What Kind of Man is Mitt Romney?

• After going to both Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School simultaneously, he passed the Michigan bar, but never worked as an attorney.
• As a venture-capitalist, Romney's first major business deal involved investing in a start-up office supply company with one store in Massachusetts that sold office supplies. That company, called Staples, now has over 2,000 stores and employs over 90,000 people.
• Romney or his company Bain Capital (using what became known as the "Bain Way") would go on to perform the same kinds of business miracles again and again, with companies like Domino's, Sealy, Brookstone, Weather Channel, Burger King, Warner Music Group, Dollarama, Home Depot Supply, and many others.
• Got your calculators handy? Let's recap.
• Volunteer campaign worker for his dad's gubernatorial campaign 1 year.
• Unpaid intern in Governor's office 8 years.
• Mormon missionary in Paris 2 years.
• Unpaid bishop and stake president for his church 10 years.
• No salary as president of the Olympics 3 years.
• No salary as MA governor 4 years.
• That's a grand total of 28 years of unpaid service to his country, his community and his church.
• Why? Because that's the kind of man Mitt Romney is.

The Romney Boys / Brothers on Conan

A Time for Unity and Prayer for Isabella Santorum

I noticed Mitt Romney Central is asking for prayers for Isabella Santorum and her family. I'm a little worried because we haven't heard anything since the initial report last night:

Rick Santorum’s 3-year old daughter has been hospitalized in Philadelphia, his campaign said Saturday.

“Rick and his wife Karen are admitting their daughter Bella to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia this evening,” Santorum spokesman Hogan Gidley said in a statement.

The reason for the hospitalization was not provided.
Santorum’s Saturday morning campaign schedule has been canceled, but Gidley said the former Pennsylvania senator intends to return to the campaign trail as soon as possible.

Santorum had been taking a break from campaigning in Florida and had a Saturday fundraiser scheduled in Washington. He was due to return to Florida to attend church Sunday morning in Miami before heading to a rally in Sarasota, Fla. and a dinner in Punta Gorda, Fla.

Isabella Santorum, one of the presidential candidate’s seven children, has a genetic disorder known as Trisomy 18 that causes people to be born with an extra copy of the 18th chromosome. The disorder causes developmental abnormalities, and half of infants born with the condition do not survive for more than a week after birth, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Santorum and his wife, Karen, speak openly on the campaign trail about the challenges and rewards of raising a child with such a condition, but have avoided putting her in public situations on the campaign trail.

That precious little girl has had a rough few years, but the way the Santorum Family has dealt with her health issues has been inspiring. I wish all of them nothing but the best and pray that God provides a miracle for this little girl if it is His Will. The following video that was released before this latest hospitalization will no doubt leave you in tears:

Why Evangelicals Should Support Mitt Romney (and Feel Good About It!)

My guess is very few people who have followed Romney's run to the White House since 2008 are unfamiliar with the site EvangelicalsforMitt.com. The site's co-founders and principle authors David and Nancy French are known to many of us as well. For the few that are not yet familiar with this fine couple let me introduce you.

David French is a Harvard Law School graduate (with honors) and now works as a constitutional lawyer. David has written many op-eds, a number of which have been published at NRO. And, oh yeah, he joined the US Army in his mid 30's (while he had a wife and kids, and was enjoying a successful career) and served a 11-month tour in Iraq, during which he earned a Bronze Star. Nancy French is a best-selling author of several books. One of her works includes co-authoring Bristol Palin's recent book Not Afraid of Life. Nancy has appeared on many news shows in the course of her book-publishin' and Mitt-supportin'. Not least among Nancy's accomplishments is being a fine mother to three kids, one of whom is a beautiful girl recently adopted from Ethiopia.

The thing best known about the French couple is that they have been stalwart supporters of Romney, particularly among the Evangelical community, since 2005. They now continue that streak by releasing a new book entitled Why Evangelicals Should Support Mitt Romney (And Feel Good About It), available for Kindle.

In the publication the David and Nancy describe how it is they came to support Governor Romney, including openly discussing common misgivings Evangelicals may have (as Nancy did) in supporting a Mormon candidate for President. They also lay down the facts regarding a number of Romney's policies and positions that are typically important to the Evangelical community, and why Romney should be their man. I found the last section to be very interesting as Nancy describes the "Mitt and Ann I Know." But I won't tell you about it... you've got to get it read it yourself.

