Idaho’s Republican contest is closed to non-Republlicans and will be held on March 6, 2012, otherwise known as Super Tuesday. Other primaries that day include Alaska, Georgia, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia.

There are 32 delegates available in Idaho, a caucus state. The Idaho Secretary of State’s website is here. Newt Gingrich has a visit planned.

Gingrich and his wife, Callista, will be at rallies in Kennewick and Spokane on Thursday, and will cross the border into Idaho for a Coeur d’Alene rally Thursday night. On Friday, they’ll be in western Washington, visiting with Republican lawmakers at the state Capitol in the morning before heading to rallies in south King County and Everett.

In previous cycles, the event wasn’t scheduled until May.

Power at the polls will be a new phenomenon in Idaho, thanks to a much earlier vote. The state GOP is switching to a Super Tuesday caucus in March instead of a May primary. The late spring date, behind dozens of other states, has traditionally left Gem-Staters without a say.

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Georgia’s Republican primary will be held on March 6, 2012, otherwise known as Super Tuesday. Other primaries that day include Alaska, Idaho, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia.

The latest polling via the Atlanta Journal Constitution has things tied at the top among three candidates.

Newt Gingrich, 26 percent; Mitt Romney, 24 percent; Rick Santorum, 23 percent.

A Southern state, Georgia is viewed as a test of a candidate’s appeal with the core of the GOP base. It’s also Newt Gingrich’s home state and he has a great deal riding on the contest. If he doesn’t win it, it could mean his bid for the nomination is over. Gingrich himself has played up the significance of winning one’s home state by pointing out Mitt Romney’s need to win Michigan.

It would be all but impossible for Gingrich to justifying remaining in contention if he loses GA, given his comments on Romney and Michigan.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich hinted Sunday that if rival Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney loses the primary election in his home state of Michigan, he should drop out of the race.

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Given that Rep. Ron Paul has long been a champion of frugal, ethical government, while supporting calls to audit the Federal Reserve, his lack of cooperation with Roll Call in two reports on what appear to be duplicate reimbursements for airline travel he’s received exposes the Congressman to charges of hypocrisy.

Today, Roll Call follows up a previous item with this report.

But James’ recollection and new documents obtained by Roll Call suggest Paul was aware that he was often being reimbursed twice for individual flights. In all, Roll Call found 26 flights in which several layers of documentation show double payments: credit card statements that detail the ticket purchases, a payment to Paul from his taxpayer-funded House account for reimbursement of a flight and Federal Election Commission records or copies of checks that verify a second payment from a separate group for the same flight.

Roll Call obtained copies of checks from the Liberty Committee to American Express that paid for Paul’s expenses. The records obtained by Roll Call cover about 17 nonconsecutive months. Beyond the 26 flights, documents show an additional 31 flights where it appears Paul was double-reimbursed but the records lack sufficient detail to prove duplicate payments.

The initial item from February 6 can be found here.

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All of the remaining GOP candidates in the 2012 primary can justifiably be criticized for something. There’s no disputing that. At the link below, the Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto takes a look at some specific criticism that’s been prominently directed at Rick Santorum.

After reading Taranto’s well reasoned arguments, it’s hard to conclude anything other than it’s much ado about nothing, or liberals in the media telling us to not believe our lying eyes and brains.

Fear and Feminism Some criticism of Rick Santorum is downright irrational.

Of late we have been struck powerfully by one such complication, namely the emotional intensity of the opposition to Santorum by some on the center-right. This has led them to criticize him on grounds that are utterly irrational.

In truth, Santorum says only that he would “talk about” what he sees as the social harms of contraception. There is no conflict whatever between limited government and moral exhortation, provided the latter is unaccompanied by legislative or administrative action.

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There’s talk that it’s Rick Santorum who is currently under the gun, not Mitt Romney.  He can write a check to himself, if need be, while Santorum must win Michigan and Ohio to make the case that Romney has a mid-West problem which warrants additional support for Santorum as a preferred alternative.

