Scott Walker Looks Presidential

Scott Walker spoke to the folks at the CPAC convention yesterday. He looked Presidential, he looked like someone who could win. His best line was “we celebrate our independence from government not our dependence on it.” He defended the rights of the unborn, outright by noting that Wisconsin no longer funds Planned Parenthood and more subtlety by including the unborn as worthy of protection while he rattled off a number of other basic groups to be protected. If nothing else Walker will provide a stark contrast to the whiny liberalism of the GOP establishment’s candidate Jeb Bush. The GOP can choose another moderate to liberal Bush or it can choose someone with an actual track record of successful conservative governance.

I’m not ready to endorse a candidate yet. Obviously there are a number of other conservative candidates out there that are intriguing. Ted Cruz being chief among them. Walker has something Cruz doesn’t have though: Experience managing an executive branch. After we elected a four year Senator in Barack Obama, the country may be a little leery of electing another one term Senator with limited political experience outside the Senate. Walker, on the other hand, has not only served as Governor of a decent sized state he’s also successfully managed the state government in a conservative manner. His record is pretty clear, he’s taken on the outdated unions and won. In a blue state no less. The results for taxpayers have been great. Wisconsin taxes are down $2 billion, schools are being run more efficiently. State employees are leaving unions in droves because they never really wanted to be in one in the first place.

Ted Cruz just doesn’t have that sort of resume. He also doesn’t have a track record of running successful campaigns. That isn’t to say Cruz hasn’t run a successful campaign, obviously he won the Senate race in Texas. It’s a littler easier though to win a Senate race as Republican in Texas than it is to run for Governor in Wisconsin. Three times in four years no less. This obviously isn’t a dispositive issue but in the very least Walker has been forced to run tough campaigns and he’s won them. If Walker is the GOP nominee, he may be the candidate best prepared to handle the onslaught of the liberal press and Hillary Clinton. Not to say Cruz cannot take these people on, he can. However there’s something to be said for campaign experience.

One issue people haven’t considered about Ted Cruz is his Senate replacement. Let’s say Cruz wins the GOP nomination and the White House. Who replaces him in the Senate? In other words, we conservatives have a terrific group of young conservative Senators who are moving towards making a difference in the upper chamber. Do we want to lose that sort of leader in the Senate? Especially so if we can find someone who can do an equal job in the White House. Scott Walker looks like he’s going to come pretty close to Cruz in terms of conservative governance. We need people like Cruz in the Senate, he’s potentially a future Republican leader. Can you imagine how much better the Senate would be without someone like Mitch McConnell leading it?

The most important thing for conservatives to do in the next year is line up behind one of the conservative candidates. This is what the moderates have been doing for years. They line up behind the chosen one, gain 40% of the votes in early states while the 60% of conservative votes get split between half a dozen barely indistinguishable candidates. This is how John McCain and Mitt Romney won. It’s how Jeb Bush will win if conservatives get into a Walker-Cruz-Paul-Palin battle. It doesn’t matter which of these people is the nominee, though obviously the first two are better choices. We just have to line up behind one of them. God forbid some of these candidates take one for the team and refuse to run. Right now Scott Walker is looking pretty good, we need to give him an extra long look over the next few months.

Jeb Bush awards Hillary Defender of Liberty Medal on eve of Benghazi anniversary

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) will honor former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with this year’s Liberty Medal from the National Constitution Center.

The award will be presented to Clinton on September 10th, the eve of the first anniversary of the terrorist attack on the United States mission in Benghazi that killed four American.

The Christian Science Monitor reports that Bush, a potential GOP contender in the 2016 presidential race, is chairman of the board of trustees of the National Constitution Center located in Philadelphia.

“Former Secretary Clinton has dedicated her life to serving and engaging people across the world in democracy,” Bush said in a statement. “These efforts as a citizen, an activist, and a leader have earned Secretary Clinton this year’s Defender of Liberty Medal.”

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Bush’s decision to honor Clinton, who is considered by some to be a likely Democrat candidate for president in 2016, was condemned by the Independence Hall Tea Party Association of Philadelphia. According to the Christian Science Monitor, the organization released its own statement Monday, referring to the event as “extremely distressing,” and offering, instead, an opportunity for another Liberty Medal recipient.

According to the statement: As all of you undoubtedly know, much of the blame for the Obama Administration’s failure to contain the Benghazi attack and the scandalous handling of its aftermath, can be traced directly to Ms. Clinton.

