Why I chose Newt over Santorum | 'How can alternative to Romney be Romney supporter?'

In 2008 when my wife, Gena, and I were on the campaign trail backing former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee for president, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum was fighting to get former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney elected. (Listen in this video how Santorum passionately endorsed and elevated Mitt in his bid for the Oval Office.)

Just three years ago in his interview with radio host and conservative commentator Laura Ingraham, Santorum also emphatically told millions of listening Americans: “If you’re a conservative, if you’re a Republican, there is only one place to go, and that’s Mitt Romney.”

Why an alleged conservative like Santorum would fight for the flip-flopping Massachusetts moderate on the presidential campaign trail, especially in light of the fact that Huckabee and even McCain were running then with a much clearer conservative record, I will never know.

Yet Santorum now admits that Romney “bragged he’s even more liberal than Ted Kennedy on social issues.”

Santorum voted for H J Res 47 Debt Limit Increase Resolution

Santorum voted to raise the national debt ceiling five times

Santorum voted for the 2005 highway bill that included thousands and thousands of wasteful earmarks, including the Bridge to Nowhere. In fact, according to Club for Growth, “in a separate vote, Santorum had the audacity to vote to continue funding the Bridge to Nowhere rather than send the money to rebuild New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.”

Santorum voted for CAFTA, which removes duties on textile and apparel goods traded among participating nations, resulting in nearly ALL textile companies leaving the South.

Santorum voted for Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (though he now says he will repeal it), which imposes job-killing federal regulations on businesses.

Santorum voted against the National Right to Work Act of 1995, which would have repealed provisions of federal law that “require employees to pay union dues or fees as a condition of employment.”

Santorum voted for taxes in the Internet Access Tax Bill

Santorum voted for HR 3448 – Minimum Wage Increase bill, which allows punitive damages for injury or illness to be taxed, allows damages for emotional distress to be taxed and repeals the diesel fuel tax rebate to purchasers of diesel-powered automobiles and light trucks.

Santorum voted to confirm President Bill Clinton’s nomination of Alan Greenspan to be chairman of the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System for a fourth four-year term.

Santorum voted for Medicare prescription drug benefit known as Medicare Part D, though critical of it now. It is the largest expansion of entitlement spending since President Lyndon Johnson, which now costs taxpayers more than $60 billion a year and has almost $16 trillion in unfunded liabilities, according to Club for Growth.

Santorum voted in 1997 to support the Lautenberg Gun Ban, “which stripped law-abiding gun owners of their Second Amendment rights for life, simply because they spanked their children or did nothing more than grab a spouse’s wrist,” according to a press release from Dudley Brown, executive director of the National Association for Gun Rights.

Santorum voted in 1999 for a bill “disguised as an attempt to increase penalties on drug traffickers with guns … but it also included a provision to require federal background checks at gun shows,” again according to Dudley Brown’s release.

Santorum “came to anti-gun Arlen Specter’s defense in 2004 when he was down in the polls against pro-gun Republican Pat Toomey. Specter won and continued to push for gun control during his years in the Senate,” per Brown.

Santorum voted with Barbara Boxer in 2005 on the Gun Lock Requirement Amendment

Santorum voted for the Firearms Manufacturers Protection Bill and then flip-flopped and voted against it in S 1805 – Firearms Manufacturers Protection Bill

Santorum voted against HR 2356 – Campaign Reform Act of 2001

Santorum voted for an amendment to the Communications Act of 1934 that requires television broadcast providers to give their lowest rates to political candidates.

Santorum voted for HR 1 – No Child Left Behind Act

Santorum sponsored legislation to force companies to pay laid off workers benefits.

Santorum worked for an increase in funding big government programs like Head Start.

Santorum voted for taxpayer money to go to Pennsylvania families for their heating bills.

Santorum introduced and co-sponsored big government health-care bills.

Santorum voted for HR 796 – the protection of abortion clinics

Santorum actively supports the Global Fund, which was created by the United Nations to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, but also “channels a large portion of its funds through Planned Parenthood’s affiliates around the world and through a British group Marie Stopes International (the largest chain of abortion mills in the UK, with 66,000 abortions a year.)… to operate in Cambodia, Fiji, Bangladesh, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Burma, Kenya, Tanzania, and other countries,” according to the pro-life Gerard Health Foundation that provides millions of dollars to pro-life groups.

Santorum boasted of teaming up with Joe Lieberman, Barbara Boxer and Hillary Clinton in his 2006 political ad for re-election to the U.S. Senate, which he lost to Democrat Bob Casey Jr. by the largest margin of victory ever for a Democratic Senate nominee in Pennsylvania and the largest margin of victory for a Senate challenger in the 2006 elections.

Santorum opposed the tea party and its reforms in the Republican Party and conservative movement just a couple years ago saying, “I have some real concerns about this movement within the Republican party … to sort of refashion conservatism. And I will vocally and publicly oppose it.”

