Christine O’Donnell Endorses Mitt Romney; Des Moines City Council Member Endorses Rick Santorum

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A friend whom I won’t name sent me an e-mail suggesting the headline, “Witches and Mormons, Oh, My!”

Christine O’Donnell, the former Republican Senate candidate and a tea party favorite during the 2010 election, has officially endorsed Mitt Romney for president. . . .
O’Donnell made clear that the Romney campaign did not “come to her,” and that she went to the campaign. She said she would be willing to go out and campaign for Romney.
In a written statement, Romney welcomed the endorsement.
“Christine has been a leader in the conservative movement for many years,” Romney said. “Christine recognizes that excessive government threatens us now and threatens future generations, and I am pleased to have her on my team.”

Meanwhile, in Iowa, Rick Santorum’s hard work paid off with a valuable endorsement:

Des Moines City Councilman
Halley Griess Joins The Fight!
Urbandale, IA – Republican Presidential Candidate Rick Santorum announced that he has received the endorsement of Des Moines, IA City Councilman Halley Griess.
Councilman Griess said, “Rick Santorum has worked harder than any other candidate in garnering the support of the voters I represent. In visiting all 99 counties, and appearing in Iowa more frequently than any other candidate, it is clear that Rick Santorum cares about the individual voters and is willing to invest in the issues they care about. He has clearly demonstrated that he will head to Washington with our families and small business owners in mind. Rick Santorum best reflects the values of Iowa voters and I am honored today to give my support to him.”
Senator Santorum said: “Iowans can’t be bought by TV ads, Iowa votes must be earned. Councilman Griess knows this from his direct work with his constituents in Des Moines. Councilman Griess is a true public servant and I am thrilled to receive his endorsement today. I look forward to working with Halley as we continue our momentum statewide and in Polk County.”
Des Moines, IA City Councilman Halley Griess was elected to the Des Moines City Council in 2009, as the youngest serving Councilman in Des Moines’ history at age 23. He is the son of a self-employed, small business owner and a graduate of Drake University Law School.

(Hat-tip: Lisa Graas) By the way, we got three contributions last night via our Rick Santorum “No Surrender” Money Bomb link, for a total of $80 — that’s 20% of our $400 goal for this three-day event that continues through Friday. The link takes you to a Fundly.com page, which is just a system for tracking which site the contributions came through. The money all goes straight to the Santorum campaign, and here’s a neutral objective fact: They need every dollar you can spare.

In other campaign news, on a conference call with the Santorum campaign’s grassroots supporters last night, their Iowa political director said that the senator’s teenage son John Santorum was in the Urbandale campaign office yesterday stuffing envelopes to send out to undecided Republican voters. The senator’s daughter Elizabeth has also been working in the Urbandale office this week.

The Santorum campaign has a solid “ground game” organization in Iowa, and has already signed up more than 450 “caucus captains,” who are the volunteer leaders at each caucus location. If you’re not in Iowa, you can still help the Santorum campaign in Iowa: Sign up as a volunteer at their Web site and take part in their “phone from home” operation.

RICK SANTORUM
‘NO SURRENDER’
MONEY BOMB

 
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LIVE AT FIVE – 12.14.11

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— compiled by Wombat-socho


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SOTD: Take It Off

Rick Santorum: Beer Gourmet?

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NBC News highlights an aspect of the Republican presidential candidate’s personality that had previously gone unnoticed:

AMANA, Iowa — In case you were wondering what sort of beers the former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum drinks, reporters trailing him Sunday now have a complete list.
“It’s the stouts, the bocks, and then the white ales — and wheats,” Santorum told a small group of media. He added later: “I don’t do wine tastings. I do beer tastings.”
The GOP hopeful was sidled up to the tasting bar at Millstream Brewery, a local microbrewery in a historic landmark town lined with colonial-style houses and storefronts. The bartender served a small glass of the brewery’s prizewinner, a dark and frothy beer called Back Road Stout.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Will this hurt Santorum with the teetotalers? Or will he lose votes with Joe Six-Pack for drinking “fancy” beers? I dunno.

