2008

A New Addition to Team Mitt

Calvin Freiburger 2008, Andy McCarthy, conservatism, Constitution, GOP, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, judges
Boston, MA – Today, Governor Mitt Romney announced that Andrew C. McCarthy will be joining his Advisory Committee on the Constitution and the Courts, which is co-chaired by Professor Douglas W. Kmiec, former constitutional legal counsel to President Ronald Reagan, and former Congressman David McIntosh who co-founded the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies.
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The fact that Andy McCarthy will be helping advise Mitt Romney and shape his policies ought to be yet another sign of hope for conservatives wary of Romney’s potential.

Answering the Call

Calvin Freiburger 2008, conservatism, Fred Thompson, GOP, Hannity, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Ingraham, McCain, media, RINOs, Santorum
Senator Rick Santorum, Laura Ingraham, and Sean Hannity have all answered the call to rally around Mitt Romney. Less-responsible conservatives are still in fantasy land.
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Don’t take my word for it that Mitt’s the clear conservative choice. Take Santorum’s:
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In a few short days, Republicans from across this country will decide more than their party’s nominee. They will decide the very future of our party and the conservative coalition that Ronald Reagan built. Conservatives can no longer afford to stand on the sidelines in this election, and Governor Romney is the candidate who will stand up for the conservative principles that we hold dear. Governor Romney has a deep understanding of the important issues confronting our country today, and he is the clear conservative candidate that can go into the general election with a united Republican party.

Crunch Time for the Future of Conservatism

Calvin Freiburger 2008, Bork, conservatism, Coulter, GOP, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, McCain, National Review, national security, pro-life, Reagan, RINOs, romney, Tancredo, War on Terror
John McCain, conservative standard-bearer? Ronald Reagan would have a thing or two to say about that.
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Today President Reagan’s son Michael writes about McCain’s utter contempt for conservatives, and here’s Hugh Hewitt making the case for rallying around Mitt Romney, just as such serious, responsible, and distinguished conservatives as Mark Levin, Judge Robert Bork, Dr. John Willke, Ann Coulter, Tom Tancredo, National Review, and Walid Phares have done.
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And for those Fredheads still unwilling to let go, here’s one of your own making the case for doing the right thing. I understand many of you dislike Romney. He’s not a perfect candidate. But for God’s sake, the difference between him and McCain is night and day.

Hey Conservatives!

Calvin Freiburger 2008, conservatism, GOP, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Mark Levin, McCain, RINOs
Mark “the Great One” Levin agrees with me that conservatives have a duty to rally around Mitt Romney:
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Why recite this record? Well, if conservatives don’t act now to stop McCain, he will become the Republican nominee and he will lose the general election. He is simply flawed on too many levels. He is a Republican Hillary Clinton in many ways…Let’s face it, none of the candidates are perfect. They never are. But McCain is the least perfect of the viable candidates. The only one left standing who can honestly be said to share most of our conservative principles is Mitt Romney. I say this as someone who has not been an active Romney supporter. If conservatives don’t unite behind Romney at this stage, and become vocal in their support for him, then they will get McCain as their Republican nominee and probably a Democrat president. And in either case, we will have a deeply flawed president.

Conservatism: A Time for Choosing

Calvin Freiburger 2008, conservatism, GOP, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, McCain, RINOs
Senator John McCain is the New York Times’ candidate of choice for obvious reasons: His “overall record is tainted by a marked antipathy towards the free market and individual freedom,” Senator Rick Santorum accuses him of repeatedly obstructing Senate battles over social issues (which, by his own admission, he doesn’t “care about”), he still supports embryo-destructive research, despite continuing advancements in adult stem cells; he has a problematic record on guns, he is an amnesty fundamentalist whose campaign employs such odious figures as Juan Hernandez and Jerry Perenchio, he cannot be trusted to appoint originalist judges (after all, he voted to confirm Ruth Bader Ginsburg), and he adopts the Left’s conventional wisdom on environmental issues. Despite his heroic military service and his commitment to Iraq, his leadership on most other aspects of the War on Terror would be disastrous. He is also a pathological liar who took advantage of a demagogic smear against then-governor George W. Bush in 2000 and has told bald-faced-lies about Governor Mitt Romney this time around.
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And he’s the Republican Party’s new frontrunner.
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With victory in Florida, major momentum going into Connecticut, and leads in both national polls and the delegate count, the Maverick is much stronger than he once appeared, and now stands a very real chance of winning the presidential nomination.
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This is not the time for fence-sitting, desperate fantasies, or bitter detachment from the process. The only conservative left in the race, Mitt Romney (who, in case you missed it, just won the support of major anti-jihadist Walid Phares), may be damaged, but he’s by no means doomed. He can win the nomination if conservatives—this time, all conservatives—unite behind him.

McCain, Romney, and Victory in Iraq

Calvin Freiburger 2008, GOP, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Iraq, lying, McCain, War on Terror
By now you’ve probably heard that John McCain has falsely accused Mitt Romney of advocating withdrawal from Iraq, using criteria that could just as easily apply to McCain himself. I can’t respond to the Maverick any better than Mark Levin, who calls this “pretty disgraceful stuff,” already has:
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As I think about McCain’s effort to now use the battle of Iraq this way – to inaccurately characterize Romney’s statement re Iraq, to refuse to correct himself despite the evidence showing his characterization is false, and now to say —in response to Romney demanding an apology — ”I think the apology is owed to the young men and women serving this nation in uniform, that we will not let them down in hard times or good. That is who the apology is owed to” — is to use Iraq and the soldiers as the Left does. Jim Woolsey has already been sucked into this. I hope others won’t be.
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(Hat tip: EFM)

Which Republican Is the New York Times’ Favorite?

