Mike Pence: Fiscal Hawk, Socon

Pence Builds GOP Stature
When conservative Activist and former Presidential Candidate Gary Bauer scans the potential 2012 Republican field, not much excites him. "All the obvious frontline names have all the usual pluses and minuses," Mr. Bauer says. But in considering one Candidate, Mr. Bauer sees only qualities that he likes. Indiana Rep. Mike Pence is a Military and fiscal hawk who frequently plugs his Christian credentials. To some, he's the potential candidate best able to unite two wings of the Republican Party...

Mike Pence, Military Hawk With Christian Cred, Could Be Frontline Candidate For Conservatives In 2012
The Wall Street Journal: But in considering one Candidate, Mr. Bauer sees only qualities that he likes. Indiana Rep. Mike Pence is a Military and fiscal hawk who frequently plugs his Christian credentials. To some, he's the potential candidate best able to unite two wings of the Republican Party--its fiscal Conservatives and social conservatives. Read the whole story: The Wall Street Journal Get HuffPost Politics On Twitter and Facebook! Subscribe to the HuffPost Hill newslette...

Plucking the Lucky Duckies
When Democrats find themselves on the ropes - electorally speaking - one of the tried and true methods used to gin up some fresh support has traditionally been to invoke the age old cries of class warfare. You know the drill: the government is inherently Racist or they want all women to stay out of the boardroom and go back to being barefoot and pregnant in the bedroom. But when you’ve got an African-American in the White House and fresh new female faces marching off to serve i...

Robert L. Borosage: Bushwacking Obama: Conservative Call for "Fixing" Social Security
Beware of Conservatives bearing gifts. Today in the Washington Post,, former Bush policy advisor, Michael Gerson echoes a growing chorus of conservatiuve pundits offering up "Social Security reform" as "the answer to Obama's problems." The advice is illogical on its face, pernicious in its consequence, and poisoned from its source. Gerson argues that Obama faces a major strategic decision in his coming State of the Union address, which must take the "first cut at the Reelection message he car...

The Economic Year in Review
Get alerts when there is a new article that might interest you. As we look back on the year that is limping to an end, there is little—not nothing, just little—to cheer about. The year opened with the headline Unemployment Rate at 9.7 percent, and the rate including workers too discouraged to look for work or involuntarily on short-time (the U-6 rate, in the jargon of the trade) at 16.5 percent of the work force. It is closing with the headline rate close to 10 percent and the U-6 ra...

Right Wing Leftovers
Religious Right leaders continue to lavish praise on potential Presidential Candidate and Indiana Congressman Mike Pence (R-IN). Ralph Reed and Talk Show host Mike Gallagher are headlining a pro-school vouchers event in Orlando to lead “the revolution to restore America’s exceptionalism” in January. After the Alaska Supreme Court ruled against his appeal, Joe Miller said he won’t stop Lisa Murkowski’s Reelection from being certified but will continue to appeal his c...

Monday's campaign round-up
MONDAY'S CAMPAIGN ROUND-UP.... Today's installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn't necessarily generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers: * It's not quite a concession, but Alaska's Joe Miller (R) announced last night he will not oppose certification of Sen. Lisa Murkowski's (R) write-in re-election win. Miller will, however, take his pointless fight to the federal courts, after striking out in state courts. * Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R), who h...

Investing in Math and Sciences First Requires Entitlement Reform
Investing in math and science is the way to solve The Economy. A great idea. And somehow liberals have co-opted it to make it sound like their own. Today’s Los Angeles Times for instance contains an article entitled, “Fixing the Economy the Scientific Way,” arguing that the Federal Government must spend more money on math and science education. They point to the fact that over the last 40 years the government’s support of science has declined 60% as a portion of GDP. They then argu

Gov. Paterson Grants 24 Pardons To Immigrants
With a week to go before he leaves office, Gov. Paterson has granted pardons to 24 people who faced Deportation because of their Crimes. Many of those benefitting from the Governor's mercy had been busted for drugs. "Over the course of my Administration's review of more than 1,100 pardon applications it became abundantly clear that the Federal Government's Immigration laws are often excessively harsh and in need of modernization," Paterson said. "The individuals pard...

