The Conservative Revolution

This will be a busy week for me. Today I fly to Los Angeles for Super Tuesday. Most of my attention will be on campaigning against a tax increase on the ballot there. I am also looking forward to seeing the circus surrounding Super Tuesday in L.A.

When I return on Thursday I’ll be introducing FreedomWorks Chairman Dick Armey at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington. FreedomWorks will also have a table for recruiting new members and interns.

It will be interesting to see whether Senator John McCain gets a cold reception at CPAC this year. Last year he refused to attend the conference and has shown little regard for conservatives over the years.

As the race for the GOP nomination heats up, I thought I would add my two cents to the debate. I originally supported Senator Sam Brownback for his staunch pro-life record coupled with his sound economic record. Once he left the race, I decided that Senator Fred Thompson and Congressman Ron Paul best represented my views on economic liberty and social issues. Their foreign policy positions are in stark contrast, and I agree much more with Thompson than Paul on foreign policy. [Paul has a strict non-interventionist view that is less realistic in today's world.]

Who will I vote for in the Virginia primary on Feb. 12th? I guess it depends upon whether or not the race is still up for grabs after super-duper Tuesday. I don’t think it will be, which means I will probably cast my vote for Ron Paul, my ideal candidate. If Thompson is in serious contention for the nomination on election day, I will likely vote for him instead.

What I love about Ron Paul is that when he is asked about ending government programs, he answers by saying he’d rather abolish entire departments, starting with the IRS and the Department of Education. His platform is not just to slow the growth of government, but to cut it down dramatically. No other candidate is bold enough to take such a stand. Ron Paul is without a doubt the most libertarian/conservative candidate in the race.

As for the others…

Rudy is a proven leader, and would probably make a strong commander-in-chief. But his liberal views on abortion and his anti-liberty position on guns are disheartening. I would only vote for Rudy if he got the GOP nomination and was taking on Hillary or Obama.

Mitt is a flip-flopping used car salesman of a politician. I like some of what he says, his private sector experience and his strong family values (practiced as much as preached.) I just don’t know if I can believe what he says, since he seems to be driven by the polls more than anything. I would more than likely support Mitt against the Democrat nominee.

McCain is a statesman and a patriot, but is hostile to free speech (McCain-Feingold), supports global warming nonsense like a “cap and trade” system and voted against the Bush tax cuts. While his leadership, judgment and character are his strongest attributes, he is not my favorite in the race. I would have no problem supporting McCain against the Democratic nominee in November.

Huckabee is a populist with sharp anti-business rhetoric. He sounds more like John Edwards than Ronald Reagan. His tax and spending record in Arkansas is awful, and the Cato Institute and Club for Growth have given him failing grades on fiscal policy. I would have an extremely hard time voting for Huckabee, even against the Democrats.

Although the media isn’t paying too much attention to this right now, Venezuela is set to hold an election on Sunday to vote on Hugo Chavez’s referendum. If the Venezuelans vote “si” Hugo Chavez will be able to become presidente for life.

Unfortunately, Chavez has been able to become quite popular with many poor people in his country, and expectations are that they will vote to grant him the power he covets. This reminds me of a line from the Star Wars series, when Natalie Portman’s character Queen Amidala says, “So this is how liberty dies, with thunderous applause.” The evil character Palpatine had just declared martial law and granted himself the title of “emperor” to a cheering Senate.

Sadly, the Chavez story is a real one. But the lesson from Star Wars is as old as human civilization. Lord Acton said it best, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

My question is whether Cindy Sheehan, Danny Glover, Harry Belafonte and Sean Penn will ever come to regret their sycophantic photos with the power-hungry and brutal dictator of Venezuela. Then again, the left has never really come to grips with its support for Castro or Stalin, so my expectations are low.

I am currently in the Nugget hotel in Reno, Nevada, taking some time to relax. I am attending the Conservative Leadership Conference hosted by Chuck Muth and Eric Odom. It has been a fun time, and I’ve met some fired up activists and bloggers. FreedomWorks Chairman Dick Armey gave a great speech this morning on the nature of politics today, and his views of how bloggers and activists should hold politicians accountable.

He was interviewed by a reporter from the Reno Gazette-Journal, and made national news (Drudge Report) by saying he thinks Hillary Clinton will be the next president. Bloggers have responded to his remarks at Red State and Granite Grok.

I happen to agree with Armey and after seeing Governor Mitt Romney live today I was not that impressed, just as I was not with Fred Thompson. Romney is a better speaker than Thompson and was good talking to people one on one, whereas Thompson avoided the bloggers at the Defending the Dream Summit in D.C. When asked, Romney didn’t come out in support of fundamental tax reform, and failed to mention anything about entitlement reform.

