Newt Gingrich

Supporters of The Mount Vernon Statement are calling it the "definitive statement" regarding the central principles of the conservative movement, claiming that it represents a "significant moment as social, fiscal, and national security conservatives come together to declare the importance of partnering to defend our nation's founding principles."

The statement itself is pretty underwhelming, but if you want to get a sense of just how utterly meaningless it is, just note that its unveiling was timed to coincide with the beginning of the annual CPAC conference tomorrow ... where, as Newt Gingrich explains, "the Tea Party Patriots will unveil a grassroots-generated, crowd-sourced, bottom-up call for real economic, conservative and government reform."

The Tea Party document is called "The Contract From America" and starting tomorrow, activists will be allowed to vote to narrow down a list of 22 ideas "down to ten solutions for real change ... which will comprise the Contract From America, will be unveiled at the next round of nationwide Tea Parties on April 15."

Take a look at the 22 ideas from which activists can choose:

DEMAND A BALANCED BUDGET: Begin the Constitutional amendment process to require a balanced budget with a two-thirds majority needed for any tax hike.

STOP THE TAX HIKES: Permanently repeal all tax hikes, including those to income, capital gains, and death taxes, currently scheduled to begin in 2011.

COMMIT TO REAL GOVERNMENT TRANSPARENCY: Every bill, in its final form, will be made public seven days before any vote can be taken and all government expenditures authorized by any bill will be easily accessible on the Internet before the money is spent.

PROTECT THE CONSTITUTION: Require each bill to identify the specific provision of the Constitution that gives Congress the power to do what the bill does.

PASS REAL HEALTHCARE REFORM: Greatly improve affordability of health insurance by permitting all Americans access to all health insurance plans sold anywhere in the United States through the purchase of insurance across state lines and allow small businesses and associations to pool together across state lines to buy insurance.

ENACT FUNDAMENTAL TAX REFORM: Adopt a simple and fair single-rate tax system by scrapping the Internal Revenue code and replacing it with one that is no longer than 4,543 words -- the length of the original Constitution.

END RUNAWAY GOVERNMENT SPENDING: Impose a statutory cap limiting the annual growth in total federal spending to the sum of inflation rate plus the percentage of population growth.

LET US SAVE: Allow all Americans to opt out of Social Security and Medicare and instead put those same payroll taxes in a personal account they own, control, and can leave to whomever they choose.

PROTECT INTERNET FREEDOM: No regulation or tax on the Internet.

GIVE PARENTS MORE CHOICES IN THE EDUCATION OF THEIR CHILDREN: Improve American education by reforming the broken federal role through eliminating ineffective and wasteful programs, giving parents more choices from pre-school to high school, and improving the affordability of higher education.

PASS AN 'ALL OF THE ABOVE' ENERGY POLICY: Authorize the exploration of proven energy reserves to reduce our dependence on foreign energy sources from unstable countries and reduce regulatory barriers to all other forms of energy creation, lowering prices and creating competition.

PROTECT FREEDOM OF THE PRESS: Prohibit the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from using funds to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine in any form, including requiring “localism” or “diversity” quotas.

RESTORE FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY & CONSTITUTIONALLY LIMITED GOVERNMENT: Create a Blue Ribbon taskforce that engages in a complete audit of federal agencies and programs, assessing their Constitutionality, and identifying duplication, waste, ineffectiveness, and agencies and programs better left for the states.

PROTECT PRIVATE PROPERTY RIGHTS: Block state and local governments that receive federal grants from exercising eminent domain over private property for the primary purpose of economic development or enhancement of tax revenues.

REJECT CAP & TRADE: Prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from implementing costly new regulations that would increase unemployment, raise consumer prices, and weaken the nation’s global competitiveness with virtually no impact on global temperatures.

STOP THE PORK: Place a moratorium on all earmarks until the process is fully transparent, including requiring a 2/3 majority to pass any earmark.

NO CZAR REGULATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION: All “lawmaking” regulations must be affirmatively approved by Congress and signed into law by the president, as the Constitution requires for all laws.

