“Connie Mack is a friend, a strong conservative and the type of principled leader we need in Washington to restore fiscal responsibility.  By electing Connie Mack, the people of Florida will be sending a clear message to Senator Nelson and President Obama that their failed policies have not worked to change the borrow and spend ways of Washington.” – Mitt Romney

Matt Lewis of the Daily Caller has the inside baseball-

According to sources familiar with the campaign’s thinking, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is set to endorse Rep. Connie Mack in the Florida Republican primary against George LeMieux.

LeMieux was Charlie Crist’s former Chief of Staff — and the man Crist appointed to the U.S. Senate in 2009. LeMieux described himself then as a “Charlie Crist Republican,” and led an assault on Rubio during the 2009 campaign, but is now trying to remake himself as a tea party candidate. (It’s also worth noting that Romney endorsed Marco Rubio over Crist two years ago.)

Mack has emerged as the conservative favorite, having been endorsed by Sen. Rand Paul, Rep. Michelle Bachman and the American Conservative Union.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal recently, FreedomWorks’ Dick Armey and Matt Kibbe observed: “Building on the historic successes of 2010, we have an opportunity to take control of the Senate and dramatically increase the ranks of entrepreneurial fiscal conservatives, creating a dynamic new majority within the majority … It means winning races in key battlegrounds like Florida, where Rep. Connie Mack is emerging as the most able fiscal conservative…”

It strikes me as significant that Romney is weighing in. This has been a hotly contested race, and this endorsement points to a commitment by Romney to build a conservative majority in the United States Senate and to ensure the party is competitive for senate seats in states like Florida.

 

Congresswoman Sandy Adams has introduced a reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act that will extend the provisions of the original act for another 5 years.  The GOP led House of Representatives is expected to pass the bill, but not without major objections from the Democratic Caucus.

Adams herself is a past victim of domestic violence and has been a strong advocate for continued dialogue on the issue and has helped other victims of domestic violence cope with their issues.

One of Adams’ closest allies, Congressman Allen West told the Shark Tank he is supportive of Adams’ re-authorization but wants to make sure that this bill is not used as a political football by certain members of Congress.

Democrats are opposing the bill because the bill does not specifically state that Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender (LBGT) couples would be covered under the Act.  Republicans contend that the Act covers couples regardless of whether they are gay or straight and that Domestic Violence affects all people, regardless of their sexual orientation.

Democrats have been emboldened by President Obama’s recent pandering to gay-marriage supporters within the Democratic party by announcing his completion of his “evolution” in support of gay marriage.  Obama’s newly articulated support of gay marriage is actually a return to the position he held in the late 1990′s before he entered electoral politics.

Congresswoman Adams has recently teamed up with congressional candidate Karen Harrington in promoting their Women for Freedom initiative.

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Three Republican members of Florida’s congressional delegation- Allen West, David Rivera and Tom Rooney will be offering up their own amendments to the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).  Rooney, a former military prosecutor in the Army JAG Corps is proposing an amendment which will require detainees currently held at Guantanamo Bay to be tried by military commissions in courtrooms on the premises.

“Military tribunals are a better option to try terrorist detainees than Article III (federal) courts, because they provide due process while protecting critical, often confidential, intelligence officials and evidence.  The constitutional and legal standards for evidence-gathering and prosecution in a civilian case just aren’t adequate for trying enemy combatants in a time of war.

“I could not disagree more strongly with those who say foreign terrorists caught on the battlefield should receive the same rights and privileges as American citizens.  As a former military prosecutor, I strongly believe that trying detainees in military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay is the best way to hold terrorists accountable, keep them off American soil, and prevent them from rejoining the fight.”- Congressman Tom Rooney

During an interview with Congressman Allen West in his Washington D.C. office, West explained the purpose of the NDAA but warned that the U.S. Military was being “taken in the wrong direction.”  West also stated that the U.S. has a “horrible diminished influence” in the international community due to the violation of the War Powers Act by President Obama when he authorized military action in Libya.

West agrees that Obama and his foreign policy “can be threatening to the future stability and security of the United States of America.”

Watch Congressman West’s  interview here-

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In what will be the most consequential election year in generations that puts to convictions of the general electorate to the test, beltway Republicans don’t appear to be making things any easier for their party’s prospects in November.

Today’s Politico features an article that cites Republican official familiar with the internal deliberations withing the Romney campaign in determining who is likely to be Romney’s VP selection.

Romney’s national strategist Stuart Stevens was himself a former advisor to former Governor Charlie Crist’s failed Senator campaign against Senator Marco Rubio,  is focused on making sure that Romney doesn’t make the same the mistakes McCain made back in 2008.

