Free Republic

The U.S. Justice Department entered the court battle over a tough new Indiana abortion law that disqualifies Planned Parenthood of Indiana from the Medicaid program, siding with the organization in its request Thursday for a court order blocking the statute as unconstitutional. In a brief filed electronically after the close of business, Justice Department attorneys said U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt should grant Planned Parenthood's request for an injunction because it blocks Medicaid recipients' freedom to choose the provider of their choice. The law signed May 10 by Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels cuts off Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood...

WASHINGTON — The Health and Human Services Department is telling the state of Indiana that its Medicaid plan, which bans funding to Planned Parenthood, is illegal and must be changed. In a letter sent to Indiana's Medicaid director, and obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday, Medicaid Administrator Donald M. Berwick says Indiana's plan will improperly bar Medicaid beneficiaries from receiving services. Berwick writes that federal law requires Medicaid beneficiaries to be able to obtain services from any provider qualified to provide services.

With Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels out of the race, is a Huntsman boomlet brewing? There is no shortage of voices willing to say so, including Jon Huntsman. "I think the opening is to our advantage," the former Utah governor told Politico. "How many reform-minded governors are there left who are going to take a very fiscally conservative approach to problem-solving?" Daniels had a strong appeal to fiscal conservatives, but his "truce talk" added a special appeal to that subset of fiscal conservatives actively motivated to stick it to social conservatives. Many mavericky McCain campaign aides are now drifting off in...

WASHINGTON – Mitt Romney is emerging as the man to catch in the narrowing Republican presidential field, grabbing a clear head start in fundraising, organization and experience despite vulnerabilities that still might undo him. With Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels becoming the latest respected Republican to forgo a candidacy, many party insiders say the field is largely set. And Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and Olympic Games organizer, is in front. "It's Romney's to lose," said Scott Reed, a GOP consultant who managed Bob Dole's presidential campaign. He said Romney's biggest advantages are his personal wealth, fundraising know-how and experience as...

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said early Sunday that he won't run for president because of family considerations, narrowing the field in the race for the GOP nomination. "In the end, I was able to resolve every competing consideration but one," Daniels said, disclosing his decision in an e-mail to supporters. "The interests and wishes of my family, is the most important consideration of all. If I have disappointed you, I will always be sorry."

Washington – Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels has informed supporters he will not seek the Republican White House nomination. The New York Times reported early Sunday, citing an email message Daniels sent to supporters that read, "In the end, I was able to resolve every competing consideration but one," Daniels wrote.

With friends like Conor with one N, Mitch Daniels probably doesn't need enemies within the conservative base. Everything is upside down in the Republican primaries. The GOP establishment is rallying behind a principled candidate with a proven conservative track record. That's upsetting the conservative base: on talk radio and right wing blogs, they concede that the man in question governs as a staunch conservative, but insist his candidacy isn't viable because he lacks charisma and electability. Gee, Daniels is making headlines, again. He has a real gift for that. Indiana Republican governor Mitch Daniels was hit in the forehead by...

Mitch Daniels knocked in head at gym By: Maggie Haberman May 20, 2011 03:44 PM EDT An accident at the gym left Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels with 16 stitches on his forehead on Friday, his office announced. Daniels, who is weighing a run for the White House, was standing near a door at the National Institute for Fitness and Sport in Indianapolis, and "the door suddenly swung open and struck the governor in the forehead," his office said in a statement. "He was treated and released and is recovering at home."

I am not really sure what is wrong with Mitch Daniels. Two years ago, you would not have found a bigger Mitch Daniels booster in the United States than yours truly. He had bucked national trends to win an landslide re-election and was doing all the right things to demonstrate administrative competence, which is something our party badly needed to demonstrate after the last two years of the Bush administration. Then he started saying crap like this, courtesy of Jenn Rubin...

Top Republicans are increasingly convinced that President Barack Obama will be easily reelected if stronger GOP contenders do not emerge, and some are virtually begging Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels to add some excitement to the slow-starting nomination race. It’s a sign of the GOP’s straits that the party is depending on the bland, wonkish Daniels for an adrenaline boost. But interviews this week with longtime party activists and strategists made clear that many in the Republican establishment are unnerved by a field led by Mitt Romney, who could have trouble confronting Obama on health reform; Tim Pawlenty, who has yet...

The very fact that the Arab American Institute is so head over heels for Mitch Daniels automatically sends up a red flag of alarm.Key excerpts from the AAI article: ["...Most recently, some prospective candidates have been engaging in a crass effort to take advantage of the equally ill-conceived fear surrounding what is being called “Shariah creep” (an imaginary ploy allegedly by Muslims to gradually supplant the Constitution with Islamic law)." "For example, former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty has shut down a Minnesota banking program which allows potential homeowners’ mortgages to be in compliance with basic tenets of Islamic law, despite the program’s initial driving force being...

