More oh-eight (R)
Posted: Monday, April 16, 2007 9:10 AM by Mark Murray
Filed Under:
Republicans
All of the major GOP candidates spoke in Iowa Saturday night at the state party's Lincoln Day Dinner. No one committed news. Perhaps the oddest speech came from ex-Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore, who coined the phrase "Rudy McRomney" in taking a shot at the conservative credentials of the frontrunners. He also took a shot at Fred Thompson, not by name, but by profession. He contrasted his law-and-order background (he's an ex-VA AG and prosecutor) with Thompson's Hollywood background.
GIULIANI: The former New York City mayor speaks at Regent University tomorrow. McClatchy does a curtain-raiser focusing on Giuliani’s attempts to court Christian conservatives.
MCCAIN: In his economic policy address today, according to excerpts from the campaign, McCain takes some more shots at the Democrats, but also check out his implicit criticism of the Bush Administration. “To illustrate how badly the problem [pork barrel politics] skews our priorities look at the recent debate in Congress over the spending bill to support our troops in Iraq. Democratic leaders wanted to use the bill to force the President to withdraw our troops from Iraq by next year. But they didn’t have the votes… They took the lid off the pork barrel, and said to wavering members ‘help yourself, there’s plenty more where that came from.’”
More: “I believe the President should have the line item veto as 43 governors have, and I’ll fight to get it. But I won’t wait for it. Give me the pen, and I’ll use it. I won’t just talk about it, or threaten it, or use it once and put it back in the drawer to gather dust. Give me the pen, and I’ll veto every single pork barrel bill Congress sends me, and if they keep sending them to me, I’ll use the bully pulpit to make the people who are wasting your money famous.”
And: “I promise you, if I’m elected President, I won’t leave office without balancing the federal budget. And I won’t do it with smoke and mirrors. When I leave office, I want to leave a budget that stays balanced after I’m gone, and can weather the occasional downturn and unexpected contingency. I’ll do it by spending less and encouraging economic growth… When we passed [Bush’s] tax cuts, we increased spending as well. That’s unacceptable…”
ROMNEY: Besides Iowa, Romney stumped in South Carolina over the weekend.
The Washington Times is the latest to examine the Christian conservative angst about the entire GOP field. A notable quote: "I hate to say this, and I wish our people were bigger than this, but they do believe the Mormon Church is ... not a church," said Free Congress Foundation President Paul M. Weyrich, a longtime leader in recruiting Catholics and Protestant evangelicals to the Republican fold. "But Mormons really do have decent families. In many ways, that ought to be looked at rather than a man's religion."
F. THOMPSON: Don't miss Thompson's Saturday Wall Street Journal op-ed on tax cuts. He's for them, by the way.
Also, here's the full Weekly Standard profile on him we teased on Friday.
