Newtmentum: Gingrich front-runner in 3 of first 4 states to vote

A CNN Poll, just out, has Newt winning in three of the first four states to vote in the Republican primaries.

The CNN/Time/ORC International Polls, released Wednesday, indicate that strong support from the tea party movement is contributing to the former House speaker’s surge among likely Republican primary voters and caucus-goers. But the poll also suggests that this race is far from over, with less than half the people questioned in each state saying their minds are made up.

According to the poll, one-third of likely GOP caucus participants in Iowa say they are backing Gingrich. Thirteen points back, at 20% is former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who’s making his second bid for his party’s nomination. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, who’s making his third run for the presidency, is at 17%, with Texas Gov. Rick Perry at 9%, Rep. Michele Bachmann of neighboring Minnesota at 7%, former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania at 5% and former Utah Gov. and former ambassador to China Jon Huntsman at 1%. Both Bachmann and Santorum have been crisscrossing Iowa.

Iowa’s Jan. 3 caucuses kick off the presidential nomination contest, with New Hampshire’s primary going second, one week later, on Jan. 10.

In New Hampshire,  35% of likely back Romney, 26% supporting Gingrich and 17% backing PaulHuntsman, who’s been spending nearly all of his time campaigning in New Hampshire, is at 8%, with everyone else in the low single digits.

In South Carolina,  43% of likely GOP primary voters  are backing Gingrich, with Romney a distant second at 20%, Perry at 8%, Bachmann and Paul each at 6%, Santorum at 4% and Huntsman at 1%.

It’s the same story in Florida, the fourth statewide contest on the calendar. According to the poll, 48% of people likely to vote in Florida’s Jan. 31 GOP primary say they support Gingrich, with Romney a distant second at 25%, Paul at 5% and everyone else in the low single digits.

Newt is also winning out in the latest blogosphere polling, as you can see at RWN.

If you have doubts about Newt, (and who doesn’t?), this interview with a skeptical Glenn Beck *might* help allay your concerns. Beck asks some tough questions, and Gingrich doesn’t shy away from answering them.

Part One:

Part Two:

SEE ALSO:

Newsbusters: Bozell Statement: Newt Was Found Innocent Nearly 13 Years Ago — Networks Have Yet To Report It:

Following the recent threats from Nancy Pelosi and the heavy brush with which the media are painting Newt Gingrich as unethical, the Media Research Center is now calling on the networks to seize the moment and report the truth from nearly 13 years ago.

It has been 4,689 days since the IRS formally cleared Newt Gingrich of any violation of tax law.  It’s been 4,689 days since ABC, CBS, and NBC have had the opportunity to report it. What the heck.  Why not today?  Now is the time for these networks to report the truth for once.  The networks owe it to the American people to report the fact that in 1999 the IRS completely vindicated Gingrich.

And in case you haven’t seen this yet – some Newt nostalgia from 1995 via The Atlantic:

Ah, 1995. Bill Clinton was president, Newt Gingrich was the House’s feisty new speaker, and Chris Farley was still alive.

At this April 5 meeting of the House Republican Conference, John Boehner introduced Gingrich, only to have Farley appear from the wings and present a last-minute agenda to round out the new Republican Congress’s first 100 days in power.

Fast and Furious News Round-up: Grassley Says It’s Time For Asst. AG Breuer To Step Down

While mounting evidence now shows otherwise,  Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer told Congress back in February 2011, that he knew nothing about the gun walking tactics which had been used in Operation Fast and Furious.

AWR Hawkins reports at Big Government:

His contention was that he only learned of the tactics once Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry had been killed in December 2010. only learned of the tactics once Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry had been killed in December 2010.

More recently, however, Breuer has decided he knew about the gun walking aspects of Fast and Furious as early as April 2010. But he continues to carry water for the DOJ by saying that although he knew, he never took the time to tell Holder about the gun walking.

How many lies can these people tell before someone changes the locks on their office doors and takes away their parking credentials?

Senator Charles Grassley, for one, has had enough, and just today officially called for Breuer’s resignation from the Senate floor.

Said Grassley:

The Justice Department had publicly denied to Congress that ATF would ever walk guns. Yet the head of the Criminal Division, [Lanny] Breuer knew otherwise and said nothing.

It is past time for accountability at the senior levels of the Justice Department. That accountability needs to start with…Mr. Breuer. I believe it is time for him to go.

There’s blood in the water, now – expect a frenzy of calls from Congress for Breuer’s head. They are getting closer….

