Madison Project

One of the most puzzling phenomena in GOP politics the past few years is the incorrigible fawning over Chris Christie.  He is regarded is one of the biggest stars in the party and is being groomed as a future presidential candidate.  The fact is that aside for his strong stance against public sector unions, Christie has been quite liberal on many important issues, such as gun control, global warming job-killing regulations, and illegal immigration.  He has stuck his thumb in the eyes of conservatives on numerous occasions.  Now he is pulling out all the stops for Mitt Romney, assailing anyone who questions his phony conservative credentials.  He even suggested that those who compare Romneycare to Obamacare are “completely intellectually dishonest.”

This past week, Chris Christie was foist into the debate over the ridiculous concept of gay marriage when the state legislature in New Jersey passed a law recognizing these “marriages.”  Christie is keeping his promise to veto the legislation; however, some of his appointments to high offices within the state raise serious doubts about his commitment to fight for traditional marriage.  Here’s the scoop from NRO’s Maggie Gallagher:

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It is becoming more evident by the day that Pete Hoekstra, the establishment Republican candidate for Senate in Michigan, is unelectable.  While everyone is focusing on the presidential race numbers in the NBC news/Marist poll, there is a small footnote on that poll regarding the Senate race, and it’s not pretty.  Debbie Stabenow leads Pete Hoekstra by 53% to 32%.  The only chance we have to win this seat is by nominating a real conservative and a fresh face, untarnished by a lackluster career in Washington.  That man is Clark Durant.

Many prominent figures in the Republican intelligentsia have suggested that we call a truce on social issues, while focusing exclusively on fiscal issues during this time of economic peril.  As an uncompromising fiscal and social conservative, I fully agree.  We should focus on the economy.  However, there is one problem with this desideratum; there is no truce on social issues.  Even as conservatives – including social conservatives – are focusing on fiscal issues, social liberals are working indefatigably to implement their radical agenda.  Perforce, any “truce” on social issues would be unilateral in nature, and would be tantamount to complete capitulation, ceding the moral fiber of this country to the hedonistic left.

While everyone focuses on those stern So-cons, they forget the vociferous push from So-libs to turn our nation, which was founded on Judeo-Christian values, into a morally debased wasteland.  Yes, they are doing so even during the economic downturn.  They don’t take a break to focus on fiscal issues, or more aptly put, they focus on both at the same time.

After the severe losses from the 2010 elections, there are very few states where Democrats control both houses of the state legislature and the state house.  However, in every state where they enjoy such indomitable power, the So-lib mob is out in full force pushing a radical licentious agenda, most notably, a push to redefine marriage from its most basic definition.  My home state of Maryland is one such example.

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Do you know how to tell when a politician has lost touch with his constituents?  It’s when he can’t recall what address is on his drivers license.  Senator Dick Lugar has lost touch with his Indiana roots.  Now it is unclear if he owns any residence there, and if he’s qualified to run for reelection.  Maybe it’s time for Mr. Lugar to go back home for good so there’s no question about his residency.

Not only did Freddie and Fannie cost taxpayers billions in bailout funds and destroy the housing market, now they are racking up expensive legal bills.  The Inspector General for the Federal Housing Finance Agency found that Freddie and Fannie shelled out $100 million to pay for the legal fees of three top executives.  They are being sued for allegedly using accounting tricks to inflate Fannie’s stock price and maximize their bonuses.  Taxpayers are being forced to foot the bill.

If I were pressed to offer one anecdote exemplifying our failure to elect consistent conservatives to Congress last November, the story of Senator Jerry Moran and Big Wind would be at the top of the list.

In 2010, then-Congressman Jerry Moran beat former Congressman Todd Tiahrt for the Republican nomination for Senate in Kansas running as a red meat conservative.  He easily won the seat in this solid Republican state and summarily joined the ‘Tea Party Caucus’ in the Senate.  Nothing emblematizes the convictions of the Tea Party more than its fervent opposition to special interest handouts and government interventions in the private sector as a way of picking winners and losers.  Yet, Senator Moran let the cat out of the bag last week that he has absolutely no compunction about picking winners and losers, or in the case of Big Wind, big losers.

Last week, Senator Moran announced that he is submitting an amendment to the terrible Senate highway bill (S.1813) that would extend the 2.2 cent/ per kilowatt-hour Production Tax Credit (PTC) for another 4 years.  This special interest handout to Solar and Wind is slated to expire at the end of the year.  What happened to Moran’s Tea Party views?  Well, he unabashedly threw them under the solar-powered bus:

Asked about opposition to extending the credit expressed by Rep. Mike Pompeo of Wichita, Moran said: “There are members of Congress who feel we ought not to pick winners and losers, to let the markets decided. I believe it’s better to get this industry up and running, then let the country decide… rather than pull the rug out overnight.”

Wow!  At least he’s honest.  I wish we had known that before the election.

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During every election season, Republican career politicians tend to ingratiate themselves with faux conservative rhetoric in order to entice us into voting for them.  “We must defeat those tax and spend Democrats,” they warn us with every TV ad and fundraising letter.  Yet, after many of them are honored with our financial support  in the election, they go back to Washington and vote for much of the big-government ideas that they so passionately inveighed against when seeking votes back home.

Nobody exemplifies this cycle of hypocrisy more than former Congressman Pete Hoekstra, running for Senate in Michigan.  He is rightly dubbing Democrat Senator Debbie Stabenow as Debbie Spenditnow.  Unfortunately, when he was in Congress he supported all of the same compassionate conservative ideas that have engendered so much debt.  Luckily, we have a true conservative in the race who is calling him out for his hypocrisy.  Clark Durant, who is one of our most recent endorsees, is up with another ad exposing Hoekstra for obfuscating his own record even while he attacks Stabenow for being a big spender.

Earlier this month, government statistics from the BLS pegged unemployment at 8.3% and underemployment at 15.1% – trending down.  But Gallup is out with their latest survey results from mid February, and they paint a much different picture for the upcoming unemployment report.  Gallup found unemployment rising back to 9% and unemployment at 19% for February.  It will be interesting to see if the BLS reports a different trend next March.  If so, it makes you wonder why there is such a large discrepancy between the two surveys.

According to a new University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst leads Ted Cruz 38%-27%.  All the other challengers are far behind with 7% or less.  This is actually good news for the conservative star, Ted Cruz.  It is pretty clear that Dewhurst will be leading the pack for a while, due to his far superior name ID and organization.  However, with Cruz surging ahead of the pack for second place, he will easily deny Dewhurst the majority support required to avoid a runoff.  Once this becomes a two-man race -one moderate and one conservative – Cruz will have the edge.

As an aside, this poll shows that all the talk of  a horse race between Cruz and Leppert for 2nd place is overblown.  Liberal former Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert is way behind with just 7%.