Mitt Romney: Making John Kerry Blush

Some Sunlit readers and fans of the Big Band era may recall a song with the following lyrics:

First you say you do, but then you don't;

Then you say you will, and then you won't;

You're undecided now, so what are you going to do?

That ought to be Governor Romney's theme song! The Great Prevaricator word-tricks even himself:

• Supported a woman's "right to choose," but then said he "wasn't pro-choice."
• Last month said he was "wrong" to be pro-choice, but more recently denied he ever was pro-choice.
• Claims that since he never used the word "pro-choice," he didn't feel pro-choice, a word trick by which he apparently manipulates his own conscience sufficiently to let him claim he never was pro-choice.

To paraphrase a well-known Democrat who also used word games to evade telling the truth...

It must depend on what your definition of the word "choice" is.

-----------------------------------------

Mitt Romney, Fox News Sunday, August 12, 2007:

"I never called myself pro-choice. I never allowed myself to use the word 'pro-choice,' because I didn't feel I was pro-choice. I would protect the law, I said, as it was, but I wasn't pro-choice."
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,293017,00.html

Romney, Aug. 5, 2007:

"My greatest mistake was when I first ran for office being deeply opposed to abortion but saying I'd support the current law, which was pro-choice and effectively a pro-choice position. That was just wrong."
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,293017,00.html


Romney, Aug. 6, 2007:

"I never said I was pro-choice, but my position was effectively pro-choice."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2007-08-05-gop-debate_N.htm


Romney May 2007:

"I was effectively pro-choice at that time."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/09/AR2007050902263.html


Romney 2002 gubernatorial campaign interview:

"So when asked will I preserve and protect a woman's right to choose, I make an unequivocal answer: yes."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKwVNUz52vo

Romney 2002 gubernatorial debate:

"I will preserve and protect a woman's right to choose, and have devoted and am dedicated to honoring my word in that regard. ...I'm not going to make any changes that would make it more difficult for a woman to make that choice herself. ...A woman should have the right to make her own choice as to whether or not to have an abortion...I have held that view consistently. ...I do not take the position of a pro-life candidate. I'm in favor of preserving and protecting a woman's right to choose."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_w9pquznG4


Romney 1994 senatorial debate:

"I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country. ...I believe that since Roe v. Wade has been the law for 20 years, we should sustain and support it, and I sustain and support that law and the right of a woman to make that choice."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9IJUkYUbvI

Huckabee: A Conservative with the Spark of Greatness

My admiration and enthusiasm for Mike Huckabee increases with every passing day. To have an authentic conservative, whose policies are the reflex of deep faith and prayer, and who articulates that vision with conviction, power and eloquence, is something America has not had in twenty years. His interview this morning on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos should give America great hope.

The political establishment, the transnational corporations, and those that gravitate to whomever looks like a winner, long ago lined up behind other candidates, but all the momentum is with Huckabee because he will fight for Main Street over Wall Street and the people before the power hungry. If you will only take time to watch one of these videos, please watch the third one -- but if you do watch all three, you will understand why so many see the spark of greatness in this man.

Iowa Poll: Huckabee Leads

From the Real Clear Politics Blog:

Well, it's finally happened: we have our first poll showing Mike Huckabee overtaking Mitt Romney for the lead in Iowa. Rasmussen has the goods (Nov 26-27, 839 GOP LV, MoE +/- 3.5%):

Huckabee 28 (+12 vs. last poll Nov 12)

Romney 25 (-4)

Giuliani 12 (-3)

Thompson 11 (-3)

Paul 5 (+1)

McCain 4 (-2)

"You Be the Somebody"

"The Bible says, 'do not move the ancient boundary stones put forth by your fathers.' I can't think of a more accurate picture of this country today than a nation that has 'moved the boundary stones' that were placed by our forefathers, and as a result we live now in a confused and convoluted country.

What I am asking is, 'you be the somebody, you do the something.' Let's make sure we don't lose this great land of ours because we were more interested in being on the stage than we were in being on our knees to salvage the great, great land, given by God, entrusted to us. And we have the responsibility to pass it on better than we found it. May God help us to do it, and may God bless you in doing it."

Mike Huckabee

Why Is Fred Thompson Running?

Fred Thompson's detachment from his own campaign, lackluster performance in debates, and obvious lack of energy is beginning to raise questions. Some are wondering if his battle with cancer and its treatments account for his part-time candidacy. The New York Observer described him as "A tired man half-heartedly pedaling a generic message, his fatigue practically contagious." Is this the kind of race he would run against Hillary Clinton? If he is not up to the primaries, why should anyone believe he is capable of the Presidency?

The Van Der Galien Gazette asks "Why Is Fred Thompson Running?"

Huckabee: Abortion Not States' Call

By WILL LESTER, Associated Press Writer

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee rejects letting states decide whether to allow abortions, claiming the right to life is a moral issue not subject to multiple interpretations.

"It's the logic of the Civil War," Huckabee said Sunday, comparing abortion rights to slavery. "If morality is the point here, and if it's right or wrong, not just a political question, then you can't have 50 different versions of what's right and what's wrong."

