healthcare

Haley Barbour

2012: Political work profiled by TIME Magazine (TIME, 9/23).

New Hampshire: Stumps with GOP gubernatorial candidate (Nashua Telegraph, 9/28).

Mitch Daniels

2012: Fundraising circuit points to presidential bid (Indianapolis Star, 9/28).

Poll: About 75% of Americans haven’t heard of the Indiana Governor (Journal Gazette, 9/28).

Newt Gingrich

Democrats: Calls Democrats “the food stamp party” (Chicago Sun Times, 9/25).

GOP: How Gingrich transformed the Republican Party (Salon, 9/24).

2010: Approves new “Pledge to America” (Politico, 9/23).

Mike Huckabee

2010: Campaigned with Rand Paul over the weekend (BluegrassPolitics, 9/22).

Health Care: Walks back on previous position on coverage for pre-existing condition (The American Prospect, 9/23).

Business: Huckabee-endorsed Goldline company sued by SEC (ABC, 9/23).

Sarah Palin

2012: New poll shows her growing unpopularity among voters (ThePlumLine, 9/27).

2010: Launches “Take Back the 20” campaign against Democrats who supported Health Care Reform (The Hill, 9/27).

Media:  Claims media "piles on" her endorsed candidates (GOP 12, 9/27).

Religious Right: Article looks into Palin’s relationship with Dominionism (Religion Dispatches, 9/26).

Tim Pawlenty

Foreign Affairs: Calls Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad “nutty” (City Pages, 9/24).

New Hampshire: Plans to fundraiser for GOP gubernatorial candidate John Stephen (Concord Monitor, 9/26).

Minnesota: Visits flooded areas of state (WCCO, 9/25).

Mitt Romney

2010: Endorses West Virginia Republicans (The Hill, 9/27).

Obama: Calls Presidency an “abject failure” to New Hampshire GOP (Salt Lake Tribune, 9/26).

Rick Santorum

Media: Santorum, Palin, Gingrich and Huckabee all on Fox payroll (Politico, 9/27).

John Thune

2012: Weekly Standard profiles South Dakota Senator John Thune (Weekly Standard, 10/4).

In a new column in Human Events, Gary Bauer explains that, at heart, President Obama, progressives, and Islamic terrorists all have the same agenda, which is to destroy America and its Judeo-Christian values: 

Progressives and Islamists are indeed on the same side. Their common disdain for Christianity explains why left-wing judges in America find any inkling of Christianity in the public square unconstitutional, while Islamist judges in the Middle East deem it executable.

Their common view that life is expendable explains the left’s embrace abortion-on-demand and why the Islamists don’t hesitate to deploy their own children for homicide bombings.

Their common totalitarian impulse explains why each group has as its governing objective to render its subjects entirely dependent on the state for everything in their lives, from education to healthcare.

...

There’s a reason Obama won the Muslim American vote by more than nine to one, and why it is suspected that he received millions of dollars in contributions to his presidential campaign from Muslims abroad.

It’s not because Muslims thought Obama would fight for gays in the military. It’s because they knew he’d treat Israel as more of an annoyance than an ally, and because he’d be sure to diminish America’s stature in the world. And they were right.

More fundamentally, left-wing progressivism and Islamism both hold that religious belief and reason are at odds. Of course, Islamists embrace faith and reject reason, while progressives value reason to the exclusion of faith. Eventually these groups may have to address their basic differences.

But there will be time for that later. For now, there’s a greater goal to achieve: the annihilation of moral accountability and individual liberty and the destruction of the Judeo-Christian philosophy that is the foundation of Western civilization.

Bauer says that any "differences between the left and radical Islam fade to irrelevance in the face of such common enemies as traditional Christianity, Judaism, Israel, free enterprise and the very idea of America itself."

And just to claify, when Bauer uses the terms like "radical Islam" or "Islamist," he means "terrorist."

We first started paying attention to Lou Engle in 2008 when he hosted a The Call rally in Washington, DC heading into the presidential election and another in San Diego just before the vote on Proposition 8. 

Seemingly coming out of nowhere, Engle was eagerly embraced by the Religious Right establishment as its leaders flocked to participate in Engle's day-long festivals of prayer and fasting.

Since then, Engle's influence within the Religious Right has continued to grow, as he co-hosted the anti-healthcare "prayercast" earlier this year and has lead a group of Religious Right leaders to Texas to pray against a new Planned Parenthood facility opening in Houston.

