Filling the Gipper's Shoes

 

This week profiles on Mike Pence came out in 3 different major news sources. People are starting to really recognize that Mike Pence is becoming more and more like Ronald Reagan every day. Pence is the most Reaganesque leader in the pack for 2008. We need another Reagan to lead us in these times of trial to get America back on the right path. This article was written in the Chicago Tribune titled "One for the Gipper."

WASHINGTON - With prematurely gray hair, soft features and chestnut-brown eyes, Mike Pence has the clean-cut, polished look of a television anchorman. He exudes a calm and relaxed presence characteristic of his native Midwest.

"Rush Limbaugh on decaf" is how he often describes himself.

And he leavens his points with humor. "I'm a conservative, but I'm not in a bad mood about it," he explains.

Though a third-term congressman from central Indiana who is a relative newcomer to the political power centers in Washington, Pence, 46, already is a favored guest on television news talk shows, such as Fox News' "O'Reilly Factor" and "Hannity & Colmes," and CNN's now-canceled "Crossfire." That national exposure, in turn, enhances his influence inside the Capitol.

"We liked having him on," said Debbie Berger, who was a producer for "Crossfire." "He's smart. He's charming. He's nice. He's funny. He enjoys doing this stuff. He's got a lot of energy. He's not dry. He's good television. He's a good representative of the conservative perspective."

At a time when much of the Republican base is growing disenchanted with the direction of the party, Pence is emerging as an emphatic and effective conservative voice. Some believe it is only a matter of time before he achieves true national prominence.

"Mike is the tip of the spear for the small-government conservatives in Washington today," said former House Majority Leader Dick Armey.

His manner may be easy, but his views are unambiguous. He is a dedicated social conservative who publicly criticized the Senate's top Republican, Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., when the former heart surgeon came out this summer in favor of relaxing the federal ban on stem-cell research. And he is a determined budget-cutter who has repeatedly clashed with his own Republican party leaders over federal spending levels.

He begins every day by reading the Bible. He works with a bronze bust of Ronald Reagan watching over him from across his office. And his vision of heaven, he said, is studying the free-market economist Adam Smith in the morning and riding horseback in the afternoon.

Pence's rising stature coincides with a confluence of events that have stoked conservative dissatisfaction with the Republican Party, accelerating and intensifying an inevitable debate on the party's direction during the Bush administration's second term as the president moves closer to lame-duck status.

A former radio talk show host and one-time president of a conservative think tank, the Indiana Policy Review Foundation, he is a comfortable, confident messenger for the right with a fluent understanding of the movement's ideas and a well-developed sense of the passions swirling among the party faithful.

In September, with one well-chosen press conference, Pence upended the political debate over how to handle the huge costs of recovering from Hurricane Katrina.

The reigning Republican leaders had rapidly reached a consensus to handle the hurricane's costs as emergency spending, simply adding the tab to the budget deficit.

The powerful House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, the "Hammer" who enforced discipline among Republicans, dismissed calls for spending cuts elsewhere to pay for the hurricane damage. DeLay, who has since resigned his post after being indicted in a campaign finance case, even boasted to reporters that Republicans already had pared down the fat in government "pretty good."

Enter Pence. Within a day, he led a small band of like-minded conservatives out in front of a battery of television cameras, armed with a list of $24 billion in pet projects attached to a major transportation bill that Congress had recently passed. That would be a good place to start cutting, they argued. For good measure, they offered up a menu of additional cuts that they said could save tens of billions of dollars more.

Pence's audacity riled the party leadership. The politically sacrosanct transportation projects, of course, remain untouched. But House Republican leaders quickly reversed course and now are promoting a proposal to offset part of the cost of hurricane relief with across-the-board budget cuts, as well as cuts in some entitlement programs such as health care for the poor, food stamps and farm subsidies.

Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., a fellow conservative, described Pence's strategy in demanding the cuts as "a tremendous gamble."

"He clearly got called - aggressively called - on the carpet" by Republican leaders, Souder said. But, "he moved the system. Before he got up there, there wasn't even a discussion. It was just shovel the money out."

Over a lunch of salad and iced tea at the Republican party's Capitol Hill Club, Pence deflected questions about the response of top Republicans, whom other members of Congress said took him to the woodshed over the embarrassment he caused them.

"It is never easy to bring up the small matter of the bill in any social setting," Pence said.

Already, the budget cuts are in trouble, as some moderate Republicans refuse to go along with them. But Pence declared the fate of the spending cuts will be "a test of character" and warned he is ready to sound the alarm about a party he believes is drifting "into the dangerous waters of big-government Republicanism."

"The Republican party inside the Beltway may have changed, but out there Republicans still believe government's too big, we spend too much, we have to have a strong defense, we have to act on our ideals, the sanctity of life," Pence said.

Some Republican leaders believe Pence fails to appreciate the accommodations that must be made to hold together a fractious party with a slender majority in Congress, and he may be too determined to maintain ideological purity at the cost of winning national elections. One Republican lobbyist with close ties to the House leadership said Pence is considered "a burr under the saddle."

"Is it more important to be 100 percent right or more important to be in the majority to get you toward where you want to be?" said Mike Stokke, deputy chief of staff to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. "I think I know what Mike's answer would be. But I'm not sure."