Apparently, the scuttle is that the Romney folks are leaning towards a ‘safe pick’ for VP position. The Politico cites one of these advisors  as saying that ” it (Romney’s campaign) will be designed to produce a pick who is safe and, by design, unexciting–a deliberate anti-Palin”.  The POLITICO piece quotes this ‘official’ also stating that they are looking for someone that is an “incredibly boring white guy.”

But a Republican official familiar with the Romney campaign’s thinking said the vice presidential search will be more rigorous and will likely produce a candidate a lot less flashy than McCain’s running mate, then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. -Politico

These are the same advisors that ran a losing 2008 campaign, that if it wasn’t for  someone having a ‘bump on the head’, ‘come to jesus  moment’ of picking Sarah Palin as the VP, would have been at the helm of one of the worse presidential loses in recent history.

Love her or hate her, Sarah Palin saved McCain’s 2008 Presidential bid from a disastrous ending by firing up the base and shoring up conservative activists.

“If not [Ohio Sen. Rob] Portman , [former Minnesota Gov. Tim] Pawlenty, [Indiana Gov. Mitch] Daniels — some other incredibly boring white guy,” the official said. “If there was a fourth name on the list, it’s [Virginia Gov.] Bob McDonnell.”

So who will be this boring ‘Whiteboy’ that Romney’s team is possibly looking for?  According to Politico’s source, the Romney campaign appears leery of  Governor Chris Christie for being too much of a firebrand and Senator Marco Rubio for being to green to the process as well unvetted.  They also have reservations about South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez , both of whom have not yet been had much exposure on the national stage and could be more susceptible to gaffes, i.e. potentially Palin-esque.

Will the Romney campaign play it safe with its VP pick, or will they think “outside the box” and pick someone who could have a broad national appeal to diverse constituency groups?

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The crowded congressional race to replace outgoing Congressman Connie Mack may have just received a bit of a jolt as candidate Chauncey Goss has just received the endorsement of the popular congressman from Wisconsin Paul Ryan. Goss is the son of former Congressman and CIA Director Porter Goss and has worked closely with Ryan in the past.  Goss was also a part of Senator Marco Rubio’s policy team during his 2010 Senate victory over Charlie Crist.

Here is the Goss Campaign’s press release:

May 14, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

In support of Congressional candidate Chauncey Goss, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin issued the following statement:

“Chauncey was instrumental to me on the House Budget Committee in advancing bold solutions for putting this nation on a sound fiscal footing. Combating the spending appetites of both political parties, Chauncey always put principle first in fighting for fiscal responsibility and economic prosperity. His command of policy and his tireless work ethic make Chauncey uniquely qualified to hit the ground running if given the opportunity to serve in Congress. I stand in strong support of Chauncey Goss, and I look forward to working with him to uphold the unique American legacy of giving the next generation a stronger, more prosperous nation.”

Goss response to Paul Ryan endorsement:

“Paul Ryan is a leader who is actively working on solutions, policies, and plans to restore this nation to greatness. His endorsement inspires me to work even harder so that I can join him in solving our nation’s fiscal problems. I am honored to have his support and proud to call him a friend.”

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Back in March, a segment of Steven Colbert’s “People Destroying America” featured a Florida teacher who had come under investigation for registering her students to vote.  The segment featured remarks on the case from ACLU Executive Director Howard Simon who informed us how “there are probably a larger number of shark attacks in Florida then there are cases of voter fraud.”

Not surprisingly, PolitiFact Florida backed up Simon’s claim in yet another one of its fundamentally flawed fact-finding exercises (we’ve previously documented how PolitiFact has carried some of Obama’s dirtiest water.)  PolitiFact’s “analysis” of voter fraud in Florida only looked at the instances where voter fraud was investigated by the state and downplayed the fact that Florida is fertile for the types of voter fraud that flies under the radar and is never reported.

In addition to the Colbert segment trivializing the issue of voter fraud, it appears to have substantially understated just how pervasive the issue of voter fraud is here in Florida.

The Florida Division of Elections (FDOE) and Secretary of State Ken Detzner are now investigating up to 180,000 individuals on Florida’s voter rolls who may not be United States citizens, which would of course make them ineligible to legally vote.

Now we are learning that Detzner is being stonewalled by the Obama administration by ignoring his requests for access to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) databases that will allow them to quickly determine the citizenship status of those on the list and verify their eligibility to vote or not.

