Mike Pence refused to endorse Dede Scozzafava. Being, however, the Chairman of the House Republican Conference, it really would have been bad form of him to go all in with Hoffman. Being in that position demands some party loyalty. So behind the scenes Pence has made clear he was unhappy with this whole sordid mess and has refused to cooperate or fund the madness.

Today he can do what he has wanted to do the whole time — endorse Doug Hoffman.

Conservatives are now fully united and fighting. The race is not offer. We must fight for Hoffman now.

Pence’s statement is below the fold.

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Apparently some folks have encountered an intern in Eric Cantor’s office who is doing the man no favors articulating his position on Joe Wilson.

Eric Cantor was the first member of Leadership to stand with Rep. Wilson. On Sunday, he said that Rep. Wilson has already apologized, that the President accepted, and it was time to move on.

Second, earlier today, at the House GOP Conference meeting - Eric Cantor spoke to House Republicans telling them they need to stand with Rep. Wilson. The Members of the House GOP applauded. The Democrats are trying to play politics, poorly - and we will stand with our guy.

Here is a quote from Rep. Cantor’s speech:

“Eight months ago, the President stood before the nation during his inaugural and invoked Corinthians to say it’s time for us to put away childish things. It should have been a clarion call that it’s time for us to end our petty bickering and get things accomplished for the American people. That’s what we are sent here to do.

“How ironic is it that at a time when we should be debating jobs and the shape and scope of health care reform, the majority has sidetracked on a transparently political and trivial effort to demonize the opposition? The gentleman from South Carolina has apologized to the White House; The President has accepted his apology. It’s time to end the gamesmanship and get back to work on behalf of the American people.”

Nonetheless, John Boehner tells The Hill that members will be on their own if they want to vote against Joe.

GOP leader John Boehner says that House Republicans “have to make their own decisions” when the chamber votes on a resolution to disapprove of their colleague Rep. Joe Wilson’s notorious “You Lie!” outburst.

Though Boehner (Ohio) made clear on Monday that he would oppose the Democratic resolution, the leader is not going to press his membership to do likewise.

They should support Joe.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced Friday it will launch a series of district-specific radio ads targeting vulnerable Republicans who voted against President Obama’s controversial war supplemental package.

As a matter of national security in years past Republicans have shown tremendous support for similar measures, however last week they voted en bloc against the $106 billion appropriations bill.

The Democratic Leadership and the DCCC would be content to let the public believe Republicans were “playing politics” with the troops, having voted against the emergency legislation out of pure spite for the president.

Over 100 Republicans voted for the bill when the first iteration—before the $83.5 billion bill mushroomed—reached the floor of the House several weeks ago. But after the Democratic Leadership rewrote the bill to include billions in funding for lawmakers’ pet projects, including an additional $5 billion in funding for the International Monetary Fund (IMF), virtually all Republicans defected, accusing the Democrats of lacing the emergency war-funding bill with billions of extraneous pork barrel spending.

If a global bailout is to be to debated and funded, it surely does not belong in a war appropriations bill. Democrats know this, just like they knew bailout-averse Republicans would, instinctively, vote against any such measure. And then they realized they had the upper-hand, they held the coveted “you’re-playing-politics-with-the-troops” card.

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Three votes on the stimulus and budget…three times House Republicans stood unified in opposition to wasting taxpayer money on trillion dollar boondoggles. Yet each time these disastrous bills passed the House.

Even with such a unified caucus, House Republicans cannot control the agenda in Congress. Our goal is to retire Nancy Pelosi by electing Republicans who represent your values in government. A Republican Majority will apply fiscal sanity to our national spending…lowering taxes and putting more money in your pocket.

But to achieve a majority we need to retain our current Republican numbers before adding to them. That is where the Patriot Program comes in to play. The Patriot Program’s goal is to work with incumbent Republican Members of Congress to provide them with the necessary support and organization to win reelection. It is imperative we limit the number of incumbents who fall victim to the Democrats and their far-left money machines such as ACORN, Big Labor and Hollywood. Even though some of these Members are in tough districts and know they will be targeted by the Democrat attack machine, they stood by their conservative principles and courageously voted against the trillion dollar boondoggles. It wasn’t an easy vote to take and they’ll be attacked for it – so we need to give them the defense they need.

Today is the first Patriot Day of the 2010 cycle. We have unveiled our first ten Members who have qualified for the program by achieving, or surpassing, a series of goals and standards. I hope you will visit the NRCC’s Web site to learn about these Members and make a donation to the NRCC or to the Member(s) of your choosing. Please also continue to check back often as we continue to unveil new Patriots throughout the cycle.