The book is Why Evangelicals Should Support Mitt Romney (And Feel Good About It). It is only available for download (only $3) on Kindle or any device with a Kindle app. (It was a snap to downloaded mine on my iPhone). Get yours today and help David and Nancy share their valuable (and interesting) insight from an Evangelical perspective.

Contents:

• Introduction: "Sorry, but I'll Never Vote for Mitt Romney"


• Mormon Mitt: Are Souls at Stake?


• Is Mitt Romney a Moderate? His Battle for Life and Marriage


• Massachusetts Health Care and Mitt Romney's Health Care Advantage


• From Morality to Money: Fixing the Economy Without Compromising Core Values


• Confronting Jihad: Mitt Romney Understands the Threat


• An Opportunity for Friendship With Our Mormon Neighbors


• Closing Argument: The Mitt and Ann I Know

An Open Letter Regarding Governor Mitt Romney

Not for the first time, some Massachusetts pro-lifers give Mitt Romney support in gratitude for his record on marriage, life, and religious freedom. An open letter released last night addresses some specific and frequent criticisms about the issuing of marriage licenses after the Massachusetts supreme-court ruling in November 2003.

Dear conservative friends:



We hail from a broad spectrum of organizations dedicated to fighting for the pro-family agenda in Massachusetts. As you know, Mitt Romney served as the governor of our state from January 2, 2003 to January 3, 2007. During that time, we worked closely with him and his excellent staff on that agenda.



Some press accounts and bloggers have described Governor Romney in terms we neither have observed nor can we accept. To the contrary, we, who have been fighting here for the values you also hold, are indebted to him and his responsive staff in demonstrating solid social conservative credentials by undertaking the following actions here in Massachusetts. The following is not an endorsement of Governor Romney but our account of the facts to set the record straight.



· Staunchly defended traditional marriage. Governor Romney immediately and strongly condemned the November 18, 2003 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) decision that legalized “same-sex marriage” in our state. More importantly, he followed up on that denunciation with action – action that saved our nation from a constitutional crisis over the definition of marriage. He and his staff identified and enforced a little-known 1913 law that allowed them to order local clerks not to issue marriage licenses to out-of-state couples. Absent this action, homosexual couples would surely have flooded into Massachusetts from other states to get “married” and then demanded that their home states recognize the “marriages,” putting the nation only one court decision away from nationalizing “same-sex marriage.”



o We do not agree with the claims that Gov. Romney had bogus Party A and Party B marriage licenses printed and ordered Justices of the Peace and Town Clerks to perform same-sex “marriages” when asked or be fired. As May 17, 2004 (the SJC’s declaratory judgment date) approached, the Governor’s Office of Legal Counsel issued provisional advisory instructions to the justices of the peace and prepared revised license applications. These executive actions did not result in the issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples before May 17. The new policies were carried out only after and as a direct result of the judiciary’s final action in Goodridge on May 17. They did not generate same-sex marriages; that responsibility falls squarely on the shoulders of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.



o We do not agree with the claims that Gov. Romney issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The governor does not issue marriage licenses in Massachusetts. Only the town clerks can do that. But the governor can issue one-day justice of the peace authorizations to an individual who wants to perform a marriage ceremony but is not a licensed minister, town clerk or justice of the peace. The governor’s office issues thousands of those in a four year term with the only criteria being that the individual doing the ceremony is in good standing and the parties getting married have a valid marriage license.



· Worked hard to overturn “same-sex marriage” in the Commonwealth with substantial results. In 2004 he lobbied hard, before a very hostile legislature, for a constitutional amendment protecting marriage – an amendment later changed by the legislature to include civil unions, which the Governor and many marriage amendment supporters opposed. Working with the Governor, we were successful in defeating this amendment.

· Provided strong, active support for a record-setting citizen petition drive in 2005 to advance a clean constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. The petition drive collected the largest number of signatures in Massachusetts history.



· Rallied thousands of citizens around the state to focus public and media attention on the failure of legislators, through repeated delays, to perform their constitutional obligation and vote on the marriage amendment. In November of 2006, Gov. Romney held the largest State House rally in Massachusetts history with over 7000 supporters of traditional marriage.



· Filed suit before the Supreme Judicial Court asking the court to clarify the legislators’ duty to vote and failing that, to place the amendment on the 2008 ballot. That lawsuit, perhaps more than any other single action, was by all accounts instrumental in bringing the ultimate pressure on the legislators to vote. The SJC unanimously ruled that the Legislature must vote and the historic vote was taken on January 2, 2007 winning legislative support. This cleared a major hurdle in the three year effort to restore traditional marriage in the Commonwealth.



