“It’s pretty clear Governor Romney is going to be the nominee.”

Yesterday, Governor Romney swept all five primaries, including Delaware, which was Newt Gingrich’s last best hope for continuing his campaign – and in Delaware, he got stomped.  Today, Gingrich announced that he is ending his campaign for the Presidential nomination.

In his announcement, Newt had some pretty interesting things to say – things that we all should be paying close attention to.  From the CBS News report:

“I think you have to at some point be honest with what’s happening in the real world, as opposed to what you’d like to have happened,” Gingrich said. “Governor Romney had a very good day yesterday. He got 67 [percent] in one state, and he got 63 in other, 62 in another. Now you have to give him some credit. I mean this guy’s worked six years, put together a big machine, and has put together a serious campaign.

“I think obviously that I would be a better candidate, but the objective fact is the voters didn’t think that,” Gingrich said. “And I also think it’s very, very important that we be unified.”

(bold is mine)  As has been written here on these pages several times, the voters are the ones who chose Governor Romney.  He is going to be our nominee.  And as Newt says, it IS very important (now that the primaries have indicated our choice) that we are – or become – unified.

This has been a pretty nasty GOP primary season.  There are a lot of us (myself included) who don’t particularly like Mitt Romney as a candidate.  But our candidate he is.  We can lament what might have been and we can fret a bit about what kind of president Mitt might be.  But in the end the mission is now to focus all of our efforts on defeating Barack Obama by supporting Mitt Romney as our nominee.  And it’s not just the “us” here at Redstate and in the trenches of the electorate…it’s also the other former candidates:  Perry, Cain, Bachmann, Santorum, Huntsman -  and Gingrich.  The GOP must now line up behind Romney.

But that doesn’t mean we don’t push Romney to adhere as closely as possible to conservative principles.  He doesn’t just get a pass.  Daniel made a good point earlier in his diary “Romney Must Coalesce Around Conservatives…”  He’s making the case to us, not the other way around.  Let’s keep the pressure on…but remember who the real target is, now that the primaries are pretty much over.

From here on out, I support Mitt Romney for President.

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Sign Letter for Open Appropriations Process in the House

Every elected Republican came to Washington promising to slash spending and balance the budget.  Yet, when it comes time for the most direct way to enact those spending cuts; namely, the annual appropriations bills, most of them are missing in action.

In an ideal world, Republicans should hold the upper hand in negotiations over spending bills. They enjoy complete control over the House, while Harry Reid only has a tenuous hold on the Senate at just 53 seats.  Unfortunately, as we chronicled extensively here at Red State, House and Senate GOP leaders agreed to jettison the Ryan budget halfway through the process in favor of Harry Reid’s minibus and omnibus bills, which vitiated every worthy goal of that budget.

There were two consequences of that betrayal.  First, House Republicans were denied the opportunity to vote on all 12 appropriations bills individually.  Second, because the bills were shunted off to conference straight from the Senate, House conservatives were denied an open floor process to offer conservative amendments cutting more spending or eliminating harmful and wasteful programs.  It is these bills that offer us the opportunity to truly cut spending, at least on the discretionary side, yet that opportunity was completed surrendered to Harry Reid.  The net effect was that not a single penny of discretionary spending was cut from the previous year’s budget and not a single program was eliminated.

As we noted earlier this week, Republicans are on track for more of the same this year.  Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans already disregarded the House budget in favor of Obama’s spending levels, while statist House appropriators are signaling they wish to do the same.  In order to preempt a repeat of last year’s insanity, Tom McClintock has drafted a letter to House leadership requesting adherence to their promise of an open amendment process on all 12 bills individually:

 Dear Speaker Boehner and Leader Cantor:

We write to express our support for a fully open appropriations process in which all twelve appropriations bills are brought individually to the House floor and every member has an opportunity to offer amendments.

