I like what I'm hearing from Nikki Haley

Just got home from a great fundraiser for one of my candidates (if you're in Seminole County, please check out www.LadanForJudge.org) and caught Sean Hannity's interview with Nikki Haley, a Republican who's running for governor in South Carolina.  You can follow her on Twitter at @nikkihaley.

She survived a bruising, nasty, vindictive primary battle to be one of the top-two vote-getters and has a runoff in a few weeks.  Some highlights from the show tonight: 

From her election night speech yesterday:

When I looked at everything, I knew that there was something wrong.  And the thing that I knew was wrong was that South Carolina was settling.  We were settling for a Republican House, a Republican Senate, and a Republican Governor.  I won't stop until we get a conservative House, a conservative Senate, and a conservative Governor. 

On Hannity tonight:

Hannity: You made an important distinction that I make often.  There's a difference between Republicans and conservatives.  Are you saying that you're more of a conservative than a Republican?

Haley: What I'm saying is that we've seen a lot of Republicans that have learned the talking points but they haven't learned the conservative actions associated with the talking points.  You know we are long past the day of electing someone because they look good in a picture or they hold a baby well.  If they are not going to fight for the taxpayers, if they are not going to make sure that they understand that this is not their money to spend, then we don't need to have them.  It is time that we look at what it means to be conservative, and that's not bailouts, that's not stimulus packages, it's not Washington.  It's prioritizing our spending, understanding that...it's about strengthening small businesses, and if you do that, you encourage the economy.  It's pretty simple business.

You know what I think about the tea parties is, first of all, they're not a party at all.  It is Republicans, independents, and Democrats who've said that we've had enough and we want to take our government back.  I think the second thing is what you are seeing is that the people are no longer going to settle for elected officials thinking that they know better...I think that it's time that we hold elected officials accountable and remind them who it is that they work for...

...the tea parties are great because they are getting people to understand the power of their voice.  Government belongs to the people and we need to go back to that.  You know, our founding fathers said that it should be families first, then communities, then state, then federal.  We have watched turn completely upside down.  We need to go back to where we were supposed to be.