1. Perry Drops Out. Endorses Newt. Will Campaign and Serve.

2. Rick Santorum Won Iowa

3. Devolve Transportation Spending to States

1. Perry Drops Out. Endorses Newt. Will Campaign and Serve.

Sources close to both campaigns tell me that the Governor and Speaker have spoken and Governor Perry will endorse Newt Gingrich. But it will go beyond that.

I’m told reliably that Governor Perry will head up a 10th Amendment project for Speaker Gingrich to rally Governors and state legislators toward a plan of devolving power from Washington. This project will include helping shape the Republican platform for the general election, something small government conservatives have been concerned about.

Governor Perry will also campaign for Speaker Gingrich in Texas.

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2. Rick Santorum Won Iowa

By 34 votes, Rick Santorum won Iowa. For the past two weeks we have heard Mitt Romney was the first non-incumbent to win both Iowa and New Hampshire. Wrong!

The Des Moines Register reports Rick Santorum won. More troubling for the Iowa GOP, the GOP reports it will never have a completely accurate vote count because the votes in some precincts have gone missing.

The only thing that can be said for sure is Rick Santorum is the real winner.

If Newt Gingrich now wins South Carolina, we are in for a heck of a ride.

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3. Devolve Transportation Spending to States

One of the numerous legislative deadlines that Congress will be forced to confront this session is the expiration of the 8th short-term extension of the 2005 surface transportation authorization law (SAFETEA-LU). With federal transportation spending growing beyond its revenue source, an imbalance between donor and recipient states, inefficient and superfluous construction projects popping up all over the country, and burdensome mass transit mandates on states, it is time to inject some federalism into transportation spending.

Throughout the presidential campaign, many of the candidates have expressed broad views of state’s rights, while decrying the expansion of the federal government. In doing so, some of the candidates have expressed the conviction that states have the right to implement tyranny or pick winners and losers, as long as the federal government stays out of it. Romneycare and state subsidies for green energy are good examples. The reality is that states don’t have rights; they certainly don’t have the power to impose tyranny on citizens by forcing them to buy health insurance or regulating the water in their toilet bowels – to name a few. They do, however, reserve powers under our federalist system of governance to implement legitimate functions of government. A quintessential example of such a legitimate power is control over transportation and infrastructure spending.

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