Amnesty Advocate Dick Armey Endorses Mike Lee (Delegates take note!)

Mike Lee Press Release, Vanity Commentary ^ | 4.29.10 | Armey's Press Release, Vanity Commentary

[dangus]

Until this past year, I would never have guessed Sen. Bob Bennett would be a top target of RINO hunters. He's made some very unpopular moves, like supporting the TARP bailout, but his ACU rating has been quite high. Nonetheless, I've been rather excited to see the RINO hunters so successful that they can move down to what I would have guessed was a low priority target. But are Utahans about to jump out of the frying pan and into the fire?

Mike Lee is currently leading polls among delegates to the Utah state convention. But Lee is proudly trumpeting his endorsement by Freedom Works, best known as the group that brought "astro-turfing" charges against the otherwise wonderfully grass-roots, populist Tea Party Movement. But Freedom Works is a project of Former U.S. Representative Dick Armey. Armey was a critical organizer of the Republican Party's pro-Amnesty movement, better known via politicians like Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham, and Reps. Chris Cannon and Tom Davis.

Armey was a key ally of Newt Gingrich's Republican Revolution of 1994. That movement was credited with much of the success of the Republicans' breaking the Democrats' lock on Congress. But there have long been grumblings that Armey recruited needlessly moderate and left-leaning candidates in campaigns which should have easily gone Republican anyway.

Armey and, through him, FreedomWorks, is very closely tied to the Cato Institute. Cato does a lot of good for the advancement of many conservative ideas, such as resisting the global-warming power grab. But Cato is the strongest think-tank proponent of open borders and amnesty in all of Washington. It receives funding from such far-left organizations as the Ford Foundation and the Marijuana Policy Project.

Armey has personally lashed out at the "religious right," described former Immigration Reform Caucus chairman Tom Tancredo "dangerous," fought to keep social conservatives out of the tea party movement. This is why Michelle Malkin calls him an "amnesty stooge" and "a clueless promoter of bailout-happy, big government Republican Sen. John McCain." (although personally I wouldn't call him "big government." Family Research Council President Tony Perkins warned FreedomWorks was undermining the Tea Party movement's chance for success by intentionally avoiding social issues and Christian connections.

The following is Mike Lee's press release heralding Armey's support:

Salt Lake City, UT, February 18, 2010 — At a press conference this afternoon during the Conservative Political Action Conference, FreedomWorks and its Chairman, former U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey, endorsed Utah Republican Mike Lee for U.S. Senate. FreedomWorks’ endorsement came as part of their “Take Back America” initiative for the 2010 election cycle. FreedomWorks Chairman Dick Armey led off his remarks by calling out three-term incumbent Senator Bob Bennett for several of his votes and policies, such as his support for the TARP bill, his promotion of health care legislation that includes an individual mandate, and his many earmarks.

In announcing FreedomWorks’ endorsement of Lee’s campaign, Armey commented, “The candidacy of Mike Lee for the Utah Senate seat currently occupied by Bob Bennett, represents another opportunity for true-blue conservative, limited government advocates to elevate a serious reformer rooted in free-market policy over an establishment politician. Lee’s passion for constitutionally limited government and market based policy reform is clear. I believe he is someone who can emerge as a leader for fiscal discipline on the national stage.”

Armey applauded Lee’s strong grassroots organization, the all-volunteer staff and the hundreds of active volunteers statewide who have already exceeded fundraising expectations. Armey also noted the list of endorsements by several influential Utah legislators known for their defense of fiscal conservatism, state sovereignty, and constitutional government as indicative of the power of Mike’s position on important policies and the strength of his candidacy.

“One of the first things we noticed about Mike is that he has a great record of constitutional scholarship,” Armey said. “He is the type of person that we need in the Senate now.”

Phony conservatives are Armey's specialty: Putting into power corporatist moderates who steer debate away from the issues where they part ways with populists. By all means, delegates, give Bennett the boot. Maybe that will also shake up Sen. Hatch. Just be careful not to replace him with someone far worse.

[Frantzie]

I used to like Dick Armey but he is an open-borders pro-amnesty a*s like McCain, Jeb Bush, Meg Whitman, Rick Perry, Pawlenty, Rubio, Graham-nesty, et al.