Free Republic

While the rest of the country gets swept away with college basketball March Madness, a public relations company called Survey St. Louis made their own bracket in the run-up for the 2008 Republican Presidential nomination for the second year. It's an easy game: you log on and vote for you favorite Republican candidate by region and as politicians are voted out, others advance to match up with others. And, of course, get all the bragging rights when your underdog pulls of a huge upset. Like Mike Pence did. Survey St. Loius warns there could be a "Cinderella Story in the...

Rep. Mike Pence (R.-Ind.), the HUMAN EVENTS Man of the Year, delivered the best speech at CPAC. We were fortunate enough to have Pence join us afterward for a special HUMAN EVENTS discussion at the Omni Shoreham Hotel. Pence spoke to about 40 die-hard activists and conservative bloggers at CPAC. He received a standing ovation upon entering the room and took time out of his morning schedule to answer all the questions that were posed to him. Among the highlights: On Reform of the United Nations: Carroll Andrew Morse of the blog Anchor Rising asked Pence the likelihood of immigration...

(WANE-TV, Washington, D.C.) He's one of politics' fastest-rising stars --he could even be a dark-horse presidential contender-- and he represents part of northeast Indiana: Congressman Mike Pence. Pence is from Columbus, which is in south-central Indiana. But his district extends all the way into Wells, Adams, Jay, and southern Allen counties. Recently, our Mark Mellinger flew to Washington to meet Mike Pence for himself. Below is the text from his special report: Take a stroll around the U.S. Capitol with Mike Pence, and a couple things become evident. One, he's a history buff. Two, he's a conservative in every possible...

(WANE-TV, Washington, D.C.) Indiana Congressman Mike Pence says some conservative leaders have talked with him about possibly running for president in 2008. Though he hasn't ruled it out, Pence downplays the possibility. Pence is an increasingly visible figure on Capitol Hill. He now chairs Congress's largest caucus, the Republican Study Committee, a group of more than 100 conservative members of Congress. He has received national attention for his efforts to offset hurricane relief spending with budget cuts elsewhere and has opposed some of the Bush administration's changes in education and medicare policy. In an interview broadcast on WANE-TV's 6 p.m....

Indiana congressman, talk show darling and Reagan disciple Mike Pence is fast becoming the voice of small-government conservatives. "WASHINGTON -- With prematurely gray hair, soft features and chestnut-brown eyes, Mike Pence has the clean-cut, polished look of a television anchorman. He exudes a calm and relaxed presence characteristic of his native Midwest." In other words, Mike Pence has a very presidential look. Many people have commented on that fact. Also, the Bible claims in Proverbs 16:31 “A gray head is a crown of glory; It is found in the way of righteousness.” "Rush Limbaugh on decaf" is how he often...

WASHINGTON -- With prematurely gray hair, soft features and chestnut-brown eyes, Mike Pence has the clean-cut, polished look of a television anchorman. He exudes a calm and relaxed presence characteristic of his native Midwest. "Rush Limbaugh on decaf" is how he often describes himself. And he leavens his points with humor. "I'm a conservative, but I'm not in a bad mood about it," he explains. Though a third-term congressman from central Indiana who is a relative newcomer to the political power centers in Washington, Pence, 46, already is a favored guest on television news talk shows, such as Fox News'...

Congress hasn’t reopened a budget act by amendment since 1977. And were it not for the leadership of Mike Pence (R-IN) and the Republican Study Committee, that streak would have continued through 2005. Like thieves in the night, Congress avoids returning to the scene of the crime. Because budget acts are composed of mandatory spending, Congress is especially reluctant to reopen the books to find savings. But thanks to a recent uprising among fiscally conservative House Republicans, Congress will have to do just that this year. Much is made publicly about pork barrel discretionary spending, but it is the mandatory...

When I consider Hurricane Katrina and its tragic aftermath, the ancient parable comes to mind: “And the rains descended, and the flood came, and the winds blew and beat against the house and it fell with a great crash.” For most American families, when a tree falls on your house, first you tend to the wounded, you start the clean up, and then you figure out how you are going to pay for it. In recent days, Congress has funded the relief and recovery from Hurricane Katrina by speeding more than $60 billion to FEMA and other agencies involved in...

HERNDON, Va., Sept. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- On Monday, September 26 Congressman Mike Pence of Indiana will discuss with Capitol Hill interns why the conservative leadership in Congress has abandoned its allegiance to the principles of smaller government. The event will begin at 3:30 pm in Room 1334 of the Longworth House Office Building. Pence has been one of the lone conservatives speaking out against massive spending splurges, including the Prescription/Drug Medicare and Highway bills, and most recently, the hurricane relief bill. Currently, Pence is leading the charge of what has been called "Operation Offset," a strategic move to delay and...

House conservatives called for broad spending cuts yesterday to offset emergency funding in response to Hurricane Katrina, a move that triggered heightened friction between leadership officials and the right wing of the GOP conference. The tensions illustrate a growing divide within the party about how to handle hurricane relief as another storm heads for the battered Gulf Coast region. Yesterday’s rally was an echo of the so-called Republican Revolution, when the current majority first swept into power behind their brash new Speaker, Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), after the 1994 elections. Conference conservatives pointed to a number of government programs, both big...

House Republicans are looking at delaying some federal spending, including money for a prescription drug benefit under Medicare and thousands of highway projects, to offset the cost of rebuilding the Gulf Coast, a leading GOP fiscal conservative said Sunday. Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., said there is a need for dramatic spending cuts in "big-ticket items." However, Democrats appearing on Sunday news programs questioned how President Bush can trim the budget to pay for Katrina recovery and support tax cuts for the wealthy. "Where is he going to find roughly half a trillion dollars over the next several years for Iraq...

There's an old adage that no one in Washington can tell the difference between $1 million and $1 billion. Seldom has that Beltway learning disability been more vividly demonstrated than in the weeks since Katrina. When President Bush announced last Thursday that the feds would take a lead role in the reconstruction of New Orleans, he in effect established a new $200 billion federal line of credit. To put that $200 billion in perspective, we could give every one of the 500,000 families displaced by Katrina a check for $400,000, and they could each build a beach front home virtually...

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With all the pitfalls President Bush has navigated in five tumultuous years, the one worry he has rarely confronted is rebellion in his own ranks. But House Republicans, his rock, are increasingly restive about the effect that the president’s expansive plans for rebuilding the Gulf Coast could have on the nation’s already massive budget deficits. Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), the prematurely white-haired leader of the House conservative caucus, set the stage for a tense week for the two ends of Pennsylvania Avenue when he declared Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that to offset the cost of Katrina relief, “We've got...

NEW YORK, Sept. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- On Thursday, President Bush delivered a speech to the nation where he pledged to "do what it takes," to rebuild the Gulf region. By late last week there were signs of renewal in New Orleans and the sounds of hammers and saws all along the coast. But Bush's new commitments, as broad and sweeping as the Mississippi River itself, could divide his own party, blast gaping holes in the federal budget and create management tasks that swamp his second-term agenda -- including the creation of a benign Iraq, reports Newsweek Chief Political Correspondent Howard...