Even though I’m not a McCain fan and will not vote for him in the Texas primary, I will vote for him if, as expected, he is the Republican nominee. In addition to RickG’s synopsis below, I’ve had the opportunity to hear Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn speak passionately about McCain several times. If you are one of the stay at homes, skip the boxes or will vote for the Dem in protest, you owe it to yourself to at least listen to Sen. Coburn before acting on your choice. You can’t get more conservative than Tom Coburn.

Speaking before the Conservative Political Action Conference, soon-to-be Republican Presidential nominee John McCain made his case that he is a conservative:

I am proud to be a conservative, and I make that claim because I share with you that most basic of conservative principles: that liberty is a right conferred by our Creator, not by governments, and that the proper object of justice and the rule of law in our country is not to aggregate power to the state but to protect the liberty and property of its citizens. And like you, I understand, as Edmund Burke observed, that “whenever a separation is made between liberty and justice, neither . . . is safe.”

While I have long worked to help grow a public majority of support for Republican candidates and principles, I have also always believed, like you, in the wisdom of Ronald Reagan, who warned in an address to this conference in 1975, that “a political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency or simply to swell its numbers.”

McCain then invoked Ronald Reagan and “my friend” the heroic Navy Cross recipient Admiral Jeremiah Denton (a fellow prisoner of war and later Senator from Alabama who, I might add, upon his release after eight years of brutal captivity, stated, “We are honored to have had the opportunity to serve our country under difficult circumstances. We are profoundly grateful to our Commander-in-Chief and to our nation for this day. God bless America“) and reminded us of his specific stances:

I am proud, very proud, to have come to public office as a foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution. And if a few of my positions have raised your concern that I have forgotten my political heritage, I want to assure you that I have not, and I am as proud of that association today as I was then. My record in public office taken as a whole is the record of a mainstream conservative. I believe today, as I believed twenty-five years ago, in small government; fiscal discipline; low taxes; a strong defense, judges who enforce, and not make, our laws; the social values that are the true source of our strength; and, generally, the steadfast defense of our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, which I have defended my entire career as God-given to the born and unborn.

As further proof of his principled positions, McCain cited his opposition to agriculture subsidies (while campaigning in the farm state of Iowa), his New Hampshire campaign statements against “big government mandated health care,” his support for the tax incentives to create new jobs, his opposition (in Florida) to national catastrophic insurance, and his opposition to “the prescription drug benefit bill that saddled Americans with yet another hugely expensive entitlement program.”  He supports making the Bush tax cuts permanent (though he failed to mention his original opposition to those cuts), and reducing the corporate tax rate.  He also cited his protection of Second Amendment rights,  “including my votes against waiting periods, bans on the so-called ‘assault weapons,’ and illegitimate lawsuits targeting gun manufacturers.”  He also “proudly defended my twenty-four year pro-life record.”

Naturally, he discussed his indisputable championing of the war in Iraq.

Then, in a smart political move, he met one of his main disagreements with conservatives head-on:

On the issue of illegal immigration, a position which provoked the outspoken opposition of many conservatives, I stood my ground aware that my position would imperil my campaign. I respect your opposition for I know that the vast majority of critics to the bill based their opposition in a principled defense of the rule of law. And while I and other Republican supporters of the bill were genuine in our intention to restore control of our borders, we failed, for various and understandable reasons, to convince Americans that we were. I accept that, and have pledged that it would be among my highest priorities to secure our borders first, and only after we achieved widespread consensus that our borders are secure, would we address other aspects of the problem in a way that defends the rule of law and does not encourage another wave of illegal immigration.

(It will surely be suggested that “other aspects of the problem” would include amnesty or, as McCain likes to call it, a “path to citizenship.”)

He asked the country to judge his record “as a whole, and accept that I am not in the habit of making promises to my country that I do not intend to keep.” 

I will stand on my convictions, my conservative convictions, and trust in the good sense of the voters, and in my confidence that conservative pr inciples still appeal to a majority of Americans, Republicans, Independents and Reagan Democrats.

