Insider Report from Newsmax.com Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories):
1. Mitt Romney Has ‘Rockefeller Problems’
2. Huckabee: Americans Would Back Israeli Strike on Iran
3. Sarah Palin Aide Cries Foul Over HBO Movie
4. Federal Program Gives Summer Jobs to Foreign Students
5. Obama Urged to Boycott OAS Summit Over Cuba
1. Mitt Romney Has ‘Rockefeller Problems’ In his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, Mitt Romney faces the same problem that confronted New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller in his 1964 bid for the GOP presidential nod — a failure to engage conservatives. That’s the view of Chris DeSanctis, who offers readers a history lesson in a new article on the American Thinker website. Rockefeller was a liberal Republican and head of the moderate-to-liberal wing of the GOP based in the Northeast, nicknamed me-too Republicans because their platform resembled the Democratic Party’s platform. Believing his support among moderate and liberal Republicans was secure, early front-runner Rockefeller “tried to court the growing conservative wing of his party” led by Sen. Barry Goldwater, according to DeSanctis, an adjunct professor in the Department of Government and Politics at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut. But the liberal GOP establishment was alienated by Rockefeller’s rightward move, while conservatives failed to embrace a liberal Northeast Republican. So Rockefeller changed course and began to viciously attack conservatives. The tactic backfired, and Goldwater won the nomination. “The conservative wing of the GOP had shocked the liberal wing,” DeSanctis notes. Now in this year’s GOP race, “Mitt Romney has Rockefeller problems,” he asserts, quoting former George W. Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson: “Romney’s main political vulnerability is a serious one. Running for Massachusetts governor in 2002, he was a pro-choice, economically centrist, and culturally liberal, business-oriented Republican.” And due to his Massachusetts record, conservatives “refuse to embrace Romney. Like Rockefeller, this prevents him from uniting the party,” DeSanctis says. But those conservatives “love” Rick Santorum because he has remained consistent to his conservative beliefs about government, says DeSanctis, who concludes: “Goldwater’s issues of low taxes, a smaller federal government, strong military, support for individual rights, and conservative family values, among others, are now mainstream in the GOP. “This is why today, against all odds, a traditional conservative like Rick Santorum is rising.” A recent poll of Republicans and GOP-leaning independents by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute showed Santorum with 35 percent of the vote to Romney’s 26 percent. Editor's Note:
2. Huckabee: Americans Would Back Israeli Strike on Iran Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee says the American people would definitely support an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities — but questions whether the Obama administration would back such a strike.
"I'm confident that there would be an overwhelming support from the American people,” the 2008 Republican presidential candidate told CBN News in Jerusalem on Monday. “Whether the American administration would be as supportive, I don't know. “It's one of those real concerns that many of us have — why the Obama administration hasn't been stronger in its support for Israel in doing what it has to do.” A bipartisan group of senators has passed a resolution declaring that it is unacceptable for Iran to obtain a nuclear capability. "Now it's been pretty clear, saying it's unacceptable and all the options are on the table to keep Iran from having a nuclear device,” said Huckabee, who is hosting a tour of about 175 Americans in Israel. “But it hasn't been as clear as saying that should Israel [act] as a sovereign nation to protect itself and to preserve its own survival, if it takes the action, we will stand behind her and accept that.” He added: "They're not just doing Israel a favor. They're doing a favor for the United States, but they're also doing a favor for the Saudis, the Jordanians, the Kuwaitis, the people of Qatar and the [United Arab] Emirates. Everybody in the world is safer for Iran to be disengaged from nuclear capacity.” Middle East expert Walid Phares said in a Newsmax.TV interview on Tuesday: “If the Iranian regime is very close to putting a weapon on a missile, then no questions asked, [the Israelis] are going to try to take action. They will try to coordinate with us or inform us at the end of the day. “It has to do with the width of Israel. It has to do with Israel unaccepting the idea that they could absorb one strike.” Many Israelis and Israel supporters abroad are concerned that if Obama wins re-election, he would no longer be motivated to court the Jewish vote and could turn against Israel, CBN News reported. Referring to those concerns, Huckabee said that in a second Obama term, when the “political consequences” are behind him, Obama’s “true sentiments” might surface. Editor's Note:
