Matt Lewis on CPAC

I’ve enjoyed his Washington DC reporting and commentary for a long time and last night finally had the opportunity to welcome Matt Lewis of Politics Daily to Pundit Review Radio.

Matt attended CPAC and I wanted to get his impressions of the event, from the speakers to the topics to the energy and optimism of the attendees. We took calls, including one from Boston Maggie about Admiral Lippold, who might be running against Harry Reid in NV. Go figure, a Navy question from Maggie!

One of the things Matt wrote about and we discussed was the sense that the GOP has entered a new era. Nothing exhibited that more than this clip, of homophobe fool Ryan Sorba getting a reception he so richly deserved,

The Pundit Review Radio Podcast RSS feed can be found here.

What is Pundit Review Radio?

On Boston’s Talk Station WRKO since 2005, Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week we give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Called “groundbreaking” by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to the radio every Sunday evening from 6-8pm on AM680 WRKO, Boston’s Talk Station.

Steven F. Hayward on The Age of Reagan

Who wants to put aside for a few minutes The Age of Obama, and take a look back at The Age of Reagan instead? I thought so.

Joining me last night was Steven F. Hayward, one of the country’s leading experts on the Reagan presidency, who has written an exhaustive two volume biography titled The Age Of Reagan.

With the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the timing was just right to take a look back at this great president. I also wanted to talk to Steven about how Reagan is being mis-remembered, to use a George W. Bush phrase, by today’s conservatives. They had a rocky relationship with President Reagan. Today’s GOP could also benefit by reexamining not just Reagan’s substance, but his style.

The Pundit Review Radio Podcast RSS feed can be found here.

What is Pundit Review Radio?

On Boston’s Talk Station WRKO since 2005, Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week we give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Called “groundbreaking” by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to the radio every Sunday evening from 8-10pm on AM680 WRKO, Boston’s Talk Station.

This Day in History: Ronald Reagan Nominates Wise Arizona Woman To Supreme Court

This is the first post of a new category, This Day in History. It is amazing how relevant history can be to current events.

I said on WRKO Sunday night that the Reagan mythology is hurting today’s Republicans. This came up when a caller or two compared Sarah Palin to Ronald Reagan. I had a feeling that was coming and I brought with me to the studio my copy of Reagan: A Life in Letters . This is a compilation of personal correspondence he had over the years with friends, enemies, aides, journalists, lobbyists, columnists, citizens, soldiers and schoolchildren. It is a remarkable book and it lays to waste the idea that Reagan was a dummy or a puppet. He was engaged in the battle of ideas for more than twenty-five years. He was a student of politics and a professor in interpersonal communications. Palin could only dream of having his grasp of the issues or his ability communicate them.

Today’s conservatives forget that Reagan had a frosty relationship with them back in the day. They forget that he was a pragmatist and willing to compromise, see the 1982 tax hikes. Ramesh Ponnuru has a great column worth reading on the dangers of Misremembering Reagan: The Gipper still has lessons to teach — just not the ones we usually hear

Time Magazine’s July 20, 1981 story on the Sandra Day O’Connor nomination, not surprisingly, highlights conservative opposition,

Whether Reagan was playing shrewd politics, or merely following his own best instincts, almost did not matter. After naming O’Connor, the President suddenly found himself awash in praise from a wide range of political liberals, moderates and old-guard conservatives. At the same time, he was under harsh assault from the moral-issue zealots in the New Right who helped him reach the Oval Office. Although they had little chance of blocking the nomination, they charged that O’Connor was a closet supporter of the ERA and favored abortion.

In his diary on July 6, 1981, Reagan wrote,

“Called Judge O’Connor and told her she was my nominee for supreme court. Already the flak is starting and from my own supporters. Right to Life people say she is pro abortion. She says abortion is personally repugnant to her. I think she’ll make a good justice.”

That was Reagan. He was a pragmatist not a purist.

Time also cited Sandra Day O’Connor’s credentials,

“There were also ironies aplenty in Reagan’s choice of O’Connor. As a true-blue conservative, he had been widely expected to select a rigidly doctrinaire jurist in order to stamp his own political ideology on the court. Instead, he picked a meticulous legal thinker whose devotion to precedent and legal process holds clear priority over her personal politics, which are Republican conservative.”

Sandra Day O’Connor was a Wise Arizona Woman

In school, she was a high achiever and graduated from high school at the age of 16, then she graduated from Stanford Law School third in a class of 102.

How things change. Heard anyone calling Sonia Sotomayor “a meticulous legal thinker” lately? Not after being overruled 9-0 by the Supreme’s in the New Haven firefighter case.

Compare O’Connor’s resume with what Sotomayor said about her own,

“If we had gone through the traditional numbers route of those institutions, it would have been highly questionable if I would have been accepted,” she said on a panel of three female judges from New York who were discussing women in the judiciary.

Sandra Day O’Connor did not grow up in Greenwich, CT or attend Taft. Like Sotomayor, she was from a poor family. She was raised on a 300 acre cattle farm in Arizona during the depression! Sandra Day O’Connor went “the traditional numbers route”. Some call it the merit-based route.