Calvin Freiburger 2008, conservatism, GOP, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, liberalism, McCain, media, New York Times, RINOs
Go on. Guess.
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…
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Yup, it’s McCain. The Maverick, showing less-than brilliant political acumen, is proudly boasting the endorsement on his official site. Because everybody knows the Republican base holds the Times in the highest esteem.
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A note to disaffected Fredheads: your choice is this or Mitt (unless Rudy & Huck bounce back…and we know how great they’d be!). Is there really any question anymore?

Maverick Huntin’ Season

Calvin Freiburger 2008, Coulter, demagogues, dishonesty, GOP, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, McCain, RINOs
Tonight, Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin both take aim at John McCain.
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From Ann:
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Of course, I might lie constantly too, if I were seeking the Republican presidential nomination after enthusiastically promoting amnesty for illegal aliens, Social Security credit for illegal aliens, criminal trials for terrorists, stem-cell research on human embryos, crackpot global warming legislation and free speech-crushing campaign-finance laws. I might lie too, if I had opposed the Bush tax cuts, a marriage amendment to the Constitution, waterboarding terrorists and drilling in Alaska. And I might lie if I had called the ads of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth “dishonest and dishonorable.”
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From Michelle:
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Not all of us have forgotten how the short-fused Arizona senator cursed good-faith opponents in his own party (“F**k you!” and “Chickensh*t” were the choice words he had for Texas GOP Senator John Cornyn during a spat over enforcement provisions). Not all of us have forgotten that he voted against barring felons from receiving amnesty benefits under his plan. Not all of us have forgotten the underhanded, debate-sabotaging manner in which McCain, Kennedy, Lindsey Graham, and Harry Reid conspired to ram their package down voters’ throats.
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Read ‘em both.

What Madness Is This?!

Calvin Freiburger 2008, abortion, conservatism, GOP, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Mike Huckabee, moonbats, Norma McCorvey, pro-life, RINOs, Ron Paul, stupidity, War on Terror
“Am I hallucinating?” Allahpundit asks, and if so, then so am I. Y’see, Duncan Hunter has thrown his support behind Mike Huckabee, specifically citing the border fence, national security, and character. Yes, we have just crossed over into the Twilight Zone. So much for Hunter’s much-touted conservative judgment (which I admit, I believed in as much as anyone).
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Unfortunately, he’s not the only one. Norma “Jane Roe” McCorvey is endorsing Ron Paul. I understand that Paul is ostensibly pro-life, but that doesn’t change the fact that A.) he’s a senile crank who doesn’t understand that America has enemies, and B.) he’s not going to be the president, and everybody knows it. McCorvey is a major figure in the right to life, with a compelling story, but I hate to see her call her judgment into question and marginalize herself like this.

Fred Thompson

Calvin Freiburger 2008, Fred Thompson, GOP, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post
It’s official: Fred Thompson has dropped out of the presidential race, and word is that he’s neither interested in a VP slot nor a Cabinet post. On an apolitical note, my prayers go out to him and his mother, who is reportedly ill.
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Thompson’s campaign failed because of a couple factors, both within and beyond his control. To start with the latter, several of the early primary states simply were not looking for conservatism, as Mike Huckabee & John McCain’s victories have shown. While I must admit some measure of satisfaction at the ramifications this has for Mitt Romney’s chances, I would much rather have President Thompson than Huck, the Maverick, or Rudy Giuliani in the White House, and stronger support for him would have at least been reassuring that the Republican Party still takes the Reagan coalition seriously.
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Second, Thompson is a man with a reasonably conservative voting record, and a knack for articulating conservatism clearly and plainly, but in the run-up to his candidacy, the blogosphere built him up into so much more. He was the second coming of Ronald Reagan, we were told, the knight in shining armor who would ride in and save us from the three-headed RINO known as Rudy McRomney. No man could have lived up to such fire.
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On the flip side, he tried playing with that fire, and got burned in two ways. First, he milked the “consistent conservative” mantra for all he could…even though it wasn’t true. Abortion, immigration, McCain-Feingold, and No Child Left Behind—four separate issues on which he initially took liberal (and, in the case of NCLB, anti-federalism) positions, but later moved rightward. Granted, I welcome his changes of heart, just as I welcome Romney’s. But Thompson’s choice to compound his past errors with fresh lies, while compelling to the most ardent Fredheads, served instead to dull the man’s shine in the eyes of more critical observers. And even his current platform was found wanting in key areas. While positioning himself as a cultural conservative, he supported neither full legal protection for the unborn nor a national definition of marriage.
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Second, whether it was the hero-worship going to his head or natural arrogance, Thompson seemed to think the GOP nomination was his for the asking. I suspect he expected to ride the hype straight to the nomination. Since he’s obviously the base’s only choice, who needs a well-oiled organization? Fools who couldn’t see the obvious were dismissed as anti-Thompson conspirators.
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Now that he’s out, there’s speculation that Fred Thompson, just as his fellow ex-candidate Duncan Hunter has pledged to do, will take on a more active role for conservatism in other venues. I hope he does, and despite my criticism, I welcome his contributions to the fight for America, and thank him for making the attempt to give our nation a conservative president.
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The good news is, we still have a strong, full-spectrum conservative in the race, and he’s got the skills, organization, and funds necessary to go all the way…if we’re willing to unite behind him. Ladies & gentlemen, it’s never been clearer—Mitt Romney is the man for the job. Let’s give it our all to put him in the White House.