McCain then spelled out some of the differences between him and the Democratic candidates, which I will not quote here because our informed readers know them by heart.

For the full text of McCain’s speech, see here.

He has made his case.  He is far from the perfect Republican candidate, and most of us here have said as much.  Nonetheless, I will vote for McCain in November.  He may not be the GOP candidate you (or I) wanted, but please don’t tell me he’s the same as Hillary Clinton.

Mitt Romney gave his reasons for “suspending” his campaign to a conservative audience today, while Mike Huckabee vowed to stay in the race.

First, Romney:

“If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign, be a part of aiding a surrender to terror,” Romney told the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.

Romney did not endorse McCain, but the former head of the RNC quickly did:

McCain and Romney spoke by phone after Romney’s speech, though no endorsement was requested nor offered, according to a Republican official with knowledge of the conversation.

Within hours of Romney’s speech, former Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman endorsed McCain and urged all members of the GOP to back him.

“Our party has had many outstanding candidates this year, but it is now time for Republicans across the country to unite,” Mehlman said.

Ah, sweet unity.  Sure.

Huckabee, meanwhile, forges on:

“We’re still in the race and we’re still competing for delegates, and today demonstrates how long and windy to the White House this is,” said Chip Saltsman, Huckabee’s campaign manager.

McCain, speaking at the same conference as Romney, claimed he recognizes his need for conservatives in the fall:

“I am acutely aware that I cannot succeed in that endeavor, nor can our party prevail over the challenge we will face from either Senator Clinton or Senator Obama, without the support of dedicated conservatives,” McCain said in prepared remarks to the same conference.

Good grief, Senator.  Is that the best he can do?  He seems to be better at pandering to illegal aliens than conservative US citizens.

We all but have our nominee.  Republicans now have nearly nine months to decide whether to vote for him.

UPDATE

Here is the text of Romney’s speech to CPAC.

UPDATE

Here is the text of McCain’s speech to CPAC.

He must have been reading LST yesterday, because he quoted some of our commenters:

While I have long worked to help grow a public majority of support for Republican candidates and principles, I have also always believed, like you, in the wisdom of Ronald Reagan, who warned in an address to this conference in 1975, that “a political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency or simply to swell its numbers.”

The three gentlemen who run Powerline blog have created an annual book award to honor a book from a conservative writer which would generally be ignored by the Pulitzer or National Book Club committees.  Due to the generosity of an anonymous donor, the Powerline Book Award carries a larger monetary reward than the two much better known awards mentioned above.  The 2007 recipient will have $ 25,000 donated in their honor to Soldiers’ Angels, a highly worthy charitable organization benefitting our military,  thus making the Powerline Book Award the most lucrative cash award in American letters.

The winner this year is the eminent and distinguished Norman Podhoretz for his landmark work, World War IV: The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism.  The Powerline members state in their announcement:

We judge Podhoretz’s book perhaps the most important published last year. It is an elegantly written assessment of the long war in which we are engaged, and a passionate defense of the Bush Doctrine. As Podhoretz notes in the book, we have occasionally expressed our own second thoughts about the Bush Doctrine and do not necessarily agree with every tenet of his argument. We are nevertheless quite sure that it is a book, not just for this season, but for the foreseeable future during which the United States will confront the Islamist enemy that is at war with us.

Norman Podhoretz sent Powerline a note about his book last year describing his new work:

There have been dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of books about the many issues aroused by 9/11 and George W. Bush’s response to it. But World War IV differs from them all in two major respects. For one thing, it is — at least so far as I know — the first serious attempt to set 9/11 itself, the campaigns that have followed it in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the war of ideas it has provoked at home, into the context of the role the United States has played in the world since 1941. Seen in this light, the struggle against the forces of Islamofascism into which 9/11 plunged us reveals itself as the direct successor to the wars against the totalitarian challenges to our civilization posed by Nazism in World War II and Communism in World War III (as the cold war becomes in this scheme of things). Secondly, against critics both on the Left and the Right, World War IV offers what is probably the most full-throated statement yet published of the case for the Bush Doctrine, whose effort to make the Middle East safe for America by making it safe for democracy represents the only viable strategy for fighting and winning World War IV.

