There’s a BIG difference between a simple endorsement
and the Lil’Ricky Mitt endorsement
equivalent of a political "Lewinsky".
Whatever Lil' Ricky. Might as well wash his feet while your at it.
Posted on 03/16/2012 9:03:36 AM PDT by Josh Painter
Rick Santorum is regarded by many of his supporters as the “real” conservative in the GOP presidential race, and most Democrats pay him the unintended compliment of considering him an arch-conservative. Undoubtedly, Santorum is a conservative of a certain type, but how far to the right was his voting record during the three terms he spent in the United States Senate?
To answer this question, I went to the American Conservative Union’s ratings archive for 2006, Santorum’s last year as a senator, and looked up the lifetime ratings of those who were in the Senate at that time. One could debate voting records endlessly, but most observers consider the ACU’s ratings to be a reliable and objective index of where a senator or congressman fits on the political spectrum.
In 2006, there were 50 Republican senators. (Jumping Jim Jeffords switched parties somewhere in that time frame; I counted him as a Democrat. The ladies from Maine, of course, counted as Republicans.) Santorum’s lifetime ACU rating as of 2006 was 88.1. That is a pretty good rating, but Santorum was not one of the most conservative senators. On the contrary: while 20 Republicans had voting records that the ACU rated as more liberal than Santorum’s, 26 had voting records that were more conservative. Four Republican senators had ratings with one percent of Santorum’s, which I regarded as equivalent.
Thus, by this measure, Santorum was actually in the more moderate half of Republican senators during his years in that body. Bob Dole had a more conservative lifetime voting record; so did Trent Lott, John Sununu, Mitch McConnell, Lindsay Graham, and Orrin Hatch, who is now facing a Tea Party challenge in Utah. Bill Frist, not generally known as a fire-eater, had a record almost exactly as conservative as Santorum’s, at 87.8.
The explanation for these numbers is evident: while Santorum was a reliably conservative senator on social issues, he was not very conservative, for a Republican, on economic and fiscal issues. All of the four remaining contenders in the GOP presidential field are conservatives, but they are conservatives of different stripes. It is not accurate to describe Santorum as the most conservative of the four, or as the only “real” conservative in the group.
You trust Santorum to do what.
Balance the Budget?
Repeal Roe v Wade?
You trust Santorum to do what.
Balance the Budget?
Repeal Roe v Wade?
“Huckabee without the personality.”
Well said.
The Power Line blog endorsed Romney claimung he has a solid conservative record and while Santorum does have a bad record, how does this blog wash away the fact Romney opposed Reagan calling himself an independent, in his 94 run against Kennedy he ran to the left of Kennedy on “gay rights,” then there’s his planned parenthood questionarre, his” editorial on the flat tax calling it a tax break for fatcats, Romney even created an entire agency to combat global warming, his judicial nominees are activists that rule in favor of boys wearing fingernail polish n skirts to school, amd let’s not forget Romneycare, which funds abortions.
I think Santorum, as well as a lot of us, realize A LOT has changed since 2008 and a lot of minds have been changed in the process.
santorum.... the bushes 4th term... no thanks
There’s a BIG difference between a simple endorsement
and the Lil’Ricky Mitt endorsement
equivalent of a political "Lewinsky".
Whatever Lil' Ricky. Might as well wash his feet while your at it.
Romney...Obama’s second term...no thanks.
“santorum.... the bushes 4th term... no thanks”
That’s what worries me, too.
I will support Santorum if it comes down to him and Willard. But while Newt is still in the mix, I’m for Newt.
This article has a glaring factual error; Dole’s lifetime rating is an 82, which is less than Santorum’s 88.
Those who can’t handle the truth often attack the messenger.
How many of those who condemned Graham as a RINO will make excuses for Santorum?
Remember not to attack the messenger and not to make excuses for Newt.
We Rick supporters can do the same thing Newt supporters do. All the candidates has negative; romney the most. To say Rick is worse than Newt is not true.