In September, Engle will be leading another The Call rally in Sacramento to celebrate the 10th anniversary of his first Call event.  And he has managed to line up video endorsements from the likes of Mat Staver, Samuel Rodriguez, Ron Luce, Tim Wildom ... and even Pat and Gordon Robertson:

Pat: Hi, this is Pat Robertson.

Gordon: And I'm Gordon Robertson. We'd like to take a moment to encourage you to attend The Call tenth anniversary in Sacramento this Labor Day.

Pat: And we want the blessing of God on our nation. But how can His blessing come to a nation that has slaughtered fifty million unborn babies, taken the Bible and prayer out of schools, and protected by law that what God calls an "abomination"? In our land, that which is evil is being called good. And what is good is being ridiculed and banished from the public square. It's time that we join together and seek national repentance.

Gordon: We need to ask God to send up a great move of the Holy Spirit here in America. And that's what The Call - Sacramento is all about. Thousands of young people will be crying out to God for his glory to cover the Earth as the waters cover the sea. If you want to be a part of seeing God rescue America and experience that demonstration of his power and glory, then come to The Call - Sacramento September 3-4 at Raley Field. You can find out more by logging on to TheCall.com.

Pat: This is a desperate hour for our country. Please be a part of turning out nation back to God. Come to The Call - Sacramento and stand in the gap for this great nation.

Founded as the Judicial Confirmation Network to press for confirmation of all of President Bush's judicial nominee, the group recently underwent a name change which reflects the fact that the confirmation of judges is no longer their mission, thus re-naming themselves the Judicial Crisis Network.

And the Judicial Crisis Network is now hard at work leading the opposition to the nomination of Elena Kagan, demanding that "the Obama administration, The Clinton Presidential Library and the national archives to expedite the process of releasing all of Elena Kagan's documents from her service in the Clinton administration" and launching a viral ad campaign against her:

The Judicial Crisis Network today launched a viral campaign to educate and mobilize conservative activists on the questionable record of President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Elena Kagan.

While Kagan was Dean of the Harvard Law School, the sole issue upon on which she took a public stand was the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Dean Kagan banned the military from recruiting for the JAG Corps on Harvard's campus during a time of war. When Dean Kagan’s legal argument for keeping the military off campus was presented to the Supreme Court, it was unanimously rejected.

“The debate over Kagan will focus on her status as an Obama insider who was picked to ‘rubber-stamp’ the president's domestic policy agenda, especially if legislation pertaining to healthcare and financial regulatory reform are challenged in court,” stated Carrie Severino, chief counsel and policy director to the Judicial Crisis Network.

JCN is distributing a video to its 1 million e-activists involved in SCOTUS and Court issues. Web ads will run in Virginia, Nebraska, Arkansas, Louisiana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Alaska, and Montana.

Script of the video:

Elena Kagan, who, as the Dean of Harvard Law School, kicked the military off campus - incredibly - during a time of war.

When Dean Kagan’s legal argument attempting to keep the military off campus was presented to the very court President Obama would appoint her to, the Supreme Court unanimously rejected Kagan’s argument.

America deserves better.

This is a slightly edited version of the ad the group ran last year:

• Several state Attorneys General have already filed suit against the health care reform legislation that President Obama just signed into law today.
• In related "news," the Religious Right doesn't like the health care bill and is ready to fight.
• Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott will receive the "Vision America Guardian of the Family Award" at the organization's dinner and gala on Monday, March 29.
• A tea party organizer who urged activists “to drop by” Rep. Thomas Perriello’s house to voice their displeasure with his health care vote, but mistakenly gave out the address of Perriello’s brother stands by his research skills.
• Erick Erickson is urging people to send Rep. Bart Stupak (aka "Judas") 100 pieces of silver.
• I genuinely have no idea what the point of this Catholic League press release is supposed to be.
• Finally, the quote of the day from Dennis Prager: "I write the words 'civil war' with an ache in my heart. But we are in one. Thank God this civil war is non-violent. But the fact is that the left and the rest of the country share almost no values. The American value system and the leftist value system are irreconcilable. If the left wins, America's values lose."

The other day we noted that it was seemingly impossible for any Religious Right figure to be deemed so radical that Republican members of Congress would decline to appear at events with them, highlighting the fact that the American Family Association's militantly anti-gay Director of Issue Analysis for Government and Public Policy, Bryan Fischer, was being featured in a Family Research Council hosted health care webcast along with Rep. Tom Price, (R-GA), Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN).