Since taking the lead of the Republican Study Committee at the beginning of the year, he has charted a more aggressive course for the 106-member group of House conservatives, first confronting party leaders over budget rules and now again on how to pay for hurricane-related spending.

For many of the party's fiscally conservative supporters, the surge of spending for Katrina relief was the final straw from an administration that was spending at levels they considered unacceptable.

Even excluding spending on defense, homeland security and Katrina relief, discretionary federal spending has risen 33 percent since President Bush took office, according to the conservative Heritage Foundation. The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, reported that spending overall has grown faster under Bush than under Lyndon Johnson, who simultaneously waged the Vietnam War and launched the Great Society welfare programs.

Conservatives are nursing plenty of other grievances right now. Bush's recent nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court deeply disappointed social conservatives who expected a choice who would move the court unambiguously to the right. The nomination was withdrawn last week. Illegal immigration has stirred a storm of criticism among grass-roots conservatives who blame the federal government for what they consider to be an out-of-control border. The botched response to Katrina sapped confidence in the Bush administration's competence. And, just like the rest of the country, conservatives are feeling the financial pinch of rising gasoline prices.

Meanwhile, a vacuum is opening in the Republican leadership. DeLay was forced to resign his leadership post after his indictment. Frist is under investigation for possible insider stock trading. White House political adviser Karl Rove is under investigation for perhaps leaking a CIA agent's identity. And former Cheney adviser I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was indicted Friday in the CIA leak probe. Bush's popularity has dropped to its lowest point ever, according to various national polls.

And the most recognizable potential candidates for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, such as Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, are hardly standard-bearers for the right.

"While they're impressive people and they're conservative on some issues, none of them is really an obvious leader of the conservative movement," said Bill Kristol, editor of the conservative Weekly Standard.

"The party faithful and the conservative grass roots have been searching for the next Ronald Reagan. And Mike Pence has been mentioned as someone who could fill the Gipper's shoes, even though he's still young and a relative political newcomer," said Stephen Moore, founder of the Free Enterprise Fund.

Like Reagan, who was once a Democrat and an admirer of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Pence's beliefs changed over time. He started out a Catholic and a Democrat, whose interest in politics was stirred during his youth by John Kennedy, a hero to his Irish family. Pence still has a childhood memory box stuffed with Kennedy memorabilia, he said.

But as a freshman at Hanover College in Indiana, Pence was drawn to Christian evangelical beliefs and committed to the faith on a weekend retreat.

"I had a growing interest in my Christian faith," Pence said. "As I continued to grow and mature, I found I was a bit more challenged in the evangelical faith."

Pence later met his wife, Karen, at an evangelical church service. She was playing guitar, and he caught up with her afterward.

"I told her I wanted to join the guitar group," Pence recalled. He never did, but they were engaged nine months later.

By the time he graduated college, Pence said, he had become a Republican, inspired by Reagan's hopeful economic message of self-reliance and concerned by the national Democratic Party's embrace of abortion rights and liberal social causes.

A few years after he graduated from the Indiana University Law School, he ran for Congress twice, losing in both 1988 and 1990. Beginning in 1994, he hosted a radio call-in show, eventually syndicated statewide, keeping Pence on the air three hours a day, six days a week. He was finally elected to Congress in 2000.

"To understand Mike Pence, you have to understand it took me 12 years to get to Congress," Pence said. "I try to get up every day and prayerfully approach my job in a way that people will say he did what he said he would do when he got here."

He was also one of 33 Republicans to vote against Bush's signature No Child Left Behind Act, opposing it as an enlargement of the federal role in education. And he was one of only 25 in the party to vote against the administration-supported Medicare prescription drug benefit. Pence considered it too costly.

Republican leaders held open the vote on the drug plan for three hours to twist arms to gain enough support. Pence likens those who withstood the pressure to the men at the Alamo.

Describing the current unrest among Republican conservatives, Pence said, "You can't look at that angst in a vacuum. ... That angst has been building for four years."

Pence did vote for a farm bill that dramatically expanded subsidies for farmers, a key constituency in his largely rural district. But he now says he regrets the vote and would not support a new farm bill, unless costs were reduced and farmers exposed to greater market discipline.

He is willing to take on unconventional issues. While most conservatives are distrustful of the media, Pence has taken up the cause of a federal shield law to protect reporters' confidential sources, arguing that a vigorous press is a check on power in keeping with conservatives' goal of limited government. Pence argues that Republicans sacrifice their advantage as the party in control if they muddy their message.

"One more expansion of the Department of Education, one more big expansion of entitlements, and that (Republican) coalition will be shattered," Pence said. "If Republicans keep answering every problem with an expansion of big government, eventually people are going to get the professionals, (the Democrats) the guys who do big government."

Unlike most Midwestern members of Congress, who typically keep their families back home and commute to Washington every week, Pence's family lives with him in Springfield, Va., while Congress is in session. His three children attend a suburban Virginia Christian school, where his wife also works as an art teacher.

On a recent day, he was in his study at 6 a.m., reading the first chapter of the Book of Joshua, he said. The lesson recounts the commission that God gave the Old Testament prophet to lead the Jewish people out of the wilderness and into the Promised Land.