Is Newt Gingrich liberal? You better believe it. In fact, he has a long record of standing for just about everything that the Tea Party is supposed to be against. Newt Gingrich has long supported an individual mandate for health care, he supported the Wall Street bailouts, he supported the funding of Planned Parenthood, he did a global warming commercial with Nancy Pelosi and he has made tens of millions of dollars lobbying for liberal causes. In addition, he has a personal life which will make him unelectable when put up against Barack Obama in a general election. So what in the world are Republicans thinking? This is not the guy to hitch our wagon to. Are Republicans really going to nominate a guy who co-sponsored 418 bills with Nancy Pelosi? Newt Gingrich is so liberal that someone needs to tell him that he is in the wrong political party. Newt Gingrich is not just a RINO (”Republican In Name Only”). He is a progressive socialist and a consummate Washington insider. He represents everything that the Tea Party is supposed to be fighting to get out of Washington.
If you plan on voting for Newt Gingrich, please read the rest of the information below first.
The following are 10 reasons why Newt Gingrich is liberal....
#1 Newt Gingrich was promoting the principles of Obamacare before Obamacare was even invented. Republicans are supposed to be against Obamacare, and yet a huge percentage of them are supporting a candidate that was pushing an individual mandate way before Obamacare was ever even invented.
In June 2007, Gingrich made the following statement....
“Personal responsibility extends to the purchase of health insurance. Citizens should not be able to cheat their neighbors by not buying insurance, particularly when they can afford it, and expect others to pay for their care when they need it.”
That doesn’t sound very conservative.
Gingrich says that he will repeal Obamacare, but back in 2008 Gingrich wrote a book entitled “Real Change” in which he endorsed an individual health care mandate.
So should we believe what Gingrich is saying now or should we believe what he has been saying for nearly 20 years?
#2 Before he was running for president, he was running around the country with Al Sharpton promoting the socialist education policies of the Obama administration.
#3 Back in 2008 Gingrich actually did a television commercial with Nancy Pelosi in which he declared that “our country must take action to address climate change”.
#4 Not only that, Gingrich also has promoted the idea of a “cap and trade” carbon trading scheme. Back in 2007, Gingrich said the following....
“I think if you have mandatory carbon caps combined with a trading system, much like we did with sulfur, and if you have a tax-incentive program for investing in the solutions, that there’s a package there that’s very, very good. And frankly, it’s something I would strongly support.”
#5 While he was in Congress, Newt Gingrich co-sponsored 418 bills with Nancy Pelosi.
#6 As we have seen during the recent debates, Gingrich openly supports amnesty for millions of illegal aliens.
#7 In 2008 Newt Gingrich declared that he would have voted for the TARP bailout if he was still a member of Congress.
#8 While Newt Gingrich was the Speaker of the House the amount of taxes collected by the U.S. government soared from $1.001 trillion to $1.511 trillion.
#9 Newt Gingrich is a big time Washington insider that is often paid huge sums of money for doing next to nothing. Gingrich has said that he was paid $300,000 for “work” that he did for Freddie Mac, but according to Bloomberg he actually earned somewhere between $1.6 million and $1.8 million between 1999 and 2008.
So what did he do for Freddie Mac? Gingrich claims that he warned Freddie Mac about the housing bubble, but the report by Bloomberg disputes this....
None of the former Freddie Mac officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said Gingrich raised the issue of the housing bubble or was critical of Freddie Mac’s business model.
It turns out that much of the “work” that Gingrich was expected to do never actually got done....
Former Freddie Mac officials familiar with his work in 2006 say Gingrich was asked to build bridges to Capitol Hill Republicans and develop an argument on behalf of the company’s public-private structure that would resonate with conservatives seeking to dismantle it.
He was expected to provide written material that could be circulated among free-market conservatives in Congress and in outside organizations, said two former company executives familiar with Gingrich’s role at the firm. He didn’t produce a white paper or any other document the firm could use on its behalf, they said.
#10 The Republican Party is supposed to be the party of “moral values”, but they are getting ready to send someone to the White House that has a track record that would make Bill Clinton blush.
The following is how a recent Business Insider article described the “skeletons in the closet” from his personal life....
Newt’s personal baggage is either weird or scary. He married his high-school geometry teacher. He cheated on her and divorced her while she had cancer. So he married Marianne Ginther six months later. But that wasn’t to last.
Gingrich conducted a tawdry affair behind her back with one of his staffers while making political hay out of Clinton’s affair with a White House intern. He then divorced Marianne and married the staffer.
How in the world can Republicans be supporting this guy?
