Posted on 03/25/2012 3:11:00 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Talk among conservative activists gathered in East Pennsboro Twp. for the past two days might have started out local, but it turned national pretty quickly.
Speaker after speaker at the annual Pennsylvania Leadership Conference that convened Friday and ended Saturday hammered home their common-held desire to oust President Barack Obama from the White House in November.
And while many attendees reserved judgment on their choice for the April 24 Pennsylvania Republican primary, their reactions to the presidential candidates and surrogates in attendance spoke volumes.
The gathering of Pennsylvania conservative activists warmly greeted native sons Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum but reserved their most enthusiastic reaction for former GOP nomination contender Herman Cain and his well-trod “9-9-9” simplified tax code plan.
Speaking at his conference-closing address, Gingrich, the former House speaker who was born in Harrisburg and grew up in Hummelstown, drew a warm greeting that rose when he directed his most damning vitriol to Obama’s energy policies.
“I’m not against the [Chevrolet] Volt, and I’m not against the [Toyota] Prius,” Gingrich said of energy efficient vehicles championed by the Obama administration. “I am for you having the right to take the money you earned to buy the kind of vehicle you want without the president dictating to you what is appropriate.”
Later, he complimented GOP front-runner Mitt Romney for his “significant victory” in the Illinois primary last week but argued Romney’s campaign undermined the win’s potential unifying opportunity.
“Even though I think his campaign has been much too negative, he’s been grinding in a very serious way toward trying to get the nomination,” Gingrich said.
“Then, of course, the following day his communications director blows it all away by describing his candidate as an Etch A Sketch candidate who you can just shake up after a primary and reset,” he said. “I thought he lost psychologically in terms of consolidating the party. It’s part of the problem Mitt Romney carries. People perennially wonder who is the real Mitt Romney.”
On Thursday, many Republicans might have wondered if chief challenger Santorum was still in the party after making the latest in a recent string of damaging statements.
Stumping in Texas, Pennsylvania’s former U.S. senator said that if Republicans nominated someone as similar to Obama as Romney, then “we may as well stay with what we have instead of taking a risk.”
Santorum changed his tune Friday, and Gingrich agreed.
“I’m glad Rick pulled back what he said the other day,” Gingrich said, adding that despite a contentious campaign the party would be unified come November.
“The re-election of Barack Obama for conservatives is a nightmare, so we’ll be unified,” he said. “Even if we go to an open convention, even if we only pick somebody in the last week of August, we’ll be unified within hours.”
Saturday’s first speaker, Santorum entered the Radisson Hotel Harrisburg ballroom to mild applause that lacked the verve of a crowd greeting one of their own running for the highest office in the land. It was noticeable considering he was speaking to the most like-minded and familiar crowd he’s likely to find in the state.
He delivered a largely somber philosophical sermon on his principled vision of America while knocking Romney and Obama on their respective health care plans that he assailed.
The Obama health care plan was “a foolish act of hubris on the part of the president by shoving his health care bill down the throats of the American people,” Santorum said.
And he argued that because Obama used Romney’s Massachusetts plan as a template for his own, Romney would be a weak Republican nominee.
“I think Gov. Romney’s a decent man, but he’s uniquely disqualified to take on this race because the principle issue in this race is going to be Obamacare,” Santorum said. “This is a signature issue for everything that has gone wrong among the American left that is trying to impose its will on the good people of this country.”
The simpatico crowd’s polite response to the passionate social conservative could be a worry for him. Though recent polls show Santorum holding a double-digit lead over Romney in Pennsylvania, privately many attendees pointed to an old wound they seem unwilling to forget or forgive.
Santorum’s support for pro-choice, Republican-turned-Democratic-incumbent Arlen Specter over resolute fiscal conservative Pat Toomey in the 2004 Senate race remains an inexcusable sore point, many PLC attendees said.
It’s a slight Pennsylvania’s conservative political prodigal son indirectly acknowledged in his Saturday remarks.
“You’re in there doing the sausage-making and you’re saying ‘You don’t understand,’ ” Santorum said of his failed 2006 re-election bid. “And in a sense, I didn’t understand. It was a real eye-opening, awakening experience for me, and I took that as a good bit of self-correction.”