· Fought for abstinence education. In 2006, under Governor Romney’s leadership, Massachusetts’ public schools began to offer a classroom program on abstinence from the faith-based Boston group Healthy Futures to middle school students. Promoting the program, Governor Romney stated, “I’ve never had anyone complain to me that their kids are not learning enough about sex in school. However, a number of people have asked me why it is that we do not speak more about abstinence as a safe and preventative health practice.”

· Affirmed the culture of life. Governor Romney vetoed bills to provide access to the so-called “morning-after pill,” which is an abortifacient, as well as a bill providing for expansive, embryo-destroying stem cell research. He vetoed the latter bill in 2005 because he could not “in good conscience allow this bill to become law.”



o We do not agree with the claims that Gov. Romney is responsible for tax payer funded abortion under the Massachusetts health care system. That blame lies solely on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court who ruled in 1981 that the Massachusetts Constitution required payment for abortions for Medicaid-eligible women. In 1997, the Court reaffirmed its position that a state-subsidized plan must offer “medically necessary abortions.”

· Stood for religious freedom. Governor Romney was stalwart in defense of the right of Catholic Charities of Boston to refuse to allow homosexual couples to adopt children in its care. Catholic Charities was loudly accused of “discrimination,” but Governor Romney correctly pointed out that it is unjust to force a religious agency to violate the tenets of its faith in order to placate a special-interest group.



· Filed “An Act Protecting Religious Freedom” in the Massachusetts legislature to save Catholic Charities of Boston and other religious groups from being forced to violate their moral principles or stop doing important charitable work.



All of this may explain why John J. Miller, the national political reporter of National Review, wrote that “a good case can be made that Romney has fought harder for social conservatives than any other governor in America, and it is difficult to imagine his doing so in a more daunting political environment.”

We are aware of the 1994 comments of Senate candidate Romney, which have been the subject of much recent discussion. While they are, taken by themselves, obviously worrisome to social conservatives including ourselves, they do not dovetail with the actions of Governor Romney from 2003 until now – and those actions have positively and demonstrably impacted the social climate of Massachusetts.



Since well before 2003, we have been laboring in the trenches of Massachusetts, fighting for the family values you and we share. It is difficult work indeed – not for the faint of heart. In this challenging environment, Governor Romney has proven that he shares our values, as well as our determination to protect them.



For four years, Governor Romney was right there beside us, providing leadership on key issues – whether it was politically expedient to do so or not. He has stood on principle, and we have benefited greatly from having him with us.



It is clear that Governor Romney has learned much since 1994 – to the benefit of our movement and our Commonwealth. In fact, the entire nation has benefited from his socially conservative, pro-family actions in office. As we explained earlier, his leadership on the marriage issue helped prevent our nation from being plunged into even worse legal turmoil following the court decision that forced “gay marriage” upon our Commonwealth.



For that our country ought to be thankful. We certainly are.



Sincerely,



Rita Covelle

President, Morality in Media Massachusetts



Gerald D. D’Avolio

Former Executive Director, Massachusetts Catholic Conference



Raymond L. Flynn

Former U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See



Professor Mary Ann Glendon

Harvard Law School

Former U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See



Kristian Mineau

President, Massachusetts Family Institute



Dr. Roberto Miranda

COPAHNI Fellowship of Hispanic Pastors of New England



James F. Morgan

Chairman, Institute for Family Development



Joseph Reilly

Former Chairman of the Board, Massachusetts Citizens for Life



Thomas A. Shields

Chairman, Coalition for Marriage and Family

They Worked With Gingrich: Coburn & Molinari "NO to Newt!"

This was cross-posted from Mitt Romney Central.

Two Republican legislators who served with Newt Gingrich in congress are speaking their minds…

NO to Newt!

Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) was interviewed by Chris Wallace on FOX News Sunday yesterday. At the end of the interview Coburn revealed that he would have difficulty supporting Newt Gingrich as the GOP nominee - due to his experience serving in the House while Gingrich was Speaker.

Senator Coburn's remarks on Gingrich begin @10:17:

“I am not inclined to be a supporter of Newt Gingrich’s having served under him for four years and experienced his leadership. Because I found it lacking often times.”