"Be strong, be courageous and do the work" is the lesson he said he took from the reading.

"I'm not a supremely confident man, but I have faith in God and faith in these ideas," he added.

One for the Gipper

When a man leads on moral conviction

 

Too often politicians lead with their finger in the wind, finding out what is best for their political career before deciding on which way to go. But a statesman stands on principle and goes with what's right even though it might not be the most popular thing to do. This is what separates a politician from a statesman and this is exactly what separates Mike Pence from the rest of the 2008 crowd. After pushing "Operation Offset" for the past few weeks, a proposal that was very unpopular with the GOP Leadership, Pence's leadership has now been proven worthy by influencing key GOP Leadership folks like Blunt, Hastert, and even Bush to call for cuts in spending. America is in desperate need of more leaders to stand on principle like Mike Pence. Here is a great article written by a local newspaper in Pence's district.


Rep. Mike Pence (R-6th District) is winning some well-deserved respect for standing his ground on the issue of fiscal restraint, an issue his party's leadership seems sometimes to have abandoned.

The Hoosier Republican congressman from this district, who chairs the group of House fiscal conservatives known as the Republican Study Committee (RSC), in recent months has been taken to the woodshed by his party's leadership.


But that, as they say, was then. This is now.

The Washington Post reported in its Monday editions "a Texas grand jury's Sept. 28 indictment of (then-House Majority Leader Tom) Delay changed the balance of power, forcing the leadership to shore up its conservative base and raising the prospect of a new leadership election ... "

The demand for new Republican leadership in the Congress is a welcome and overdue development.

Pence should be high on anybody's short list of prospective candidates to advance to and provide that new leadership.

His fiscal conservative credentials represent the kind of political religion his party must again find. While this newspaper may disagree with that party's fiscal policies, on balance we believe the nation needs a check on runaway spending and a party that reflects a willingness to lend robust voice on behalf of discipline.

Pence keeps his word -- a virtue all too rare among too many in Washington. When he pledges to do something, it gets done. He believes a nation must spend within its means. If it faces emergency expenses then, like a family, the nation must simply do without. It must sacrifice spending in other areas in order to meet the nation's emergencies.

A novel idea? For families, no. For Congress, of course.

And that is precisely why Republicans in control of Congress are so in need of the kind of leadership that helped get them there in the first place.

Pence shows leadership, conviction

Pence is picked to lead in 2008

 

In a series by News By US called "Picking the President," Mike Pence was chosen to be the best leader for our country in 2008. Adam Graham, an influential conservative in the West wrote this article about Pence in News By Us.

Over the past few weeks I've discussed the prospects of 14 potential presidential candidates. Now its my turn to say who I believe should be chosen to lead our nation in 2008.
The next president of the United States needs to be unquestionably pro-life and for the sanctity of the family. He also must fight the war on terror including securing of our border. We also need a President who understands the importance of fiscal responsibility and limited government. This is perhaps the most neglected part of the Conservative agenda these days. We need a President who doesn't think veto is "some Italian guy."

As I examine the potential candidates for 2008. One man's leadership, character, and record make him stand out from the rest: Congressman Mike Pence of Indiana. Pence's record on every issue is solid, right down the line Conservative. He's pro-life, pro-family, he received a 100% rating from the Federation of American Immigration Reform. In other words, he's a reliable vote for conservative values.

However, being a vote is not enough. There are several good reliable "votes" in Congress. What sets Pence apart is his leadership. Pence is chairman of the Conservative House Republican Study Committee and led the charge for Operation Offset, which would offset spending for Hurricane relief with spending cuts. Though he was roundly criticized by House leaders at the time, due to his leadership and efforts at the grassroots, the House leadership and the Bush Administration have now proposed rescission bills to cut spending.

In 1996, the most laughable line in Bill Clinton's State of the Union Address was, "The era of big government is over." In the years following, the budget soared as Congress raided the public treasury to secure its own re-election. In the midst of a mad-race to a ten trillion dollar debt, Pence reminds the country of the great principles of limited government. It’s a message that's not popular. It certainly doesn't win friends with the House Republican leadership, the White House, or the mainstream press, but it is one that must prevail if freedom is to survive. It is not possible to remain a free prosperous people with unlimited debt and unchecked growth in the size and scope of the federal government.

Pence can unite Conservatives in common cause. He's prepared to address the serious issues that face our country from immigration to the decline of the family, and the rights of the unborn. He stands ready to undo the disastrous abomination that was McCain-Feingold. He does not believe that we are on the road to inevitable decline, but with optimism and faith, he presents a clear vision for America's future.

Today, we need that optimism. As I look at the candidates that seem to excite so many, I see an emptiness. I see them as men who will lead us forward into the abyss, at best giving lip service to great conservative principles, but never applying them. I see the road that the establishment candidates will lead us down: one of accommodation and/or cowardice to the cultural left, disastrous fiscal irresponsibility, and a refusal to secure our nation's borders and guarantee our sovereignty. I fear that in my old age, I'll be that man who will tell his grandchildren what it was like to live when men were free.

We will not defeat Hillary Clinton in 2008 with political calculus, but with hope, optimism, and a bold vision for our country's future. Pence can provide that for our nation, and that will defeat the lies, deception, and corruption of the Clinton machine.