Congressman Duncan Hunter, Ambassador Alan Keyes and Congressman Bob Barr also attended the event this weekend. The folks here in Reno are really excited to have a conference in their home town, and I’ve invited a bunch of them to join FreedomWorks at our Liberty Summit in November.
Congrats to Chuck and Eric for putting on a great conference!

Newsweek has a good background piece on Fred Thompson, who is skipping this week’s GOP presidential candidate debate in New Hampshire, and will instead announce his candidacy on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno on Wednesday.

Thompson seems to be the most conservative candidate out of the leading four contenders in the GOP. He is polling second nationally, behind New York mayor Rudy Giuliani.

This week I am in New Hampshire meeting with FreedomWorks volunteers and organizing our strategy for the 2008 presidential primaries. We are working to build a constituency of expectations here in New Hampshire that will ask the candidates the tough questions about tax reform, the entitlement crisis and energy policy in the age of climate change hysteria.

The state is beautiful. I will take my first tour of Concord and Manchester tomorrow. I will post updates later in the week.

Update: I toured the state capitol building in Concord. It was pretty cool. There are 400 House members in New Hampshire but only 24 senators. I also did a district office visit with Sen. Judd Gregg’s staff. We talked about taxes, energy and social security. Tonight I am having dinner with the leaders of Students for Saving Social Security and two Brownback for President staffers in Manchester.

On the heels of his recent second place finish in the Ames straw poll, the media is showing new interest in Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee. But conservatives should not believe this “huckster” when he says he is a conservative.

Huckabee is a tax and spend big government Republican posing as a conservative.

Read this article by a liberal columnist in Arkansas.

Here is the truth about Mike Huckabee’s reign. He was largely a passive executive, who usually left initiative to the legislature. He was roused to passion for nine initiatives, each a sharp expansion of government activity or control: the dramatic expansion of government health insurance for children, the CHART program to combat health deficiencies with tobacco-settlement funds and later higher cigarette taxes, the sales tax for recreation, the consolidation of small and middle-sized schools (under 500 students), highway taxes, and two big bond issues each for highways and universities.

Then read the Club for Growth paper on Mike “Huckster” Huckabee.

Conservatives should not slip into thinking that Huckabee is the “conservative” candidate in the race. We can debate who the best conservative candidate is, but let’s not settle for someone who claims to be conservative when he is not.

I was one of probably 13 Americans who watched the Ames straw poll on C-Span today. There is some good coverage already in the blogosphere here and here.

Here are my quick thoughts on the speeches.

Romney - Gave a cogent and passionate speech about strengthening our defense, our economy and our families. He did the best job overall and had the most supporters.

Tancredo - Delivered a very strong speech on illegal immigration and protecting our culture. He performed better than I have seen him do throughout the campaign. 2nd best speech.

Paul - Had the loudest supporters and gave a good talk about the Constitution, liberty and peace. He even uttered the words “freedom works.” Laura Ingraham kind of took a shot at the Paul supporters by saying “The peace train is leaving the stadium.”

Cox - Who? Came in with the Rocky soundtrack playing in the background. Rocky was a long shot but John Cox has NO shot.

Brownback - My TiVo cut off so I missed his speech. I will have to catch it on YouTube and write something up.

UPDATE: Just read the text of the Brownback speech. He focused on life, faith and family. I like his support of a flat tax, but not his interest in more ethanol mandates.

Please take a second to vote for your favorite candidate in the FreedomWorks GOP Presidential Straw Poll.

http://www.freedomworks.org/strawpoll/

It has been a painful evening, but I am listening to the C-Span radio replay of the Democrat presidential debate on CNN.

The best question so far was “Do you send your kids to private or public school?” The Dems pulled out some ridiculous answers for that one. OF COURSE the rich, elitist Democrats send their kids to the private schools. But they don’t want YOUR kids to be able to go to private schools.

UPDATE: Anderson Cooper just asked how many of the candidates took a private or chartered jet to South Carolina. Ha! Another moment of hypocrisy.

UDATE: Hillary said she is “agnostic” on nuclear power but wants to raise taxes on oil companies.

UPDATE: The candidates are waging their normal race and class warfare, making sure to pander to all politically correct minority groups. Is it still the fifties or something? I thought we were making progress. Guess not.

UPDATE: John Edwards wants a $9.50 minimum wage law. Why not $20 an hour, John? Oh, because that will be too costly for small businesses… so John wants people to lose their jobs…

UPDATE: Bill Richardson and Chris Dodd would have their socialized medicine programs cover criminal aliens. And who pays? You, me and Dupree.