David Frum on NewMajority.com

On Inauguration Day, conservative commentator and author David Frum launched an exciting new venture called NewMajority.com, “a site dedicated to the reform and renewal of the Republican party and the conservative movement.”

Good timing indeed. It was a real pleasure to speak with David, someone I’ve long admired for his thoughtful commentary. I like what NewMajority.com is doing by combining an opinion site with original reporting and news gathering. The model reminded me of what Josh Marshall has done with TPM.

We talked about three areas of weakness right now for Republicans, demographics, leadership and most importantly in my opinion, communications and media relations. It was an interesting discussion with interesting calls.

David was with us for about 25 minutes, after he left several callers disagreed that the Republicans needed to reach out beyond their core conservative constituency. It was an interesting segment, as one caller vented to the point of serious stress release, while another insisted that libertarian leaning New England Republicans like me are not just the problem, but irrelevant losers! This is an issue that we will return to time and again as the Republicans learn to operate in the age of Obama.

What is Pundit Review Radio?

Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week we give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Called "groundbreaking" by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to your radio every Sunday evening from 8-10 pm EST on AM680 WRKO, Boston’s Talk Station

If McCain Picks Romney, He Will Be Picking a Pro-Abortion, Fiscal Liberal

Those is the GOP establishment political and media elite including Karl Rove, the Bushies, Tony Perkins, Gary Bauer, James Bopp, Jay Sekulow, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Hugh Hewitt, Bill Bennett, Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham, NRO, Human Events, and the Weekly Standard, among others have been diligently advancing the argument that McCain needs to shore up the GOP base by selecting Mitt Romney as his running mate because Romney is both “pro-life” and “fiscally conservative.”

And when McCain does select Romney as his running mate on August 29th as I have predicted for a long time that he will, the pseudo-conservatives at Fox News and National Review will be praising McCain for picking a “solidly pro-life fiscal conservative like Mitt Romney.” I can hear it now. Trust me, this is what you will be hearing ad nauseam 10 days from now.

The truth is, however, as I and a handfull of others have been reporting for well over a year, that Willard Mitt Romney is neither pro-life nor fiscally conservative.

Romney is not pro-life: While Romney and his supporters claim that he used to be “pro-choice” and had a “pro-life conversion” following a conversation with an anonymous Harvard researcher, the truth is that as governor of Massachusetts, Romney established abortion with a 50 dollar co-pay as a “healthcare benefit” (AFTER HIS PRO-LIFE “CONVERSION”) in his healthcare plan he signed into law that he called his “signature achievement” that was endorsed by Ted Kennedy, Hillary Clinton and Planned Parenthood.

Romney also appointed a Planned Parenthood representative to sit on his healthcare advisory board with no pro-life member (AFTER HIS SUPPOSED “PRO-LIFE CONVERSION.”)

And, like Senator McCain who believes individual states can violate the unalienable right to life as guaranteed in the Declaration and Constitution, Mitt Romney opposes the central plank of the GOP since 1976, a federal protection of life amendment and believes that abortion is a “states rights issues.” How can you be “pro-life” and believe that states have a right to kill babies if the majority vote to make it “legal?”

Romney is a fiscal liberal. Governor Romney opposed the Bush tax cuts which earned him praise from uber-liberal Barney Frank. He raised taxes by over $800 million dollars which has devastated the Massachusetts economy. And, on his way out the door, Romney installed a quasi-socialist healthcare plan into law that has been an abysmal failure according to the Boston Globe, Cato Institute, and Wall St. Journal.

Romney opposed the Bush Tax Cuts, raised taxes and fees by almost a billion dollars, and instituted a liberal “universal” healthcare plan which was endorsed by Hillary, Teddy K, and Planned Parenthood and Ann Coulter is calling him “manifestly our best candidate?” Mitt has achieved what neither Hillary nor Barack nor any other liberal Democrat has been able to merely in instituting a “universal” healthcare plan that subsidizes abortion at 50 bucks a pop. And he is somehow a “fiscal conservative?”

The GOP elites claim Romney is a “pro-life fiscal conservative.”

Romney’s record demonstrates that he is the exact opposite–that he is pro-abortion and a fiscal liberal.

In other words Willard Mitt Romney is Hillary Clinton in a Ronald Reagan costume.

Buyer Beware!

For more on Romney’s far left wing record go here

Update: Tom Blumer of Bizzyblog.com has this outstanding piece entitled “Romney, Russia, Georgia, and Iran: The Last Straw”

15 Questions Rick Warren Should Ask Obama and McCain

My latest on Townhall.com

15 Questions Rick Warren Should Ask Obama and McCain
Gregg Jackson
Thursday, August 07, 2008

Pastor Rick Warren, author of the “Purpose Driven Life,” will be hosting a “Compassion Forum” August 16th at Saddleback Church in California in which he will be asking questions to both presidential candidates Senators Obama and McCain. According to a recent NY Times article, Mr. Warren was quoted as saying:

“Since I’m their friend, I’m not going to give them any gotcha questions,” Mr. Warren said, adding that a typical query would be, “What’s the most difficult decision you’ve had to make, and how did you make it?”