We agree wholeheartedly with Speaker Boehner who said, “Let’s do away with the concept of ‘comprehensive’ spending bills. Let’s break them up, to encourage scrutiny, and make spending cuts easier.” To make this possible, House Republicans promised in the Pledge to America to “advance major legislation one issue at a time” and “let any lawmaker – Democrat or Republican – offer amendments to reduce spending.”

This vision for an open, transparent spending process is not new – it is a return to the regular order which was discarded during four years of Democrat control of the House. The new Republican House majority came to Washington with a mandate from the American people to address this historic breakdown in spending controls and to stem the tide of spending and debt. We began that work by passing a responsible budget, bringing spending bills to the House floor individually and under open rules, and letting the House work its will.

There is still much to be done to keep runaway spending and debt from destroying our economy and diminishing the prosperity of future generations. We encourage you to build on last year’s progress as we work together to put America back on a path to fiscal sanity.

Sincerely,

Tom McClintock

It’s not surprising that some Republicans would rather Harry Reid control the spending bills and send them straight to conference committee, where Republicans will be blocked from filing amendments on the committee report.  They don’t want to be forced to vote on conservative amendments to cut more spending on the floor.  It’s enough that the appropriators have to deal with a few pesky conservatives who offer spending cut amendments on a committee level.  Yesterday, Congressman Jeff Flake offered an amendment to cut another $95 billion in spending, and let’s just say that the results were not pretty [via CQ]:

Flake, R-Ariz. – Amendment that would change the fiscal 2013 discretionary budget authority allocations for 10 subcommittees in the following manner:

Rejected 4-44: R 4-25; D 0-19; I 0-0; April 25, 2012.

Vote Key

YEAS (4)

NAYS (44)

NOT VOTING (2)

Let’s bring this discussion out of the committee and have a full and open debate on the House floor regarding spending cuts and the legitimate role of the federal government.

Find out if your Republican representative plans to sign this letter.  Talk is cheap in Washington.  Anyone who purports to support a balanced budget but refuses to keep control of the appropriations process within the Republican-controlled House isn’t worth a dime to us.

Cross-posted from The Madison Project

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Restoring America’s Image In The World; The Canadian Edition

Now, in fairness though I’ve got to say that Canada’s interests here are a little bit different. And particularly, I might as well be frank, particularly in light of the…of the interim decision at least on Keystone. …. Our energy [issue] is the necessity of diversifying our energy export markets. We can not be, as a country, in a situation where really our one energy partner could say no to our energy products. …. when it comes to oil in particular, we do face a significant discount on the marketplace because of the fact that we’re a captive supplier. We have made it clear to the people of Canada, one of our national priorities is to make sure that we have the infrastructure and the capacity to export our energy products outside of North America.

– Canadian PM Stephen Harper

One of Barack Obama’s most obnoxious and arrogant campaign promises was his pledge to “restore America’s image throughout the rest of the world.” Well, it appears I’ll have to eat crow on this one. President Barack Obama has totally turned back the clock on how America is viewed abroad. This is particularly true with respect to Mexico and Canada.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper brims with great frustration at how he has been treated by our current US President. It’s almost as if someone has hit a “Reset” Button back to the Jolly Old Days of The Oregon Boundary Dispute.

During the Election of 1844, a Democratic Party Presidential candidate, James Knox Polk, decided he would run as an expansionist candidate. He was locked in a dispute with the British Government over who would control how much of the Oregon Territory. He staked out a position in favor of “Manifest Destiny” and his supporters demanded that US territory include “All Oregon” with the boundary at “Fifty-Four Forty or Fight.” He later only accepted a border at Forty-Nine North because he was too busy fighting with Mexicans over Texas.

Now this probably wasn’t the US image that Barack Obama chose to restore when he made his grandiose and hateful apology for most of America’s history during a 2009 speech in Cairo, Egypt. Instead, America with Barack Obama as President is once again an evil, greedy, conniving neighbor that dominates others and connives to work against the interests of anyone unfortunate enough to share the same hemisphere.