"For those of us for whom this is a moral question, you can't simply have 50 different versions of what's right," he said in an interview on "Fox News Sunday."

The former Arkansas governor, who has drawn within striking distance of Mitt Romney in Iowa's leadoff presidential caucuses, said he was taken aback by the National Right to Life Committee's recent endorsement of Fred Thompson, the ex-Tennessee senator.

"But my surprise was nothing compared to the surprise of people across America who had been faithful supporters of right to life," said Huckabee, who is challenging Thompson's claim that he is the most reliable conservative in the GOP field.

"Fred's never had a 100 percent record on right to life in his Senate career. The records reflect that. And he doesn't support the human life amendment which is most amazing because that's been a part of the Republican platform since 1980," Huckabee said.

Mike Huckabee's First Iowa TV Ad

"My plan for securing the border? Two words..."

What Republicans Want In A Presidential Candidate

Editor's Note: Amen to the following! And if the Republican nominee is not comfortable with the platform outlined by Mrs. Schlafly, let's draft her to run on it!

By Phyllis Schlafly

The media have designated the frontrunners for Republican and Democratic nominations for President and seem to expect American voters to line up behind one of them right now even though the national nominating conventions won't take place until next summer. Most Republicans are still shopping, and here are some of the statements they would like hear from a presidential candidate.

Republicans want a President to appoint only judges who will enforce the Constitution as it was written. They want our President to appoint only judges who publicly reject the liberal notion that our Constitution is "evolving," or that decisions can be based on "emerging awareness" about morals.

Republicans want the U.S. President to be a leader in protecting American sovereignty and independence from foreign control over our lives and laws. Republicans want him to reject all United Nations treaties such as the UN Law of the Sea Treaty, which would make all use of the oceans subject to the International Seabed Authority, the UN Treaty on the Rights of the Child, and the UN Treaty on Women (known as CEDAW).

Republicans want their candidate for President to announce that he considers it a presidential duty to prevent illegal entry into our country. He should praise the American people for successfully getting the U.S. Senate to defeat the Bush-Kennedy Amnesty bill earlier this year.

Republicans want their presidential candidate to promise that he will never try to bamboozle us with a similar so-called "comprehensive" immigration bill or a so-called "DREAM Act," which includes amnesty for the millions of illegal aliens now in our country.

Republicans want their candidate to tell us now exactly what he will do to prevent the entry of the illegal drugs over our southern border. They want a presidential candidate to say he will pardon Border Guards Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean who are unjustly imprisoned for intercepting a professional Mexican drug smuggler.

Republicans want their candidate to build the fence on our southern border which the Secure Fence Law legislated. They want our candidate to promise to enforce the law against employers hiring illegal aliens.

Republicans want their candidate to explain how he will lift the tax burden that Americans suffer today in providing a net value of $20,000 a year to every illegal alien household.

Republicans want their candidate to stop the entry of Mexican trucks on our highways and roads. They want their candidate to deep-six the plan called "totalization" which would put illegal aliens into our Social Security system.

Republicans want their presidential candidate to protect parents' rights in public schools by repudiating the offensive and impudent Ninth Circuit Court decision which ruled that parents' fundamental right to control the upbringing of their children "does not extend beyond the threshold of the school door."

Since the federal government gives about $60 billion a year to public schools, Republicans want their candidate to promise to sign school appropriation bills only if they contain language to protect parents' rights to protect their children against such things as mental health screening; forcing schoolchildren to be put on psychotropic drugs; courses that promote Islam or homosexuality; nosy questionnaires about sex, drugs and suicide; and giving birth control to 6th grade girls without parents' knowledge or consent.

Smart Republicans want their presidential candidate to reach out to Reagan Democrats by rejecting trade deals that are unfair to American workers and allow foreign countries to discriminate against U.S. producers and products by subsidies and tax-rebates. We want to hear a presidential candidate's plan to get us out from under the hostility of the World Trade Organization which has ruled against us in 40 out of 47 cases.

Americans want to hear whether or not their presidential candidate supports the "global economy," which forces Americans to compete against pitifully low wages, slave labor, and discriminatory practices imposed by foreign countries and foreign tribunals. Americans don't want to be patronized by being told that we must be more competitive with Chinese factory workers who are paid 30 cents an hour with no benefits.

Grassroots Americans want their candidate for President to promise that the Security and Prosperity Partnership will not be a stepping-stone to a North American Union modeled on the European Union. They expect their candidate to announce that he will never allow the United States to be economically integrated with Mexico and Canada, and will never allow the free movement of labor across open borders.

Most Americans want national leadership so that our economy produces good jobs that enable guys to buy a home and a car, support their families, live the American dream, and confidently expect their children to have an even better life. We're listening to the candidates and waiting to hear them address these important issues.

The Thirty Pieces of Silver Club

There has been reason to question the mental state of televangelist Pat Robertson for a long time.

There was an occasion when he suggested that it might be appropriate to blow up the State Department using a nuclear weapon:

I read your book. When you get through, you say (to yourself): 'If I could just get a nuclear device inside Foggy Bottom (the State Department's main building), I think that's the answer' and you say: 'We've got to blow that thing up.'

