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By Mark Adams

LAKE GENEVA – Two caveats before we begin: First and most importantly, this is not Daniel Suhr writing. It’s his friend Mark Adams and I am blogging under Daniel’s account from the opening night of the Republican Party of Wisconsin State Convention. The County Chairs Banquet is set to begin any moment and Sen. Sam Brownback will be addressing the group. Which brings me to my second caveat. As a matter of full disclosure I should say that I am long-time fan of the senator from Kansas, I support his candidacy for president and I have donated to his campaign.

With that said I will pause for a moment and resume blogging with Sen. Brownback begins his speech.

DEVELOPING . . . . .

UPDATE, 7:19 PM: Sen. Brownback’s introduction by state chair is short and sweet. The senator gets a standing ovation from what has been a somewhat unfocused audience.

“I have to recognize my old buddy and practically roommate Paul Ryan and his wife Janna,” Brownback says. Ryan was Brownback’s one-time chief of staff and the crowd loves it. “I’d like to see him one day in the senate and beyond. (applause) Just not 2008 Ryan.” (gets laughter)

Brownback expresses thanks for letting him go on first and explains that he has to leave early because his charter plane needs to leave before sunset as there are no lights on the runway. His daughter is graduating from Kansas State in the morning.

He’s very comfortable and doing a good job with the crowd.

UPDATE, 7:28 PM:

The following are paraphrases from the speech:

I’m fortunate to belong to party that believe in principles.We are party based on principles not on personalities and we need to get back to our principles.

One of our principles: Hope. First, We have to win the war on terrorism and not back down. We don’t have a choice. We are in a tough fight in Iraq, no doubt about it. I believe in a three state, one nation strategy in Iraq. But we cannot cut and run.

We have to do more about energy. I spend a lot of time in Iowa. (He shows a piece of carpet that was made in Iowa out of corn and says we should be using alternative forms of energy like that.) We need to be more dependent on the Midwest than on the Mideast. We need to drill in ANWR. (Brownback supports and even owns hybrid cars.)

We have to secure out borders (big applause). I need to be clear. I am pro immigration (crowd is warily silent) and this party is pro-imigration but we are pro-legal-immigration. (more applause)

I want to end deaths by cancer in 10 years. Not end cancer but end deaths by it. This is an American sized goal.

UPDATE, 7:34 PM:

Now on to Growth. (Hope being the first theme)

We need to take the current tax code out behind a barn and kill it with a dull axe (this has become one of his dependable lines and one that gets big applause). Need optional flat tax.

Need private savings accounts for Social Security. SS was good for my parents, decent for me but I think it stinks for my kids. My kids come to me and show me their check stubs from hosting at a resurant and want to know why so much is being taken out. I tell them to go see their grandparents so their granoarents can thank them for the money.

I think we have to better on spending and this is an area were the Republican Party has let Americans down. As President I want to sign a bill that follows BRAC commission approach to spending. (This would mean a non-partisan commission would look at all spending programs and would recommend a group of them to be cut. Congress would then have to vote yes or no on the whole group.)

Finally I want to talk about family. And I want to be serious here. We have to rebuild the family. (Brownback want to use the analogy of a football offensive line.) The family is your line in football.

“Take Payton Manning - maybe the greatest quarterback in NFl history.” (The crowd is irate and booing good-naturedly (for the most part) and Brownback realizes he’s stepped in it. He has a good laugh and he apologizes. So much for being serious.)

“Okay let’s take Favre. Could he complete a pass without a line?” (Some in the crowd seem to think Favre could.) He laughs some more and says, “My point is we got to rebuild the family”

More than 30 percent of children are born out of wedlock. You can raise a good kid this way but we know it’s not ideal. The ideal is child raised by his mother and father who are in a life-long committed relationship.

Welfare reform; First step, get them back to work. Step two needs to be rebuilding families. Welfare currently punishes a mother for getting married.

Marriage is the union of a man and a woman. We have to stand for life. (these last two lines get good applause not surprisingly)

I want to be the President of the United States that appoints the justice that overturns Roe. “I am pro life for the whole life.” He mentioned Darfur and taking the fight against poverty more seriously as ways to be more broadly pro-life. (This, not surprisingly gets no applause.)

(Tells Mother Teresa stories about the one thing she asked of the politicians when she came to DC was to pray for the sisters.) The last think she told me in the car before she left was: “All for Jesus. All for Jesus. All for Jesus.” He talks about keeping faith in the public square and the importance of that.

He’s finished at 7:46 PM and gets another standing ovation. Seems like the speech is well received. For me it was a good reminder of why I love the man so much.

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