The event aired earlier this week and, as it turned out, Fischer wasn't even the most radical person involved as that honor went to Virginia Delegate Bob Marshall:

Last month, Marshall made news by declaring during an anti-Planned Parenthood press conference that disabled children are God's punishment for abortion and then asserting that he had never said anything of the sort.

I didn't bother grabbing any of the video of Fischer or Marshall because, frankly, they didn't say anything particularly interesting, with both insisting that health care reform is unconstitutional.

But what was interesting was the fact that Fischer and Marshall were featured together in the webcast and their appearance was sandwiched in between Rep. Mike Pence and Sen. David Vitter.

In short, today's conservative movement consists of right-wing leaders who think gays should be treated like criminals and that God punishes women who've had abortions with disabled children ... and high-profile Republican members of Congress.

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.

I have to say that the right-wing reaction to Scott Brown's victory is pretty remarkable, even for them.  Not only does Brown's victory signal an end to things like health care and immigration reform and Democratic dominance in Washington, but it is apparently the first shot in a "second American revolution," as the Christian Defense Coalition.

Indeed, the idea that Brown's win is the start of some sort of revolution seems to be the right-wing talking point of the day - from the Family Research Council:

"For a Senate seat considered to be in the left-hand column into eternity, the results of the Massachusetts race are nearly revolutionary. President Obama's desperate visit to the Bay State made it clear that this race was a referendum on his liberal agenda. While the individual candidates were important, it was the respective banners they marched under that were decisive. Martha Coakley marched under the banner of the President's big government agenda embroidered with healthcare reform. Sen.-elect Brown marched under the opposing standard - and won.

"President Obama's defeat yesterday is the culmination of the town halls, tea parties, and other efforts of the millions of Americans who continue speaking out against the takeover of our health care system. Many social conservatives held back criticism of Scott Brown's social views and in some cases openly supported him because they believe a Brown win fulfills a short term goal of blocking President Obama's abominable health bill.

"Family Research Council and the thousands of families we represent hope this repudiation of President Obama's Leftist policies will resonate in the halls of Congress. Liberals in Congress can no longer ignore the American people who are outraged by a health care bill that will force every American to support Planned Parenthood in the killing of unborn children, saddle families with higher insurance premiums, raise our taxes and deny our parents and grandparents the essential health care they need."

The point is echoed by Liberty Counsel:

A new revolution is unfolding in America

"The people of Massachusetts fired a shot heard ‘round the world,” said Mathew Staver, Founder of Liberty Counsel and Dean of Liberty University School of Law. Staver continued, “We are witnessing a new revolution in America. It is a revolution of ideas and values. President Barack Obama misread his election victory to be a referendum on radical liberalism. It was not. The radical policies of Obama, Reid and Pelosi have been rejected. The tax and spend, big government, anti-life agenda has been pushed back. ObamaCare has been derailed. It is dead. If, after this election, the liberal wing of the Democratic Party tries to resurrect this Frankenstein called ‘healthcare’ and does not drastically change course, then the Massachusetts election will be a microcosm of November 2010.”

Republican Scott Brown won an historic election last night in Massachusetts by defeating Democrat Martha Coakley to fill the Senate seat once held by Ted Kennedy for 47 years. Brown becomes the first Republican elected to the United States Congress in Massachusetts since 1972. More importantly, this election breaks the Democratic stranglehold on the 60-vote majority in the Senate.

Staver continued, “Reality is stranger than fiction. How ironic it is that the person who replaced Ted Kennedy could be the deciding vote that kills government healthcare.” Staver concluded, “Democratic and liberal pundits are pointing fingers at Martha Coakley as the reason for this historic shift in the election. In Virginia they tried to explain the defeat of liberal policies to a lackluster candidate. In New Jersey, they said Jon Corzine had too much baggage. Liberal Democratic leaders suffer from the same disease as alcoholics. Until they admit that the problem is their radical policies, they will continue to self-destruct.”

• Is there any tragedy Pat Robertson won't exploit?
• The National Tea Party Convention main accomplishment so far seems to have been angering and alienating Tea Party activists.
• Is the Washington Examiner becoming the new Washington Times?
• Health care reform hasn't even passed and already the Club for Growth is getting candidates to pledge to repeal it.
• Michele Bachmann being Michele Bachmann.
• Finally, Sarah Palin can't name her favorite Founding Father because they are all just so great and even Glenn Beck isn't buy it, while also marvelling at her extreme paranoia.