Rep. Pete Hoekstra spoke to a small crowd in IA on behalf of Romney.

On abortion in particular, Hoekstra outlined what he and Romney believe: merely passing laws banning the practice is a dead end.

“You cannot just be about focusing on making it more difficult to get an abortion – it’s a much broader concept,” Hoekstra said, highlighting policies to fund adoption as a viable alternative. Link

A wonderful comment- fighting abortion is wider concept, wider than judges I submit. Guiliani has squeaked by thus far with his "I will elect judges like Roberts and Alito." Many are blindly presuming that this is all a president can do with Socon principles in general. It's the only way a SoCon could support Guiliani in a primary.

If a president really cares about fighting legalized abortion he can do a multitude of things such as increasing funding for adoption services (as Hoekstra noted), vetoing bills from a democratic congress that liberalize abortion laws even more, push for parental notification laws, push for laws making it illegal to transport minors across state lines for abortions, and using the bully pulpit to make the case on a regular basis. He can also fight against over the counter abortives, something our current president has failed us on.

A President who makes SoCon issues a top priority will veto embryonic stem cell legislation, cloning legislation, and will fight for marriage amendments on the national level and will lend his support on the state level. Romney will fight the cultur war with us.

I ask you this: Will Guiliani fight this fight?

Labels: abortion, hoekstra, iowa, rudy

Representative Hoekstra will endorse Romney today. From Hotline:

Hoekstra was chairman of the House Intelligence Cmte from '04 until two weeks ago. He is an independent -- though unabashedly conservative -- operator. A few weeks ago, he questioned Pres. Bush's selection of ret. Adm. Michael McConnell to be the Director of National Intelligence, wondering why the White House bypassed qualified civilian intelligence officials. In '05, amid a debate about pre-war intelligence, Hoekstra trumpeted a DIA report noting that hundreds of older (pre-1991) shells containing mustard gas and sarin were found throughout Iraq. Other intelligence officials, the DoD and the White House did not believe the report vindicated pre-war assessments about Iraq's attempts to procure chemical weapons. Hoekstra is a strong advocate for civilian oversight of the intelligence community and has been a vocal supporter of the president's formerly secret wire-tapping policies. He’s generally a hard-liner on Iran.

...In the months after 9/11, Romney, then the CEO of the Salt Lake City Olympic Committee, was regularly briefed by intelligence officials on threats to the Olympic games. As Governor, Romney headed an intelligence task force for the National Governors Association, and ex-Homeland Security Sec. Tom Ridge appointed him to a national homeland security advisory committee.

In recent months, Romney's self-directed study of foreign policy and national security has included briefings from current senior intelligence officials and former CIA directors like James Woosley.

***Update***

It's official. Romney released the statement that Hoekstra is officially on board. Hoekstra join the campaing serving in two roles: Intelegence Advisor and Co-Chair of his Michigan Campaign with the focus on Western Michigan. This is interesting. Western Michigan is strongly conservative with many key Michigan Activist living in this part of the state.


Hoekstra had this to say concerning Romney:

"As a governor and as chief executive of the 2002 Winter Olympics, Governor Romney knows good intelligence is necessary for our security. Governor Romney will provide those on the frontlines of the war against radical militant Islam with the resources necessary to win. I know that the professionals who serve in the Intelligence Community will be well served under Governor Romney."

Labels: endoresements, hoekstra