Now doubtless, there will be those who disagree with my pick of Congressman Pence. The main point that will be cited is the fact that he is a member of the House of Representatives. No sitting Congressman has been elected President since 1880.

While this is true, it doesn't establish that Pence should not be nominated for President, only that its been a while since a House member's won. I would than these rules are not applied to our friends in the political establishment. For example, Condi Rice (who has said she's not running) is still frequently promoted as a Presidential Candidate despite the fact that no Secretary of State has been elected President in 150 years. Rudy Giuliani is promoted despite the fact we have never elected a President whose only elected office had been at the Municipal level.

The main problem Congressmen have faced is embodied in the campaigns of Dennis Kucinich, Bob Dornan, and Jim Traficant. All three members ran despite the fact that there was little demand for their candidacy and other candidates were carrying their message. The campaigns were basically vanity efforts.

Pence would run as a well-connected member of Congress from his position at the RSC, and there can be a real demand for his candidacy. In addition, unlike the other three, Pence comes with a record of helping Conservatives win. Local Republicans credit his efforts in helping Republicans retake the Indiana House in 2004. In addition, Pence while having courage, dignity, and integrity isn't mean-spirited or uncivil. He's a stand up guy who after his first two unsuccessful runs for Congress in 1988 and 1990 wrote, "Confessions of a Negative Campaigner." His faith doesn't just shape what he believes, but how he conducts himself in relating to others.

All in all, he's a good man and would make a great president. However, the ball is in our court. A presidential campaign is a huge sacrifice for anyone. Our current campaign cycle requires a successful candidate to begin his campaign in the first four months of 2007 and end it in November, 2008. We're talking about a huge chunk of someone's life, time spent away from family delivering speech after speech, shaking hand after hand. Its an intense, exhausting experience.

Unless a candidates believes that he can win or that his campaign can bring up serious issues that other candidates will adopt, he would have to be insane to run for the Presidency. If we want Pence to run and to win, we must make it clear that if he will stand up for America, we'll stand with him. Those of us who are not currently involved in your local Republican Party, should run for precinct captain, squirrel away what money you can, save $5 or $10 every paycheck and put it aside for the upcoming Presidential campaign. America will stand or fall, not on what Mike Pence says or does, but on what Americans are willing to do to keep freedom alive.

Picking the President

#1 Conservative

 

Mike Pence was ranked #1 by Human Events Top 10 Up and Coming House Conservatives. Here is their Top 10 list.


1. Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN)
2. Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC)
3. Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ)
4. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO)
5. Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL)
6. Rep. Cathy McMorris (R-WA)
7. Rep. Gresham Barrett (R-SC)
8. Rep. John Culberson (R-TX)
9. Rep. Geoff Davis (R-KY)
10. Rep. Jeff Miller (R-FL)

Top 10 Up-and-Coming House Conservatives

Big Spending Republicanism vs. Conservatism

 

Unfortunaletly Republicans are now starting to say "Big Government is Good Government if it is Our Government." But conservatives know that this isn't true. Like Mike Pence says, "Conservatives know that Government that governs least governs best." This is an article writen by Jeff Mazzella, President of the Center for Individual Freedom, talking about Mike Pence's conservative perspectives on how Republicans should govern in these great times of trial.

They dragged Congressman Mike Pence into a dark room. They closed the door and attacked him repeatedly without mercy...

And why did they see fit to strong-arm this conservative champion?

Because Congressman Pence had the gall to suggest that the federal government should control its spending and cut hundred of billions of dollars of “pork” from the federal budget.

And who are the “they” we refer to?

None other than our Republican leaders in Congress: Speaker Dennis Hastert, then- Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Ways & Means Chairman Bill Thomas and Transportation Chairman Don Young, among others.

Seriously, Congressman Pence’s trip to the woodshed was so severe that columnist Robert Novak noted that when offered a seat at a subsequent meeting, Pence “explained that he would be more comfortable standing because House Speaker Dennis Hastert had just tanned his hide.”

It’s a gross betrayal.

You voted for less government and better fiscal responsibility, and our leaders promised you’d get it. But all they’ve given us is more out-of-control federal spending. And taxpayers like you and me are stuck footing the bill.

Congressman Pence should be applauded, not taken to the woodshed for trying to keep the promise that the rest of the Republican leaders broke.

IT’S STUFFED LIKE A TURKEY
Our supposedly conservative leaders are spending like there’s no tomorrow.

Here are just a few examples:

Federal spending has increased a whooping 79 percent while inflation has only increased 28 percent since Republicans took control of the House of Representatives in 1994.

The massive $286 billion dollar highway bill recently shoved down our throats by the Republican Congress contains a record amount of pork – more than 6,000 different pet projects that will cost American taxpayers over $24 billion dollars.

One of these pet programs is the infamous “bridge to nowhere” in Alaska. This Alaskan bridge – which will service about 50 people – will cost taxpayers an estimated $223 million and was sponsored by House Transportation Chairman Don Young of Alaska. Over $1 billion of this highway bill is earmarked for Alaska and it was reported that, after this bill passed, Young actually bragged that it was “stuffed like a turkey” with pet projects.