If you have the time, go over to Powerline and thank them for the work they are doing. And, by all means, buy Mr. Podhoretz’s book.

Once upon a time in Greeley, Colorado a young man visiting a church sponsored dance was appalled at the lax and careless attitude taken by the religious leaders of his American hosts.  As a visiting student at Colorado State University, the nominally observant Muslim wrote of his shock and disdain when a local minister turned down the lights and played, Baby, It’s Cold Out There, by the great Frank Loesser.  He described his 1949 experience in this way:

“It is difficult to differentiate between a church and any other place that is set up for entertainment, or what they call in their language, ‘fun,’ ”

“The room convulsed with the feverish music from the gramophone. Dancing naked legs filled the hall, arms draped around the waists, chests met chests, lips met lips . . .”

“Jazz is his preferred music, and it is created by Negroes to satisfy their love of noise and to whet their sexual desires.”

Sayyid Qtub returned home to Cairo only to see his Egyptian nationalism and revulsion at Western, and particularly American, culture evolve into a strident and virulent form of deadly zealotry.  Plunged into the political turmoil of his native country and its instability, Qtub became the intellectual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood.  His disciple, Ayman Zawahiri, is well-known to us today as a leading terrorist in the world and cohort of Osama bin Laden.  Sayyid Qtub’s writings became the foundation for the pan-Islamic rage of terror of which al Qaeda is its best known proponent today.

The brilliant critic, political commentator and author, Mark Steyn, had  this acerbic comment about Qtub’s inheritors.
 

I’m a reasonable chap, and I’d be willing to meet the Islamists halfway on a lot of the peripheral stuff like burqas for women, nuking the Zionists, beheading the sodomites and whatnot. But you’ll have to pry “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” from my cold dead hands and my dancing naked legs. A world without Frank Loesser and “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” would be very cold indeed.

Yes, apparently, it was the fault of Frank Loesser, a songwriter, playright, Broadway and Hollywood producer that unleashed upon the West the radical Islamic reign of terror we wage war against today around the world.  I bet you you never knew.

Here are several versions of this timeless and beautiful song.  Enjoy these versions as you contemplate the Clash of Civilizations:

The evocative and talented Joan Osborne with Bo Bice or the magnificent Ray Charles and Betty Carter.  Unfortunately, they have taken down the video of the incredible version of Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald performing this song.

HatTip:  Powerline

While everyone is wailing about John McCain being the death of conservative principles in the Republican party, conservatives were hard at work in blocking the bloating of “economic stimulus package” that the Democrats in the Senate were trying to push through.

After losing a key vote that shreds the bipartisan truce that prevailed over the economic stimulus package in the House, Senate Democrats will be forced to backpedal and either work with Republicans or risk being accused of delaying a crucial jolt to the ailing economy.

Harry Reid and company figured that they could bully the Republicans into spending far more than President Bush proposed because no one running this year would dare oppose AARP and many veterans groups.

Reid made repeated calls to wavering Republicans, including Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.), who was one of eight Republicans to back the Democratic bill. Four of the Republicans who voted with Democrats are up for reelection this year and didn’t want to risk the quick campaign ads denouncing them for opposing tax rebates for senior citizens and poor people.

Harry Ried, meet John Cornyn. A principled conservative. Election year or not.

GOP Conference Vice Chairman John Cornyn of Texas said the updated Senate Finance package was designed to win GOP votes, particularly from those up for re-election in November. But Cornyn said he was confident that Republicans would muster the 41 votes needed to block the package on the Senate floor.

Knowing that voting yes would be the easy road to re-election, Sen. John Cornyn said no.

Texas

Cornyn (R) No

Thank goodness for principled politicians.

Speaks for itself:

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is expected to suspend his campaign Thursday, sources say.