Indeed, a Congressional investigation regarding Ms. Clinton’s role in the cover-up of the Administration’s failure is still ongoing.

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A newly formed organization, the Independence Hall Foundation, will hold a “What Difference Does It Make” press conference on Independence Mall, September 10, 4 PM, to denounce the selection of Ms. Clinton as the 2013 Liberty Medal recipient and to offer an alternative award (details below). During the conference, the Foundation will name its choice of recipient(s) for the 2013 Defender of Liberty Medal. Dom Giordano will headline the presser and we certainly hope you will consider joining us. (SOURCE: BREITBART.COM 9/9/13)

LOOKS AND TALKS PRESIDENTIAL
avuncular, laid-back demeanor---has a record of winning.

Indiana Gov Mike Pence---dedicated pro-lifer.
As a US Cong/man, spoke at the March for Life.

PENCE ON IMMIGRATION---all the right moves: http://www.ontheissues.org/Governor/Mike_Pence_Immigration.htm

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Gov Pence wants child immigrants sent home
nwitimes.com ^ | July 29, 2014 | Dan Carden / FR Posted by Tailgunner Joe

INDIANAPOLIS | Indiana Gov. Mike Pence wants the 245 unaccompanied child immigrants recently placed with Indiana relatives or sponsors sent back across the nation's southern border as soon as possible. In a letter sent Tuesday to President Barack Obama, the Republican said while he feels "deep compassion" for the children and believes they should be "treated humanely and with decency and respect," there is no place for them here. "Failure to expedite the return of unaccompanied children thwarts the rule of law and will only continue to send a distorted message that illegally crossing into America is without consequence," Pence said.

Pence demanded the president provide proof that Hoosier families the children have been placed with have legal immigration status and requested "real-time" updates when child immigrants are moved into or out of Indiana.

The U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement currently provides monthly updates. The governor also bemoaned that Indiana will be required to educate and provide health care for the children until they leave. "States should not be asked by the federal government to deal with the consequences of a failed national immigration policy," Pence said.

U.S. Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., said in a statement he shares Pence's concerns. "The best way to stop this humanitarian crisis is to reunite the children who have come to America with their families in their home countries," Coats said. "Doing so will deter more children from making the dangerous journey to the United States."

Indiana State Sen. Brent Steele, R-Bedford, went a step further. Steele claimed in a letter sent Tuesday to his southern Indiana constituents that Obama personally encouraged the flow of immigrant children and declared Indiana is unable and unwilling to assimilate them. "How far can you push a citizenry by increased taxation to pay for all these children before they revolt?" Steele asked.

Neither state nor federal taxes have increased due to this year's surge of unaccompanied child immigrants. In fact, Indiana's corporate income tax rate decreased 0.5 percent on July 1. A total of 30,340 unaccompanied child immigrants -- many fleeing horrific gang violence in Central America -- have been placed with U.S. relatives or sponsors through July 7, according to the federal refugee office. Just 0.8 percent have come to Indiana.

The refugee office said before a child is released, relatives and sponsors must verify their relationship with the immigrant child, pass a background check and in some cases a home study. All immigrant children receive pre-release vaccinations and medical screenings, and sponsors must agree to cooperate with all immigration proceedings. ####

“As vague as Scott Walker has been in his past statements on immigration, he has repeatedly claimed that he opposes amnesty for undocumented immigrants. That may not always have been the case.

A 2002 resolution passed by the Milwaukee County government and signed by then–county executive Scott Walker expressed support for “comprehensive immigration reform.” As he has begun to lay the groundwork for a presidential bid, Walker has been deliberately ambiguous about his views on immigration, but the 2002 resolution, passed just weeks after Walker was elected county executive, called for allowing “undocumented working immigrants to obtain legal residency in the United States.”

In public appearances in recent months, the Wisconsin governor has steered clear of that position. He has walked a different tightrope, saying that he opposes amnesty but hinting that he supports some version of a pathway to citizenship for immigrants in the country illegally, provided that they pay penalties, complete a waiting period, and satisfy additional requirements.

“Governor Walker does not support amnesty,” the governor’s spokesman, Tom Evenson, tells National Review Online. Evenson says the 2002 resolution was “stripped of references to amnesty before passage” — the reference to amnesty comes in an introductory paragraph and the resolution was, in fact, a substitute resolution for an original that was more strongly pro-amnesty — and reinforces the governor’s view that illegal immigrants should face penalties before they are granted citizenship. The resolution, viewable here, did not mention or spell out such penalties, and expressed support for “comprehensive immigration reform” that would have provided “greater opportunity for undocumented working immigrants to obtain legal residency in the United States....”