But it certainly helps lighten up his image — hey, Rick likes beer! — and adds momentum to the Santorum Surge.

RICK SANTORUM
‘NO SURRENDER’
MONEY BOMB

 

Newt Gingrich Fires Iowa Political Director for Calling Mormonism a ‘Cult’

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Warner Todd Huston says Craig Bergman’s “stint with the Gingrich campaign has to be one of the shortest in history” — he was hired five days ago and was fired today for something he said last week:

Craig Bergman during a focus group on Wednesday with The Iowa Republican and McClatchy newspapers said he thinks Romney’s religion will eventually cost him votes.
“A lot of the evangelicals believe God would give us four more years of Obama just for the opportunity to expose the cult of Mormon,” Bergman said during the focus group, according to The Iowa Republican. “There’s a thousand pastors ready to do that.”

Within hours of that report, Bergman was fired — uh, “agreed to step away from his role with Newt 2012.”

Question: Is Bergman right? Are there really “a thousand pastors” in Iowa who consider Mormonism a cult? If so, aren’t they likely to view Newt less favorably for firing a staffer who said so?

House Calls Obama’s Bluff, Passes Payroll Tax Cut Extension He Promised to Veto

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However it turns out, score this a win for Boehner:

Defying a veto threat from President Obama, the House on Tuesday passed a bill extending a cut in Social Security payroll taxes for 160 million Americans for another year. But the Democratic majority in the Senate vowed to reject the measure because of objections to other provisions, including one to speed construction of an oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast.

Obama has demagogued the hell out of this issue, so now the House has passed it — with a tasty poison pill the enviros will hate — and pitches it over to the Senate, where Harry Reid’s Democrat majority can’t even manage to pass a budget. Let Harry deal with it, and if Harry can’t get a bill to Obama’s desk, the expiration of the tax cut is Harry’s fault. And if something does manage to get out of a bicameral reconciliation process, double-dog dare Obama to veto it.

Burning Mosques, Rabbi Hammerman?

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by Smitty via Ace

I realize this is hyperbole, sut still:

If Tebow wins the Super Bowl, against all odds, it will buoy his faithful, and emboldened faithful can do insane things, like burning mosques, bashing gays and indiscriminately banishing immigrants. While America has become more inclusive since Jerry Falwell’s first political forays, a Tebow triumph could set those efforts back considerably.

Nice cheap shot, man. Based upon what evidence have you ever seen Christians engage in that sort of mayhem? Westboro Baptist Church does some tasteless picketing. That one goofball in Florida with a bracket ‘stache burned a Qur’an.
And then this:

Unlike some other blue-staters, I do not fear people of faith. I fear people of certainty. The worldwide struggle going on right now is not between good and evil, but between certainty and doubt.

Well, evil sure has you in the hip pocket then, doesn’t it, Rabbi? May the Lord have mercy on you.

Santorum Surge: New Poll Shows Gains in Iowa, Closing in on Perry, Bachmann

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The Public Policy Polling article about their latest Iowa survey doesn’t even mention Rick Santorum — instead focusing on the closing gap between Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul — but when you look closer at the numbers, something else becomes apparent:

CANDIDATE ……… Dec. 3-5 … Dec. 11-13
Newt Gingrich ………………. 27% ……. 22%
Ron Paul ……………………… 18% ……. 21%
Mitt Romney ……………….. 16% ……. 16%
Michele Bachmann ……….. 13% ……. 11%
Rick Perry ……………………  9% …….  9%
Rick Santorum ……………..  6% …….  8%
Jon Huntsman ……………..  4% …….  5%
Gary Johnson ………………  1% …….  1%

Gingrich and Bachmann have lost support in the past week, Romney and Perry are flat, and Paul and Santorum have gained ground. Santorum’s 2-point gain — 6% to 8% — may not seem like much, but consider that Perry has piled on $1 million in TV ads without any apparent effect, while Santorum is neck-and-neck without spending a dime on TV.

If the current trend continues another week, Santorum will be in fourth place, ahead of both Perry and Bachmann. And guess what?

RICK SANTORUM
‘NO SURRENDER’
MONEY BOMB

 

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