Posted on 11/12/2006 11:44:53 AM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON – With their control of Congress ended decisively by voters coast to coast, Republicans of all ideological stripes wasted no time last week pointing fingers as they began jockeying for position to remake the party.
Conservative leaders spent the days after their defeat racing to TV studios and microphones to insist that the Republican Party – and not conservatism – is to blame for what President Bush ruefully called a “thumpin'.”
Pat Toomey, president of the Club for Growth, complained that the party had strayed from its goal of limiting government's growth and argued that the election “was not a repudiation of conservatism – of conservative ideas and values. It was a rejection of the Republican Party.”
Richard Viguerie, a longtime conservative activist, was even harsher, declaring that the entire Republican leadership in Congress should be fired for the betrayal of conservatives and “values” voters. “Today starts the new war for the heart and soul of the Republican Party,” he declared.
The few GOP moderates left standing after Tuesday's election were not willing to back down and cede the rebuilding to the party's conservatives.
The head of the moderate Republican Main Street Partnership blamed the outcome on “a handful of zealots” who had ignored “the middle of the American electorate.”
“The extreme right has had their turn at the wheel, and the results have proven devastating for our party and our country,” said Sarah Chamberlain Resnick, executive director of the partnership.
Post-election ideological sniping is a familiar ritual of American politics. Many analysts contend that the modern Republican Party rose from the ashes of its landslide defeat in the 1964 presidential election and a subsequent intramural power struggle. Similarly, electoral setbacks in the 1980s spawned a robust debate within Democratic ranks, which led to a more centrist message that helped Bill Clinton win the White House in 1992.
“Anytime there is a political setback, people will use that to advance their agendas,” said Jack Pitney, a political scientist at Claremont McKenna College.
But, he said, the tussle over ideology may be missing the point.
“The main reason for the defeat was Iraq, which is something political activists can't do anything about,” Pitney said. “It is a matter of foreign policy.”
GOP strategist Joe Gaylord urged fellow Republicans to take a breath and allow passions to cool.
“The truth is that we need to let the dust settle here a little bit, think through – again – who we are and where we're going. And then plot our course for the future,” said Gaylord, a key strategist in the 1994 Republican takeover of Congress.
There may not be much time for that.
On Friday, Republicans in the House plan to fill leadership posts, several of which are hotly contested.
GOP senators will choose their leaders two days earlier with only one battle looming. Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander is a declared contender for the second-ranking post of minority whip. Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi also is expected to be a candidate. Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky is in line to become minority leader.
Then, in January, Ken Mehlman will surrender his position as chairman of the Republican National Committee when his term expires.
Meanwhile, jockeying for the party's 2008 presidential nomination already is well under way.
Some analysts have concluded that the midterm election results will almost certainly move congressional Republicans to the right.
“The liberal wing of the GOP suffered a disproportionate share of the losses,” said Thomas Schaller, a political scientist at the University of Maryland Baltimore County and an expert on Congress' power blocs.
“When you take the moderates out of the Republican wing, that's going to make the party more conservative. There's no question about that,” he said.
Meeting with reporters two days after the election, Mehlman spoke forcefully against “finger pointing” and urged fellow Republicans to be a “big-tent party that is always growing, that is always inclusive and that doesn't have a litmus test as to issues.”
Some conservatives are leery of the concept.
Republicans are headed for a “black hole” if the party should “abandon its pro-moral, pro-family and pro-life base,” said James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, a conservative Christian nonprofit.
In that event, he said, “the big tent will turn into a three-ring circus.”
Chamberlain Resnick, leader of the moderate Main Street Partnership, blamed Toomey and the Club for Growth for weakening GOP moderate candidates with primary election attacks and specifically for “knocking Chafee out.”
Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., lost his re-election bid to Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse by a 6-percentage-point margin.
The Club for Growth mounted a sustained attack on Chafee during a divisive Republican primary. The club took him to task for, among other things, supporting an increase in the minimum wage, voting for too many federal spending bills and refusing to sign a no-tax-increase pledge.
“They went in to bloody people up,” Chamberlain Resnick said. “Linc Chafee was severely damaged coming out of his primary.”
Veteran GOP strategist Charlie Black said, “Neither is right and neither is wrong. The Republican Party cannot adopt a platform or a set of issue positions and demand that everybody adhere to it 100 percent. There are moderate Republicans in the Northeast who probably aren't going to win by being more conservative.”