Yesterday, on Fox News Megyn Kelly presided over a rare instance in which a liberal and conservative lawyer actually agreed with each other.  Jay Sekulow of the ACLJ and former federal prosecutor for the Southern district of NY, John Flannery both called for accountability in the Justice Dept. for Fast and Furious, especially in regards to Breuer whose actions can no longer be defended.

Ace’s headline almost says it all, but do continue reading: ATF Emails: Hey, Let’s Use These Long-Gun Sales We’ve Demanded Gun Shop Owners Sell To Cartels To Justify Cracking Down on Long-Gun Sales

Ace isn’t a believer, yet? What is it going to take?

Chron.com: Sen. Cornyn questions feds’ alleged drug-money laundering scheme:

Texas Sen. John Cornyn has criticized an alleged sting operation in which U.S. narcotics agents laundered drug proceeds for Mexican drug cartels in hopes of tracing the money up the organizations’ chain of command.

Cornyn said the tactic “bears eerie similarities” to the gun-trafficking scheme known as Operation Fast and Furious.

Sunday’s New York Times reported that undercover agents mostly from the Drug Enforcement Administration have laundered millions in drug proceeds to cartels across the border to learn more about the organizations’ leadership and assets.

Cornyn suggested the DEA tactic parallels the “gun-walking” in Fast and Furious, in which Phoenix field agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives did not intercept illegally bought guns but instead followed the trail of them in hopes of building a case against cartel kingpins.

Speaking to reporters by phone, Cornyn said he also remains concerned that Mexican authorities might not have received enough information about the Fast and Furious gun sting or the alleged drug-money laundering scheme.

“This is enormously unhelpful in terms of disrupting that very important relationship between the U.S. government and law-enforcement agencies, and President [Felipe] Calderón and the law-enforcement agencies in Mexico to combat and suppress the cartels,” Cornyn said. ”It’s really been a disaster.”

Previously (this week):

Fast and Furious News Round-Up: Cash-Walking Now?

Senator Grassley Offers Sneak Preview Of December 8th House Judiciary Committee Hearing On Senate Floor

Republican Senators Need to Correct an Error and Jump on The Eric Holder Resignation Bandwagon

Obama Administration Classifies Fort Hood Shooting As “Workplace Violence”

“We have no Commander and Chief!” Congressman Allen West tweets in frustration:

Although I can forgive the Obama administration for not “jumping to conclusions” in the first 24 hours of the Fort Hood shooting, (even though it was obvious it was a terrorist attack the moment the words, “Allahu Akbar” came out of the shooter’s mouth), two plus years later their obstinate disregard for the truth is a perverse joke.

Fox News reports:

Sen. Susan Collins on Wednesday blasted the Defense Department for classifying the Fort Hood massacre as workplace violence and suggested political correctness is being placed above the security of the nation’s Armed Forces at home.

During a joint session of the Senate and House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday, the Maine Republican referenced a letter from the Defense Department depicting the Fort Hood shootings as workplace violence. She criticized the Obama administration for failing to identify the threat as radical Islam.

***

The chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Connecticut independent Sen. Joe Lieberman, said the military has become a “direct target of violent Islamist extremism” within the United States.

“The stark reality is that the American service member is increasingly in the terrorists’ scope and not just overseas in a traditional war setting,” Lieberman told Fox News before the start of Wednesday’s hearing.

In June, two men allegedly plotted to attack a Seattle, Wash., military installation using guns and grenades. In July, Army Pvt. Naser Abdo was accused of planning a second attack on Fort Hood. And in November, New York police arrested Jose Pimentel, who alleged sought to kill service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Both Pimentel and Abdo also allegedly drew inspiration from al-Awlaki and the online jihadist magazine Inspire, which includes a spread on how to “Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom.”

Rep. Peter King of New York, the Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said military service members are “symbols of America’s power, symbols of America’s might.”

“And if they (military personnel) can be killed, then that is a great propaganda victory for al Qaeda,” King told Fox News.

I think I see more instances of “workplace violence” in our military’s not-so-distant future.

Hat tip: Weasel Zippers

Video: Rush Unleashes on the “Stupid!” RNC For Being Too Soft on the “Despicable Divider” Obama

El Rushbo, sounding sick to his stomach, right after hearing Obama’s class warfare speech, yesterday, articulated my own feelings, on the RNC’s craven reluctance to attack Pharaoh Obama on a personal level:

Smitty says:

Don’t back down, double down. The country is at stake. Let’s find out who the little children are at GOP HQ and gently toss them in the broom closet until after the election next November.

Be sure to read the rest of his commentary at The Other McCain.

 

 

Obama Pushes Big Government Agenda In Pearl Harbor Statement

This guy just can’t give it a rest. A day of remembrance has to become a day of pushing his left-wing agenda.

