Rep. Tom Reynolds (NY-26) and the one and only Ann Coulter joined us for today’s bloggers briefing.

Rep. Reynolds talked in-depth about the “Mother of All Tax Hikes” and Coulter fielded our questions and spoke a bit about her new book, "If Democrats Had Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans”.

Congressman Reynolds, who chaired the NRCC last cycle, talked about the “Mother of All Tax Hikes” or as Reynolds called it, the Monster M.O.T.H. because it’s “Got Democrats moving back to their roots of bigger government and higher taxes, like moths to a flame.”

The Congressman really got into the weeds on the tax fight – an issue about which I claim ignorance, so I’ll point you to a couple of good resources on the subject.

*Reynold’s office’s press release on the Monster M.O.T.H.
*Heritage on the bill.
*Dick Armey in the WSJ on the tax hike.

More from Reynolds and Coulter after the jump...

Rob Bluey asked Reynolds about SCHIP.

Reynolds noted that the Democrat leadership made a tactical error in trying to appeal to a small audience of Republicans – in seeing how they could convince them to vote for SCHIP.

It’s pretty hard to keep slapping someone up against the head and at the same time try to make a deal with them.

Someone asked about the recent election that Jim Ogonowski lost in MA – 05.

Reynolds noted that special elections always tighten at the end, and that the Dems. would've spent whatever was necessary to hold onto that seat. So despite the fact the Ogonowski was a great candidate and his opponent was not, Reynolds seemed to say he didn't think that the MA-05 race was winnable.

Reynolds continued by noting that are three kinds of elections: generals, primaries, and specials. And he hates specials because they're so unpredictable.

Which brought him to the upcoming special election in VA -01 to replace Jo Ann Davis’ seat.

We should hold the seat, but we need to make sure we don’t take it for granted.

He also noted that there are several good candidates running for the seat (like Kevin O’Neill – who is doing some excellent fundraising on Slatecard).

Ann Coulter called in about one hour into the lunch and immediately jumped into Q&A.

Lisa De Pasquale asked what Coulter thought Bush's biggest mistake has been so far?

Her answer: Harriet Miers and the Amnesty Bill, which were both defeated by indignant Conservatives.

Those are two pretty good examples of how normal Americans really do have a voice.

On health care, someone noted that we're slowly losing that fight, and asked how Conservatives can turn that around?

I think the argument on health care is that we have a couple of centuries of trial and error on this but the best way to provide good health care to someone is through the free market.

...

There can’t be a better time to explain this then twenty years after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Rob asked which Republican presidential candidate has the most effective message?

Coulter said that she agreed the most with Duncan Hunter but that both Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney are good candidates.

Both have the proven ability to trick Liberals into voting for them.

On Hillary Clinton

She doesn't think it's Hillary's race to lose.

Obama is fourteen years old, and he’s nipping at Hillary’s heels. There's clearly a strong anybody but Hillary sentiment out there.

Coulter continued by noting that Hillary Clinton's greatest claim to experience was that:

She was married to this American pestilence. And he never could get 50 percent of the country to vote for him.

News from the Conservative Blogosphere

*Ivan Osorio has been working tirelessly to defeat the Law of the Sea Treaty, which comes up in committee tomorrow. Here's some more info on the treaty, and why it's really, really bad.

*David Weigel told us that reason.tv just launched this Saturday, and that Reason is looking for a new office manager.

*Jack Yoest talked up the Management Training Time seminar in DC – which you can learn more about here.

*Matt Sheffield showed off NewsBusters new feature: NewsBusted - Conservative Comedy

Sheffield noted that it took a year to get this project off the ground, it's filmed out in Hollywood, and they have some professional comedy writers cooking up some of the show's jokes.