Romney optimistic about GOP, rejects idea of party's decline

Mitt Romney returned to the stage where he once proclaimed himself "severely conservative" to thank thousands of activists for supporting his unsuccessful White House bid.

In remarks Friday to the Conservative Political Action Conference, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee touted the problem-solving done by GOP governors such as Nikki Haley of South Carolina and expressed his optimism for the future of the conservative movement.

"It's fashionable in some circles to be pessimistic about America, about conservative solutions, about the Republican Party," he said. "I utterly reject pessimism. We may have lost Nov. 7, but we have not lost the country we love, and we have not lost our way."

Romney told the audience, who enthusiastically stood and cheered as he came onstage, that he was "sorry" he would not be their president. "But I will be your co-worker, and I will stand shoulder to shoulder with you," he said.

The event known as CPAC often shines the spotlight on the up-and-comers of the Republican Party and is a critical proving ground for presidential hopefuls.

More than a dozen potential 2016 presidential candidates -- including Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Rand Paul of Kentucky, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal -- are all on this year's program and represent a new generation of Republican leaders.

The emergence of the GOP's new guard is part of what makes the speech by Romney, who turned 66 years old this week, interesting. The other is that during the former Massachusetts governor's two unsuccessful presidential campaigns, he was viewed warily by conservatives for his changing views on issues such as abortion.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, whose own presidential bid fizzled last year, got in a jab at his 2012 Republican rival during his CPAC remarks Thursday as he criticized the news media for suggesting the losing GOP presidential campaigns of 2008 and 2012 represented a defeat for conservatism.

"That might be true if Republicans had actually nominated conservative candidates," said Perry, who is considering another White House bid in 2016.

Rubio and Paul both called for a new message from their party during their CPAC speeches -- one that would attract younger and more diverse voters to the GOP fold.

Rubio, who was considered as a possible Romney running mate, even implicitly criticized Romney's dismissal of 47 percent of the electorate when he said the nation doesn't have "too many people who want too much from government."

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Tea Party's battle in Texas shows it's 'maturing'

DALLAS – The Tea Party is trading in town halls and tricorn hats for phone banks and voter-turnout drives.

By Johnny Hanson, AP

Sarah Palin, far left, stands with her husband, Todd, and Ted Cruz, Texas candidate for the U.S. Senate, and his wife, Heidi, on Friday in The Woodlands, Texas.

By Johnny Hanson, AP

Sarah Palin, far left, stands with her husband, Todd, and Ted Cruz, Texas candidate for the U.S. Senate, and his wife, Heidi, on Friday in The Woodlands, Texas.

The conservative movement that captured the nation's attention in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis and helped fuel Republican 2010 election victories across the country is transitioning from a protest movement to one more targeted, local, and with less theatrical engagement.

"I think it's a maturing of the Tea Party movement," said Matt Kibbe, president of FreedomWorks, a fiscally conservative advocacy group that has worked closely with the Tea Party.

Activists have been scrapping efforts such as the confrontational town-hall-style meetings that defined the summer of 2010 in favor of more traditional political engagement in local races, particularly in nominating processes to boost candidates they support.

"It's been pretty dramatic, but it's been so systematic that I'm not sure that people noticed," Kibbe said.

One of the biggest tests of strength for the movement's ability to upend the GOP establishment in 2012 is Tuesday, when formerly long-shot candidate attorney Ted Cruz is favored by election analysts to upset Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in the Senate Republican primary runoff in a race to replace retiring GOP Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.

Cruz started the race underfunded, lesser-known and without the support of the Texas Republican Party establishment, including Gov. Rick Perry. Endorsements from GOP activists, such as former Alaska governor Sarah Palin and Sens. Jim DeMint of South Carolina and Rand Paul of Kentucky, brought in national attention and money. That was coupled with on-the-ground organizing support from local Tea Party activists such as Toby Marie Walker, and it has transformed Cruz to the odds-on favorite.

"This race with Ted Cruz has sat close to my heart," said Walker, 45, who volunteers full-time for the Waco Tea Party. She said Tea Party activists were discouraged at the onset of the race that no candidate could overcome Dewhurst's money juggernaut.

By Danese Kenon, AP

Jean Johannigman sings "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the beginning of the FreedomWorks rally for GOP Senate candidate Richard Mourdock on May 5 in Indianapolis.