Disaster relief for Hurricane Katrina is expected to top $200 billion – and that doesn’t include the cost of Hurricane Rita – if you spread out the cost equally to every man, woman and child in America, the average family of four would pay about $3,000.00. And we’re already hearing that too much of this money will go to wasteful pork projects instead of the people who really need it.

THE REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP IS EVEN TOUTING BIG SPENDING!
Republican leaders know that you’re angry about their run-away spending spree. But when they proposed a solution, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Instead of heeding your concerns and taking real steps to control their run-away spending... they decided that a public relations campaign was the answer!

Our Republican leaders have already put a media blitz into motion and have scheduled appearances on conservative radio talk shows hosted by favorites like Sean Hannity, Tony Snow, Mike Gallagher and a host of others across the country.

The purpose of these appearances is to fool you – to convince YOU that everything is just fine and that spending is under control.

Tom DeLay started the ball rolling last Monday by telling the Washington Times:

“Our positioning on this issue – as a party that is strongly identified with the American people as sensible and determined protectors of the hardworking taxpayer – demands a unified and clear opposition to those whose policies and agendas are hostile to the taxpayer’s best interests: Capitol Hill Democrats intent on raising taxes, free-spending special-interest groups intent on curing the ills of society by advocating federal dollars as the only solution and a bevy of bureaucrats more interested in an expansion of federal programs than the reduction of ineffective ones.”

In response to that statement, David Keene of the American Conservative Union hit the nail on the head:

“What Mr. DeLay doesn’t get is that it is precisely that identification that is in danger – not from Pence, but from the actions of the GOP in office. Republicans around the country are beginning to question the wisdom of devoting their time, treasure and votes to a party that doesn’t take its commitments seriously.”

And while we’re on the subject of statements DeLay has made on the subject of run-away federal spending, let’s not forget that DeLay actually said last week that there was no more fat in the federal budget – or to put it in DeLay’s own words, “Yes, after 11 years of Republican majority, we’ve pared it down pretty good.”

Just who did he think he was fooling?

Citizens Against Government Waste found $232 billion in spending cuts that Congress could implement right now. These cuts alone could completely offset the estimated $200 billion that it’s going to cost American taxpayers to pay for hurricane recovery efforts. But Republican Congressional leaders, further abandoning their principles of smaller government and less spending, are saying “No!”

SEPARATING THE WHEAT FROM THE CHAFF
Some Members of Congress are actually willing to put your money where their mouth is.

Congressman Pence actually offered to delay $26 million of pork from the $286 billion dollar highway bill that was earmarked for highway construction in his own district to help pay for hurricane disaster relief.

And Congressman Jeb Hensarling of Texas made the same offer on $16 million that was earmarked for highway construction in his district.

Even ultra-liberal House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi – never one to miss an opportunity to grand-stand – offered to defer $70 million of highway pork that was earmarked for her district.

But these voices are being ignored.

And to be totally fair, President Bush has a weapon in his arsenal, as well.

As pointed out by the Wall Street Journal, the President has some limited power to rescind funds previously authorized by Congress.

And previous Presidents have used this power to trim spending to the tune of $7.9 billion (Gerald Ford), $4.6 billion (Jimmy Carter), $43.4 billion (Ronald Reagan), $13.1 billion (George H.W. Bush) and $6.6 billion (Bill Clinton).

To date, George W. Bush has NEVER used his authority to rescind over-the-top spending. Now would be a good time to start.

For the first time since World War II, federal spending has reached $20,000 per household. And there’s more spending on the way.

Pork Barrel Politics: A Gross Betrayal

Leadership Creates Change

 

After weeks of Pence leading "Operation Offset" and being persecuated by his own Republican collegues in Leadership, he has created change and affected the way Leadership is responding to the Katrina aftermath. Now Leadership is embracing Pence's plan for "Operation Offset" even though they don't like being fiscally responsible. This is due to Pence's effectiveness in leading Congress to fiscal conservatism. Here is an article by Bob Novak writing about the situation.


House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert is an old wrestler, and last Thursday night he used a classic move of his sport by quickly reversing positions. On behalf of the Republican leadership, Hastert went before his colleagues to embrace essentially the same package of spending that two weeks earlier he had scourged conservative House members for proposing. The change was a matter of necessity rather than choice.

It was required to quell the first really serious split in House Republican ranks since the GOP took control of the chamber a decade ago. But the rancor was not limited to Capitol Hill. As House Republicans convened their closed-door conference, 1,000 conservatives were in a foul mood eight blocks away at a black-tie dinner celebrating the 50th anniversary of National Review magazine. They were outraged by the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, viewing it less as an aberration by President Bush than a last straw.

In that climate, it was a bare minimum for Republican leaders to back away from their scandalous browbeating two weeks ago of the conservative Republican Study Committee for proposing Operation Offset. So, Hastert echoed the RSC's plans to offset massive Hurricane Katrina spending with reduced spending elsewhere. The question will be how serious the leadership is in stuffing these offsets down the throats of free-spending senior Republicans who hold positions of power in the House.

RSC members approached Thursday night's meeting fearing another mindless performance by party leaders. At a Sept. 21 closed-door conference, Republican leaders made clear they would not tolerate criticism of their spending. Rep. Mike Pence, the RSC chairman, said not a word. He had been battered personally the night before by Hastert and other GOP leaders.