Setting aside for the moment the fact that we as Christians have a solemn obligation to speak prophetically to the world about Christ and His Word even if what we say makes our “friends” uncomfortable, as a Christian, interested in knowing specifically where the candidates stand on issues in relation to their Christian faith, not only do I want to know what the most difficult decisions they’ve had to make are, but how their personal relationship with Jesus Christ and His Word actually informed and influenced those decisions.

The “Compassion Forum” will focus on global poverty, HIV, and the environment, which are all issues that should be of concern to all Christians. But I hope that Mr. Warren will also pose questions regarding the great social and cultural issues of our time including abortion, embryonic stem cell research, same-sex “marriage,” and the mainstreaming of homosexuality. People can watch turn on any of the mainstream networks for non-threatening softball questions for the candidates. Mr. Warren should use his forum as an opportunity to ask the difficult and challenging questions not often heard in a presidential campaign. This may be his last opportunity before it becomes a “hate crime” to do so.

Here are some questions I suggest Mr. Warren asks candidates Obama and McCain:

1. For both candidates: What is truth? Who is truth? And Is that truth transcendent and applicable at all times to everyone regardless of their impulses, behavioral preferences, desires, wants, nationality, ethnicity, religious dogma, gender, race, etc?

2. Sen. Obama, you have said you are personally pro-life but in favor of abortion rights up to and even including after delivery in some cases. Why are you pro-life personally if an abortion doesn’t actually kill a baby in her mother’s womb? Also, do you think Jesus would be in favor of abortion? Why or why not?

3. Sen. McCain, you claim to be personally pro-life as well. Why? And if you believe that abortion always ends the life of the developing baby in her mother’s womb, why would it be ok for individual states to legalize killing babies? Don’t our nation’s founding documents the Declaration of Independence (”life, liberty, pursuit of happiness”) and Constitution (5th and 14th Amendments) guarantee the right to life that no individual state can violate?

entire article here

BUYER BEWARE! What You Would Get In a Vice-President Romney

(Hint: A demagogue who has already changed history)

GUEST COLUMN BY GREGG JACKSON + JOHN HASKINS RFFM.org

When Ann Coulter endorsed Mitt Romney she called the former Massachusetts governor “manifestly our best candidate” — though the paper for which she is “chief legal correspondent,” Human Events, ranked Romney the #8 RINO (Republican In Name Only) in the nation in 2005.

GOP establishment pom pom girl Laura Ingraham and water boy Sean Hannity evangelize Romney on their radio shows as the second coming of Ronald Reagan.

Curiouser and curiouser!

Romney the wallflower bats his eyelashes and coyly pretends not to notice the increasing speculation of a McCain-Romney ticket–even as he criss-crosses the country campaigning and fundraising for McCain–the same John McCain who Romney said during the primaries was “almost indistinguishable” from Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton.

But perhaps Romney intended that as a compliment, since Romney was a virtual GOP clone of Barack Obama, until he repackaged himself to seduce conservatives.

As a Boston talk radio host and writer-researcher (respectively), who both initially supported Romney (author Gregg Jackson lived out of state in 2002 and co-author John Haskins voted for him in 2002), we have followed Romney closely and know the truth about his record as very few people in America do. The truth is that many of the leading “conservative” lawyers, radio pundits and pro-family leaders whom we trusted for years have ruthlessly distorted and suppressed the truth about Romney’s hideous record as governor — even after all his “conversions.”

It took one hundred million dollars of Romney’s personal fortune to waterboard Americans with Orwellian propaganda from “conservative” talk radio, Fox News and “pro-family” lawyers and religious mercenaries. Their consensus is they’ve rewritten enough history enough to fool enough of the people enough of the time.

Many pundits and political prognosticators are now calling Romney the odds-on favorite to be chosen as MCain’s running mate–making it more urgent than ever conservatives–the field slaves of the Republican Party–know the true record of this man.

After reading the truth about this soulless demagogue, whom most of the GOP elites have airbrushed into a quasi-conservative, ask yourself if Mitt Romney is somebody, who as Dr. James Dobson of “Focus on the Family” stated, “is a man pro-family voters could support?”

1. Romney illegally imposed homosexual marriage as he had secretly promised “Log Cabin Republicans” a homosexual activist group he would, given the pretext of a legally meaningless court opinion. He publicly admitted that the four outlaw judges who belched forth the Goodridge opinion (urging the legislature to make sodomy-based “marriage” legal) had violated the state Constitution and their oaths of office. But bizarrely, he flatly contradicted the state constitution he had sworn to uphold by pretending he was bound by this opinion. He also opposed a citizen-led effort to remove the four judges!

He then authorized illegal changes to, and issuance of, still legally null and void marriage licenses to homosexuals in violation of the marriage laws which the state constitution explicitly says only the legislature can change (the same court has admitted this). But Romney and his hired “conservatives” falsely claimed that “everybody (knew) that the (judges) legalized same-sex ‘marriage’.”

rest here