H/T to Michelle Malkin for this great video obtained by her for your viewing pleasure!

I am kind of wondering if this song went through her head while she was sitting their all by herself?

Mitch Daniels doesn’t stand still for long.

On Monday, he outlined his ideas for a new state budget.

On Tuesday, he set a date for the special session to hammer out that budget.

On Wednesday, he was in Washington D.C. speaking about his ideas for a revival of the Republican Party.

Among them was a return to empathy, you might call it Compassionate Conservatism 2.0:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, a potential 2012 presidential candidate, said Wednesday that his fellow Republicans need to work harder to show “empathy” if they want to emerge from the political doldrums.

Daniels also called those on the left of the political spectrum “the meanest people in politics.”

Conservatives have lampooned President Barack Obama for using “empathy” to describe one of the qualities he seeks in a potential Supreme Court justice. But Daniels said “empathy” is spot on — Obama’s just misappropriated the word.

“Empathy is going to get a bad name for a little while because it’s been transported into the world of the rule of law,” Daniels told a forum for conservatives. “It’s what distinguishes us from other species.”

Republicans, he said, “must not only assert but assert with credibility that we understand what’s going on in the lives of everyday people.”

Daniels spoke at “Making Conservatism Credible Again,” a forum hosted by the Hudson Institute and the Bradley Foundation. Daniels used to work at the Hudson Institute.

The second-term governor said conservatives would have to bide their time but that push-back on Obama and Democratic leadership is coming. In the meantime, the governor said, conservatives needed to practice humility.

“We don’t have to believe we have all the answers,” he said.

Still, Daniels said he saw reason to be optimistic. Many voters motivated by the historic nature of Obama’s campaign cast their ballots as a sort of “fashion statement,” he said, and will come to regret their decision when Obama’s policies are enacted.

Conservatives can use their time out of power to distinguish themselves from their opponents’ time in the wilderness, Daniels said.

“We need to accept the role of the loyal opposition much more gracefully than our opponents did,” he said. “If you haven’t noticed, the meanest people in politics are on the American left. We must be a friendly movement.”

I heartily agree with the need to be happy warriors in the opposition, rather than become mindlessly enraged as the Democrats and the left did with Bush Derangement Syndrome.

Mitch also slammed the Obama administration’s policies as “shock and awe statism,” a very fitting term:

Indianapolis Star, January 25, 2009

To the Editor:

Regarding the January 20 editorial in the Indianapolis Star, I believe I have heard quite enough about “unity” in the wake of Barack Obama’s inauguration as President of the United States.

President Obama has a number of public policy goals that I and many other Americans disagree with, such as his support for abortion rights, his promise to increase taxes, and his support for “hate crime” legislation. It is foolish to expect these differences to be brushed aside in the name of “unity” or bipartisanship.

Obama’s political adversaries have both the right and the responsibility to point out where they believe his policies to be ineffective, counterproductive or destructive. That can and should that be done in a civil way, without personal attacks and unnecessarily inflammatory rhetoric, but it must be done.

Whether I like it or not, Obama is my President, and I wish him the best. But he does not get a holiday from criticism and commentary on his policies and/or the way he runs his administration. To suggest otherwise does a disservice to political discourse and sound public policy.

Scott Tibbs

I’ll be the first to admit I was a bit ticked when I tried to read the ranking and found that I needed a subscription, just seemed “old world” paradigm to me.  I’ve tried to interact with Howey a couple times, but he seems to favor a few of you guys in Indy over hyper local reporting from the Region.  When we posted a series of three articles on the Gary Distressed Unit Board filing, with a writer in the room posting live, he seemed to find the Indy Star reporting 24 hours later better.

Oh well, I don’t think they picked up the lead when the residents against the bailout for Gary met the firefighters in the hallway with “we’ll back you guys if you help us take down Rudy.”

Now, what the scoop on this article by Advance Indiana and peppering Howey with ridicule for his Power 50 list?  I’m sure there’s a back story, love to hear it.  How about a Hoosier Access poll on most influential people in Indiana Josh?  My nominations:  Mitch Daniels, Pat Bauer, Pete Visclosky, Mike Pence, G’wood Mayor Henderson for huge annex grab, Chair of Distressed Unit Board Kitchel, CEO of Mittal Steel, Todd Rokita (where’s he going next?) … Just thinking out loud.