For more on the personal life of Newt Gingrich, please check out this video.
We desperately need to educate Republicans about this guy while there is still time.
The following is from a recent opinion piece authored by U.S. Senator Rand Paul for The Des Moines Register....
Both Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich supported the outrageous $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, bailouts — “one of the most unpopular government programs in American history,” even according to President Obama’s own Treasury Department.
Both Romney and Gingrich have been outspoken and unapologetic supporters of the individual mandate. This is the heart and soul of ObamaCare.
Since the tea party started as a reaction to Republicans who voted for TARP, and was strengthened into a national political force during the fight over ObamaCare, I believe this disqualifies both Romney and Gingrich from tea party support.
But Paul was not finished there. He went on to list many more reasons why Gingrich is not qualified to lead the Republican Party....
Gingrich began his career as a Rockefeller Republican from the liberal wing of the party. And though he has often spoken and occasionally acted like he left that wing, it is clear from his flip-flops and multiple “apologies” that his heart is still there.
His record features “highlights” such as global warming commercials with Nancy Pelosi, support for cap-and-trade, funding Planned Parenthood, and, recently, announcing that life does not begin at conception.
Not only that, but Gingrich took money as a Freddie Mac lobbyist — one of the well-known government-backed agencies that served as a root cause of the financial meltdown of 2008.
While one candidate in the race, my father, Rep. Ron Paul, was publicly warning about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the crisis they were helping to create, Gingrich was earning millions to not only endorse but also promote the status quo.
One group of Gingrich’s also took in nearly $40 million promoting big-government ideas, such as the individual mandate.
His lobbying and promotion of the housing crisis and the health care mandate have helped to make him a wealthy man, but they have also put him outside the conservative mainstream on most issues.
In conclusion, Paul claimed that Gingrich is not even a conservative....
So I will conclude by saying two things: Gingrich is not from the tea party. He is not even a conservative.
He is part of the Washington establishment I was sent to fight. He has been wrong on many of the major issues of the day, and he has taken money from those who helped cause the housing crisis and create millions of foreclosures.
Rand Paul is right - the reality is that Newt Gingrich is a rabid liberal and no Republican should ever cast a single vote for him.
For much more on why you should not vote for Newt Gingrich, please watch the short video posted below....
If you excommunicate everyone from the church of conservatism who ever said anything good about Mitt Romney, you are left with even a smaller constituency than Newt has on this map:
Some of your other points are logical as well, but most of it is as hyperbolic as the crap the Newtbots are throwing at Rick Santorum.
Any of the four are way better than Obama. And that includes Newt as well.
Newt may be a narcissistic s.o.b. with delusions of grandeur, but at least he doesn't hate America. I'll take a narcissistic s.o.b. who at least has a little respect for America any day over a narcissistic s.o.b. who has none and wants to transform it into a third world kleptocracy.
With the exception of Sununu all the above were representing solid red states. I can just about guarantee that if any of the above had been elected from Pennsylvania, their respective ACU ratings would have been lower than Rick's.
I don't recall anybody calling Fred Thompson a liberal back in 2008, but his lifetime ACU rating is lower than Santorum's.
Newt is unelectable. The most conservative part of the county just gave Santorum a string of victories against the other two in the race despite the anti-Santorum spam that we keep getting here. He draws the votes of those earning under $100k and connects to the heartland of America. This election is not only about “It’s the jobs stupid” it is also about “It’s the culture stupid.”
Newt has baggage heavy enough to sink a luxury cruise liner and as described by the WSJ is a “Hindenberg waiting to explode.” He just called the system for choosing candidates “stupid” a comment we did not hear from him when he won SC and GA. Newt needs to bow out of the race, he’s becoming a spoiler, and is creating a breach in the conservative vote that is allowing Romney to sneak through. He’s sabotaging Le Resistance to Romney.
How nitpicky of you.
/s
I'm not surprised that Dole was more conservative. I still remember him on the House floor, fighting Hillary Care - He said that it was not the governments job to do good, it was to prevent harm. Taken out of context, one might worry about the "prevent harm" bit, but he was right on.
Would you rather that the truth be hidden? Santorum’s not as conservative as he says (or as his strong supporters are wont to assert). That said, I could vote for him (prefer Newt) while I could not vote for Romney.
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