Predictably, the Miami Herald and their Democrat accomplices are crying foul, claiming that the efforts by the Florida Division of Elections are nothing more than “voter suppression” that is targeted against any and all “immigrants” when it’s really an effort to simply clean the voter rolls of non-citizens who are not eligible to vote.

Since the State of Florida cannot completely verify an individual’s citizenship status without querying information that’s maintained by the federal government, it apparently is making a good faith effort to confirm an individual’s citizenship status to determine their voter eligibility- an effort that likely should have been undertaken a long time ago.  But if it wasn’t clear by now, it should be- the Obama administration is totally invested in maintaining the corrupt status quo, and it will obstruct those who attempt to purge illegally registered voters from the voter rolls by any means necessary.

The process that the FDOE is employing to clean the rolls is transparent and fair enough- initially, those who have initially been identified by the state as potential non-citizen voters will be contacted by mail and given 30 days to respond and clarify their citizenship status. If they do not respond within 30 days, those individuals’ names names will be published in newspapers, after which they will have 30 more days to respond.  Failure to respond to those inquiries at that point will result in that individual’s removal the voter rolls.

You would think that voter eligibility shouldn’t be such a controversial proposition– each living legal citizen has the right to cast one vote.   Unfortunately, what should be a universally accepted standard for voting is verifiably now a requirement that Democrats refuse to accept.

Democratic Senator Bill Nelson finds himself in a quandry- unable to defend the failed Obama agenda that he has fully supported for the past four years, his last line of defense is to blame Republicans for causing partisan gridlock in Congress.  After receiving an award from SAVE DADE for his role in helping to end the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, Nelson stated the following-

Just turn on your TV and you will see the extremism, the polarization, the excessive partisanship, the ideological rigidity, the people who say, it’s gonna be my way or no way, all of the ‘right thinking people’, and that is what is happening in the body of politics today.  - Senator Bill Nelson

Senator Nelson makes a very good point in regards to extremism, polarization, partisanship, and ideological rigidity- all of those traits are the trademark of Nelson’s friend and boss, President Barack Obama.  It’s almost incomprehensible how politicos such as Nelson can lament the state of politics today, identify much of what ails our political class, and yet remain incapable of accurately identifying just who the perpetrators of such behavior are.

Jonah Goldberg’s new book The Tyranny of Cliches- How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas makes this point abundantly clear- liberals such as Nelson either are blind to the fact or refuse to admit that they’re pursuing their own ideological agenda, claiming instead that they’re just “doing what’s right” or “acting pragmatically”.  In fact, Nelson and President Obama are pursuing a highly ideological agenda that is rapidly expanding government control over the private sector of the economy in countless numbers of ways that before long will radically transform our society into a European-style socialist welfare state with greater numbers of people looking to the government and not themselves for their own financial sustenance.

If Senator Nelson were truly concerned about partisan gridlock or the fact that not much has been accomplished over the past year and a half, he can simply look down the hall at the current pile of bills that have passed the House of Representatives but have been intentionally blocked by Senate Majority Leader Senator Harry Reid, from whom Nelson takes his cues.

We’ll give credit to Senator Nelson for one thing- he voted ‘Nay’ on President Obama’s farcical 2012 budget.

Senator Bill Nelson is running for re-election and will likely face the winner of the current Republican senatorial primary race between Congressman Connie Mack and his former Senate colleague George LeMieux.

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The U.S. Senate Republican primary race in Florida is in full swing, and potential Republican voters are wondering who will be the candidate that will best represent them in the U.S. Senate, working along side U.S. Senator Marco Rubio.

 The top two candidates in the race, Congressman Connie Mack and former U.S. Senator George LeMieux are trying to prove to the Republican electorate who is the more conservative candidate of the two.  On the surface, both candidates seem to have a fairly conservative voting record during their respective stints in Congress, but it’s time that we start paying closer attention to these two candidates and scrutinize their votes.

On September 27, 2010, President Barack Obama signed into law the Small Business Jobs Plan of 2010. This jobs plan was widely rejected by Republicans in the Congress and was referred to as a “mini-TARP”.  Then Senatorial candidate and now U.S. Senator Marco Rubio joined other conservative candidates and Republicans in Congress denouncing this bill as just another ‘bailout’.

 So how did Mack vote in the House of Representatives, and how did LeMieux vote on the Senate side?

(No)Congressman Connie Mack sided with Senator Jim DeMint, and  the rest of the Republican caucus in the Congress, and voted against President Obama’s jobs bill. (Source)

 (Yes)Senator George LeMieux was one of two Republican Senators that broke the Republican  filibuster in the Senate, and voted in favor of President Obama’s Small Business Jobs bill. For his efforts, President Barack Obama openly thanked LeMieux at a Rose Garden press conference touting the passage of the bill in the Senate.

