Romney, knowing the fiscal prudence of low taxes, has enlisted the help of several key people from Bush's Council of Economic Advisers, Novak reported today:

During his family vacation in Park City, Utah, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney met with former Bush administration officials who comprise his economic policy team to discuss a tax reform for Romney's presidential campaign.

The meeting included Glenn Hubbard, former chairman of President Bush's Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) who is co-chairman of Romney's economic policy council. Also on hand were former Bush economic policy officials Brian Reardon and Cesar Conda. Gregory Mankiw, another former CEA chairman, is Romney's economic co-chairman but could not attend the Utah meeting because of a knee injury.

Romney, seeking to contrast himself with Republican presidential front-runner John McCain on taxes, has surrounded himself with architects of Bush's tax plan. Vice President Dick Cheney had to cast a tie-breaking vote on the 2003 tax cuts because Sen. McCain had voted against them.

We can expect a strong fiscal performance from Romney.

Justin Hart, our Web Designer extraordinaire, will be live blogging from the Romney Kick-off Monday in Boston for MyManMitt. Be sure to tune in!

From Mitt's Site

Key Appearances:

• Now Playing: What Republicans are About
• Now Playing: The Most Critical Period in American History

In the News:

• Now Playing: 03 Jan 07 \"Situation Room\"; Schechner
• Now Playing: 02 Jan 07 MSNBC \"Hardball\": Gergen, Mitchell
• Now Playing: 02 Jan 07 Fox News \"The Big Story\": Vandehei
• Now Playing: 31 Dec 06 NBC \"Meet The Press\": Kate O'Beirne
• Now Playing: 14 Nov 06 Fox News \"The Big Story\": Nina Easton
• Now Playing: 14 Nov 06 Fox News \"Special Report\": Panel

Fun

• Now Playing: Imus takes on Mitt...or vice versa!
• Now Playing: The Wisdom of Aunt Connie and Aunt Ruth
• Now Playing: Good humor...or good sport?

Google Video

• Charlie Rose - Gov. Mitt Romney

Reasons to agree

1. Former Senate staffer
2. Former Senator Smith
3. Few people like Mccain in the Senate .
4. Former Rep John Leboutillier
5. Pat Murphy
6. Paul Johnson
7. Judy Leiby
8. Jim Abbott, the supervisor of the Coronado National Forest
9. Marty Russo
10. Robin Silver and Bob Witzeman

Reasons to disagree

1. Anyone who has been in the Senate for as long as McCain has made a lot of enemies.

Reasons to agree

1. When asked about his temper, McCain has portrayed himself as angry about issues. "Do I feel passionately about issues? Absolutely," McCain has said. "Do I get angry when I see pork barreling and wasteful spending? Absolutely." But McCain's outbursts have not been directed at policy issues or waste. Instead, even if they are longtime friends, he explodes at people who disagree with him or who tell him they cannot support him.
2. McCain's aides say that McCain himself was the last to recognize that he had a reputation as a hothead, and used to rail at them in private every time a public commentator suggested he had a problem, shouting, "I do not have a temper. I just care passionately."

Reasons to agree"

1. When McCain ran for the Republican nomination for president in 2000, only four Republican senators endorsed him.
2. "I have witnessed incidents where he has used profanity at colleagues and exploded at colleagues. He would disagree about something and then explode. It was incidents of irrational behavior. We've all had incidents where we have gotten angry, but I've never seen anyone act like that." - Former Senator Bob Smith, a New Hampshire Republican who served with McCain on the Senate Armed Services Committee and on Republican policy committees.
3. "He had very few friends in the Senate. He has a lot of support around the country, but I don't think he has a lot of support from people who know him well." - Former Senator Smith, who dealt with McCain almost daily.
4. Another former senator who requested anonymity recalled an exchange at a Republican policy lunch. McCain turned on another senator who disagreed with him. "McCain used the f-word," the former senator said. "McCain called the guy a 'sh--head.' The senator demanded an apology. McCain stood up and said, 'I apologize, but you're still a sh--head.' That was in front of 40 to 50 Republican senators. That sort of thing happened frequently."

Reasons to agree:

1. Few people like Mccain in the Senate.
2. McCain is arrogant.
3. McCain holds grudges.
4. Anger is a problem.
5. McCain is in denial with regard to his anger problem .
6. In 1993, the Boston Globe reported that McCain "came across the Senate floor and, while mocking Ted Kennedy, told him to 'shut up,' according to observers in the chamber. "A stunned Kennedy returned the comment, telling McCain to 'shut up' and 'act like a senator.'"
7. Dan Schnur says he thinks the temper issue has faded: "He's had six years of practice. In 1999 the attention crashed down on us like a ton of bricks. It came out of nowhere, and there was no preparation for it. He's had that level of attention now for seven years, which makes me suspect that his temperament isn't going to be nearly as much of an issue this time as last. "But there's a flip side to that," Schnur adds. "He traveled on that bus for months with four or five reporters, and one of the nice things about starting slow is you get to try out your act Off Broadway. There's no Off Broadway over the next two years. It's all spotlight. An offhand remark in 1999 vanishes without a trace. In 2007 it's on cable television for three weeks."
8. He wastes no time on niceties.