But Obama’s election in 2008 inspired him to take the “unlikely journey” of returning to public life and seeking the presidency, he said.
“Talking to people in Pennsylvania [about running for president] was a little amusing,” Santorum said. “They said ‘What are you possibly thinking? I mean, you got creamed here. Who loses their last race then runs for president?’ ”
A voice in the crowd shouted back “Abraham Lincoln,” the iconic Civil War-era Republican president.
“OK, Abraham Lincoln,” Santorum acknowledged, to stout applause.
The ovation affirmed that Santorum retains a loyal and ardent base of support among many Pennsylvania Republicans, but his weekend mea culpa may not be enough to win over fellow conservative stalwarts who were wounded by his politically motivated support for Specter.
“He certainly had to address that issue,” said Richard Stewart, chairman of the state party’s central caucus. “When you lose by 18 points to a vanilla personality like Bob Casey Jr. you’ve got to do some real consensus-building.”
Meanwhile, party insiders say Romney’s recent endorsements from former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina intensify the already considerable pressure on Santorum to bow out of the race.
Asked about the behind-the-scenes arm-twisting as he left the PLC, Santorum replied: “What pressure?”
Cain, the following speaker, appeared as a surrogate for Republican U.S. Senate candidate Sam Rohrer and 4th Congressional District candidate Ted Waga. Cain delivered a fiery rebuke of Obama arduously embraced by the crowd.
“We have an economic crisis while this president and administration continues to try and tell the American people that we’re in a recovery,” he said. “We have an energy crisis while this president tries to tell the American people that he’s doing all he can do. I don’t think so. Why didn’t he do what he should have been doing three years ago?”
Cain went on to mock a 2008 Obama campaign gaffe in which the then-candidate ridiculed conservative Pennsylvanians as being neurotic gun-owners and religious zealots.
“I’m going to cling to my Bible and my gun,” Cain said, paraphrasing Obama’s own words to rapturous applause.
Friday, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley urged the PLC to back Romney. Though Haley was well-received, the Romney surrogate’s explanation for the former Massachusetts governor’s perceived flip-flopping received a lukewarm reception.
“Is he a flip-flopper? Ultimately that’s going to be up to you,” Haley said.
U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Lehigh County, gave his strongest nonendorsement of Romney to date during his Friday appearance at the conference.
“I think Mitt Romney is a conservative, and I think if he’s president he’ll govern as a conservative,” said Toomey, who maintains he will not endorse in the nomination race.
The conference kicked off Friday with a scathing admonition of state GOP lawmakers by Fred Anton, described by Toomey as “the senior statesman of the conservative movement in Pennsylvania.”
Anton, president of the Pennsylvania Manufacturers Association and chairman of the conference, reminded convention goers in his opening remarks that the PLC was “a meeting of conservatives, not a meeting of the Republican Party.”
Anton then dressed-down the GOP-controlled state house for marginalizing commonly held conservative initiatives, such as privatizing state liquor stores and enacting school choice through vouchers.
“We conservatives are interested in enacting politics in accordance with our principles,” he said. “Unfortunately, the [governor’s office, state House and Senate] ... have not had that as its objective.”
This year’s conference, which drew more than 800 attendees, was replete with activists intent on shifting Republican Party authority to the grassroots.
“My concern is that it’s top-down,” Union County GOP Chairwoman Yvonne Morgan said of the state party. “It’s not state committee that endorses [candidates], it’s leadership [and] I’m offended by that.”
In 2006, people still thought he was pro-life though.
Come on PA... we need a brokered convention... My pick is Sarah, yours may be Newt or yours may be Santorum...
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Palin-Our-Brokered-Convention-Selection/219407098154932?ref=tn_tnmn
I like SAM ROHRER better for his conservative credentials. But I’d be inclined to vote for Tom Smith at this point as well. He seems to have the staying power and resources to see this one through. His conservative credentials are too shabby either.
You know anything about this guy? Keith Rothfus, I haven’t seen any ads for him. All I’ve seen is Critz/Altmire ads
I don't know much about him other than that he is an attorney and would certainly be an improvement over either of these fake Blue Dog Democrats, both of whom ran against ObamaCare and both of whom refused to vote to repeal it.
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