Congressman Mike Pence is running for House Minority Leader, which is why he held a conference call with conservative bloggers earlier today. These were his opening statements:
He expressed profound gratitude for those who supported him for Minority Leader. Human Events was first out of the box to endorse him.
He said that he’s not running for Minority Leader because the current leadership failed to do a good job. ML John Boehner took on a thankless job and should be commended. He’s a conservative and an honorable man. He feels gratitude for him for his sacrifices for staving off what could have been a larger rout.
Instead, he’s running because he thinks he’s the best man for the job of minority leader. When he looks back at election day 2006, he notes that Iraq was a factor and the litany of scandals was a factor. Fundamentally, however, the confidence of Republican governance was undermined by leaving Reagan’s ideals of limited government. He also said that the Republican leadership needs new faces. Also they must be committed to challenging Pelosi and big government ideology at every turn on the floor of the House but without using the politics of personal destruction.
They also must be willing to stand with president when he’s right but oppose him when he violates the issues of limited government.
Bloggers had the opportunity to ask Congressman Pence questions:
John Hawkins at Right Wing News asked the first question about Illegal immigration: what should the bill be?
The bill should not be the McCain/Kennedy bill. He opposes any legislation that would help those people whose first act to get into this country is an illegal act. The Democrats have majorities to move the M/K bill. The GOP needs to use every weapon in its arsenal to convey to the American people if we granted amnesty to illegal immigrants we will create huge problems for this country.
John Fleischman from the Flash Report – what do other Republican congresspeople say was the reason for the rout?
Rep. Pence was pleasantly surprised that virtually everyone he spoke to accepted some responsibility for the fact that it was due to the Republicans’ departure from the conservative principles. No one in the Republican party is blameless. He admitted that he did request earmarks from the day he started working in congress because he thought it was part of his job and he stands by his earmarks. He also voted for the farm bill, which he wouldn’t do again.
Another blogger asked if Pence has an internal count about the race, to which he said yes, but wasn’t telling. But he’s pleased. He also compared this race for Minority leadership to running a senior class president in that he has to deal with all different kinds of cliques to get them to like him.
Howard Mortman from Extreme Mortman asked about Pences’ thoughts on Pelosi backing Murtha.
He said that he’s not endorsing anyone from the Democrats. He said he also is looking forward to a “target-rich environment” as he put it.
There were a couple of other questions, but I was unable to record them, but you can hear the conference call here.
I really like what I heard from Congressman Pence. He is committed to taking the party back to its core conservative principles and is set and ready to take on the Democrats’ leftist agenda. I hope the House Republicans vote for Mike Pence for House Minority Leader.