Thursday’s edition of the Wall Street Journal’s Political Journal (available by subscription only-unfortunately), had a piece on Congressman Mike Pence and his bid for House GOP Conference Chairman. The writer, Stephen Moore, did a solid job of covering and profiling the Mike Pence that we know; the Mike Pence that can re-energize and revitalize the Republican message and prepare our party and the conservative movement for a comeback in 2010 and 2012.

Hoosier Hero

By: Stephen Moore

The message of this election and the 2006 election is simple: “Big government Republicanism is a failed experiment.”

So says Rep. Mike Pence, the Indiana Republican. Mr. Pence is running to become chairman of the House Republican Conference, the No. 3 power slot and effectively the communications director of the Republican Party. He is currently unopposed, but Dan Lungren of California has hinted he might also vie for the job. The leadership elections are next week.

(Read More below the Fold)

Editor’s Note: House Minority Leader John Boehner has faced criticism for not being a strong leader. The below is a look at a specific issue where relaxed leadership may not have been the best strategy.

By: Jack Flock

I would like to see new leadership for the house GOP. I think this past summer’s energy issue is a good example of how poor leadership from Boehner cost us making more hay from the issue.

Boehner allowed, or did not discourage, anyone and everyone from offering up some sort of energy legislation. As a result we ended up with 17-plus pieces of energy legislation swirling around the House.

This allowed every moderate Democrat to be able to “co-sponser” one of the many energy bills and then campaign back in the district that they are “for increasing domestic energy production” knowing full well that with support spread over 17-plus bills NOTHING would have enough support to actually move forward with any chance of passage. Knowing full well there was no danger of upsetting Nancy Pelosi and the extreme environmentalists.

1. What are the Republican GOTV efforts going to be in Indiana? 

2. Will any Republican apart from Mitch advertise in Indiana?

3. Can we get Governor Palin to do two campaign stops: one in southern Indiana with Sodrel and the other in northern Indiana with Puckett?

4. Which party is going to learn more from this primary election cycle: the Democrats regarding their strange super delegate process or the Republicans regarding nominating someone who doesn’t mirror the rank and file members of the Party?

5. Will we see a  non-partisan media emerge after this election cycle?

I wrote an article recently offering commentary on Wal-Mart holding meetings with managers and impending union “card check” laws, where union bosses could put undue influence onto employees into signing their indentures. My response to “card check” was for Indiana to finally pass a Right to Work law.

Now, I see on the Indiana Chamber blog the chairman of the State Chamber has written a piece offering his insight into why Indiana needs a Right to Work law. Here’s some of the highlights:

“In a 2002 study entitled “The Effect of Right-to-Work Laws on Economic Development,” economist William T. Wilson of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy compared Michigan’s economic performance to right-to-work states. Wilson found that during the 30 years between 1970 and 2000, RTW states created jobs nearly twice as fast as did Michigan“

and

“There are practical reasons for Indiana to adopt a right-to-work law. First, Hoosiers agree with it. An overwhelming majority – 71 percent – favored or strongly favored right to work in a 2007 statewide survey”

“There is also the broader moral question of whether a Hoosier breadwinner should be forced to join and/or pay dues to a labor organization to get or keep a job.”

Paying dues which in turn contribute to anti-life and anti-freedom political candidates which the employee may not support.

Unions had their place in the early 20th Century, in the days of the GM “sit down strike” bringing increased employee compensation and awareness of safety into the industrial workplace. However that mindset has changed among employers, modern unions seem to operate as simply political contribution collectors from workers to contribute to anti-life socialist political candidates.

[H/T The Indiana Chamber Blog]

Tomorrow is the annual St. Joseph County GOP Family Barbeque and according to the press release they sent out, they’re going to have a pretty powerful line-up of guests.  Leading the list is 2nd Congressional district candidate Luke Puckett and Attorney General candidate Greg Zoeller.  The Governor’s campaign RV1 is also scheduled to be there.  Come on out and join us (yes, I’ll be there) for some good food and fun.  If you’ve never had a chance to sign the RV (if you’ve not signed the RV its your own fault because it has been all over the state) now’s your chance to do so!