Consequently, what happened Thursday was a most pleasant surprise to rank-and-file members. Hastert's plan would increase cuts in mandatory spending from $35 billion to "at least" $50 billion, offset disaster spending on a dollar-for-dollar basis, press rescission of existing spending, and eliminate "duplicative, wasteful and/or unnecessary" programs. It was about what Pence and his colleagues proposed two weeks earlier. What's more, Hastert is pushing the first mid-session amendment of the budget in 28 years.

The entire Republican leadership endorsed the Hastert plan, but the conference was far from unanimous. One standing committee chairman after another rose to take issue with the speaker's plan. Rep. Don Young, chairman of the House Transportation Committee, is the reigning King of Pork in the House. It is inconceivable that Young would meekly slim down the pork-filled highway bill (especially earmarks for his state of Alaska) at the speaker's behest.

On the floor of the House Friday, Pence issued a polite victory statement. "Some of us thought we should pay for the big cost of Hurricane Katrina by cutting big government," he said and adding that "we're beginning to do just that." However, speaking "on behalf of House conservatives," he said, "we are pleased but not content, we are encouraged but not satisfied" because the actual cutting will be harder than winning the debate. Pence sounded a little like Ronald Reagan's "trust but verify" reaction to Mikhail Gorbachev.

Pence and the other conservatives have sound reason to want verification. Hastert and the other Republican leaders have no intent on abandoning their earmarked pork. Bush has no intention of trimming the elephantine Medicare prescription drug subsidy.

Had House members been able to attend the National Review banquet, they would have gotten an earful. While there to honor the magazine's founder, William F. Buckley Jr., and all he has done for the conservative movement, these faithful conservatives were not shy about privately expressing their intense unhappiness. I could find nobody there who was not disappointed by the Miers nomination, but they also were aggrieved by the record of spending and big government by the Republican president and the Republican Congress. Hastert's somersault is just the beginning of what is needed to satisfy them.

Conservative rift in GOP hard to deal

Making a Difference

 

Here is an article written by Jennifer Beddison in Townhall.com titled "Making A Differnce."

The federal debt is now nearly eight trillion dollars. If that number doesn’t startle you, Bill Lauderback, Executive Vice President of the American Conservative Union, wants you to answer this question: If you stacked $8 trillion worth of dollar bills, one on top of the other, how tall would the pile reach?

Of course, the number is horrifying even without the visual image. After all, paying off a debt of eight trillion dollars is like paying back one dollar a second for the next 253,678 years! We don’t even have recorded history from 250,000 years ago. But for those of you who think visually, picture this: You could stack dollar bills all the way to the moon, and then all the way back, and still not have used eight trillion of them. If you had credit card debt like that you’d be in big trouble. And our nation is in no less peril.

It is widely accepted by fiscal conservatives that President Bush does not share their view on spending. Between the Medicare prescription drug plan and the recent transportation bill, conservative groups have usually labored in vain trying to defeat irresponsible spending bills before the president could sign off on them. But while they’ve focused on these individual battles, many of them may have lost sight of the big picture: the amount debt accumulated under George W. Bush.

When President Bush took office, the debt ceiling was $5.95 trillion and hadn’t been raised since 1997. But in the last three years, the debt ceiling has been raised over 27% – and is rapidly heading toward yet another hike. Even though Congress increased the debt ceiling to $8.184 trillion last November, national debt today is nearly $8 trillion – and growing rapidly. “With Katrina spending, the transportation bill, and the various appropriation bills yet to be enacted, and in the absence of any real spending cuts, Congress is going to need to vote yet again to increase the debt ceiling before they adjourn for the year,” notes Lauderback.

But Lauderback vows that members of Congress won’t be able to raise the debt ceiling again “without a fight and without the American people knowing what they’re doing… We’re going to demand that they vote on it in the light of day.”

To throw public scrutiny on federal spending, ACU’s Board of Directors has recently passed two resolutions, one condemning excessive federal government spending, and the other applauding Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) and the House Republican Study Committee for their efforts to cut spending.

“The conservative movement is seeing that what they sent to Washington is not what they bargained for,” says Lauderback. “Many Republicans are acting like Democrats in that they say one thing on the campaign trail and do something totally different when they get to Washington.”

The first ACU resolution goes so far to say that “conservatives throughout the United States are increasingly losing faith in the President and the Republican Leadership in Congress to adequately prioritize and rein in federal spending.”

There are exceptions in Congress though, and Lauderback sees rays of hope in Sen. George Allen (R-VA), Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), Sen. Jim Talent (R-MO), Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), and all members of Congress who recently supported Operation Offset, an effort to find savings in the federal budget to pay for hurricane relief.

Lauderback contrasts the actions of these courageous leaders with the actions of President Bush following Hurricane Katrina. “It’s grossly unfair and just wrong to blame New Orleans on George Bush,” says Lauderback, but “it is equally wrong for George Bush to try to spend his way out of a bad [public relations] situation with taxpayers’ money. He overreacted to the bad publicity, going on a multi-billion dollar spending spree without mentioning offsets until the day after his New Orleans speech.”