It is a common complaint that politicians say one thing during the campaign but do something entirely different when governing. Governor Mitch Daniels of Indiana is the Benjamin Button of potential Presidential candidates, he turns the whole thing on its head by not talking the talk but walking the walk. I have been extremely critical of Governor Daniels these past months as he has openly advocated for what has been termed “a truce” on the divisive social issues so we can focus on the pressing problem of debt. He put it this way on the Laura Ingraham radio show. “If...

"Governor Daniels showed us he was a man of his word and has stood by the commitments he made during the 2004 pre-election Iftar," stated Alia Shah, Executive Director of MAI. Local Muslims say such political connections are important if their concerns are to be heard in government. But faith, rather than politics, was the key topic Monday night -- the first iftar held at an Indiana governor's home. Several Muslim leaders called it historic. "To be blessed to make prayer at the governor's residence is significant," said Michael Saahir, an imam from the Nur-Allah Islamic Center on the Northside....

Last week, my organization praised the Indiana lawmakers for passing some of the nation’s most significant education reforms. In one of Education Action Group’s weekly newsletters, we said that Indiana’s new voucher program and its decision to lift the cap on charter schools will transform the state’s public education system, to the benefit of all Hoosier families and students. Well, EAG’s audacity in celebrating the idea of school choice generated a number of hateful email responses – from unionized Indiana teachers. But as unhinged as unionized teachers can become, one Indiana educator stooped to new lows. An email from a...

INDIANAPOLIS | Overturning a common law dating back to the English Magna Carta of 1215, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Hoosiers have no right to resist unlawful police entry into their homes. In a 3-2 decision, Justice Steven David writing for the court said if a police officer wants to enter a home for any reason or no reason at all, a homeowner cannot do anything to block the officer's entry. "We believe ... a right to resist an unlawful police entry into a home is against public policy and is incompatible with modern Fourth Amendment jurisprudence," David...

INDIANAPOLIS -- When the Indiana Republican Party found itself in a bind this spring, unable to lock down a high-profile keynote speaker for its big annual fundraising dinner, it was Gov. Mitch Daniels himself who came up with the solution: He'd get his wife, Cheri, to do it. It was a bold move, considering that she had never given a high-profile speech before and generally has been reluctant to step onto the political stage. At the same time, her husband has been pondering a 2012 presidential bid (pondering it for the better part of 18 months, in fact) and the...

INDIANAPOLIS -- With 1,100 people chanting "Run Mitch, Run," Gov. Mitch Daniels took the stage here Thursday night and did something he's never done before: He introduced his wife Cheri, and then he turned the microphone over to her to address the sold-out crowd. It was Cheri Daniels' first-ever speech at a big political event in all the years she has been Indiana's First Lady. And with speculation over whether her husband will enter the presidential race now at fever-pitch, her mere presence at the podium for the annual state GOP dinner had everyone searching for clues and hidden meanings....

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- The wife of Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels is giving few hints about whether her husband will run for president during a rare speech to Republican supporters in Indianapolis. Cheri Daniels has kept a low profile as Indiana's first lady, but she made her biggest speech Thursday to a sold-out crowd of more than 1,000 people at a state party dinner. She joked about her "glamorous" role in the state. She showed the crowd photos of her with sports team mascots, dressing up with the governor for Halloween and milking a cow at the state fair. Mitch Daniels...

Many in the Republican Party are desperately hoping that Indiana governor Mitch Daniels will swoop in and save them from a field of fatally flawed or un-serious presidential candidates. And according to the Huffington Post, Daniels would like to. There's just one thing standing in his way at this point: How he and his wife are going to handle their weird marriage history. "In 1993, Cheri Daniels left her husband with their four daughters and married another man in California. She returned a few years later, reconciled with Daniels, and the two were remarried in 1997." Cheri has never spoken...

INDIANAPOLIS, May 10, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Indiana has become the first state to cut off Planned Parenthood from taxpayer assistance because of its role in the abortion business. Governor Mitch Daniels, a potential contender for the 2012 GOP presidential ticket, signed on Tuesday a measure to block public funds from going to organizations that perform abortions, depriving Planned Parenthood of an estimated $3 million in both state and federal funds. According to the Associated Press, Planned Parenthood of Indiana has promised to take to federal court to seek a temporary restraining order and injunction Tuesday against the new law.