 South Bend-Saturday, July 26th at Clay Park the GOP SJC will hold their annual Family BBQ from 4:00-8:00pm. There will be lots of fun filled activities for all ages.

There will be lots of food and fun! Kids games include bounce house, elephant hoop, and more. You can also tour Mitch Daniel’s campaign RV.

St. Joseph County Republicans have challenged the Elkhart County Republicans to a game of softball.

Tickets are $5/person and they can be purchased at the event.

Candidates expected to attend include: Luke Puckett, Dave Miller, Jackie Walorski, Dale DeVon, Dan Herbster, Kevin Mitschelen, Tim Neese, James Philson, Myer Blatt, Chris Adamo, Richard Ziegler, Mark Root, Wayne Curry, and Tom Florkowski.

Clay Park is located off of Laurel and Brick Road.

Special guest appearance: Candidate for Attorney General, Greg Zoeller.

This event is open to the public.

In our current national economy, times are a bit tough and money is tight. The RNC, however, doesn’t think that should keep people from making non-tax deductible donations to them. Now don’t get us wrong. Those of us at Hoosier Access are fans of the RNC, but this is no way to treat your supporters if they haven’t “ponied” up in a while. Friends of the site, Kurt and Kristen Luidhardt, got this letter in the mail recently.

Um, yeah, I’m ready to give. How about you?!

(H/T – Prosper Group Think)

As reported first in the Indianapolis Business Journal last week, and now repeated in the Ryerson Rag former 7th District Congressional Candidate Eric Dickerson declared personal bankruptcy. Citing three businesses including the Buick dealership, a Maggie Moo’s ice cream store in Circle Centre Mall, and Westfield Collision Center all of which have since closed.

The Buick dealership closed in the midst of Eric’s 2006 Congressional campaign. An ill-timed lawsuit by Fifth-Third Bank against the dealership just as it was being sold to Ed Martin’s group of dealerships did not help the overall situation.

On the ice cream shop, Eric told me the problem stems from the Simons tripling his rent for the mall space, combined with increasing overhead costs for personnel partially due to the minimum wage hike passed in the “First 100 Days” of this Congress. The rent for about 400 square feet on the third floor would be in excess of $10,000 per month. That’s a lot of $5 scoops of ice cream to generate that kind of revenue, never mind the overhead and costs of goods sold.

It’s very unfortunate it came to this. This pretty much ends Eric Dickerson’s hopes for a political career. Eric’s name kept being bantered about in the early days of 2007 as a possible Mayoral candidate prior to the emergence of Greg Ballard, and after the death of Julia Carson his name popped up on the radar again as a candidate for the Special Election.

I met Eric for the first time in June 2006 as his fall campaign was just getting geared up. Eric was very energetic and was on the go from morning into the evening as the campaign rolled on into November. I met several very interesting people that worked in the campaign and amazingly enough our little rag-tag group operating with little party support and a shoe-string campaign fund still managed to make it an 8 point margin in a very blue year. Ellen, Sally, Darla, Ernie, Mike B., Rick, Richard, among a few others helped make it happen, and most of us are still friends to some degree. Some of us continued on to remain active in the GOP and helped bring the GOP back to the Mayor’s office and the City-County Council.

(cross-posted to DFB)

We’ve all heard of the Blue Dog Democrats, they’re the Democratic candidates that ran on relatively conservative platforms in 2006 and unseated Republican members of Congress. In a large part they’re responsible for the current Democratic control of Congress. Although they gave the Democrats the majority, they sure haven’t been very excited about forcing their party to recognize the fact that they come from conservative districts were San Francisco style policy proposals are not welcomed.

With conventional wisdom saying that 2008 would be a year for the Democrats, it was to be expected that if the Blue Dogs did a fairly good job, most of them would win re-election. Fortunately for conservatives, the Blue Dog’s have not done anywhere near a good job holding to their campaign promises. This means that instead of facing a weak Republican opposition, they may have a really tough battle on their hands this fall.

Read more below the fold.