Erick Erickson reported on Twitter that Romney will not participate in the CNN debate in Georgia before Super Tuesday.

The big money players behind the Super PACs of all the candidates have agreed to come together to fund a general election PAC, regardless of the nominee.

The general election could come down to the GOP winning Ohio, Virginia and Florida.

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Alaska’s Republican primary caucus will be held on March 6, 2012, otherwise known as Super Tuesday. Other primaries that day include Georgia, Idaho, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia.

In preparation for Alaska, Mitt Romney launched a steering committee, which includes less than conservative favorite, Senator Lisa Murkowski. The full list is available at Romney’s website. There are 27 delegates at stake.

Mitt Romney may be taking a whipping from the far right flank of the Republican Party this week — first, across the Midwest in the Colorado and Minnesota primaries, and continuing currently at CPAC 2012 — but he’s already looking toward Super Tuesday and the bevy of delegates up for grabs in March, including those of Alaska.

Romney on Thursday announced members of his Alaska Steering Committee. And there a few major league Alaska politicians and other civic leaders going to bat for the former Massachusetts governor.

Romney won Alaska in 2008, receiving 44% of 14,000 votes cast for a total of 12 delegates. Senator John McCain finished last behind Huckabee and Paul, who is said to still have strong support in the state. Romney won it as the not John McCain, which suggests there’s no guarantee that he’ll win it again this year as the current GOP moderate and supposed front-runner.

Alaska’s delegates are poised to play a surprisingly big role in the 2012 race. The 49th state’s true-blue Republicans were faithful to the party leadership’s nominating schedule. And while the majority of Alaskans identify as independents, Alaska still maintains a sizable Republican voting bloc and a center-right electorate. In party politics, all these things play well for Alaska.

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A bitter redistricting fight in Texas may make the once Super Tuesday state irrelevant to the 2012 GOP Presidential nominating contest, while also involving potential ramifications for which party controls the U.S. House of Representatives after November.

Having already been moved back from March 6th to April, any realistic prospective date is quickly sliding into May and even a June date has already been suggested by a judge, as minority groups and the state fail to achieve a compromise acceptable to both sides.

Although the chances of an April primary are not officially extinguished, even the judges acknowledged those prospects are fading because of logistics. Elections workers from some of Texas’ largest counties are pushing May 22 as the next earliest date if maps can be settled quickly.

U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez at one point suggested that June 26 may make the most sense for the primary elections. That would make Texas among the last states in the nation to hold a primary but would also ensure that maps would reflect any Voting Rights Act issues that a Washington court is still deciding.

Driven by 3 million new Hispanic residents, Texas gained 4 House seats, pitting Democrats against Republicans in a state battle over the composition of various districts, with potential national implications in both the GOP’s Presidential primary and Fall elections.

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If one was looking for fiery, crowd pleasing, political rhetoric from former Speaker Newt Gingrich as he addressed CPAC today, they were likely disappointed. What Gingrich did do was run through a litany of policy solutions he claimed he has committed to implement immediately upon taking office in January of 2013.

Contrasting an America that can versus an America that can’t, Gingrich compared America’s speed and might in winning WWII versus her current inability to seal its own border. In a lighter moment, the former Speaker contrasted the efficiency of package tracking by Federal Express with the government’s inability to track illegal immigrants, suggesting sending each one a package may be the best way to apprehend the latter.

He also mentioned repealing Obamacare, Dodd Frank, and Sarbanes Oxley on his first day in office. He stated his desire to be a “paycheck president” versus a “food stamp president,” a term he used to denigrate Barack Obama.

Calling for a Fall campaign focused on substance, Gingrich also mentioned eliminating the Capital Gains tax and implementing 100% expensing for all new equipment written off in one year to help get the economy growing. Additionally, he called for a modernization of the workforce, proposing that unemployment compensation be linked to business training programs to avoid paying people for 99 weeks “for doing nothing.” (more…)

Russ Feingold is already criticizing Barack Obama for his reversal on the use of Super PACs. Obama has consistently been on record condemning the process whereby individuals and corporations can donate to a PAC anonymously to support a related campaign.