 For months, the Republican leadership in the senate has said ‘NO’. For months they have used legislative maneuvers to prevent this bill from even coming up for a vote. Now thankfully, two Republican Senators, George Voinovich and George LeMeiux, have refused to support this blockade any longer. And because of their decision, this small business jobs bill will finally pass. I want to thank them for their efforts, because they understand that we simply don’t have time anymore to play games.- President Barack Obama( See video below)

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During the annual ‘Champions of Equality’ gala put on by the non-partisan group

While  SAVE Dade, Executive Director CJ Ortuno told the Shark Tank that the event was officially non-partisan, and did not not mention any particular political party in his remarks, he did slide in some eerily familiar progressive Democratic talking points and slogans such as-

“You are voting for the young lesbian migrant worker.”

” Be a part of a campaign, and vote for change.”- C. J. Ortuno, SAVE Dade

Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz was also on hand to lend support to the equal rights movement, and in her remarks she told the story about how her young daughter smacked down an equal rights bully on her Twitter page.  Wasserman Schultz later listed all of the ‘equal rights’ accomplishments during the Obama administration. Wasserman Schultz brought  her daughter to the event.

I see a tweet from my daughter Rebecca, that says “when the guy in my PE class says he wouldn’t be sad if gays didn’t exist, hashtag you are the worse, hashtag shut up”. -Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz

Wasserman Schultz’ remarks come on the heels of President Obama’s much hyped “evolution” on same sex marriage where he credited his two young daughters for influencing him to change his position on the issue in advance of his re-election bid.  Many in the political world believe that Obama is pandering for votes by using his children to run cover for his decision, and it appears that Congresswoman Schultz is following his lead.

Wasserman Schultz is running for re-election this year, and will  be facing off against Republican grassroots favorite Karen Harrington who is  the clear front runner in her contested primary race to defeat Wasserman Schultz. Harrington holds a with a 5-to1 advantage over her nearest Republican opponent.

Are President Obama and Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz pandering for votes with this political maneuver?

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The fallout continues from Connie Mack’s recent ‘mail-gate’ debacle that has tripped up his U.S. Senate campaign.  Mack apparently sent out a franked mailer (mail that members of Congress are only allowed to send out to their congressional district) to Republican voters outside of his congressional district,prompting his opponent George LeMieux to arrange a media call to call attention to this matter.

LeMieux tore into Mack on the call, coming close to calling him an outright liar.

Mack’s campaign is now admitting that it was an honest mistake that made by the vendor who sends the mail for both Mack’s legislative office as well as for his senate campaign.

LeMieux, who is trailing Mack in the most recent head-to-head polls, suggests that this was a deliberate act by Mack to use taxpayer dollars to benefit his Senatorial campaign.  LeMieux cited that the mailer in question that promoted Mack’s ‘Penny Plan’ which also referenced the support of U.S. Senator Rand Paul who endorsed Mack just a few days ago. Coincidence?

LeMieux isn’t buying that it was a mistake.  He said that Mack’s explanation “does not hold water” and finds it “hard to believe.”  LeMieux then reverted back into campaign mode by bringing up Mack’s past personal missteps, trying to paint a broader picture that Mack is habitually hamstrung by drama of his own making.

“The idea of this being a mistake, is hard to believe.  It’s certainly also hard to believe, in light of the fact of all of the other problems that Mr. Mack has had, with telling the truth, or with comporting himself in manner that befitting of a Member of Congress. We have highlighted for the media, not only his past acts of violence, but also his financial improprieties, like bouncing checks as a Member of Congress, failing to pay his bills while a Member of congress, being sued by his lawyer, his yacht club, and his condominium association for failing to pay bills, while a Member of Congress.”- George LeMieux

Of the 55,000+ pieces of mail that were sent out, LeMieux explained that the reason he believes Mack deliberately broke U.S. House Franking rules was based on twelve communications he received from across the state that alerted him about the mailer.

Earlier today, the Mack campaign released a letter from the U.S. House of Representative’s Franking Commission supporting Mack’s claim that it was a mistake.  The letter referred to the “unintentional error that was made by William McClintock & Associates (The Vendor).”

The commission added that mistakes of this nature are unfortunately part of the political mix, calling it “an unfortunate mistake that does happen from time to time and the proper steps to reimburse the cost of the error have been followed accordingly.”

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