding the party. None thought she would be the next Republican presidential nominee, and only two thought she would even run.

Republicans pulled off a significant victory with Robert McDonnell defeating Creigh Deeds.

Julian E. Zelizer
Special to CNN

Republicans have been downright giddy following the off-year elections in Virginia and New Jersey. In a swing state and a blue state, Republicans pulled off significant victories with Chris Christie's defeat of Gov. John Corzine and Robert McDonnell defeating Creigh Deeds.

Just two days after the election, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, who had boasted of the results as evidence of a "Republican Renaissance," issued a stern warning to his colleagues. Steele said that his message for the 2010 midterm elections was that Republicans should remain loyal to the party principles, or "we'll come after you."

Republicans certainly can take some comfort in this election. It is clear that some of the excitement about the Democratic Party has faded since the beginning of 2009. The so-called jobless recovery, with unemployment now at 10.2 percent, is not sitting well with many Americans.

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AC360°

The Congressional Budget Office released its analysis of an alternative health care reform bill submitted by House Republicans today. The Democrats released their proposal last week.

The CBO projects the effect the proposals will have on the budget over the next 10 years. According to the new review today, the Republicans proposal would reduce deficits "by $68 billion over the 2010-2019 period" while the Democrats proposal would result in a reduction of "$104 billion over the 2010-2019 period."

The CBO also projects that the Republican bill will leave approximately 52 million non-elderly residents uninsured by 2019. The plan proposed by the Democrats would leave about 18 million non-elderly residents uninsured.

Read the Congressional Budget Office's review of the Democrat's Proposal and the Republican's.

GOP candidate Bob McDonnell emerged victorious in the Virginia gubernatorial race.

CNN

Tuesday's off-year election may not have had the high stakes of the 2008 presidential election, but several races are significant on the national level:

• New York's 23rd Congressional District: Owens to win vacant U.S. House seat, CNN projects

Democratic candidate Bill Owens will be elected to a vacant U.S. House seat in upstate New York.

The race garnered national attention as local Republican leaders picked Dede Scozzafava because of her appeal to centrist Republicans, independents and even some Democrats. However, the decision sparked a revolt among conservative activists in the GOP.

Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman outpolled Scozzafava, forcing her to withdraw. Scozzafava has since endorsed Owens.

• Virginia governor: McDonnell is projected winner

CNN has projected that Republican Bob McDonnell will be elected Virginia governor. The 55-year-old former state attorney general will be the first Republican to win the state's highest office in 12 years.

With 99 percent of precincts reporting, McDonnell was leading Democratic opponent Creigh Deeds 59 percent to 41 percent.

The race was seen as an early referendum on voters' attitudes toward President Obama and his policies and an opportunity for Republicans to turn back recent Democratic gains.

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New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, a Democrat, lost in a race dominated by local issues.

Nate Silver
Special to CNN

"All politics is local." That four-word statement, originally uttered by former Democratic House Speaker Tip O'Neill, is one of the favorite clichés of political pundits everywhere. But it's seldom respected when it matters most.

Consider, for instance, the special election in New York's 23rd Congressional District, which conservative Democrat Bill Owens won in spite of partisan and nonpartisan polling that had shown Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman with a solid lead.

Almost overnight, Hoffman became a sort of folk hero among conservative activists around the country, a decidedly ordinary-looking man who seemed poised to take an extraordinary path into Washington. Some 95 percent of his fundraising came from outside the district.

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Candy Crowley | BIO
CNN Senior Political Correspondent

Palin was concerned about the cost of the wardrobe that was purchased for her during the campaign, according to the new book.

Peter Hamby
CNN Political Producer

Tensions within John McCain's presidential campaign boiled over on Election Night last November when Sarah Palin, McCain's running mate, repeatedly ignored directions from senior staffers who told her she would not be delivering her own concession speech.

