Mike Pence Stirs Them up at CPAC

It's about time some Republicans embraced the concept of "NO!":

Indiana Rep. Mike Pence made no apologies Friday for trying to stop President Obama's agenda in Congress, telling conservative activists he proudly wears the "Party of No" label that Democrats have tried to pin on Republicans.

"Some folks like to call us the 'Party of No,' Pence said during his speech before the Conservative Political Action Conference. "Well, I say 'No' is way underrated here in Washington, D.C. Sometimes 'No' is just what this town needs to hear."

Pence, a potential 2012 presidential candidate, used the address to this influential bloc of GOP base voters to further promote his conservative credentials and sharply criticize the president and the congressional Democratic majority.

And Pence, who serves as chairman of the House Republican Conference, predicted that the GOP would reclaim the House majority in November and the White House in 2012.

"Welcome to the conservative comeback and the beginning of the end of the Pelosi Congress," Pence said to applause.

I like Pence. He could be the candidate that could keep conservatives in the game and still attract those independents and moderates that you have to have to win.

Romney: Obama Has Failed

Mitt Romney is in the early stages of another presidential run and made his pitch to the conservatives at CPAC:

Republican Mitt Romney blistered President Barack Obama for a squandered first year of policy failures and broken promises on Thursday, informally auditioning before a key part of the GOP base for the chance to challenge the Democrat in 2012.

"President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and their team have failed the American people, and that is why their majority will be out the door," Romney told a gathering of conservatives, a certain critical constituency in the upcoming Republican primary fight.

"When it comes to pinning blame, pin the tail on the donkeys," Romney quipped -- and this partisan crowd ate it up.

Conservatives attending the annual Conservative Political Action Conference also heartily cheered at several other points during Romney's speech. And they went wild when newly elected Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., made a surprise appearance to introduce Romney, whose advisers helped orchestrate Brown's upset victory last month.

"He was the only one behind pushing me along to try to make a difference," Brown said of Romney, "one of the Republican Party's bright lights."

Brown, beloved by conservatives and "tea party" activists despite his moderate stances on social issues, brings Romney credibility with a constituency that had viewed the former governor skeptically during his failed 2008 bid for the GOP presidential nomination.

Noting as much, Romney said: "As a Massachusetts man, who, like my fellow Bay-staters, has over the years, been understandably regarded somewhat suspiciously in gatherings like this, let me take just a moment" to rejoice in Brown's victory.

Romney hasn't decided whether to run for president again but he's laying the groundwork. He's seen by observers as the most formidable Republican, given that he's run before and the GOP has a history of nominating the loser of the last nomination fight. He withdrew from the GOP fight two years ago before the same audience he spoke to Thursday, effectively ceding the nomination to John McCain.

I'm still far from sold on Romney. It's hard to ignore his version of Obamacare that he enacted in Massachusetts which is now beginning to fall apart, and his conversion to real conservatism seemed to come pretty late in life (like not long before the 2008 campaigns began). While his religion doesn't both me, I think it will bother a lot of other folks who will be less likely to vote for him in the general election.

There's still a long way to go and there may be some surprises in store in terms of candidates. I just saw that Mike Pence, conservative GOP congressman from Indiana, is making a speech in New Hampshire. He turned down the opportunity to run for the Senate and now appears to have something bigger in mind.