Juan Williams: Palin Not On Same 'Intellectual Stage' As Obama (VIDEO)
Juan Williams hit out at Sarah Palin on "Fox News Sunday," saying she could not match President Obama intellectually. Williams was speaking about the potential Republican Presidential Candidates for the 2012 Elections, and decrying them as "weak." He mocked the idea that someone like Indiana Congressman Mike Pence could go head to head with Obama. "There is nobody out there except for Sarah Palin who could absolutely dominate the stage and she can't stand on the intellectual stage with Obama,"...

Will Sarah Palin Run for President?
Get alerts when there is a new article that might interest you. KRISTOL : Can I go out on a limb, since everyone else is scared to say -- actually make any predictions. I predict Palin will not run. I have no knowledge at all; I just have the hunch that she ultimately will not run. I think Newt Gingrich is underestimated. Newt is going to run and Newt will be formidable. People can talk about the baggage, but lots of Candidates have had lots of baggage, and people think they're the right guy for...

Juan Williams: Sarah Palin Cant Stand On The Intellectual Stage With Obama
Looks like Dana Perino wasn’t the only one to impugn Sarah Palin’s intellect on yesterday’s Fox News Sunday. While the panel was predicting (or failing to predict) the 2012 Republican Candidate, Juan Williams pointed out that none of the prospects named so far could compete with Barack Obama charisma-wise except for Sarah Palin then adding, offhand, that she wouldn’t be able to compete with him intellect-wise. Ouch. Someone is totally gonna get chainsaw massacred. “...

Planned Parenthood Christmas message: "Your Generous Gift Can Make a Real Difference in SOMEONE'S LIFE"
Good grief: Actually they're right - your donation will END somebody's life, which qualifies as one heck of a difference. Is that not one of the more ghoulish Holiday themes you may have seen? This from baby butchers on around the season when we celebrate the birth of the most famous baby in history. And this from an organization that encourages women to wait and have an Abortion at a certain point in the Pregnancy so that they can turn around and sell fetus bodyparts for a profit. They cover u...

On Fox, Juan Williams Calls GOP Presidential Field Weak and Insists Palin Can't Stand on the Intellectual Stage with Obama
Calling Dr. Orwell: WaPo Tries to Help ACLU Define Abortion, Contraception as 'Reproductive Care' “This is such a weak field,” Fox News analyst Juan Williams, recently ousted from NPR for not fully toting the far-left line, declared during a Fox News Sunday discussion of potential 2012 Republican Presidential Candidates, prompting an appalled Bill Kristol to mock: “Yeah, President Obama had done so much when he ran for President. I mean, all of these guys are better ...

GOP Senator-Elect Calls For Filibuster Reform On Judicial Nominees
In 2005, when President Bush was nominating judges, GOP senators almost universally denounced Filibusters of judicial nominees as Unconstitutional. Four years later, when a Democratic president moved into the White House, the GOP conveniently forgot about its previous stance on the Constitution — wielding the filibuster to block an unprecedented number of President Obama’s judges. At least one member of the incoming GOP Caucus, however, believes that his party was right in 2005 and...

Mitch Daniels Has No Regrets on Abortion, Social Issues Truce
Indiana Governor and potential 2012 Presidential Candidate Mitch Daniels says he has not changed his position on the Social Issues truce he advocated this summer that drew a sharp rebuke from pro-life advocates. Daniels, himself a potential Candidate to take on pro-abortion President Barack Obama next election, told the Weekly Standard the next president “would have to call a truce on the so-called social issues.” “We’re going to just have to agree to get along for a litt...

Daniels: Truce a shot at gay marriage opponents
In an interview with Mark Mellinger, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels puts a little more meat on the definition of his now famed "truce" on Social Issues. Mellinger: "This was not you saying 'I'm not going to work to appoint Supreme Court justices in the Alito or Roberts or Thomas mold.' It wasn't anything to alarm social Conservatives." Daniels: "First of all, it wasn't directed to them. It was directed as much to people who, for instance, are very aggressively trying to change the definition of ma...