Reasons to disagree:

1. Other good politicians have had anger problems.
2. If JFK could keep his marital affairs from harming his job, then McCain can probably find a way to keep his anger from harming the job. He tells people that he is going to blow off steam, and make a decision latter (however is their evidence that McCain sees his anger as a problem? No, he says he is just passionate).
3. From what I can tell, McCain's temper is not so much worse than that of many other politicians I have known, from Rudy Giuliani to Bill Clinton.
4. He no longer calls reporters "liars" and "idiots," as he once did, when he was starting out in politics in Arizona.

Articles that agree

1. McCain's Out-of-Control Anger: Does He Have the Temperament to Be President? Ronald Kessler Wednesday, July 5, 2006

Reasons to agree:

• McCain has an anger problem.
• McCain has made a lot of enemies.
• McCain is mean.
• He calls the leader of North Korea a "pip-squeak in platform shoes". Which is not so bad, but may make dealing with North Korea difficult.
• He says that the capital of Pakistani "sucks". Probably very true, but he probably shouldn't say it.

Reasons to disagree:

1. McCain was able to put his differences between former enemies like Bush and Falwel, in order to advance his agenda.

With the inauguration of Deval Patrick the Commonwealth of Massachusetts returns to the suicidal tendencies of it's past. Apparently the inauguration parties have left Patrick a little punch-drunk as he eagerly overturns the spending cuts of the Romney administration:

Haverhill, for instance, will receive $2.6 million in Hale Hospital debt relief, money needed to keep the city's budget balanced.

Funding for Pettengill House, the Newburyport YWCA, the Lower Merrimack Valley Boys & Girls Club, Salisbury's Historical Society, Amesbury's Cultural Council and Salisbury's Chamber of Commerce also were restored.

Salem State College, which lost $800,000 for its nursing program, will see that money. The state will also pay $500,000 for Peabody flood prevention and $400,000 for the dredging of Crystal Lake.

Romney cut $425 million in state spending on Nov. 9, saying there wasn't money to pay for those items. Link

Romney left office with the distinction of having governed every year with a balanced budget. The last year was highlighted by Romney's constant vetoing of the state legislatures spending sprees. Of course kids in candy shops never want to be denied, and the outrage of the liberal legislature was oozing as we well remember.

Some of you might remember the other Romney cuts that Patrick has now restored:

1. Victorian Street lighting in Melrose ($200,000)

2. A gazebo for Braintree ($100,000- thats an expensive gazebo!)

3. Study for the internal combustion engine ($4,000,000- isn't that Ford's job?)

4. Money for the Hyannis Athletic Association ($75,000 well I guess Ted Kennedy is a little portly!)

Yet where the stupidity ends the irony begins. In a remarkable show of cognitive dissonance Pork-Barrel-Patrick has claimed Romney left a deficit "hidden" in the details that Patrick will somehow fix:

"It's a very significant structural deficit," Patrick said. "We have to deal with that, and we will deal with that. There's no reason to panic." Link

(I have no doubt this claim is brought to you by the DNC commitee for 2008)

There wouldn't be a reason to panic if a) There was really a deficit and b) Patrick was intent on cutting spending. Yet when Patrick has plans to fix his imaginary deficit while increasing spending, one is left to wonder how he will accomplish this.

Barbara Anderson, founder of Citizens for Limited Taxation, said Patrick's pronouncement gives her a sense of deja vu.

She said a new, reform-minded governor named Michael Dukakis came into office claiming he was left a fiscal mess in 1975 and responded by raising taxes.

Like a dog returning to it's vomit, Massachusetts has decided return to the days of high spending and high taxes to fix a mess that never existed. How often do the liberals need to be reminded that cutting taxes and spending always leads to a balanced budget? How often do liberals need to be reminded of the failures of past administrations who have gone down this same road?

Labels: Patrick, Taxes

Governor Mitt Romney is a flip-floper?