AUDIT THE FED: Begin an audit of the Federal Reserve System.

NO MORE BAILOUTS: The federal government should not bail out private companies and should immediately begin divesting itself of its stake in the private companies it owns from recent bailouts.

STOP CAREER POLITICIANS & CURB LOBBYIST POWER: Begin the Constitutional amendment process to require Congressional term limits. No person shall be elected to the Senate more than twice or to the House of Representatives more than four times.

SUNSET REGULATIONS: All regulations will be “sunset” after ten years unless renewed by Congressional vote.

LET US WATCH: Broadcast all non-security meetings and votes on C-SPAN and the Internet.

Do you see anything in that list that would appeal to the concerns of social conservatives?  Maybe the provision about giving parents more choice in the education of the children, but that is it.  And, more than likely, that won't make the cut to be included among the final ten.

So, while some conservatives are busy hailing the Mount Vernon Statement as a grand manifesto that will unite the movement, other conservatives are hailing the Contract From America as a grand declaration of the movement's basic agenda, even though it contains no mention of any issues important to social conservatives.

The conservative movement is so united at the moment that they have dueling documents designed to declare their unity.

From World Magazine's review of Newt Gingrich's new documentary "Rediscovering God in America II: Our Heritage":

On balance, the film doesn't dig very deeply into the issue of religion in civic life. But the Gingriches avoid some controversy by refusing to name America a Christian nation outright. One difficulty may be that the Gingriches themselves are narrating a film about values in American society when Callista is Newt's third wife and his former mistress.

I willingly admit that I have no idea what an Electro-Magnetic Pulse is or how big of a threat it poses to the United States. But it apparently is a big enough threat to warrant the existence of a group called EMPACT America Inc that has people like Rep. Trent Franks and former Congressman Curt Weldon on its Board of Advisors, which ought to at least give you some sense of what they are all about:

EMPACT America works with local citizenry, civic-minded companies, and grassroots activists to help prepare communities in New York and across America to prepare for an EMP attack. Working with local city governments and first responders, EMPACT America provides for coordination, education, and consulting services, helping to create a growing grassroots movement focused on EMP preparedness and recovery.

Next month, EMPACT America is hosting a conference entitled "Protecting America Against Permanent Continental Shutdown From Electromagnetic Pulse" at which both Mike Huckabee and Newt Gingrich will be speaking [PDF]:

Mike Huckabee will be joining our conference as a keynote speaker on Thursday, September 10 ... EMPACT America is conducting a national conference bringing in the most knowledgeable minds in the world about EMP. Scheduled speakers include U.S. Congressional leaders, Department of Defense experts, and many other experts on EMP. In addition, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich will deliver an exclusive video address on EMP prepared specifically for this conference.

It looks like Huckabee's schedule for September is rapidly filling up with speaking engagements at right-wing conferences - first its this EMPACT, then he's off to the Values Voter Summit, before winding up at the How To Take Back America Conference.

Considering that Newt Gingrich has already written a book called "Rediscovering God in America" and been featured in a movie of the same name, it only makes sense that he would also appear in person at a similarly named right-wing conference last week along with the likes of Mike Huckabee, David Barton, Oliver North, and Mat Staver.

The event was hosted by Lou Engle of The Call and Bruce Wilson has a good post and video explaining Engle's prophetic and apocalyptic activism and how this recent conference "showcased the rapid reconfiguration of the Christian right around the rising, highly militant but poorly understood charismatic wing of the new Christian right."

We've put together our own video of Engle's introduction in which he heaped praise upon Gingrich, followed by key excerpts of the former Speaker's remarks in which he called the ACLU a "hateful, anti-religious system designed to drive God out of America," proclaimed that we are "surrounded by paganism," and repeatedly stated that the most important job of every American is to turn those who are not yet saved toward Jesus Christ, followed finally by an Engle-led prayer for Gingrich in which he beseeched God to extend his "influence for righteousness in this nation, lay your supernatural hand of God upon him and deliver him from the evil schemes of the enemy":