No wonder conservatives have found such a hero in Pence, chairman of the conservative House Republican Study Committee. At a Young America's Foundation Capitol Hill event for interns on September 26, Pence delivered remarks that have since inspired thousands of conservatives. Alluding to Ronald Reagan’s famous “Time for Choosing” speech, Pence said:

…today is another time for choosing whether we are committed to the ideals of limited government, fiscal discipline and traditional moral values or whether we will continue to sacrifice those principles on the altar of preserving our governing majority… We must rediscover the principles of limited government that brought our party to power in 1980 and 1994 and put them into practice. This requires that conservatives have an agenda, built on the principles of limited government…

Pence has been rebuked by GOP leadership for his outspokenness on spending, but he has also earned acclaim from conservatives, exemplified by ACU’s latest board resolution. “As strongly as we support Congressman Pence,” says the resolution, “we just as vehemently oppose Speaker Hastert and other defenders of the status quo and urge them to remember that the GOP only became the majority governing party when it rejected Nelson Rockefeller’s liberal wing of the Republican Party and instead embraced the courageous conservative leadership of Ronald Reagan.”

If you’ve wondered whether or not to bolt from the Republican Party after watching it slide into synch with big-government proponents, Lauderback suggests repressing that urge for now, and instead focusing on next year’s primary elections. “Incumbents who haven’t seriously tried to stop this out-of-control spending should face very conservative challengers,” he says.

When Townhall.com talked with Lauderback he voiced a concern that out of control spending would play a large role in next year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), the nation’s largest gathering of conservative activists. CPAC is sponsored by the ACU Foundation as part of ACU’s mission to provide a central rallying point for the conservative movement.

Said Lauderback: “CPAC is going to be focused on presenting a new agenda for America that looks at what we need to do the reverse the explosion in the size of government and also what we need to do to secure our borders and cut down on illegal immigration. The White House and Congress have turned a blind eye to illegal immigration for too long. We’ll also be looking at national security, the War on Terror, a broad-based agenda for America. Clearly the White House and the Republican leadership in Congress have gotten off track. It’s up to conservatives to present a road map for achieving responsible government.”

When Congress last raised the debt ceiling in November, even the mainstream media criticized the hike. And now, as Congress toys with the idea of raising the debt ceiling again, conservatives are uniting in opposition. Rep. Ron Paul summarized the sentiment of many fiscal conservatives when he spoke against last year’s debt ceiling increase. “Congress has become like the drunk who promises to sober up tomorrow, if only he can keep drinking today,” he said. “There is only one approach to dealing with an incorrigible spendthrift: cut him off.”

The American Conservative Union is working hard to keep the pressure on Congress, but it needs your help. Lauderback urges conservatives to not just call their representatives in Washington, but to become a pest to the Members’ district offices as well. “The [district] staff whose phones never ring will pay attention.”

A Message of Inspiration

 

Ronald Reagan will always be remembered as the great communicator. But Reagan would tell you it wasn't that he was a great communicator, it was just that he could communicate great ideas. This is exactly what comes to mind when I think about Mike Pence. Mike Pence is an amazing communicator that accurately articulates the conservative message in a way to draw people in and make people understand what needs to be done to make America great. Here is an article by Ed Fuelner titled, "A Blueprint for Success."

If there's one thing Washington, D.C. is famous for, it's words. Here, we boast the greatest speech-per-capita ratio in the country, if not the world.
But occasionally, a speech stands out and stands the test of time. That's not necessarily because of the speaker's eloquence or verbosity. George Washington never publicly read aloud his Farewell Address, and Abraham Lincoln finished his 272-word Gettysburg Address so quickly the photographer didn't even have a chance to take his picture. No, great speeches provide listeners with a compass they can use to navigate into the future.

Ronald Reagan did this with his famous speech "A Time for Choosing" in 1964, an address that laid the girders of the modern conservative movement. Now, Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., has followed Reagan's lead. His Sept. 26 address to the Young America's Foundation reflected back on Reagan and looked toward the future.

"Our party and you, its rising generation of new leaders, face an age-old choice," Pence told the YAF. "A choice between the belief in limited government and tradition and the siren song of the central planner who says, 'Big government is good government if it's our government.'"

As Pence noted, the cost of government is skyrocketing, and Republicans in Washington haven't done enough to control that. He used the nautical concept of "dead reckoning" to illustrate the idea that conservatives must remember where we started if we're going to lead the country forward. "Conservatives know that government that governs least governs best," Pence said. "Conservatives know that as government expands, freedom contracts. Conservatives know that government never should do for a man what he can and should do for himself. And conservatives know that societies are judged by how they deal with the most vulnerable: the unborn, the aged, the infirm and the disabled."

Pence then laid out what conservatives must do if they want to govern according to their principles.

"All of the 'Big Three' agenda items outlined by the president in his State of the Union Address are worthy of vigorous conservative support," he said. "Modernizing Social Security by introducing the option of personal savings accounts for younger Americans. Overhauling the Internal Revenue Code, without a tax increase, to achieve a system that is simpler and fairer for taxpaying Americans. Reforming the legal system to end the hidden tax that frivolous lawsuits place on our manufacturing and health-care economies."

Plus, "House conservatives should put on the green eyeshades to put our fiscal house in order." Runaway spending is endangering the conservative goal of limited government, and Pence is correct to insist that conservatives must do something about it.