A little known fact about NAFTA (never mentioned amongst our mordant fears of Mexican trucks on American highways) involves the fact that US gets a major price break on petroleum products from Canada under the deal. In return for their loyalty and consideration, Barack Obama has gotten on the phones and lobbied Democratic Party Senators to block the Keystone XL Pipeline. Canadian Prime Minister Harper seems prepared to terminate the US “Good Neighbor Discount.”

Energy has become a searing rift between the U.S. and Canada and threatens to leave the U.S. without its top energy supplier. The Winnipeg Free Press reported that Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper warned Obama the U.S. will have to pay market prices for its Canadian oil after Obama’s de facto veto of the Keystone XL pipeline. Canada is preparing to sell its oil to China. Until now, NAFTA had shielded the U.S. from having to pay global prices for Canadian oil. That’s about to change.

So that $4 gas you were whinnying about, don’t worry. Relax. President Obama may have just totally taken care of that one for us. I can’t wait to log into GasBuddy.com and check out all the hope and change that erupts when Canada starts charging us the same price on crude that we get from The Saudis.

Barack Obama inherited a situation where the world’s 3rd largest petroleum producer was giving the American motorist the home town discount. All we had to do was build them a decent pipeline to Texas in an expeditious manner. Our new image in the eyes of the world is that we couldn’t be trusted to hold up our end on one of the best trade deals we’ve ever been given in our nation’s history. Good God, I hope this error ends in January 2013.

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They Do Not Speak For Us

From the diaries.

Smart Girl Politics Action, aided by the very talented Ben Howe of Mister Smith Media, has released a new video, “They Don’t Speak For Us.” Conservative women know the real war against women has nothing to do with contraception and everything to do with the Obama Administration’s failed policies that have resulted in high gas and grocery prices and rampant unemployment. These are the issues facing women every day and the issues women truly care about.

Nancy Pelosi doesn’t speak for us. Sandra Fluke doesn’t speak for us. We speak for ourselves. And we vote, in great numbers.

Tomorrow, the White House will hold a hastily-organized forum on women and the economy, with a stated purpose of highlighting ”ways the Administration has helped create economic security for women.” Yes, we laughed, too. Paying upwards of $4.00 per gallon of gas AND milk results in nothing but economic insecurity for American families. Best of all, the White House has created a special Twitter hashtag for this conference, a hashtag ripe for the hijacking. Use #WomenEconForum to let President Obama know how his failed policies have affected you.

You’ll note that the White House, in fine Friday “news dump” tradition, has relegated this forum to Good Friday, a holy day for many. That tells you how much they care about women and the economy. They are hoping we will not pay attention. They are wrong.

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On Faith This Good Friday

There have been a number of times throughout my life that I have encountered God’s blessings, his mercy, and his discipline.

When I was little, I sat in my grandmother’s lap hearing stories of Daniel in the Lion’s Den.

When I was a teenager, I could see God working in my life.

When I was in college, I could feel his call.

When I got married and and had kids and was told my wife would die (she did not), I could feel his peace.

I am convinced the Big Guy Upstairs is real, not that I’d ever doubted. There was no doubting in my mind that He was both very real and very involved — not an abstract or detached Creator. This pattern has repeated itself throughout my life, sometimes to my liking and sometimes definitely not to my liking. But still, it played out.

A few years ago, my wife decided to leave her job to stay home with our children. We could not make ends meet if she did it, so we prayed fervently about what to do. We decided God would provide. She left her job, our insurance, and our safety net. Within three days I received a pay raise for the first time in three years equal to my wife’s salary. Within a week, CNN came calling. WIthin a year, WSB Radio needed someone to replace Herman Cain on the radio. None of this would have been possible had my wife not felt compelled to be a stay at home mom.

Some will look at all this and chalk it up to coincidence or luck or even my own skill. But I know I am not that lucky and I am not that skillful.

At this time of year we are confronted with the question of whether He is real. C. S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity, “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic-on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg-or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse.”

We see the hostility of this world to Christ and must often remind ourselves that this world does hate Christ and those things of Christ and people of Christ. The Media Research Center brings word this morning about Queer Christ, the Christ who really is not for the people who really are not. I used that line on twitter and there has been an outpouring of condemnation.