The Stealth Amnesty of Mike Pence

Patrick J. Buchanan | Tuesday Jun 13, 2006 10:17 AM

Addressing a gathering of Hispanics last week, President Bush declared: “There are those here in Washington who say, ‘Why don’t we just find the folks and send them home.’ That ain’t gonna work.”

Well, deportation certainly “ain’t gonna work” if the chief law enforcement officer of the United States refuses to enforce the law, as Bush has refused for five years.

But as is his custom, President Bush is attacking a straw man. Few in this debate call for creation of a national police to begin Palmer Raid roundups of nannies. The agreed-upon strategy for dealing with this crisis of Bush’s creation is, in a word, attrition.

The crucial steps are these. Build a fence along the 2,000-mile border to stop the flood. End welfare benefits to illegal aliens, except emergency medical treatment. Vigorously prosecute employers who hire illegals. Cease granting automatic citizenship to “anchor babies” of illegals who sneak across the border to have them. Take care of mother and child, then put them on a bus back home.

Turn off the magnets, and the illegals will not come. Cut off the benefits, and they will not stay. In five years, the crisis will be over.

As this is what America wants, the Bush-Kennedy bill that came out of the Senate — providing amnesty to almost all the 12 million to 20 million illegals here and a blanket pardon for the scofflaw businesses that have hired them — is dead. It simply cannot pass the House.

The report by Heritage Foundation expert Robert Rector, who estimated the Senate bill could mean 66 million more immigrants in the next 20 years, delivered the coup de grace.

But because the Senate bill cannot pass the House does not mean Bush, the ethnic lobbies and corporate America have given up.

Which brings us to the Pence plan, named for the conservative congressman from Indiana who heads the House Republican Conference and was the 2005 Man of the Year to the conservative Human Events weekly.

In “The Godfather,” Don Corleone warns his son Michael that, after he dies, someone inside the family will come to Michael with an offer of peace from the Barzinis, who murdered Michael’s brother. Whoever brings you the offer, Don Corleone warns his son, will have betrayed you. Tessio, lifetime friend and high-ranking captain of the Corleones, comes to Michael with Barzini’s offer. A mistake.

Rep. Mike Pence appears to have accepted the Tessio role in the great immigration battle of 2006.

As Bush backs away from the Senate bill (“we don’t have to choose between the extremes — there’s a rational middle ground”), Pence uses identical rhetoric to describe his plan, now being hailed by Newt Gingrich, Gary Bauer, David Keene of the American Conservative Union and The American Spectator. It looks like the fix is in.

Pence calls his plan a “middle ground” proposal, a “no amnesty immigration reform” in which “securing our border is the first step.”

This is fraudulent. At the heart of the Pence plan is amnesty. Illegal aliens here return to Mexico for one week with an assurance they can come back to their jobs. Down there, they visit “Ellis Island Centers” to register as “guest workers” and return with “work permits.” The illegal are made legal and put on a path to citizenship.

The only difference between the Pence plan and the Kennedy-Bush amnesty is the one-week vacation employers would happily fund, as it means blanket amnesty for them as well as their illegal hires.

What makes the Pence plan insidious is that Mike Pence has an unimpeachable pedigree. What makes his plan a grave problem is that even Rep. James Sensenbrenner, the Horatius at the Bridge in this battle, is speaking favorably of it.

Why is Pence proposing capitulation at the moment Americans are looking to the Republican House as their last, best hope to kill the Senate amnesty, end the “guest-worker” scam and get control of America’s borders before we lose our country?

Answer: The forces in Washington pushing for an amnesty deal, by whatever name, are immense — the White House, the ethnic lobbies, the Big Media, mainstream churches, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the “conservative” front groups and foundations they finance, and corporate contributors to congressmen who fear law enforcement. Then there is a Democratic Party that voted 10-to-one in the Senate for amnesty, as it looks to legalized aliens as future voters to bury the conservative cause forever in this city.

Anyone who thinks the establishment has given up because it has lost the country does not know it. Behind closed doors, deals are even now being discussed for a “compromise” bill that will give GOP congressmen cover for selling out the cause for which they bravely voted in December.

If the House buys the Pence plan, it will be the end of Republican control of the House in November and the end of Mike Pence as a rising star of the GOP. But that will not matter. For the consequences for the country will be irremediable and infinitely worse.

http://humanevents.com/2006/06/13/the-stealth-amnesty-of-mike-pence/

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