The Washington Times reports:

In a statement, Mr. Obama praised World War II veterans “who overcame the Depression, crossed oceans and stormed the beaches to defeat fascism, and turned adversaries into our closest allies.”

Good so far —

“When the guns fell silent, they came home, went to school on the G.I. Bill, and built the largest middle class in history and the strongest economy in the world,” Mr. Obama said. “They remind us that no challenge is too great when Americans stand as one.”

Uh –

The president’s “stand as one” theme featured prominently in his speech in Kansas on Tuesday when he called for wealthier Americans to pay more in taxes, part of his endeavor to correct inequalities in wealth that Mr. Obama called “the defining issue of our time.”

Entire statement, here.

Related:

A good piece at RCP by David Harsanyi: Obama vs. Capitalism:

In Teddy Roosevelt’s era, President Barack Obama explained to the nation this week, “some people thought massive inequality and exploitation was just the price of progress. … But Roosevelt also knew that the free market has never been a free license to take whatever you want from whoever you can.”

And he’s right. Even today there are people who believe they should have free license to take whatever they want from whomever they can. They’re called Democrats.

Yet the president, uniter of a fractured nation, the mighty slayer of infinite straw men, claims that some Americans “rightly” suppose that the economy is rigged against their best interests in a nation awash in breathtaking greed, massive inequality and exploitation. Or I should say, he’s trying to convince us that it’s the case.

Mickey Kaus: What was the matter with Kansas:

2) It’s pathetic if the mighty U.S. is really forced to beg corporations to produce here out of Warren-Buffetesque philanthropic urges. But it’s especially pathetic for American liberalism, which has always been most appealing when it stood up against the condescension of “alms givers”–but which now celebrates wealthy philanthropists with nauseating ease (a trend I blame, in very small part, on my old employer Slate, with its annual “Slate 60″ charity porn feature). “Giving back” is the credo of Hollywood celebrities, not New Deal liberals.  Democrats are supposed to be the party of government–government that establishes a foundation for the essential dignity of working people–not the party that sucks up to the Google guys and the Gates Foundation.

At least Elizabeth Warren only wanted rich businessmen to pay higher taxes. It’s a sign of liberalism’s humiliating inability to do enough with those taxes that left-wingers now seek to substitute The Giving Pledge.

Heh.

SEE ALSO:

Dan Collins at The Conservatory: Texas, Kansas, Arkansas . . . They All End with -as

Obama gave a big, dumb speech about the economy in Kansas, and pulled a Spinal Tap by being happy to be in Texas. Once again, it’s a good thing he’s so evidently a genius, or this would be held to demonstrate stupidity.

Obama Pressures Congress To Go Easy On Iran

100-0.

The US Senate approved a proposal to penalize foreign financial institutions that do business with Iran’s central bank, 100-0.

How often does the Senate vote unanimously for or against anything?

And yet according to Republican Senator Mark Kirk,  the Obama administration is urging US lawmakers to soften the proposed sanctions.

The Jerusalem Post reports:

The Senate approved the proposal last week 100-0 despite lobbying against it by Obama administration officials, who argued that threatening US allies might not be the best way to get cooperation in action against Iran.

A similar measure is pending in the House of Representatives; both chambers must agree on the same version before it can become law.

Kirk said on Tuesday that the administration had written to some lawmakers’ offices and “proposed what they describe as technical fixes” to the Kirk-Menendez amendment.

But Kirk complained: “They are not technical fixes at all. They are meant to undermine the amendment.” He and Menendez have written to fellow lawmakers as well, urging them to “stick with” the Senate-passed proposal, Kirk said at an event on Iran’s nuclear program, sponsored by the conservative American Enterprise Institute think tank.

***

A senior Senate Republican aide said the document that the administration sent to lawmakers’ offices proposed lengthening, from 60 to 180 days, the grace period in the Kirk-Menendez proposal before sanctions would kick in for non-oil transactions with Iran’s central bank.

The administration also sought to “water down the penalties” on foreign banks that do business with Iran’s central bank, the Senate aide said. The administration favored imposing “strict conditions” on such foreign banks, rather than the all-out cutoff from the US financial system that is in the Kirk-Menendez amendment.

Kirk charged that the Obama administration was simply trying to find “a way out for the administration, to say that a nuclear Iran is unacceptable, but to take no effective action against the central paymaster” of the country’s nuclear architecture.

I’d say “unbelievable”, but – I’m way past being surprised by anything this administration does.

Hat tip:Doug Ross who notes  He’s doing precisely what he was taught to do.