But, "in addition to what we must do, there is legislation that conservatives must undo to advance the freedom agenda," Pence warned the YAF. First, he called on conservatives to repeal the "Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act," which he said violates the First Amendment.

"Second, conservatives must undo the Medicare Prescription Drug entitlement," Pence warned. And there's not much time for this step, since the law takes effect in just a few months. Third, Pence said, "Conservatives must undo the expansion of the federal government's role in our local schools by reforming the No Child Left Behind Act to embrace the principle that education is a state and local function."

Pence's speech is especially important because, while it lays out a series of steps conservatives should take today, it -- like Reagan's 1964 address -- also provides a blueprint we will be able to turn to in years to come.

"These are difficult days in which we live: Threats at home and abroad, expansion of government and erosion of values," Pence announced. "But I am not discouraged nor should you be." With leaders such as Pence to inspire us, there's no reason any of us should be.

A Blueprint for Success

Pence Politics

 

Here is another article published by the American Spectator titled "Pence Politics."

Last Wednesday, Rep. Mike Pence, chairman of the House Republican Study Committee, joined colleagues at a press conference to flesh out their "Operation Offset" report, which laid out more than $900 billion in potential budget savings to offset the cost of Hurricane Katrina and other unexpected budget busters.

The report was in part inspired by President Bush's statement that no new taxes would be required for the hundred billion dollar price tag that Katrina is representing, and that budget cuts would do the trick. As well, fiscal conservatives in both the House and the Senate continue to harbor ill will toward the pork-laden transportation and energy bills, as well as the Medicare prescription drug plan passed largely due to Republican leadership efforts to ram the legislation through the process.

The press conference and report was but one sign that, particularly on the House side, Republicans are chafing at House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Republican leader Tom DeLay's refusal to deal with out of control spending that may create political problems for Republicans, if not in 2006, then definitely in 2008.

"The bill will come due sooner or later," says a House Republican Study Committee member. "It's just a matter of when. We can't keep doing this. President Bush promised a veto on transportation, and he didn't do it. We begged him to look at the energy bill for cuts. The White House didn't. We thought we'd help things along with this report."

But House GOP leadership didn't take kindly to the HRSC's assistance. After the press conference, according to HRSC and House leadership sources, Pence and HRSC members were called on the carpet by Hastert and Republican Conference chair Deborah Pryce. "We were told in no uncertain terms to shut up," says the HRSC member. "They want us to go away, believing that somehow this issue will go away too."

Of greatest concern to Hastert and Pryce are the mid-term elections and the belief that "Operation Offset" would be used as ammunition by Democrats, says a Republican House leadership staffer. "They could say, 'See? Republicans want to cut Medicaid. They want to cut welfare.' The HRSC document looks like an official party document. It is going to be used like one by the Democrats. We don't need that right now."

But "Operation Offset" doesn't call for anything particularly radical or outrageous. For example, it recommends delaying the Medicare prescription benefit plan for one year, but to keep the discount card program running, cutting off financial underwriting of the District of Columbia and eliminating money-losing and under-utilized Amtrak routes.

Silent in lashing out at the fiscal conservatives was Republican leader Tom DeLay, who has publicly claimed that Republicans have actually controlled spending during their time in Congressional control. DeLay, according to sources, is hesitant to weigh in too heavily against the group led by Pence, which has been supportive of him during Democratic attempts to take DeLay down over supposed ethics irregularities.

Pence Politics

Conservative Influence on the GOP

 

Mike Pence and the Republican Study Committee is having some serious influence on the GOP leadership. Here is an article from the American Spectator about the influence Mike Pence had on the decision making process of Roy Blunt becoming the new majority leader.


If temporarily deposed House Republican Leader Tom DeLay didn't like "Operation Offset" and its creators at the Republican Study Committee, led by Rep. Mike Pence, he surely hates it now.

That's because Pence and his budget-cutting plan probably helped propel Republican whip Rep. Roy Blunt into the temporary party leader post late today.

DeLay in meeting earlier in the day with Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, had asked that Rep. David Dreier be elevated to the leadership post. But instead, during a late afternoon caucus meeting, it was determined by Republicans that Blunt would take the post.

There is bad blood between DeLay and Blunt, in part due to sheer power politics, and an attempt by DeLay loyalists to embarrass Blunt last year by airing dirty laundry from Blunt's personal life to reporters at the Washington Post. The reason insiders gave then was that DeLay felt Blunt was getting too big for his britches as whip and needed to be brought down a few notches.

So how does "Operation Offset" come into play here? Yesterday, Blunt and other party leaders met with Pence to discuss how best to implement some of the Republican Study Committee's spending cut recommendations. Blunt has previously helped Pence and his fiscal conservatives beat back budget appropriations issues earlier this year, a victory that burned DeLay.

Right now up on Capitol Hill, fiscal conservatives are feeling pretty good about their chances of getting their cuts at least considered by the full House with Blunt in the leadership chair.

And Blunt ought to be feeling pretty good, too. "If Roy actually gets something done that brings these spending bills pulled back a bit, it isn't far-fetched that we won't see support for him growing even if Tom comes back free and clear of his problems," says an RSC member.

American Spectator