So much for priorities. Obama’s Super PAC is Priorities USA.

Liberal ex-Sen. Russ Feingold (Wis.) is ripping President Obama’s decision to embrace super-PACs. Feingold, who co-authored landmark campaign finance legislation with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to regulate campaigns, said Obama is “dancing with the devil” by deciding to fully support Priorities USA, a Democratic political action committee.

Says Team Obama, we won’t bring a knife to a gunfight. But will they attempt to punch back twice as hard? I’d make book on it, if I were you.

With so much at stake, we can’t allow for two sets of rules in this election whereby the Republican nominee is the beneficiary of unlimited spending and Democrats unilaterally disarm.

Check out the above video of Obama denouncing said Super-PACs.

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There’s been a great deal made of whether the unemployment rate dropped, or if the number of individuals in the job market dropped by some 1.2 million. If the American Spectator is to believed, this has all been much ado about nothing. Owing to a once-in-a-decade adjustment based upon census data, they make the case that the workforce didn’t lose over a million workers, but neither did the real unemployment rate drop.

In other words, the participation rate (employment-population ratio) was reported to have dropped by 0.3%, exactly the amount of participation rate “drop” created by changing the population number used in the calculation (due to updated census data.) Without this once-a-decade adjustment, the change in participation rate would have been reported as…wait for it…zero.

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Obamacare opponents have been raising red flags around this issue for some time, but today the IRS has finally issued preliminary guidelines for the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. The legislation is expected to cost America tens of thousands of jobs, while also sending some high-end industries overseas. There’s more from the IRS available at the links in text below. That it’s being released on a Friday afternoon is no coincidence.

On February 3, 2012, the IRS and the Treasury Department issued proposed regulations on the new 2.3-percent medical device excise tax (IRC §4191) that manufacturers and importers will pay on their sales of taxable medical devices starting in 2013. Additional information is available in the Medical Device Excise Tax FAQs.

The IRS and Treasury Department request comments on the proposed regulations by May 7, 2012. Comments may be submitted electronically, by mail or hand delivered to the IRS. The preamble to the proposed regulations provides instructions on how to submit comments.

Industry sources have already begun weighing in through press releases of their own. There’s also a detailed analysis of the implications of the proposed guidelines here. (more…)

Other than in South Carolina, 2012 GOP Primary turnout has been somewhat flat, or below that of 2008. Up +3 in Iowa and +6 in New Hampshire, it jumped to +35 in South Carolina but dropped to -14 in Florida. It’s possible that the last minute surge by Gingrich and his debate performances brought some added excitement to the race, turning out voters in South Carolina.

South Carolina, of course, was the strongest state for Newt Gingrich. In contrast, turnout among Republican identifiers was down for Mr. Romney’s two victories so far, as well as for his near-win in Iowa.

While it’s possible to argue that Romney’s negative advertising in Florida lowered turnout, along with the lack of a special real estate-related initiative – one was on the ballot in 2008 – a closer look at the numbers still points to a problem, especially for for Romney.

In both South Carolina and Florida, district-level turnout was more likely to trend up in districts that went to Newt, and flat, or down in ones that went for Romney. Once one looks at party identification, the trend gets even worse.

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In a deal with several moving parts, Conservative favorite Rep. Allen West will move over and run in Rep. Tom Rooney’s old district, as Rooney moves on to run in a newly created district. Additionally, Adam Hasner will drop his Senate bid, leaving a somewhat clearer path for Rep. Connie Mack to run for the Senate nomination.

U.S. Senate candidate Adam Hasner will likely leave the race and run for Allen West’s soon-to-be-vacated Congressional seat, a source tells us. West’s seat looks a lot like Hasner’s old legislative Delray Beach-based district.