Romney had won 270 delegates in through the Super Tuesday contests, compared with front-runner John McCain’s 680.

Suspending a campaign has a different meaning depending on the party.

On the Republican side, decisions on how to allocate delegates is left to the state parties.

On the Democratic side, a candidate who “suspends” is technically still a candidate so he or she keeps both district and statewide delegates won through primaries and caucuses. Superdelegates are always free to support any candidate at any time, whether the candidate drops out, suspends or stays in.

National party rules say that a candidate who “drops out” keeps any district-level delegates he or she has won so far but loses any statewide delegates he or she has won.

Romney is expected to announce his decision Thursday afternoon at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, three Republican sources told CNN.

Republicans are thanking the founders for the electoral college system. From Time’s Swampland:

Here are the numbers just for the 19 states where both parties had elections yesterday

Obama/Clinton voters: 14,460,149
McCain/Romney/Huckabee voters: 8,367,694

Or, 73% more Democratic voters than Republican voters.

A lot of this is huge Democratic numbers in New York and California.

Juliet García

When the federal government last fall asked for permission to conduct property surveys and environmental studies at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College as part of its plan to erect a border fence, Juliet García refused.

García’s stance has prompted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to declare its intention to sue to gain access to the property.

García declined to be interviewed for this article. But she has posted on her school’s Web site an impassioned defense of her decision to refuse access to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, a unit of the Homeland Security Department. “To support a plan that would build an 18-foot-high steel barrier between two friendly countries would be to directly contravene our mission and destroy the campus climate that has been so painstakingly and carefully created,” she wrote.

García’s position has made her something of a beloved figure to many students, who, like most people here in the Valley, oppose a fence.

“We’re glad that she’s willing to put herself out there and defend what she thinks is right,” said Ruben Rincon Jr., a senior majoring in music education. “I’m proud of her for that.”

Hello, my name is Big Chief Kickapoo.

Despite living in Eagle Pass and running a casino, I am a longtime KSEV listener, supported Dan Patrick in the primary, watched him do sports on KHOU, used to grab a quick cheeseburger in his bar, and once had a 90 minute layover in Baltimore. Really.

And in spite of all that, I still like Corbin Van Arsdale–even gave him a $1,000 check back in 2006.

It makes me so sad to think of Dan Patrick supporting Republican Allen Fletcher in the House District 130 race. Sometimes a tear even rolls down my cheek; after all, if an Indian tribe hundreds of miles away from District 130 that wants to expand gambling in Texas can see what a wonderful job Corbin Van Arsdale is doing, why can’t Dan get with the program?

[/sniffle]

Political parody NOT paid for
by the Corbin Van Arsdale campaign
Seymour Butts, Treasurer

WHEN
Today–Thursday, February 7th, 2008

WHERE
Taste of Texas restaurant

LUNCH
11:30 am requires a $100 minimum contribution
Call Lacey Schultz first thing this morning
at 713.932.9215 to make required reservation

RECEPTION
3 :00 to 5:00 pm, $25 minimum contribution
No reservation required

If you cannot make the fund raiser and would like to contribute to Sheriff Flores campaign, donations may be sent to c/o Taste of Texas. Make checks out to and mail to:

“Rick Flores Campaign”
C/O The Taste of Texas
10505 Katy Freeway
Houston, TX 77024

 

UPDATE from Texpat:

As someone who has friends and ties to Laredo, and a genuine affection for that town, I can tell you Rick Flores is the real deal. He deserves our support and here are some links to inform:

• Rick Flores Re-Election Campaign
• Texas A&M-International University Alumni
• ABC News / Nightline / Chris Bury Report

——————–

——————–

Get paid to tell us what you think– Register to participate in one of our focus groups; earn money telling us what you think about politics, your community and consumer goods. Click here to learn more and sign-up!

——————–

——————–

Dawn Wolf Design– LST’s full-service graphic designer of choice. Talented, professional, competitively priced; a generous LST volunteer, we could not recommend her more highly. | 713-984-9200 | website

——————–