Black agreed with Toomey that Republicans have been hurt politically by “the perception that we've let spending get out of control, that we're no different than the Democrats on spending. I think that's true.”
tees it up...
have at it.
Isnt this the school where the prof vandalized her own car and claimed it was a hate crime?
LOL, who needs unity, for Republican and Conservative voters, its much easier to bitch in the minority.
Here is what we need to do to achieve a filibuster proof conservative US Senate in 2008.
We have to do is to get rid of the following rinos, Lindsey Graham, Susan Collins, Warner, Lamar Alexander, Libby Dole, Smith from Oregon, that bridge to nowhere Stevens guy, Chuck Hagel, and Sununu, Domenici and McConnell in the republican primaries, then we need to hold all 21 of our seats
Then we need to win 11 out of the 12 democrat seats (Arkansas: Pryor (D) Delaware: Biden (D) Illinois: Durbin (D) Iowa: Harkin (D) Louisiana: Landrieu (D) Massachusetts: Kerry (D) Michigan: Levin (D) Montana: Baucus (D) New Jersey: Lautenberg (D) Rhode Island: Reed (D) South Dakota: Johnson (D) West Virginia: Rockefeller (D) )
That makes 60 for us !
We divided ourselves and were conquered.
Repeat after me until you drill these three simple things through your thick heads ...
1. Cut spending
2. Secure our borders
3. Overhaul the tax system
And again
1. Cut spending
2. Secure our borders
3. Overhaul the tax system
And again
1. Cut spending
2. Secure our borders
3. Overhaul the tax system
This is by no means everything that needs to be done, but it's a nice start and it will win elections.
So repeat after me ...
Great post!
IMHO, Conservatives win and Moderates/LIEberals lose. Moderate& LIEberal Republicans have been chipping away (successfully [for the Dimocrats?], it turns out) at the Conservatives ever since we retook the Congress.
Recall when the present-day Governor of Mass was running against Senator Kennedy a few years ago? He was ahead in the polls as long as he hewed to the conservatve line; he moved to the "center-left" near the end of the race, he lost because Mass residents already had a LIEberal Senator in WDC. Why change FRom one LIEberal to another?
IMHO, had the Party (and the Republican Representatives and Senators) stayed true to conservative principles these past 12 years, they would still be in charge.
Of course, it helps if one is not caught up in some sort of scandal or another. Or, if one happens to be involded in scandalous behavior, to be a Dimocrat, a la Dingy Harry and "Cut and Run Murtha."
I am concerned that until and unless the Republicans gain control of their senses and purge the Dimocrats & RINOs, etc., etc. FRom their ranks, we are in for some dark days ahead!
That's a pretty hefty chunk of work to chuck all those but I like it and I am game for it. Glad to have you at my side.
sounds like a job for Tom CRuise and the Mission Impossible team.. but ya never know..
Nonsense.
There's nothing easier than figuring out why friends won't support you when you betray them on their core issues.
Why worry about a filibuster proof senate, we need to be able to filibuster. The democrats control the agenda in the senate only so long as the republicans cannot muster 41 votes. We must use that weapon at every available opportunity to keep socialist and amnesty legislation from passing. The liberals used that weapon to stop hundreds of bills in the last 6 years, now its our turn. We will see if they will result to the so-called nuclear weapon cloture that they and the press indicated would destroy the republic. I would not doubt but that when the shoe is on the other foot they will somehow find that it is necessary to do so to preserve the republic. The total hypocrits that they are.
Repubs were outstrategized ....
They acted like pansies.
Simple as that.
Not that hard: "What would Reagan do?" should be the mantra.
(with the notable exception of immigration)
They acted like pansies.
------
Impotent, paranoid pansies living in total fear of the MSM and the Dem attack dogs.
Indeed it is. We can be an ideologically pure party and remain in permanent minority, or we suck it up and allow for a certain number of RINOs from the more liberal partys of the country. The Dems certainly had no problem running Blue Dogs in GOP-leaning districts.
Apparently the plan is to massively increase the number of citizens in this country who vote 7-3 Democrat over Republican (Hispanic voters).
btt
LOL! We lost few moderates and many more 80% or above conservatives.
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