I get that many want to wrap themselves up in Christ and feel the right wants a monopoly on Christ, but as much as those of us on the right need to do more to show we realize we don’t have a monopoly on Christ, the left needs to understand that it has obligations too. Anything goes does not go with Christ. We are not to judge, but we are to apply the standards Christ and his Apostles set forth as we live our live. We are to know right from wrong and to recognize there really is a right and a wrong and a moral and an immoral and a good and an evil.

Christ is not political. He is righteous.

The funniest comment about my link to the MRC story on Queer Christ was from a kid on Facebook who said, “(I don’t actually believe in your Jesus, but I do enjoy stuff like this as it proves none of you have learned anything from the Gospels.” It is always humorous to see one who does not believe claiming we know nothing from the Gospels.

Christ is for everyone, but not everyone wants him as he truly is. They want their Christ. Everyone, all of us, fall into that trap. But some refuse to recognize it and get out of it. They want their sin and their Jesus.

Over the next three days we remember the three days that have had a bigger impact on the history of mankind than any other. You can deny that Christ was crucified, despite historic, secular sources that confirm the event. You can deny that Christ rose again from the dead.

What you cannot deny is that what so many treat as fact and others scorn as cheap, recycled myth has shaped art, science, culture, literature, and government more profoundly than any other event.

I personally have a hard time believing that any myth would be so powerful and so lasting. Today we remember Christ’s death. On Sunday, we remember He lives.

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An Invitation to Tune In on Good Friday

As regular readers know, I have a political talk show on WSB Radio out of Atlanta each weeknight from 6pm to 9pm. It’s the nation’s largest talk radio station and I figure if I have to work on Good Friday, I might as well use the platform well.

So each Good Friday night, we play the music a bit longer, actually play the words, and throw in some Johnny Cash. We talk about higher order topics, matters of faith, matters of good and evil, and personal stuff. It’s the one show i dread doing each year and the one I feel most compelled to do.

You are invited to tune in tonight and, if you feel like it, join in.

The WSB signal is so strong, you may be able to pick it up in your car. It is out of Atlanta, but I know people in Texas, Louisiana, Missouri, and Virginia pick it up pretty well on the AM band. The signal comes from 750 AM and 95.5 FM. Online works well too. There’s also an iPhone app and you can get the Erick Erickson Show podcast via iTunes.

You can listen live tonight on the WSB live stream starting at 6:00 p.m. ET tonight going until 9:00 p.m. You can call in at 1-800-WSB-TALK.

Consider this an open thread and this post will float up the site throughout the day.

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Katie Pavlich Takes on Fast and Furious

Our sister company Regnery Publishing (we’re both owned by Eagle Publishing, Inc.) sent me a new book to read. I am really bad these days about not reading all the books I get in — sometimes up to a dozen a week from various publishers and authors. But this one caught my eye.

Katie Pavlich, Townhall’s News Editor, has a book out entitled Fast And Furious: Barack Obama’s Bloodiest Scandal and Its Shameless Cover-Up.

I think the media has spent more time doctoring 911 calls in the Trayvon Martin matter than focusing on what has happened along the border with Mexico. There has been some coverage and it probably would not have come to light except for CBS News’s initial reporting, but the scandal — and it is a scandal — has mostly flown under the radar.

In fact, the whole war on our Southern border, the kidnappings and killings spilling over into our country, etc. really have not made major, sustained national news.

Katie Pavlich’s book, comes in at 194 pages of text, then copious end notes and indexing, provides all the background you need to know to understand what happened and what is and is not being done.

Here’s the thing — a lot of conservative activists are focused on the scandal, but many have their facts jumbled, which makes it even harder to explain just how terrible a situation it is. Katie focuses on the facts, explains what happened, and has really produced a good primer on the subject for anyone in the press or activist community who wants to understand the extent of Operation Fast and Furious.

Click here now to order a copy of the book. If you are talking about this or want to understand the scandal, you need this book.

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