Nancy Pelosi and her puppets are pushing an agenda that may be acceptable in San Francisco, but is far left of main street America. That is why she is working 24 hours a day to widen her majority by recruiting and campaigning for out-of-touch Democrats who will do nothing but raise your taxes to pay for bloated, failed government spending.

Reelection is often won before election day through fundraising, organization and connection with the voters. The Patriot Program provides Republican incumbents with a blueprint to ensure they are reaching and surpassing these goals. Democrats are pushing hard to increase their majority and without your help House Republicans can only do so much to stand against their unchecked control of Congress.

House Republicans are ready to fight to regain a Majority in Congress, and I ask you join us in standing up to Nancy Pelosi and her puppets.

One of the best decisions made this year by House Republicans was putting Mike Pence in charge of the House Republican Conference. Yesterday at CPAC, he proved it.

Pence was dynamic, powerful, focused, and absolutely willing to call out other Republicans who totally failed the party and the conservative movement.

His theme, from stage, was set early:

How we, as conservatives, respond to these challenges could determine whether America retains her place in the world as a beacon of freedom; or whether we slip into the abyss that has swallowed much of Europe in an avalanche of socialism.

While some are prepared to write the obituary on capitalism and our movement, I believe we are on the brink of a great American awakening.

The crowd really responded, understanding that the GOP needs conservatives and their ideas more than conservatives really need the GOP. The fight for freedom will be based on our ideas, not the left’s. Pence drove this point home with a line that left people in the exhibit hall frozen — absorbing the wisdom of the line:

Fighting for free enterprise means standing up for free markets. The freedom to succeed includes the freedom to fail. We must defend entrepreneurial capitalism against the onslaught of the American left.

Mike Pence gets it.

After the speech, I asked Congressmen Pence how he responds to those who say the GOP leadership failed the GOP. “Not me,” he said. I responded, “Yeah, but . . . what about the leadership? The same guys are there.” He admitted there were problems, but said they are working hard to fix the problems. He pointed to toeing the line on the stimulus. He pointed out Boehner and Cantor’s leadership holding the caucus together. He made a lot of sense.

Below the fold you can listen to his whole speech.

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Well this is a new one on me.

According to Congressional Quarterly this morning, House Republicans led by Jack Kingston (R-GA), took to the House floor to demand to see Porkulus.

Despite a unanimous vote of the House of Representatives to not vote on the bill until people had 48 hours to see it, the Democrats sought to back track and vote on Porkulus sight unseen.

From CQ:

Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., complained this morning on the House floor that lawmakers were being asked to vote, sight unseen, on “the largest single bill in the history of Congress.” Some Democratic lawmakers fired back that Republicans didn’t need to see the bill anyway, since none of them voted for the stimulus when it moved through the House the first time and would probably stand in opposition.

There you have it. The GOP will have to remember this when they get the House back. If you are inclined to vote against something, you don’t get to see it.

America’s Mother-in-Law, by the way, caved around noon and decided not to bring Porkulus up for a vote.

Supposedly, House Republicans are “modern day Hoovers” (one wonders just how long Colbert King had to stay up at night to think that one up). Never mind the fact that the actual Herbert Hoover–not the caricature that people like King come up with–instituted protectionist measures like the Smoot-Hawley Tariff that are much like the “Buy American” measures the Obama Administration is trying to get passed through the stimulus bill. Amazingly enough, King notes his displeasure with the “Buy American” provisions of the stimulus bill but doesn’t seem to understand that the Obama Administration is playing Herbert Hoover by pushing these provisions and that House Republicans are being anti-Hooverian by opposing them. This, of course, is what passes for punditry in newspapers these days.

Equally amusing is the contention that to be Herbert Hoover is to oppose a stimulus package that is remarkably interventionist, that will dramatically increase the deficit, and that does nothing whatsoever to actually stimulate the economy (see here, here, here, and here for just a few links that debunk the contention that the stimulus package will help the economy to arise, Lazarus-like from its current semi-lifeless state). And of course, contra King’s misreading of history, Hoover was massively interventionist, as Amity Shlaes points out. Despite all of this, King accuses House Republicans of being Hooverian because they are not interventionist enough. Is it too much to ask for a Washington Post editorial writer to actually do the hard work of reading history before he attempts to write about it?

If this is the best case that can be made against the House Republicans’ collective decision to grant not a single vote for the stimulus package, then the House Republican Caucus’s sole regret should be that it had but one vote to give against this latest, quixotic Keynesian scheme. And the Caucus should send Colbert King a nice little note and a fruit basket, thanking him for making their case for them.

Even if King did so inadvertently.