Roberts Switched Views to Uphold Health Care Law

(CBS News) Chief Justice John Roberts initially sided with the Supreme Court's four conservative justices to strike down the heart of President Obama's health care reform law, the Affordable Care Act, but later changed his position and formed an alliance with liberals to uphold the bulk of the law, according to two sources with specific knowledge of the deliberations.

Roberts then withstood a month-long, desperate campaign to bring him back to his original position, the sources said. Ironically, Justice Anthony Kennedy - believed by many conservatives to be the justice most likely to defect and vote for the law - led the effort to try to bring Roberts back to the fold.

"He was relentless," one source said of Kennedy's efforts. "He was very engaged in this."

But this time, Roberts held firm. And so the conservatives handed him their own message which, as one justice put it, essentially translated into, "You're on your own."

The conservatives refused to join any aspect of his opinion, including sections with which they agreed, such as his analysis imposing limits on Congress' power under the Commerce Clause, the sources said.

Instead, the four joined forces and crafted a highly unusual, unsigned joint dissent. They deliberately ignored Roberts' decision, the sources said, as if they were no longer even willing to engage with him in debate.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3460_162-57464549/roberts-switched-views-to-uphold-health-care-law/

America is digging itself into a deep fiscal hole. In 2009, the federal government spent $3.5 trillion, but took in only $2.1 trillion in revenue — thus spending $1.67 for every dollar it collected. The resulting $1.4 trillion deficit was equivalent to 10% of the nation's economic output, the highest percentage since the end of World War II. America's publicly held debt now totals $7.5 trillion, about 53% of gross domestic product — the highest it has been in more than 50 years.

"Pundits are saying that President Obama is starting to lose support among his own party. To give you an idea of how bad it's gotten, today Jimmy Carter compared him to Jimmy Carter." –Jay Leno

Mitt Romney - "how would I turn this country around? First I could start by doing the opposite of everything the President is doing. @ the Faith & Freedom Conference.

Green: Religious diversity a boon | Amarillo Globe-News

Green: Religious diversity a boon | Amarillo Globe-News

Hilary Rosen and the M word

http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2012/04/13/hilary-rosen-and-the-m-word/

I have a different take on this whole business. When Hilary Rosen made her now-famous comment that Ann Romney had never worked a day in her life, I think Rosen was trying to use code words to refer to… the M word.

Mormon, that is.

Here’s what I think Rosen wanted people to think about: Ann Romney is one of those Mormon women, who have been brainwashed since childhood by their extreme cult into thinking that they have to grow up to be baby factories. And she is, too; lookie all them kids she had. Man, she’s a one-woman population bomb. Sixteen grandchildren!!! Little better than a slave, really, to her husband.

So when (let us continue in her voice) Mitt asks her what she thinks women around the country think, she can’t possibly know. She’s in a religous fog, you see, one which normal women, real women, would never tolerate.

Don’t you folks realize that the Republicans are going to run a Mormon for president? And if he wins, then what? He’s gonna try to do that to all the other women in the country donchaknow. And turn the country into a Mormon theocracy!

At which point I drop back out of her voice to my own. And I want to assure you that I don’t believe any of the above.

The M word will be a peculiar thing in this campaign. The Democrats don’t want to come outright and start using it, because it goes against their purported dedication to tolerance and diversity. It’s also problematic because Harry Reid, Senate Majority Leader, is Mormon. Plus, it’s a bit reminiscent of JFK’s Catholicism and the way his opponents tried to claim that electing him was the same as putting the Pope into the White House.

So the Democrats don’t really want to come out and accuse Mitt Romney of the crime of being, you know, a Mormon. But they sure want us to think about it, and to fear it — especially women. Man, look at his wife! right out of the 1950′s, isn’t she? Ozzie’s Harriet, she is.

It’s nice that it backfired so badly. Perhaps it will make them gunshy about bringing it up again. But they’ll find other ways of obliquely referring to the M word, you can be sure about that.

And if they become shrill and desperate, they may start using it directly. If that happens, it’ll be a sure sign that they think they’re losing.