Meanwhile, to avoid a bloody primary, leadership in the U.S. House asked Hasner to run for West’s seat. But first, West had to announce he’d leave his seat and run for Tom Rooney’s seat. And before that happened, Rooney had to announce he’d leave his district and run for a new district.

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While blowing all of the inappropriate anti-American, anti-capitalist dog whistles to incite the Left into reflexive action, Dave Zirin at The Nation casts the Super Bowl as basically everything the left hates about America.

Cue angry Union worker: “Upsetting the Super Bowl— I couldn’t care less. This is about my life and my family.” —Lou Feldman, IBEW local 668.” But that’s just the opening salvo. A good Leftist can never go wrong banging on the military, let alone capitalism.

The sheer volume of the Super Bowl is overpowering: the corporate branding, the sexist beer ads, the miasma of Madison Avenue–produced militarism, the two-hour pre-game show. But people in the labor and Occupy movements in Indiana are attempting to drown out the din with the help of a human microphone right at the front gates of Lucas Oil Stadium.

Lest you think the left is merely anti-football, the stakes are somewhat greater than that for them and always political.

The Republican-led state legislature aims to pass a law this week that would make Indiana a “right-to-work” state.

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Democrats already know one issue upon which they have potential GOP nominee, Mitt Romney at a severe disadvantage, as Paul Begala points out: RomneyCare versus ObamaCare.

After 19 debates Mitt still doesn’t have a straight answer. Rick Santorum skillfully dissected Romney on the topic. If Romney is the GOP nominee, you can be sure Barack Obama will do the same.

Appearing to have been stuck in, you’re angry mode, a tactic Romney is deploying to target Newt Gingrich, it was all he seemed to have as a fall back when very effectively pressed on the subject by Rick Santorum in last night’s debate.

“We cannot give the issue of healthcare away in this election,” Santorum declared, striking a resonance with conservatives everywhere.

Based upon various Twitter accounts, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh picked up on the topic this morning, stressing the importance of the exchange between Santorum and Romney. Liberal blogs and outlets such as Talking Points Memo and the Huffington Post are picking up on it with video, as is The Hill, among others.

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Mitt Romney’s father, liberal Republican George Romney, met with and endorsed infamous progressive activist Saul Alinsky; meanwhile, in a defense of Mitt Romney against charges of racism, the National Black Chamber of Commerce points out the significant influence the elder Romney had on son Mitt and credits the Romneys for a long history of progressive activism. Emphasis mine.

No, Mitt Romney is not a racist. As I researched history, over the years I have come to find that the opposite is the case. The Romney Family has a legacy of pro-civil rights, progressive activism and an understanding of how poverty and inequality can hurt people.

This portrait would jibe with Mitt Romney’s image as a progressive Governor of Massachusetts, while suggesting any serious conversion to conservatism would not only entail a change in viewpoint but a rejection of Mitt’s Father, George — someone he has regularly mentioned as a major influence while campaigning. Taken as a whole, the new information could serve to fuel existing significant doubt amongst an already skeptical conservative base that Romney’s already vague conversion to conservatism is more one of electoral convenience than a principled decision.

During all of this advocacy, his son, Mitt, was evolving as a man. He idolized his father and emulated his legacy. Mitt Romney lived amongst Blacks in metropolitan Detroit. He went to the prestigious Cranbrook School. One of our board members, Claude McDougal, is a fellow alumnus of the school.

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Newt Gingrich seems to be making good use of a McCain oppo research file on Romney that hit the web last week. This from page 82:

People chuckled when presidential candidate Mitt Romney, a Mormon raised in Michigan and elected in Massachusetts, bungled the names of Cuban-American politicians during a recent speech in Miami. But when he mistakenly associated Fidel Castros trademark speech-ending slogan  Patria o muerte, venceremos!  with a free Cuba, listeners didnt laugh. They winced. Castro has closed his speeches with the phrase  in English, Fatherland or death, we shall overcome  for decades.