Those fresh details on the conflict between Palin and members of the McCain team come in a new book – "Sarah from Alaska" – by Scott Conroy and Shushannah Walshe, two members of the press corps that traveled with Palin during the 2008 presidential race. The pair spent much of the following year reporting on the campaign turmoil and the vice presidential nominee's difficult return to Alaska after the election.

According to a copy of the book obtained by CNN, Palin's speechwriter Matthew Scully had prepared a brief speech for the then-Alaska governor to deliver while introducing McCain, before he gave his concession speech at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix. But after conferring in his suite with senior advisers Mark Salter, Rick Davis and Steve Schmidt, McCain nixed the idea of having Palin speak before him.

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GOP candidate Bob McDonnell has been polling ahead of his Democratic rival in the Virginia gubernatorial race.

Jay Newton-Small
Time Magazine

On the Sunday before a pivotal election, a few hundred supporters have gathered to hear their nominee speak. For many in the excited crowd, it's their first political event. "This one feels big because the whole country is paying attention to it because it's a change in the attitude: people are fed up with Washington," says Lisa Manser, 42, a Leesburg, Va., teacher who had knocked on doors as a campaign volunteer for the first time in her life earlier that day.

The candidates arrive and the speeches begin. One riles the crowd up with a chant, "Yes, we can!" Another gets them going with the old Kerry campaign slogan, "Help is on the way!" He continues: "When we're done and the polls close, change is on the way! But unlike change that we've seen in the past this is change you can hope for!"

The scene may seem eerily familiar, especially since the rally was held in front of the very offices Barack Obama's campaign used last year in this northwest Virginia town. But the rally in Leesburg on Sunday was for the Republican gubernatorial nominee Bob McDonnell; the speakers included attorney general nominee Ken Cuccinelli (the leader of the "Yes, we can" chant) and Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling ("Help is on the way"). And while the tone may have sounded reminiscent of Obama's stirring rallies of a year ago, the platform couldn't have been more conservative. "This has been a campaign of ideas, on innovation, on a positive uplifting vision for the future of Virginia," McDonnell told the crowd. "And what we need you to do is go find those people who believe in these limited conservative principles that we've laid out in the last six months, that believe free enterprise and the private sector is the key to economic prosperity."

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RNC Chairman Michael Steele

Today is my favorite day. Why? Because it’s Election Day…

It’s my favorite day because the Republican Party’s message affirms faith in the individual. Americans are intelligent people who, when empowered to keep their own money and make their own choices, are best able to build a good life for themselves and their families. Election Day is an opportunity for Americans to elevate more representatives to public office that believe and represent this core principle.

That’s why I am now headed to Parsippany-Troy Hills, NJ, to join you, the grassroots, in support of our statewide and legislative Republican candidates.

Our candidates have offered a compelling alternative to the status quo. The economic policies that the current Democrat incumbent has forced on New Jersey over the last 4 years has crippled the NJ economy and cost jobs for New Jersey families. Despite the odds — President Obama easily carried the state in 2008, defeating Republican John McCain by 15 points and registered Democrats significantly outnumber Republicans — these Republicans have offered a new direction…a direction that offers growth and opportunity, not more government intervention and further job loss…as well as empower the individual, not government.

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Candy Crowley
CNN Senior Political Correspondent

Barack Obama was riding high on November 5, 2008. What signals will the 2009 elections send him?

John King
CNN Chief National Correspondent

This is a week that, in more ways than one, will bring lessons of how much has changed since President Obama's historic election victory one year ago.

In Washington, key tests remain for Democratic health care plans in the House and Senate. This week will also give us a better sense of just how detailed Republicans are willing to be in offering an alternative plan.

From the government and Wall Street, fresh earnings and other data will test this cautiously optimistic assessment from Vice President Biden: "I'm confident we have hit bottom."

And Election Day 2009 will be compared with Election Day 2008. Democrats have had the upper hand in New Jersey and Virginia in recent years. In gubernatorial and other elections, Republicans see a chance to make a statement about their party and perhaps about the president's standing as well.

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