The Revival of Lucky Duckies!
» Wash. Post: Dave Camp’s plan: Taxes made simple Many Conservatives, including Camp, believe that although most Americans should be paying lower taxes, more Americans should be paying taxes. The fact that 46.7 million earners pay no Income Tax creates moral hazard - incentives for perverse behavior: Free-riding people have scant incentive to restrain the growth of government they are not paying for with income taxes. “I believe,” Camp says, “you’ve got ...

EdWatch, group that helped launch Bachmanns career, closes after 12 years
When President Obama signed a historic Repeal of the Military’s ban on Openly Gay and Lesbian servicemembers Wednesday morning, he paved the way for a full Repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. A gay Minnesota army reserve officer spoke with the Minnesota Independent about the issues involved in the repeal, the struggles faced by gay and Lesbian Soldiers as they waited for Obama and Congress to act on their promise to repeal, and the stereotypes that Conservatives continue to spread...

Contrary to Religious Leftist mantra...
... not all fundamentalists are the same yet it's core Christian progressive doctrine to espouse the belief that Islamic Extremism is no more or less different than any other Religious Extremism... that all Fundamentalism is dangerous.... and that this is why criticism of Islamism is bigoted and indeed Islamophobic. I give you the words of Susan, a leftist Christian "desperate preacher", as evidence for the mindset: The same fundamentalist mindset of the Islamic fundamentalists exists in fund...

The ACLU's Unholy War on Catholic Hospitals
Monday, December 27, 2010 Ho, ho, ho! Just in time for Christmas, the American Civil Liberties Union has launched a new salvo against people of faith. Even as billions around the world celebrate the birth of Christ, joyless, Abortion-obsessed secularists never take a holiday. On Wednesday, the ACLU sent a letter to federal health officials urging the government to force Catholic Hospitals in the U.S. to perform abortions in violation of their core moral commitment to protecting the lives of t...

The ACLU's Unholy War on Catholic Hospitals
Monday, December 27, 2010 Ho, ho, ho! Just in time for Christmas, the American Civil Liberties Union has launched a new salvo against people of faith. Even as billions around the world celebrate the birth of Christ, joyless, Abortion-obsessed secularists never take a holiday. On Wednesday, the ACLU sent a letter to federal health officials urging the government to force Catholic Hospitals in the U.S. to perform abortions in violation of their core moral commitment to protecting the lives of t...

BREAKING: Half of People Are Women
I think this from Kevin Drum nicely encapsulates the past 40-50 years of US political development: My post earlier today about the decline of Organized Labor and the rise of rights-based Activism within the post-60s liberal community provokes an obvious question: was this a good thing? Obviously it was good for African-Americans and women and gays and others who benefited from it. But it wasn’t so good for the economic fortunes of the working and middle classes . And that was almost cert...

Activists claim gay marriage likely to pass in 2011
Gay rights Activists claim that despite Republican gains this past election, New York is poised to become the eleventh state to legalize Gay Marriage.  This comes after a failed vote on the issue last year.  Thankfully, most of New York’s Republicans are of a more moderate stripe than Republicans elsewhere in the country.  Interestingly enough, Gay Rights advocates say they feel more confident about legalization than they did before the last attempt.  They claim to have...

Best of TAP 2010: Elk on Student-Loan Reform.
Picking my favorite TAP article of the year is a desperate, essentially arbitrary task, for the happiest of reasons. It was a pleasure to through the archives and be reminded of so much great stuff: Michelle Goldberg and Kay Steiger on the struggle for reproductive freedom abroad and at home; Adam on how non-arbitrary enforcement suddenly gets Conservatives concerned about Civil Rights; Monica on the unfulfilled promise of "Green Jobs"; Mark Schmitt 's wonderful piece on the lessons of John Lind...