Posted on 05/17/2009 9:20:34 PM PDT by reaganaut1
Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter's switch to the Democratic Party underscores the clout of Club For Growth, a conservative group that targets Republicans it brands insufficiently committed to low taxes and small government.
The move also has inflamed a debate within the party: Are the group's tactics good or bad for Republicans? [welcome to the club]
Mr. Specter fingered Club For Growth as the key factor behind his decision, saying he would have lost the Republican primary to a Club-backed rival. His decision has prompted some Republicans to turn on the organization, saying it backs those who are so conservative that they then lose to Democrats.
"If their goal is to increase the Democrats' numbers in Congress, they're doing a very good job," said Rep. Steven LaTourette (R., Ohio), a moderate who won his seat in 1994. "Do they want a permanent minority of 140 people as pure as Caesar's wife, or a Republican majority that can get them 70% of the issues that are important to them?" (Republicans hold 178 of the 435 House seats and 40 of 100 Senate seats.)
The group's leaders insist its actions only help the party.
"The Club focuses on issues that are the Republican brand -- economic-freedom issues," said Chris Chocola, a former Republican congressman from Indiana who now heads the organization. "I don't think we lost the majority because we stuck to those issues. We lost the majority because we strayed from those issues."
Pat Toomey, the previous Club president, jumped into the Pennsylvania Senate race after Mr. Specter became one of only three Republicans in Congress to vote for President Barack Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus plan.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Agreed, always a Liberal, Spector just changed the letter following his name. Thankfully, the Dims toshed him, fair warning to other faint hearted Pubbies.
Keep up the good work Club for Growth!! Look at what the Republican Party is trying to feed us now, they want Charlie Crist (FL) who backed porkulus, Mark Kirk (IL) who is more with Pelosi than most conservatives, don’t want to support Pat Toomey.
You have to keep their feet to the fire at election time.
If Spekter signaled out the Club for Growth as a big factor in his decision, then they must be doing something right.
Club for Growth is one of my favorites! Limited Government should be the #1 tenet of the Republican party.
So I guess that the big tent doesn’t include the conservative side and those opinions.
Which make sense since being the Demo-lite is working out so well for the Republicans.
Another Washingtonian who forgot the address of his hometown in Ohio a long time ago.
rightrightright
The CFG pretty much sucks, like most republican organizations.
The Republican Revolution was ended by the Republicans, bunch of incompetent boobs that they are.
Run u ba$tard RUN!!!.........someone will ease your misery with a bullet in your back
If you want an entrenched Washington controlled party that doesn’t need to answer to the people who put them there, don’t support what the Club for Growth is doing. Incumbency good. Democracy bad.
If Club for Growth supports illegal immigration, that may be why they dissed Duncan Hunter in his bid for the nomination.
Well, that’s disappointing to hear.
Am I remembering correctly, pissant, didn’t club for growth shaft Duncan Hunter?
That turned me off on the CFG also. It does look like they gave support to Lamborn though, and he is quite hawkish on borders. So apparently they’re not 100% ideological on their stance.
It could have been Hunter’s tough talk on China trade as well now that I think of it. At any rate, Duncan Hunter was a pure conservative running for president and should have been supported by a so-called conservative group.
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