Duncan Hunter talks tough on Iraq, mostly *towards* the Iraqi army. Smart move? Sure. But who the hell is Duncan Hunter?

TECH NOTE: MSNBC's live feed hasn't come up yet, and the Politico's is so slow as to be useless. I might be switching over to the VodkaMacBook and a TV...

UPDATE (6:15pm MDT): For the first time ever, technical problems threaten to kill a drunkblogging event. Back in a few minutes.

6:20pm Man, who'd have ever thought it would be so much work to set up a drunkblog? Also, who are these people on my TV? The banner says MSNBC. The scroll says GOP Presidential Debate. But half these guys are almost mysteries, even to me. And they got personal invites from Nancy Reagan?

6:22pm Tom McCain just lost a great chance to win Colorado by saying "yes" to Tom Tancredo - but without using his name, and then segueing into a canned response about bin Laden. Rookie move for an old guy.

6:25pm Imagine you're watching Hardball, only Matthews has ten guests instead of one or two. That's what tonight's debate has already devolved into. Now imagine that instead of candidates, we had ten knife-wielding spider monkeys jacked up on Mini Thins. That's where I hope this thing is going.

6:27pm Hey, a guy I think maybe I recognize, in a dark blue suit and red tie, talking about the environment. Which debate are we watching, anyway?

6:28pm Ron Paul is a respectable guy, usually. But he's looking and sounding more and more like... well, like a nutbag Big-L Libertarian. I should know, I used to be one.

6:30pm Rudi tried to combine respect for Roe v Wade with strict constructionism. While that's not an impossible straddle, it's certainly an uncomfortable one - for him and debate viewers.

6:33 Sam Brownback looks like he's running for President of Debate Club. Just vote for him - for that - and let him have it. I think he'd be happy.

6:38pm It's not that I don't have anything to say, it's that I don't have anything to say about these candidates right now. Everybody is trying to sound like Reagan, except for Rudi - and he's trying to sound like Reagan filtered through Goldwater filtered through Roe v. Wade. I just say give everybody a knife already.

6:39pm Quick aside to Mike Huckabee - Dude, Rudi got rid of his combover years ago, mmkay?

6:41pm Every time they cut to him, all I can see is a Yellow Pages ad that reads, "Mitt Romney - Gynecologist to the Stars!"

6:44pm Tom Tancredo is the Colorado local buy done good, and he's an easy guy to like tonight. Give props to someone who's main issue is anti-immigration, when mine is so not.

6:46pm Little known fact: Tommy Thompson is actually made from Play-Doh.

6:50pm It's always boring watching Republicans talk about government ethics. Not because they're evil - although some of them certainly are. It's because Republicans generally think that government, by its nature, is going to be corrupt, period, so long as it does big things it ought not to. Meanwhile, the Democrats are just as bad - but twice as upset. More of them, it seems, suffer under the delusion that the government doesn't automatically suck.

6:51pm Don't Oxford debates have a rule requiring novelty ties? If not, wouldn't that be great?

6:53pm Rudi has said "I hate abortion" two or three times already, in those exact words. But does anyone outside of NOW actually love them?

6:55pm Did McCain just break two taboos? I heard him say "guest workers" and "comprehensive reform" in one answer regarding immigration. I don't follow the immigration debate like I should, so someone tell me if McCain just flubbed it, big-time.

6:57pm Quick aside to Ron Paul - Dude, "country doctor" isn't an elected position.

6:59pm Nancy want stem cells. At a nice dinner at a nice restaurant years ago, I displayed bad manners and pounded the table, literally, and loudly proclaimed, "Someday, stem cells will bite Republicans on the ass, and they'll deserve it." Here it comes, baby.

7:02pm "Mitt Romney - and his dog, Spot!"

7:03pm Matthews just asked a room full of Republicans if there's a tax they'd like to cut? He has a show called "Hardball"? Really?

7:04pm Which guy was that, just said he'd cut the AMT? I'm voting for that guy.

7:06pm No one is going to miss me for two minutes if I go refill my martini. So if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go refill my martini.

7:12pm "Mitt Romney - offers low payments for for your new veneers."

7:13pm Even when Rudi is answering an easy question (Shia vs Sunni) that he knows, he sounds uncertain. And he was a prosecutor? Bad sign.

7:14pm Ditto my last comment, only more so. Rudi could have recited some great stump speech lines, and instead he stumbled.

7:16pm My anti-AMT guy sounds an awful lot like John Edwards on jobs and outsourcing. Buh-bye, VodkaPundit vote.

7:18pm Finally, Rudi sounds like he's on his game. Problem is, he's talking about a kind of national ID card. There are lots of reasons those won't work, however, so color me (still) unimpressed.

7:20pm You know who Tancredo reminds me of? That TV character actor who was everywhere during the '70s and '80s. Lots of MASH appearances, I think. Can't remember his name. I'll look it up later. In the meantime, I keep expecting him to crack a broad smile and a bad joke, followed by a small hit of laugh-track.

7:22pm Has one of these guys just once used the word "Democrat"?

7:24pm When most of these guys talk about Terri Schiavo, it reminds me what I like least about the Republican party, especially its current incarnation as the *other* party of big government.

7:25pm "Mitt Romney - with the weather, tonight on the News at Nine!"

7:27pm Matthews just asked a room full of Republicans if they hate Hillary? He has a show called "Hardball"? Really?

7:31pm Quick aside to Chris Matthews - Dude, that silibant S of yours is brutal enough to actually drown your Teleprompter guy. Relax already.

7:32pm "KZ" comments, "I think Fred Thompson is winning." Dude, you just won the debate with that line.

Cheers, kids. I'll post a wrap in a few.