I’m absolutely convinced that Newt Gingrich is the junkyard dog we need to rip Obama a new one and send him running back to his Chicago slime pit with his tail between his legs. Newt has plenty of DC experience as Speaker, executive ability from his many enterprises, and a silver tongue that’s razor sharp! He’s fast on his feet, delivers it straight up with no hemming and hawing, and is often witty. His work with American Solutions was very impressive
and as we’ve seen recently, Newt is able to put into words what the vast majority of Americans really believe. His fevered brain also has plenty of ideas for making government work better for taxpayers. Is Newt pure as the driven snow? No - none of the presidential candidates are in line for sainthood. Whatever Newt’s “baggage”, it pales next to Obama’s habitual lying and outright corruption - and unlike Obama, Newt is 100% American! Newt is like Larry the Cable Guy: send him to DC and he’ll “Get ‘er done” for all of us. Junkyard dogs are not show dogs, but they’ll save your bacon!

I am so damn mad at what Obama and his bootlickers have stolen from us - you should be too - and I want someone to represent me. Newt is my man! Go git ‘im, Newt!

Chuck Norris knocks Santorum over earmarks. Conservatives better be cautious over the use of the "earmark" charge. It is a weapon used selectively against many Conservatives. Examples:

"McCain fires at Gingrich for earmarks" - usatoday Excerpt:
"Overall, though, earmarks about doubled during the time Gingrich led the House, based on statistics compiled by the taxpayer watchdog group Citizens Against Government."
"Palin's earmark requests: more per person than any other state" - seatletimes Excerpt:
"Just this year, she sent to Sen. Ted. Stevens, R-Alaska, a proposal for 31 earmarks totaling $197 million — more, per person, than any other state."

BUT.. more importantly, without knocking Chuck Norris's endorsement of Gingrich, Conservatives should also take his other knocks against Santurom with a grain of salt. Why? Because among Norris's long bulleted list of charges is the following boldfaced lie:

• Santorum opposed the tea party and its reforms in the Republican Party and conservative movement just a couple years ago saying, “I have some real concerns about this movement within the Republican party … to sort of refashion conservatism. And I will vocally and publicly oppose it.”

Norris's edit (the above "..."):

"this movement within the Republican party… to"
is actually
"this movement within the Republican party AND THE TEA PARTY MOVEMENT to"

Norris did not merely take this out of context, but deliberately removed the heart of the quote to reverse its meaning.

As for the context here's what Santorum said just before this quote, that clearly states which movement he is concerned about:

"I fight very strongly against Libertarian influence within the Republican party and Conservative movement"

See "Rick Santorum's "Real Concerns" ~~About The Tea Party~~ {About Libertarianism}" - (FR Link). This includes a video of the Santorum speech these quotes come from.

I would never have thought Chuck Norris capable of such a despicable lie. Whose influence is he under?

GINGRICH: Now, I am going to give you a series of solutions that are big enough to get America back on the right track. And I think this has been the greatest challenge of this campaign.

We have lots of bickering; we have lots of arguments about this and that. We have virtually no discussion of what does it really take to take the most complicated society in the world, the largest economy in the world, and move it back to being the most successful, most prosperous, safest and freest country in the world.

So I am going to try this afternoon to set the stage for that.

And we have tons of details at Newt.org — any of you want, to just go to my first name dot org. You will see an immense amount of material.

But the standard here is that solutions big enough to get America working again — and the principle is to unleash the American people to rebuild the America we love.

Let me start with jobs: If I am the nominee, with your help, I will ask the entire Republican ticket to campaign with me on the pledge that when the Congress comes in on January 3, it will stay in session, and by January 20, when I am sworn in, it will have repealed Obamacare.

GINGRICH: It will have repealed Dodd-Frank.

GINGRICH: It will have repealed Sarbanes-Oxley.

GINGRICH: All three of those are job killing bills, which centralized bureaucracy in Washington DC and increased the corruption of the political system. All three should be repealed and held at the desk until I am sworn in. That afternoon, on the very first day, we should sign the repeal of all three. That's a reasonable start.

GINGRICH: Two hours after the Inaugural Address — that was just the hors d’oeurve. We haven't got around to serious work, yet.

After the Inaugural Address, I will spend it signing executive orders and presidential findings. All of them will have been published by October 1. The country will know precisely what this campaign is about.

The very first executive order will abolish all of the White House czars, as of that moment.

GINGRICH: We will sign, that day, an executive order, which as of that moment, approves of the Canadian pipeline to Houston, period.

GINGRICH: My message to Prime Minister Harper and the Canadian government is simple: You do not need a partnership with the Chinese. Give the American people a few months. When we beat Obama on election night, you can start buying equipmentbecause we will approve it on January 20th.

GINGRICH: There will be an executive order to move the State Department, to put the embassy in Jerusalem as of that day, period.

GINGRICH: We will, that day, reinstate Ronald Reagan's “Mexico City Policy” — No money for abortion overseas, period.

GINGRICH: And we will have an executive order to repeal every act of religious bigotry by the Obama administration period.

My goal, with your help, is that by the time President Obama lands in Chicago, we will have repudiated at least 40 percent of his government on the opening-day.

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