“There’s all kind of leaders, leaders that instill confidence and leaders that are somewhat abrupt, leaders that have one standard for the people that they are leading and a different standard for themselves.”

“I will have difficulty supporting him for president of the United States.”

Jonathan Adler from the National Review adds this:

Many who worked with or within the Republican Congressional majority during Gingrich’s tenure as Speaker feel much the same way. Senator Coburn is just the first to say what many have been thinking.

Fmr NY Congressman and fmr Staten Island Borough President Guy Molinari: "God help us if Newt Gingrich is elected president." Dec 3, 2011

Guy Molinari, a former NY Congressman who also served with Speaker Gingrich, is on record saying: “Newt is evil. This guy is an evil person.” (Echoes of S.E. Cupp’s take on Gingrich, as well... She described him as “kind of a terrible person.”)

"The thought that this man could be president of the United States is appalling," said Molinari, whose enmity for Gingrich goes back to their days in the House together. "He's got all kinds of baggage."

Molinari claims that Gingrich bumped him from his slot as ranking Republican on the Investigations and Oversight subcommittee of the Public Works and Transportation Committee even though there was a written agreement not to do so.

"This guy is evil," Molinari said. "He's an evil person."

Molinari said that Gingrich's double-cross "ended my career" in the House and led to him running for borough president in 1989.

Molinari, who endorsed Romney and heads his team in New York, on Dec 3rd further declared: Not Newt, not ever!

Guy Molinari, the Republican power broker and former Staten Island Beep, ripped Newt Gingrich as unfit to be president yesterday — a day before the front- running GOP candidate was set to attend a Tea Party rally in the borough.
[...]
But Molinari, who served with Gingrich in Congress and supports Mitt Romney, rained on the former House speaker’s parade.

“God help us if Newt Gingrich is elected president. I won’t vote for him. I love my country too much,” Molinari said.

Molinari, head of New Yorkers for Romney, said he had found Gingrich to be untrustworthy.

He said that Gingrich, as House GOP leader, broke his word and bumped him from a committee assignment.

“It happened to so many others. How do you trust a guy like that? What kind of trust would he get from other parts of the world?” Molinari said.

(emphasis added)

Delve into Gingrich's baggage here.

Note: On October 8, 2011, Molinari also condemned Rick Perry’s attempt to introduce religious bigotry into the GOP race.

Congressman Pence Introduces Bill to Defund Planned Parenthood of Taxpayer Dollars

Cross-posted at Mitt Romney Central

The Republican Party is fortunate to have more staunch conservatives who are also very effective communicators than they used to. While some may think it’s a mistake for us to highlight the efforts of a potential opponent to Gov. Romney for the 2012 Republican nomination for the presidency, we simply feel that the cause Congressman Pence is leading is too important to ignore. Plus, before we all get caught up in the upcoming primary season, it’s important to realize that we’re all on the same team.

Before pro-choice and pro-life activists start getting all riled up, make sure you are aware of what this bill is about. As many of us can remember from the health care debate, regardless of where people stand on the abortion issue at large, a vast majority of the country does not think it is appropriate for tax payer dollars to be spent on abortions. This bill won’t shut down Planned Parenthood or stop people from getting abortions. This bill simply will end the enormous mistake of causing all Americans who pay taxes to also be paying for abortions with some of those tax dollars. Even if you still think that we shouldn’t strip Planned Parenthood of their tax dollars, think about the budget deficit. Tax dollars have been going to far too many places they shouldn’t for far too long and hopefully this is just the beginning to getting the size of our government back in line.

This bill really is a no-brainer and if your representative hasn’t joined the other 123 co-sponsors yet, ask them to sign on.

If you still don’t know why this is such a big deal, check out this blog.

Below is Mike Pence’s statement followed by the video of his introduction of the bill on the house floor:

It is morally wrong to end an unborn human life by abortion. It is also morally wrong to take the taxpayer dollars of millions of pro-life Americans and use them to promote abortion at home or abroad.

Last year, Planned Parenthood received more than $363 million in revenue from government grants and contracts. During that same time, they performed an unprecedented 324,008 abortions.

The largest abortion provider in America should not also be the largest recipient of federal funding under Title X.

The Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act will prevent any family planning funds under Title X from going to Planned Parenthood or other organizations that perform abortions. It will ensure that abortion providers are not being subsidized with federal tax dollars.

I am grateful for the support of more than 122 original co-sponsors….