Santorum not so strong with Pennsylvania folks - Washington Times

Santorum not so strong with Pennsylvania folks - Washington Times

Santorum not so strong with Pennsylvania folks


Spending raises conservative doubts

By Ralph Z. Hallow

-

The Washington Times

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Former Sen. Rick Santorum won union support after helping push through federal funding for new sports stadiums in Pittsburgh and a tunnel leading to them. (Associated Press)Story TopicsBusiness_Finance

Politics

Rick Santorum

Republican Party

Senate

Follow Us OnFacebookQuestion of the DayDoes Rick Santorum have any chance at the GOP nomination if he can't do well in his home state of Pennsylvania?

Yes

No

Undecided

Other





Login to Vote



View results

Comments (132)

Recommend

Twitter

Linkedin

Read Later

Email

Print

Text Size: +
-

More Sharing ServicesShareHOUSTON — After a big win in Saturday’s Kansas caucuses, Rick Santorum is riding high almost everywhere but in his native Pennsylvania.



While Christian-right leaders such as James Dobson, Tony Perkins, Tom LeFever, Rebecca Hagelin and Richard Viguerie were holding a fundraiser in Texas for the former senator Friday, some in his hometown of Pittsburgh were expressing doubts about the candidate’s reliability as an advocate of small government and fiscal integrity.



“I guess you could say there’s a disconnect between Rick Santorum’s claim to be a small-government fiscal conservative and the Pittsburgh tunnel project he pushed for as a U.S. senator,” said Jack Brooks, a former top official in a powerful Pennsylvania trade union that backed Mr. Santorum’s failed Senate re-election bid in 2006.



Mr. Santorum, running a shoestring campaign to wrest the Republican nomination from front-runner Mitt Romney, has claimed to be “the true conservative” in the GOP race. Not surprisingly, his rivals on the national scene say he is anything but. A campaign ad by his rival, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, tags Mr. Santorum as a “fake fiscal conservative.”



Newt Gingrich, appearing on Fox News on Sunday, again questioned Mr. Santorum’s conservative bona fides.



Republican presidential candidate Sen. Rick Santorum listens to his wife, Karen, as he is introduced during the Cape County Republican Women’s Lincoln Day Dinner on Saturday in Cape Giradeau, Mo. He won the Kansas caucuses Saturday. (Associated Press)What’s gone largely unnoticed, though, is the deep skepticism about Mr. Santorum’s fiscal and social credentials on the right among those who know him well from his hometown of Pittsburgh.



A staunchly pro-life Catholic with backing from Protestant evangelical leaders, he represented Pennsylvania, first in the U.S. House and then in the Senate, before losing to Democrat Robert P. Casey Jr. in 2006.



Mr. Santorum’s emergence as the main challenger to Mr. Romney is based in large part on his appearance as one of the Republican Party’s most successful amalgamators of social and fiscal conservatism.



Yet from Gov. Tom Corbett to U.S. Sen. Patrick J. Toomey, state GOP Chairman Rob Gleason and on down the political food chain, no major GOP politician in the state has endorsed Mr. Santorum.



One complaint is that Mr. Santorum’s claim of being the only truly small-government conservative among the three top GOP nomination contenders is undermined by his support of big-government spending while in the Senate — especially when it comes to the mile-long Pittsburgh tunnel project that was part of a deal with Mr. Brooks and his union.



In exchange for helping push through federal support for the project, Mr. Santorum won the endorsement of the state’s building and construction trade unions — including Mr. Brooks‘ 14,000-member carpenters union.



Even Sen. Arlen Specter, then a Republican from Pennsylvania, turned against the project when its overruns climbed to $450 million and then hit $528 million.



“We had a deal with Santorum,” said Mr. Brooks, whose Greater Pennsylvania Regional Council of Carpenters, along with other major building and construction trade unions, endorsed Mr. Santorum after the senator went to bat in Washington for construction of the tunnel under the Allegheny River. The tunnel’s only stop is at the two taxpayer-funded sports stadiums built with Mr. Santorum’s support.



“Very seldom are you going to have a union endorse a Republican,” said Mr. Brooks. “But the project created 4,000 jobs” — even if they were temporary — for workers in the construction and building trades.



Critics, including Mr. Specter, say the tunnel’s gargantuan costs far exceed its projected benefits to western Pennsylvania.