But even still, if what you say is true, it will accomplish nothing but to help elect Coats. And it frankly would not surprise me a bit if Huckabee would be totally fine with that. Coats and Huckabee are two compassionate conservative peas in a pod. And Stutzman isn’t all that different from that type of Republican. But the last thing Huckabee would ever want to see is a right wing small government constitutionalist like Hostettler in the Senate.

There is no such thing as “the Tea Party Action Coalition.”

That’s a made up group that never existed until one week ago, and it was formed by 4 people just for the purpose of endorsing candidates so as to claim those candidates had tea party support. It’s a classic case of manufactured news.

Demint is eating crow right now, just like Erick Erickson is. Or maybe not. There’s another school of thought that says their endorsement of Stutzman was as much of an anti-Hostettler move as anything else, which definitely has a ring of truth to it.

And if the right to keep and bear arms is an issue you care about, once again, you just can’t do any better than Hostettler. They don’t come any better.

The difference between Hostettler and Stutzman on the 2nd Amendment is that Hostettler has a longer more proven record as a leader on the issue and as someone who has what it takes to make a difference on the issue at the federal level.
http://gunowners.org/op02112010tm.htm

That, and the fact that Hostettler is within reach of beating Coats and Stutzman isn’t, should be a good clue to conservatives of what the better course for them is.

The lists of yeas and nays are too long to copy and paste. They’re available in various places, such as in.gov for Stutzman, and the Washington Post voting records data for Hostettler. And I’d argue that you need to look at more than just how they voted on the bills that came to a vote, but on what they did behind the scenes as well in sponsoring and authoring legislation and in impacting what did and didn’t make it to the floor for a vote.

Hostettler voted against Medicare D, against No Child Left Behind, against tons of appropriations bills, against any and every tax increase. He sponsored bills to eliminate the depts. of Education, Energy, and Commerce. He introduced a bill to eliminate income tax withholding. He introduced and successfully got passed in the House the Freedom of Expressions of Religion Act (which the Senate never voted on). He successfully added an amendment to an appropriations bill to prohibit any funds from being used to enforce the court ruling that Judge Roy Moore remove the 10 Commandments from his court house. His first act after taking office in 1995 was to sign on as a cosponsor of a bill to repeal the Brady Bill and assault weapons ban. He was instrumental in stopping Bush’s amnesty from getting voted on in the House after the Senate had passed it. His record is full of occasions of him standing up against not only the Democrats, but also the leadership of his own party.

Stutzman also has a good voting record. But it’s at the state level, and it’s by and large a party-line Republican voting record. He doesn’t have the same proof of being able to stand up to his own party’s leadership, particularly at the federal level that Hostettler has. He also has some marks against him, such as this:
http://hoosieraccess.com/blog/2010/04/20/which-senate-candidate-was-for-a-tax-increase-before-he-was-against-it/

You might also consider watching some of the recent debate. Hostettler was a man among boys. Stutzman was just out of his league. It’s available cut up into a bunch of parts as the most recent videos on this Youtube channel.
http://www.youtube.com/user/IndianapolisTeaParty

You mean the same Dick Morris who also thought Clinton was a fiscal conservative? For crying out loud, on the Dick Morris scale, every Republican is a fiscal conservative.

I’ve got some bad news for you. Huckabee didn’t cut taxes, he shuffled them around, and raised them overall. He spent other peoples’ money like a drunken trophy wife. And he took every opportunity he could to promise to do the same if he got elected President (e.g. SCHIP).

Here’s a thought, how about researching Huckabee’s lack of fiscal conservatism using sources who actually have some grasp of what it means to be a fiscal conservative. Try any of the following: Heritage Foundation, Cato Institute, National Taxpayers Union, Club for Growth.

Just be prepared for a disappointment.