3. Sarah Palin Aide Cries Foul Over HBO Movie A key aide to Sarah Palin charges that the screenwriter for an upcoming HBO movie focusing on the former Republican vice presidential candidate reneged on a promise to let the aide check the script for accuracy. The film “Game Change,” set to air on March 10, is largely based on the best-selling book of that name written by MSNBC political analysts John Heilemann and Mark Halperin. Jason Recher, a senior adviser and trip director for the McCain-Palin campaign in 2008, said that screenwriter Danny Strong asked him while he was writing the script if the book was accurate, according to the Hollywood Reporter. “I told him absolutely, unequivocally it was not,” Recher said on Wednesday. According to Recher, Strong “offered to share with me the script at any time if I read something in the media which made me uncomfortable with the direction of the movie.” He said that after watching a trailer for the film, he contacted Strong to take him up on his offer, but Strong informed him that HBO wouldn’t allow him to show Recher the script. Another McCain-Palin aide, senior adviser and spokesperson Meg Stapleton, said: “Nobody with the book and nobody with the movie contacted me. They don’t want to hear anything good. We all know Palin sells, and the dramatization of Palin sells even more. This is sick. The media has gone too far. “Looking at the trailers alone gets my blood boiling.” In “Game Change,” Palin is depicted as stunningly uninformed about global affairs. The Hollywood Reporter observed: “Some, no doubt, will accuse HBO of making her look like a naïve dolt.” Strong claims he never offered to show Recher the script, and says HBO offered to show Palin the film but she declined. Editor's Note:
4. Federal Program Gives Summer Jobs to Foreign Students While young people in the United States are suffering record levels of unemployment, the State Department is already hiring foreign students for summer jobs that won’t be available when Americans start looking for summer work later this year. The Summer Work Travel (SWT) program each year admits more than 100,000 students from around the world to work at American beaches, restaurants, convenience stores, supermarkets, factories, and other establishments. The State Department calls SWT a “cultural exchange” intended to showcase the American way of life and win friends among future world leaders. State Department-designated sponsoring agencies team with foreign partners to recruit students, help them obtain visas, and match them with employees. Participants and their employers are exempt from Social Security, Medicare, and federal unemployment taxes, according to Jerry Kammer, a senior research fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies. “Unfortunately, as the program has boomed — from about 20,000 in 1996 to a peak of 153,000 in 2008 — it has denied a place in the workforce for many American young people, who are now suffering record levels of unemployment,” Kammer writes in the Baltimore Sun. One parent who spoke with Kammer, Sarah Ann Smith, said her teenage son’s dishwashing schedule at a restaurant went from 24 hours a week before SWT workers arrived to zero hours after six foreigners began working there. “It’s wrong to have a program that allows foreign kids to come in and take jobs that American kids need,” said Smith. “SWT is out of control.” Fortunately, the State Department is now conducting a review of the SWT program. “Much of our nation’s immigration policy — for both temporary visitors and permanent residents — is made with little concern for its impact on American society,” Kammer observes. “Reevaluating SWT is a first step toward changing that.” Editor's Note:
5. Obama Urged to Boycott OAS Summit Over Cuba Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen says President Obama should boycott the upcoming summit of the Organization of American States if Cuba is allowed to attend. Four leftist Latin American nations — Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Nicaragua — are insisting that Cuba be permitted to take part in the Summit of Americas, to be held in Cartagena, Colombia, in mid-April; the United States opposes Cuba’s attendance. Cuba is the only country in the hemisphere that does not belong to the OAS. It was ejected from the organization in 1962 due to its support for the Soviet Union. Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa recently said that if Cuba is not invited to the summit, members of the leftist Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA) — a bloc set up by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in 2004 — should boycott the event, CNS News reported. ALBA includes Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Cuba. Cuba-born Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has urged the OAS not to invite Cuba. “The campaign for Cuba’s inclusion in the Summit of the Americas is being led by regional tyrants who want to shift the summit’s focus away from their human rights abuses and repression of democracy, and turn it into a platform to bash the U.S.,” she said in a statement. “Chavez, [Bolivian President Evo] Morales, [Nicaraguan President Daniel] Ortega, and Correa know that having the Castro regime in their lineup will help them turn the Summit into an anti-American hate fest.” Ros-Lehtinen said as a non-member of the OAS Cuba has no right to attend the gathering, and if the Castro regime is invited anyway, President Obama must boycott it. The issue is in limbo for the time being. Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin has said it is not up to the Colombian government to invite Cuba, while OAS legal affairs secretary Jean Michel Arrighi said the matter was not one for the OAS to decide and Colombia has the authority to allow Cuba to participate. American taxpayers account for almost 60 percent of the total contributions to the organization by member states. In its budget for fiscal year 2013, the State Department has requested $51.1 million for the OAS. Note: Newsmax magazine is now available on the iPad. Find us in the App Store. Editor's Note:
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