He has suggested that space aliens were actually demons in disguise, trying to lead people away from Jesus.

He has promoted an age-defying milkshake.

In 1991 he put most Christian denominations and Jews on notice as to what would be in store for them under a Robertson administration with these endearing words:

You say you're supposed to be nice to the Episcopalians and the Presbyterians and the Methodists and this, that, and the other thing. Nonsense. I don't have to be nice to the spirit of the Antichrist. I can love the people who hold false opinions but I don't have to be nice to them.

In 2006 Robertson stated that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke was divine retribution for the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, which Robertson opposed.

He invited viewers to:

Call me old fashioned but I think non-believers should be manacled, publicly flayed, and set afire by the Council of Elders with the assistance of the town smithy.

.Then there was the occasion when he invited 700 Club viewers to:

Guess how many quarters I can fit in my mouth. Go on, take a wild guess. 15! 15 quarters in my mouth. Now, a Jew would have just taken that money. A Catholic would have wasted it on candles or incense or an eighth child. But I shoved 'em all in there, cheek to cheek.

On Wednesday this "man of God" endorsed a pro-abortion, pro-partial birth abortion, pro-gay rights, anti-second amendment, big government, big tax and spending, cross dressing, twice divorced, drag queen who is estranged from his own children -- the most liberal Republican to ever seek the nomination of his party for the Presidency of the United States.

Given Robertson's penchant for calling on God to "smite" those who betray Him, it might not be a good idea to stand too close to Robertson in coming days.

Spotlight Falls on Mike Huckabee

By Dick Morris and Eileen McGann

Peel them away and, underneath, you have Mike Huckabee, the last survivor in the elimination tournament of the Christian right. And they could do a whole lot worse!

Start with the dreams about Sen. George Allen, R-Va., who became former Sen. George Allen before he could become a viable presidential candidate. Then go to Mitt Romney, his putative opponent for the designation of the right wing. But that was before he ran straight into a wall of bigotry against Mormons.

The most recent polling suggests that while a majority of voters agree that “other Americans” would be amenable to a black or female candidate for president, only 36 percent feel that way about a Mormon. Unjustified. Unfair. Outrageous as it is — it nevertheless is.

That prejudice and the justifiable cynicism that his flip-flop-flip on abortion engendered have held down his vote share despite massive advertising. (He was pro-life before he ran against Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy in Massachusetts, at which point he discovered a relative who died after an illegal abortion, which, conveniently, induced a change of heart. He remained pro-choice as a governor of the most liberal state in America until, as he contemplated entering the GOP primary for president, he realized that abortion had cultivated a contempt for life and so decided to become pro-life — equally conveniently.)

Whatever the reason, Mitt Romney’s lack of appeal led conservatives to search under various other burning bushes (no pun) to find a new standard-bearer.

Their choice became Fred Thompson. But then it turned out that he had actually accepted a fee to lobby for a weakening of anti-abortion regulations and had waffled on the issue in the ’90s in candidate questionnaires. That fact, combined with his lack of knowledge of issues and his aversion to hard work, have sent his candidacy into a downward spiral.

Voters on the right understand that Fred can’t stand up to Hillary in a debate. Hey, he might not stay awake that long.

So it became “Where have you gone, Newt Gingrich? The nation turns its lonely eyes to you.” But Newt took one look at Hillary and decided he really wanted to head a nonprofit foundation educating voters on solutions for America instead of being president of the United States, so he pulled out before he ever got in.

In the meantime, plugging away in the shadows, with no money and no political backing, an articulate, principled, knowledgeable, conservative Christian, Mike Huckabee, has been plowing the fields in Iowa hoping to catch a break.

He is witty, sincere, dedicated and courageous in his own way. With a minus share of the vote, he kept at it and refused to pander on the one hand or give up on the other.

I first met Mike when I became his consultant in his race for lieutenant governor of Arkansas. He was a refreshing change from my previous Arkansas client, but you probably know that story. I was impressed when I first asked Mike about his views on parole for violent felons. I anticipated a standard right-wing response. Instead, he said, “Oh, no, the Christian concept of forgiveness requires that we allow parole. We just have to use it wisely.” I was amazed . . . and sold.

What, I wondered, would a right-wing Christian activist do as governor of a state? He would sign off on the death penalty, veto abortion, oppose gay rights and insist on the Pledge of Allegiance; but then, what would he do for the balance of his term in office?

Mike Huckabee answered the question.

He set up programs to fight childhood obesity, reformed prisons to emphasize reforming inmates, put values back in education and became a highly popular governor.

Now he churns his way to the forefront of the pack in the Republican primary. He’s still broke, but still finished a strong second in the Ames, Iowa, straw poll with 18 percent of the vote.

Now in Iowa polls he has moved ahead of McCain and, in some trial heats, ahead of Romney. Rasmussen Reports has him rising to 7 percent nationally. (Full disclosure: If he breaks 10, I win a dinner from Bill O’Reilly.) But he has the best of all possible worlds: Rivals who are falling of their own weight.

So here comes Mike.