Reasons to agree

1. Romney changed his position on abortion .
2. Romney changed his position on gay marriage .

Reasons to disagree

1. It is not bad to change your position , or change it back. Being called a flip-floper emplies that a politician is lying. There is no evidence that Mitt Romney lies. In fact there is a lot of evidence that he tells the truth, and keeps his commitments.
2. You have to say what positions he has changed, in order to make that assertion. So see my responses (above) to the only two examples I have ever seen, as examples of his flip-floppery.
3. Governor Mitt Romney does not like flip-flopperyness, and has spoken against it.
4. A flip is changing your position. A flip-flop is changing your position, and changing it back. The only example I have ever heard of a Romney's flip-floping was his so-called change on Abortion. So changing your position once, would make Romney a fliper, not a flip-flopper.

Hugh Hewitt had a great interview with Mark Steyn last night in which he said:

Well, there's Newt Gingrich, who everybody says, and I think they're right, has been making terrific speeches on terror. He gave a terrific appearance in New Hampshire, in which he called, he said that those six imams in Minneapolis causing the trouble on the plane should actually have been arrested. He's absolutely terrific, but he carries way too much personal baggage. And all four of these candidates, I think, are defective in some ways. Mitt Romney I like, but in many ways, because I think his kind of Mormonism is the least problematic baggage of the major candidates.

Not a ringing endorsement but absolutely true at this point in time.

Of course, McCain can just keep the love coming as he steps in it again and again. Take this quote for example: "I think the fence is least effective. But I'll build the goddamned fence if they want it."

Just keep it coming Senator!

Labels: McCain, Mormon, Romney

We have a problem in America...

In 2004 hundreds of Mormons crowded into the Provo Tabernacle and listened intently as a speaker (who was not a Mormon) declared: "We have sinned against you."

Was this Bryant Gumbel apologizing for his remarks belittling the BYU Cougar’s 1984 NCAAF title? Was it Jim McMahon asking humble forgiveness for consistently sitting on the Wyoming stands for BYU homecoming games?

Richard Mouw, creating dialogue with the Mormons

No, it was noted evangelical scholar Richard J. Mouw, President of the Fuller Theological Seminary. Here is the context of his remarks:

Over the past half-dozen years I have been a member of a small group of evangelical scholars who have been engaged in lengthy closed-door discussions about spiritual and theological matters with a small group of our LDS counterparts. We have not been afraid to argue strenuously with each other, but our arguments have been conducted in a sincere desire genuinely to understand each other-and in the process we have formed some deep bonds of friendship. I know that I have learned much in this continuing dialogue, and I am now convinced that we evangelicals have often seriously misrepresented the beliefs and practices of the Mormon community. Indeed, let me state it bluntly to the LDS folks here this evening: we have sinned against you.

Beyond the rush of news articles handicapping Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney's presidential aspirations is an unnoticed but significant thaw in the troubled relations between Evangelicals and Mormons.


The Big Freeze

Of course, before the thaw there was the freeze. In truth, the two religious movements share similar roots in the early 19th century revival period. However, while the predecessors of American evangelical thought like Ralph Waldo Emerson were calling for the return of ancient prophets in 1836, the Mormons were being forced out of Missouri and Illinois and anointing their own prophets. The motives behind the Mormon ouster were generally competitive (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints grew to 100,000 members in less than 15 years) and economic (Nauvoo, Illinois had a population rivaling Chicago in 1844).

The Mormon persecutions which forcible drove the Latter-day Saints from New York to Ohio to Missouri to Illinois to Utah have lasting impact today but only within the Mormon Church, and not for the reasons you think. Today, most Mormons are first generation converts. Mormons revere and honor the trials our forbearers encountered; those that were forced upon them (i.e. Hauns Mill Massacre) but also those they chose to endure (e.g. handcarts to the Wasatch front).

While this first religions rift ended in physical separation the second rift started with theological banishment from Christendom. In the 20th century Evangelical Protestants found a huge numbers rallying to the endearing message of pastors on the lecture circuit. Meanwhile, Mormons left their Wasatch haven to vie for converts and make an impact on the world. By 1950 the Mormon Church had over a million adherents. Anti-Mormon literature was sparse but rising.

By 1981, Mormons numbered 5 million with 2 million world-wide adherents. Together with the growth of non-traditional religious groups (Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christian Scientists) a good body of literature grew up around "cults" and how to avoid their "traps." While the impetus for the anti-Mormon/anti-cult movement was competitive, the attacks were doctrinal in nature. In short, Mormon doctrine didn’t jive with traditional evangelical interpretation of the Bible. While some of these were genuine disagreements (the nature of God) other debates wallowed in accusations.

For example, Evangelicals have long accused Mormons of placing too much emphasis on their own works for salvation ("For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith" – Ephesians 2). In turn, Mormons have accused Evangelicals of simple aural salvation ignoring the works that would be evident in the believer ("What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?" – James 2).

Evangelicals relied on early works to dispute Mormon teachings and rally others against Latter-day Saint missionary efforts. Meanwhile, Mormons were spreading t