Ready to rumble at the RNC

The American Spectator owes me combat pay for the five hours I spent in the hospitality suites last night to get the report I filed at 3 a.m.:

Just got back from the Capitol Hilton and, after five hours of heavy schmoozing with attendees at the Republican National Committee's winter meeting, I can say with a high degree of certainty that anyone who tells you they know the outcome of the RNC chairman's vote is lying.
As to Chris Cillizza's claim that Katon Dawson's got the mojo -- didn't see it. Maybe the Dawson faction is playing possum, but if the South Carolinian is a "force to be reckoned with," it's a stealth momentum so hush-hush as to be undetectable to an outsider. . . .

Please read the whole thing. My brain's sore from all the hard work of trying to figure this thing out. I'm looking around on the Web this morning, and nobody's got any more idea of how it's going to turn out than I do, which is to say, none at all. The Politico's Alexander Burns:

GOP insiders say Friday's contest to elect the next chairman of the Republican National Committee will be a long and drawn-out affair, with multiple ballots necessary to determine the winner. In part, it's a reflection of a party that, even after a nearly three month-long chairman's race, remains deeply uncertain of which candidate can best lead the GOP back to power.

See? That's Objective Journalese for "I don't have a freaking clue."

UPDATE: The American Spectator's Jim Antle mentions the RNC chairman's contest on the way to a vicious fisking of David Frum's "New Majority."

UPDATE II: American Spectator managing editor J.P. Freire was also at the RNC meeting last night, but he apparently went to the meeting, as opposed to the hospitality suites, where all the real deep investigative journalism takes place.

UPDATE III: If you're on Facebook, here's video of an interview I did last night with Saul Anuzis's sister.

UPDATE IV: Video now on YouTube: