He’s been there, done that.

Slugging it out with Mitt Romney, having millions of dollars of negative ads thrown at him.

Now, with Rick Santorum going toe to toe with Mitt, and social issues taking center stage, Newt Gingrich is focusing on kitchen table topics, like the price of gasoline, and making sure young people understand the danger this country will be in if President Obama is re-elected.

Though some have left Newt for dead, Rush Limbaugh said on Monday, “I think there’s a possibility of something happening nobody’s talking about — and that’s the reemergence of Newt. Keep a sharp eye. Anything’s still possible.”

In Tulsa on Sunday, the former House Speaker accused the White House of allowing political correctness to trump national security by refusing to acknowledge the threat of Islamic extremism. Mr. Gingrich told a crowd of 4,000 students and supporters at Oral Roberts University:

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Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, was elevated to the College of Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome on Saturday. Cardinal Dolan, a 62 year-old Missouri native, was one of 22 new cardinals who will participate in the election of the successor to the current Pope, Benedict XVI.

On Friday, Cardinal Dolan, head of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), gave the keynote address at a day of reflection for the Pope and Catholic leaders. His address, focused on spreading the Christian faith in a secularized world, was echoed during the elevation ceremony on Saturday by Pope Benedict, who reminded the new cardinals that the red of their three-pointed hat and robes symbolizes the blood they must be prepared to shed for their beliefs.

As the leader of Catholic bishops in the United States, Cardinal Dolan has stood firmly against the Obama administration’s attempt to force Catholic institutions to provide free contraception, sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs to their employees. The USCCB rejected what the White House termed an “accommodation,” to the ObamaCare mandate, which simply shifted the requirement to provide the free items and procedures to the insurance companies employed by the Church.

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We have all heard the story, this week, of the young child in North Carolina whose lunch, made at home by her mother, was deemed “unacceptable” by the nutrition officer at her school. Unfortunately, this incident, a direct result of Michelle Obama’s success in passing the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act at the end of the last Congress, is only one of many. The slow creep of government intervention into our refrigerators and our lives moves ahead.

On Tuesday of this week, the school board in Bristol, Connecticut voted, 5-4, to cut back on music classes in every middle school in the district, despite the outrage of parents and students. Beginning next year, middle school students will lose 15 music classes, but others will be added in their place. And, what might those new classes be?

The Bristol school board has decided that middle school students will now be required to take Health and Wellness classes, and they will now have to choose between art, band, or chorus. Of course, many children do not want to make that choice, especially the creative kids who are drawn to the arts in general.

“Music is my team. I don’t do sports. Music is where I feel I fit in,” said 12 year-old Dylan Cushing, a saxophone player.

But, Phil Streifer, the Superintendent of the Bristol school system, apparently one of those educators who knows what’s best for children, said, “Students’ experience will change. I don’t think they will suffer.” Streifer said there is much to gain with the new requirements. “Particularly for bullying, nutrition, and alcohol abuse,” he added.

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According to Dr. Scott Gottlieb of the American Enterprise Institute, the ObamaCare mandate which orders health insurers to pay for contraception, sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs, is only the tip of the iceberg. In a Wall Street Journal editorial, Dr. Gottlieb explains that the federal government will continue to issue similar mandates and edicts via the ObamaCare United States Preventive Services Task Force, a single committee that has the power to evaluate preventive health services and decide which will- and will not- be covered by health insurance plans.

The committee already has a letter grading system (“A” through “D”) to rate medical services and prevention screenings. Services rated “A” or “B” must be covered by health insurers in full- with no copayments, or, in the language of President Obama and liberal politicians, “free.” According to Dr. Gottlieb, “A” or “B” rated colon cancer screenings for middle-aged Americans and seniors will be provided “free,” while other tests that are rated “C” or “D,” such as some which screen for ovarian or testicular cancer, would be eliminated entirely.

Because of the high costs associated with “A” and “B” mandated services (turns out they are not “free” after all), many health plans will ultimately drop coverage for the types of screenings and services that get a lower “grade” on the ObamaCare report card.

The Preventive Services Task Force essentially functions as a “czar,” in that it is exempted from the rules that govern other government advisory boards and regulation agencies.

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President Obama’s budget will increase funding to the Department of Education by 3.5% as it also eliminates support for the highly successful DC Opportunity Scholarship Program (DC OSP).

Over 1600 low-income children in one of the nation’s worst-performing and most dangerous school systems currently receive vouchers of $8000, for elementary school, and $12,000, for high school, to attend a private school of their choice. By contrast, the cost per pupil in DC’s public schools is approximately $18,000, making the DC OSP a veritable bargain.

Last year, President Obama told a Today Show audience that he would not send his own children to the Washington DC public schools:

Once again, the president is standing with public school teachers unions as he pumps yet more federal dollars into failing public schools and acts as obstructionist-in-chief to parents in Washington DC who want their children to have a chance for a better education and a better life. While Mr. Obama attempted to zero out the budget for the DC OSP last year, the program was restored and expanded through the efforts of Speaker John Boehner.

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Following a somewhat vague initial response to President Obama’s “accommodation” to Catholic and other religious leaders’ objections to the ObamaCare mandate requiring religiously-affiliated charities, hospitals, and organizations to provide free contraception, sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs to their employees, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has issued a much stronger statement regarding the “accommodation:”

…we note at the outset that the lack of clear protection for key stakeholders—for self-insured religious employers; for religious and secular for-profit employers; for secular non-profit employers; for religious insurers; and for individuals—is unacceptable and must be corrected. And in the case where the employee and insurer agree to add the objectionable coverage, that coverage is still provided as a part of the objecting employer’s plan, financed in the same way as the rest of the coverage offered by the objecting employer. This, too, raises serious moral concerns.

We just received information about this proposal for the first time this morning; we were not consulted in advance. Some information we have is in writing and some is oral. We will, of course, continue to press for the greatest conscience protection we can secure from the Executive Branch. But stepping away from the particulars, we note that today’s proposal continues to involve needless government intrusion in the internal governance of religious institutions, and to threaten government coercion of religious people and groups to violate their most deeply held convictions. In a nation dedicated to religious liberty as its first and founding principle, we should not be limited to negotiating within these parameters. The only complete solution to this religious liberty problem is for HHS to rescind the mandate of these objectionable services.

We will therefore continue—with no less vigor, no less sense of urgency—our efforts to correct this problem through the other two branches of government. For example, we renew our call on Congress to pass, and the Administration to sign, the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act. And we renew our call to the Catholic faithful, and to all our fellow Americans, to join together in this effort to protect religious liberty and freedom of conscience for all.

Indeed, the Wall Street Journal confirms that President Obama’s “accommodation” has simply made matters worse for him. An editorial sums up the lameness of his attempt at making his edict more politically tolerable:

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Members of the Obama administration do not care whether Catholics and those of other faiths are angry about the ObamaCare mandate regarding contraception, sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs. It’s quite possible that, like exhibitionists, the White House enjoys the shock value that accompanies all their edicts and executive orders to people of main-street America. Waiting for average Americans to recover from the shock gives them a window of time to amuse themselves at the reaction as they also develop their talking points and spin. But, this year, they have an election to win.

To appease those they view as rigid, conservative Catholics, the administration’s talking points are that they’ll “work it out” with them, give them a year to “adapt” their consciences to engaging in behavior that is against their values, and, perhaps, the favorite means of the White House to ensure a minimum of voter loss: hand out a waiver.

But, exactly what should be “worked out?” “Adapt” to what? A “waiver” from what? All of this talk of flexibility is helping the White House to muddy up the real issue.

The spin by the White House, in the midst of this constitutional crisis, is simply a variant on its age- old theme that healthcare is an unalienable right that the government must give to people. Remember that, in liberalism, unalienable rights come from the government, not from the Creator. With the contraception, etc. mandate, the administration just tweaked the message a bit- made it a bit “pinker,” dare we say: that all women deserve access to free contraception- including Catholic women. How could we leave Catholic women out? After all, that would be discriminatory, right? Wrong.

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After celebrating what it apparently believes to be the end of Newt Gingrich’s presidential nomination run, Mitt Romney’s campaign machine is now targeting Rick Santorum, as the former Pennsylvania senator is expected to be a threat to Gov. Romney in caucuses in Minnesota and Colorado on Tuesday.

What is somewhat amusing about the new strategy against Sen. Santorum is that the not-yet-ready-for-prime-time-conservatism Mitt Romney is attacking the former senator from the right. Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who works for Mr. Romney’s campaign, is characterizing Sen. Santorum as an earmark-lover who voted to raise the federal debt ceiling. “He has been part of the big spending establishment in Congress and in the influence peddling,” Gov. Pawlenty said of Mr. Santorum.

In a radio interview in Minnesota, Gov. Romney said, “His [Santorum’s] approach was not effective and, frankly, I happen to believe if we’re going to change Washington we can’t just keep on sending the same people there in different chairs.” The Romney campaign also rereleased Sen. Santorum’s endorsement of Gov. Romney in the 2008 race.

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The leading breast cancer charity organization has announced that it is ending its relationship with Planned Parenthood because the latter is under investigation of whether it has used public monies to fund abortions. The Susan G. Komen Foundation for the Cure has provided grants to Planned Parenthood for breast prevention screenings and breast education at their centers throughout the country.

Leslie Aun, a Komen spokesperson, told the Associated Press that her foundation’s break with Planned Parenthood comes as a result of a policy change which blocks grant money to organizations which are under investigation by local, state, or federal authorities.

According to Planned Parenthood, funding from the Komen Foundation has provided 170,000 breast screenings over the past five years. The family planning organization has announced a recent “emergency fund” of about $250,000, from the Amy and Lee Fikes’ Foundation, that will compensate for the funds lost from the Komen Foundation.

In response to the drop in funding from the Komen Foundation, Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, openly criticized the anti-abortion sentiments that led to the end of the relationship between the organizations. Ms. RIchards said in a press release, “We are alarmed and saddened that the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation appears to have succumbed to political pressure. Our greatest desire is for Komen to reconsider this policy and recommit to the partnership on which so many women count.”

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In response to an order, by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, that all healthcare insurance plans in the United States must cover sterilizations, contraceptives, and FDA-approved abortion-inducing drugs, without fees or copays, the head of the Roman Catholic diocese of Pittsburgh has said, “The Obama administration has just told the Catholics of the United States, ‘To Hell with you!’”

Bishop David A. Zubik said, “Let’s be blunt. This whole process of mandating these guidelines undermines the democratic process itself.”

Though the regulation announced by Secretary Sebelius includes an exemption for “religious employers,” those employers wishing to qualify for this exemption must primarily: serve members of its own faith, employ members of its own faith, and focus on the teaching of the doctrines of that faith. As a result of this rule, Catholic hospitals, universities, and charitable organizations would not qualify for the exemption.

In addition, there is no exemption for individual citizens or private businesses. Thus, any individual who is a pro-life small business owner and employer is not exempt from the law. He or she must provide health insurance that offers full coverage for sterilization, contraception, and abortion-inducing drugs.

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House Republicans will be prepared with a plan to replace ObamaCare with free-market alternatives after the Supreme Court delivers its decision in June. The High Court is planning to hold oral arguments on the healthcare law in March.

Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pennsylvania), who serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and chairs its Subcommittee on Health, said that Republicans will be ready for the open window provided by a Supreme Court ruling regardless of the nature of that decision.

Congressman Pitts said he expects the High Court to strike down the individual mandate, but not the entire law. He added that it is also possible the Court could say that federal tax law precludes its decision on the mandate’s constitutionality until after 2015. “We’ll have a window of opportunity with everyone looking to explain that the Affordable Care Act is not fully implemented yet…We’ll use that opportunity and that window to discuss the full ramifications of the Affordable Care Act,” Rep. Pitts said.

Rep. Pitts, who has a Heritage Action for America score of 79%, indicated that the Republican plan will include long-standing GOP priorities, such as limits on medical malpractice suits, the ability to purchase health insurance across state lines, and expansion of the use of health savings accounts. In addition, his committee plans the following:

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Following Thursday night’s Republican debate-turned-brawl in Florida, Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren read a tweet from President Obama’s right-hand-man, David Axelrod:

Daniel Horowitz, in RedState, has gotten this issue exactly right.

About Rick Santorum’s intense confrontation of Mitt Romney on the subject of Romneycare in Massachusetts, Horowitz says:

He [Romney] has the nerve to feign outrage over Obamacare, even while he touts Romneycare – a carbon copy of Obamacare – as a virtuous success, supported by 90% of Massachusetts residents.  Santorum did his homework, and called him out on the hypocrisy.  Romney was never able to answer why the same market intervention and distortions – mandates, subsidies, and Medicaid – which form the bedrock of Obamacare , supposedly worked so well in Massachusetts.  The reason he couldn’t answer the question is because Romneycare was a complete failure.  It is the canary in the coal mine for Obamacare.

Gov. Romney’s statement that most Massachusetts citizens are happy with Romneycare is ludicrous. In 2010, Massachusetts and Vermont delivered the highest average individual market health insurance premiums–over $400 per person per month, approximately twice the national average. Those in the state who cannot afford these outrageous costs are forced into Medicaid which, in turn, encourages people not to work so that they can meet the eligibility requirements for the federally funded plan. (more…)

Contrary to what some may believe, the Tea Party, aka main-stream America, did not evaporate after their big victory in the 2010 mid-term elections. This year, members of Tea Party groups across the nation are focusing on other activities that are necessary to grass roots organizations: training future activists, working to support the election of more conservatives to Congress and state legislatures, and assisting in teaching young Americans about their Constitution and why they need to defend it.

In addition, Tea Party Patriots has its own response to President Obama’s State of the Union Address:

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Newt Gingrich has won the South Carolina primary. And just hours before ABC aired its interview with Newt’s ex-wife, Marianne Gingrich, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin appeared on Sean Hannity’s radio show. Gov. Palin predicted that the tabloid-style interview would only cause Speaker Gingrich’s ratings to soar.

Mocking the mainstream media, Gov. Palin said, “I call them dumbarses.”

Gov. Palin continued:

They, thinking that by trotting out this old Gingrich divorce interview that’s old news — and it does feature a disgruntled ex, claiming that it would destroy his campaign — all this does, Sean, is incentivize conservatives and independents who are so sick of the politics of personal destruction, because it’s played so selectively by the media, that their target, in this case Newt, he’s now going to soar even more. Because we know the game now, and we just won’t put up with it. Good call, media.

Good call, Sarah Palin. Debate after debate, it has been Newt Gingrich who has hammered the MSM on its preferential treatment of Barack Obama and his liberal agenda. And many conservatives across America are eating it up.

Starved for passionate expression of how the political and social dictates of the Obama “regime,” and its closely allied Media, have attempted to oppress and ridicule American voters with conservative leanings, Newt has let everyone know that the battle is on. He has articulated conservative ideas like no other candidate, though the other candidates may embrace those ideas themselves.

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Dannel Malloy, Connecticut’s Democratic and Working Families Party Governor, told citizens of his state last year that the highest tax increase in the history of Connecticut, including a retroactive state income tax hike, would balance his state’s budget. It appears he was wrong. Bloomberg has reported that Connecticut will have a $94.9 million revenue shortfall in fiscal year 2012. In addition, official estimates indicate that the state’s revenues will trail by $139 million in fiscal year 2013.

Minimizing the significance of the shortfall, Gov. Malloy said in a press release:

All today’s announcement means is that, as is the case in other states with high wage earners, fourth quarter revenue is coming up short of expectations. That’s why today, I’ve instructed Secretary Barnes to pare back on current year expenses.  But let there be no confusion – we will end the current fiscal year in the black, and in a more stable fashion than this state has seen in many years.

Blaming the shortfall on the “uncertainty surrounding the extension of the Bush-era tax cuts,” Mr. Malloy said that such “uncertainty at the federal level” resulted in taxpayers’ shift of capital gains and income, as well as declines in bonus levels in the financial service industry.

Last year, Gov. Malloy used the tax hike to balance his state’s budget against a public sector union concession package that actually required few concessions of unions: no layoffs for four years and no furloughs; wages frozen for two years, then followed by three annual 3 percent raises; retirement age raised by only two years, and not until after 2022; and minor changes in health benefits such as mandatory annual physician visits and mail-order prescription plans.

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Conservative Senator Jim DeMint (R-S. Carolina) is not hoping that libertarian Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas) drops out of the GOP race for the presidential nomination…at least not for the time being. In fact, he’s hoping that the other GOP candidates will learn something from him.

Sen. DeMint told The Daily Caller, “I really don’t want Ron Paul to drop out until whoever our front-runner is is collecting some of the ideas that he’s talking about.”

Though the senator has predicted that Mitt Romney will win the South Carolina primary, he himself has not endorsed any of the “not-Romney” candidates. Yet, Mr. DeMint has a suggestion for his party:

The debate in the Republican Party needs to be between libertarians and conservatives. … There’s no longer room for moderates and liberals because we don’t have any money to spend, so I don’t want to be debating with anyone who wants to grow government.

Sen. DeMint, who has spent much of his political career fighting against big government, went on to say, ““I’d like to see a Republican Party that embraces a lot of the libertarian ideas.”

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National School Choice Week, a grass roots effort, will be held this year from January 22-28. Activities and events sponsored throughout the nation will focus on effective education options for all children and support of school choice options in all states. This is an opportunity to educate local school boards and state legislatures about the need for education reforms that empower parents to choose the best educational environments for their children, whether those environments are public schools, public charter schools, magnet schools, virtual schools, private schools, homeschooling and more.

If you own a business, company, or farm, sign in to sponsor National School Choice Week. Ask your local educational parents’ organization to be a sponsor and, perhaps, to host an event or activity focusing on school choice. Share this video with your local school boards, private schools, and parent groups.

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The Department of Justice on Thursday announced, in a memo, that President Obama acted consistently under the law by appointing Richard Cordray, to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and two individuals to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The DOJ asserted that the pro forma sessions held in the Senate every third day do not constitute a body that is functioning; hence, the Senate, according to the DOJ, was in recess, and, therefore, the president’s appointments during that “recess” are legal.

Virginia Seitz, assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel, said her office concluded that Congress may only stop these appointments “by remaining continuously in session and available to receive and act on nominations,” not through pro forma sessions.

But, the DOJ memo not only addressed legal issues. It also blamed Republicans for the recent use of pro forma sessions, observing that 20 Senate Republicans and 80 House Republicans asked House Speaker John Boehner to refuse to pass any resolution allowing the Senate to recess or adjourn for more than three days. The hypocrisy in the memo is that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada), who previously held pro forma sessions in order to block appointments by President George W. Bush, said that he supported President Obama’s decision to ignore the pro forma sessions in order to push through his appointments.

The DOJ’s memo has already quelled some potential legal challenges to the appointments, perhaps most notably from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, whose president, Thomas Donohue, went from a condemnation of the appointment of Richard Cordray, to the statement: “I’m sure the Department of Justice gave it a very fair look.”

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According to The Hill, in a CBS This Morning interview, New Hampshire Republican primary winner Mitt Romney, said that his work to increase profits for his investment firm, Bain Capital, “was no different from the Obama administration’s auto industry bailouts.” Mr. Romney said:

In the general election I’ll be pointing out that the president took the reins at General Motors and Chrysler – closed factories, closed dealerships laid off thousands and thousands of workers – he did it to try to save the business.

Mr. Romney’s comments came in response to criticism by fellow Republican candidates Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry, that, during his tenure at Bain, he engaged in “looting” start-up companies and “vulture capitalism.”

During his daily show on Wednesday, Rush Limbaugh urged his listeners who were driving to “pull over” as he played the audio of Mitt Romney’s response. Gov. Romney’s reply to the criticisms are just as unbelievable as the criticisms themselves. Aren’t true conservatives against the government auto industry bailouts and TARP, for that matter? Why draw that comparison, and no sharp contrast, instead, to the president’s socialistic policies? Oh…I forgot…Mitt Romney doesn’t believe the president is a socialist.

Is Mitt Romney’s point, “You did it, too, Mr. President, so you can’t criticize me?” Worse, does Mr. Romney believe that the president did, in fact, “save” the auto industry?

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Although Connecticut is considered to be a “deep blue” state, its last two governors were Republicans (kind of), and most voters did not vote for its current governor, Working Families Party member and Democrat Dannel Malloy. Without that election’s third party candidate (have to watch out for those), who lost the Republican primary, it is likely that Republican Tom Foley would be the current governor of the Constitution State. Nevertheless, Connecticut’s longstanding Democratic legislature, friend to public sector unions and welfare recipients alike, gives it that bright blue hue on the electoral map. In 2008, the state went to Barack Obama, 61% to John McCain’s 38% share.

However, many Wall Street executives who sleep in Fairfield County, affectionately referred to as Connecticut’s “Gold Coast,” are digging into their pockets to support Gov. Mitt Romney’s campaign. According to the Hartford Courant, Mr. Romney visited lower Fairfield County, just a brief train ride into New York City, five times within the past six months, to collect more than $1 million in campaign contributions.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, by the end of the third quarter of 2011, Mr. Romney had over $32 million raised, with only 10% coming from small, individual donors. Comparatively, Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich had 48% and 43% of campaign funds, respectively, from small donor donations.

New Canaan, Connecticut, and two areas of Greenwich, Connecticut are among the ten highest in the nation of zip codes contributing to the Romney campaign. The others are wealthy areas of New York City and one from Houston, Texas. Three of the same New York City zip code areas were in the top ten in the nation that contributed to Barack Obama’s campaign in 2008. (more…)