After Dewhurst failed to win more than 50% of the vote in the May primary, conservative activists were emboldened for the runoff election, knowing that such races traditionally have lower turnout and tend to favor the candidate whose supporters are most engaged. "We have an election cycle under our belts, and we're more attuned to how the game is played," Walker said.

Cruz's youth — he's 41 — and biography — he's the son of a Cuban-American father who was imprisoned in Cuba before fleeing to Texas — have drawn comparisons to Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a Tea Party-favored candidate in 2010.

"I think Ted Cruz is a superstar for the conservative movement," said Torin Archbold, 48, a car salesman from Austin.

Republicans control the House of Representatives, but Democrats control the Senate 53-47, which has led activists to focus on Senate primaries as part of a two-part effort to get GOP control of the chamber and populate it with more conservative Republicans. The results have been mixed.

In Indiana, Richard Mourdock handily defeated incumbent Sen. Richard Lugar by running to his right, but Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, waged a successful re-election campaign against a Tea Party-supported opponent. Senate GOP establishment candidates Heather Wilson of New Mexico and George Allen of Virginia likewise won primaries despite challenges from the right. In Nebraska, Tea Party allies were divided in the primary, opening up a surprise victory for Deb Fischer, who was not as closely identified with the Tea Party but secured an endorsement from Palin in the closing days of the race.

FreedomWorks for America, a political organizing group associated with the Tea Party, has endorsed in upcoming primaries businessman John Brunner, who is in a three-way GOP primary to take on Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.; Rep. Jeff Flake in Arizona; and businessman Eric Hovde who is running against establishment favorite, former governor Tommy Thompson in Wisconsin.

The endorsements underscore how the Tea Party movement remains loosely organized and often contradictory. For instance, although FreedomWorks has endorsed Brunner, Tea Party Express, another activist group, has endorsed Brunner's primary opponent, Sarah Steelman. In Arizona, Flake is facing wealthy businessman Wil Cardon, who is self-funded and challenging Flake's Tea Party credentials.

"It's a principled movement, but there's a lot of differences," Walker said. "Some work well with their Republican Party, others want nothing to do with their Republican Party. Some Tea Parties are all wrapped up in Ron Paul; some focus on things like constitutional teachings … but they are all much more engaged in the political process."

DeMint, a lawmaker popular among Tea Party supporters, said he views the phrase "Tea Party" in more symbolic terms. "The Tea Party is kind of a visual representation of a lot of citizen activism."

If Cruz wins Tuesday, he is all but guaranteed to win in November in Republican-leaning Texas. Mourdock is favored to win, as is Fischer, who is running for a Democratic-held seat and would provide a Republican pickup. The eventual Republican nominees in Missouri and Wisconsin will also likely be in competitive races for Democratic-held seats.

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Republicans', Tea Party's Love of Money is Threatening America's Existence (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., put forth a bill in the Senate on Monday that calls for "shared sacrifice" by millionaires, according to Real Clear Politics. This comes while the still ongoing debt ceiling talks have yet to produce a deal to keep America from defaulting on its debts after August 2.

President Barack Obama continues to bend over backwards to appease the Republicans and tea partiers, proposing deeper cuts to social programs like Medicare and Medicaid, which would affect hospitals and beneficiaries, according to the Daily Mail. This while chief financial officers of S&P 500 companies saw in 2010 a 19 percent increase in pay to a median average of $2.9 million while American families' median income has fallen $2,500 per year over the last 10 years as stated in the "shared sacrifice" Senate bill.

Yet Republicans like House Speaker John Boehner continually spout public rhetoric against any tax increases, such as that it would make a bipartisan debt limit summit between Congress and Obama "fruitless," even as these same people demand more and more spending cuts, according to UPI.

The Republican and tea party philosophy is one that perversely prefers seeing this country go over a cliff financially (and taking the world with it) than see those who can afford to pay more in taxes pay even just a dollar more of out their precious piles of loot. What is it about money and making sure that rich people get and keep all they can get that is the cornerstone of a conservative philosophy that also likes to espouse Christian values? This despite the biblical warning by Jesus about the "deceitfulness of wealth" that has poisoned the thinking of many of our lawmakers to the point of obsession and delusion.

If a deal on the debt ceiling isn't reached on or before Aug. 2, the responsibility will rest solely with many Republicans and tea partiers, whose greed, selfishness, disdain of the non-rich, and contempt for the founding principles of this nation based on compromise, will threaten the very existence of the America they claim to be so patriotic about.

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