Florida’s Cuban community was reported to be livid with Romney at the time for his bungling Spanish, along with the key quote. The former Speaker’s campaign has turned it into radio spots and is hitting Romney on that and his stance on illegal immigration, as well.

Mitt Romney’s 2007 gaffe, where he quoted Fidel Castro and mis-attributed the line to Hugo Chavez, was the subject of mockery in the former Massachusetts governor’s hometown tabloid and is now the grist of fellow Republican Newt Gingrich’s latest radio ad that’s about to play on Spanish-language radio in South Florida. The ad doesn’t stop with Castro. It bashes Romney’s hardline immigration stance as well.

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Along with being both timely and timeless, the critical importance of Mark Levin’s latest, Ameritopia: The Unmaking of America, rests in its unique ability to empower and inform the Conservative, or activist, political junkie, and average citizen with a genuine interest in contemporary American politics.

Timely because it cuts to the heart of the political struggle playing out in 2012, timeless in that it’s a concise yet thorough primer addressing the two core philosophies that drive all American politics, the depth of understanding of both Liberalism and Conservatism and the critical struggle between them it provides represents a wealth of information and insight to empower the Conservative and political activist of today.

From government in general, to the particulars of the American experiment embodied in our Declaration of Independence and Constitution, Levin extensively quotes unique and important thinkers, such as Plato, More, Hobbes and Marx on behalf of the utopianist view; with thinkers like Locke, Montesquieu, de Tocqueville and others representing the individualist, or Conservative view as we know it today.

Interspersed with extensive, insightful commentary by Levin himself, one comes to understand the bedrock, theory and practice of two very different political ideologies and how they apply to contemporary American politics playing out on a day-to-day basis, as well as in every election year.

Broadly at issue is, how will man structure himself, so as to function within a society. The utopianist would hold that said society must be structured from the top down, with rules, roles, regulations and laws all purportedly designed for the common good being issued from on high. The individualist, free-thinking, or conservative view would hold that, at the core of all civil society rests the individual, with his natural rights and inclinations, both good and bad, the ideal society being represented by a governmental authority that manifests the least amount of control possible, so as to empower the freedom, happiness and productivity of the individual.

By tracing the development of these two critical schools of thinking from their earliest beginnings, in theory, practice and thought, following them right up to today, one comes to understand American society as existing within a polarity between the two competing schools, with every political decision, be it a vote, or government mandate, as impacting precisely where within said polarity an American must live out his, or her life every day.

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Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez recently called Barack Obama “a clown and an embarrassment.” Chavez may hold a similar opinion of Mitt Romney – for good reason. Along with siding with the Left, as recently as 2005, then Governor Mitt Romney undermined Bush and American interests abroad, while empowering one of its enemies.

When Chavez, aided by the American Left, offered low cost heating oil to America as a political move intended to undermine then Republican President George Bush, Mitt Romney joined with the Left in praising the deal. And Romney didn’t stop there. Emphasis mine.

Joseph P. Kennedy II, chairman of the nonprofit Citizens Energy, which is helping to administer the discounted oil, said it was unfair to criticize Chávez’s motives when other oil-providing nations had given no aid. … In Venezuela, “you have a country led by somebody who cares for the poor.”

Governor Mitt Romney yesterday hailed the accord, though he declined to discuss Chávez. “I’m delighted to hear we’ll be able to purchase oil at a lower price than the market for our citizens,” he said.

This via page 84 of a recently leaked McCain oppo research file on Romney from 2008.

“Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican like President Bush, cheered the agreement during a Statehouse news conference, saying, ‘I want to say thanks to Congressman Delahunt and all of those around the world working to get lower-priced energy to us.’” (Mark Jewell, “Venezuela To Provide Discounted Heating Oil To Massachusetts,” The Associated Press, 11/22/05)

Independent analysts pronounced it a political move to hurt Bush and also help to empower Chavez to take control of a significant number of oil fields down the road.

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