Posted on 08/11/2004 2:41:51 PM PDT by firebrand
With the Republican National Convention's platform committee convening in New York less than three weeks from now, no draft platform exists, no subcommittees have been named, and no special lodging for committee members has been assigned. Rather than signifying sudden collapse of accustomed Republican efficiency, all this looks more like a coolly calculated plan.
The suspicion has grown that President Bush's re-election strategists--Karl Rove and Karen Hughes--do not want the open debate over principles and policy that has characterized Republican platform-making for a generation. The carefully guarded Bush campaign game plan is to present delegates on the platform committee with an unpleasant surprise when they arrive in New York: a trimmed down document with virtually no time to debate it.
Thus, Republicans would replicate the pablum platform that Democrats, abandoning an older tradition of fierce policy struggles, quietly adopted in Boston last week. But the White House may be playing with fire. While Democrats were manipulated to embrace a meaningless document, Republican delegates accustomed to vigorous debate have not been conditioned.
For more than a quarter of a century, Republican platforms have been forged in an intense debate, often against the presidential candidate's wishes. The pattern was set in 1976, when Sen. Jesse Helms led Reagan forces against President Gerald Ford. In 1984, when Ronald Reagan was seeking re-election, then House Republican Whip Trent Lott as platform chairman resisted White House efforts to equivocate on taxes and abortion. In 1996, Rep. Henry Hyde of Illinois threatened to resign as chairman if candidate Bob Dole interfered.
In 2000, platform chairman Tommy Thompson (then governor of Wisconsin but looking for a federal Cabinet post) was subservient to the Bush campaign but did not forestall the customary debate. As usual, platform committee members who are ordinary citizens challenged members of Congress and other professional politicians.
The 2004 chairman, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, always was expected to be even more the campaign's agent than Thompson. His chairmanship has been notable for what has not happened: no outreach to interest groups in the broad Republican coalition, no subcommittees appointed and, most significantly, no draft platform prepared for committee action. Committee members have not even been informed of where they are staying in New York.
Old hands at platform-building have been cut out this time. Former congressional staffer William Gribbin, who has written all the party's national platforms dating back to 1980, was not invited. The hope for a substantive platform was the selection as the executive director of Jay Lefkowitz, White House policy chief for the first three years of the Bush administration. But he was dropped when he declined to resign from his Washington law-lobbying firm.
The slow pace of platform-building may be attributed to Frist's preoccupation with being majority leader, but a more devious explanation is confirmed by the apparent schedule. In recent years, platform committee members arrive on Sunday night the week before the convention and are then given the platform draft. The usual Sunday night reception has been canceled, and committee members expect to get the documents Monday morning. Actually, they will not start until Tuesday, leaving little time for consideration before approving it Thursday.
The Democrats at least went through the charade of an open drafting committee session, which was totally controlled by the Kerry campaign. But the Bush campaign appears to be readying the platform committee with a fait accompli. If they are given the antiseptic document that appears likely, an explosion may occur in New York.
A platform executive director was finally named last week: Washington lobbyist Anne Phelps, an ex-White House aide who before that was Frist's chief health adviser. Newly appointed platform communications director Ginny Wolfe, another former Frist aide, started her stint at the platform committee this week by being supremely uncommunicative to this column.
What the Bush campaign seems to be building is what one veteran GOP operative told us is ''the antithesis of traditional Republican platforms. After all, when you're proud of your positions, and confident of their rightness, you want to explain them. When you're afraid to talk about them, well . . .''
There are two big reasons to worry about this: (1) We don't want the pro-life plank to be eliminated because of the damage this would do to the pro-life cause; (2) if this happens, Bush will lose his base and lose the election.
The RNCLife has sent out an e-mail alert about this column. Here are the people to contact to make sure the pro-life plank stays in the platform:
Bill Frist (chairman of the Platform Committee): 202-224-3135
Melissa Hart (vice chairman): 202-225-2565
Governor Bill Owens of Colorado (vice chairman): 303-866-2471
Anne Phelps (executive director): 212-356-2558
Ed Gillespie (chairman of the RNC): 202-863-8700
Please ping your pro-life list?
I'm certainly against the complete elimination of the pro-life plank... HOWEVER, it seems to me that the overriding strategic priority is judicial reform. Without it, a pro-life platform is essentially meaningless because of its unenforceability. So if Bush & Co. are proposing a more "inclusive" platform with this strategic goal in mind, I'm not sure I'd be totally against it. I'd have to see it to be sure.
Ummm... I saw nothing in this article about pro-life issues. Furthermore, Bush has impeccable pro-life credentials. If the platform is written by his people, it will have a strong pro-life plank.
By the way Rep. Melissa Hart and Governor Bill Owens are co-chairmen, not vice chairmen, I saw when I looked at the RNCLife e-mail again.
Squelching of debate is always a cause for concern.
Well, without some specific examples of "trimming" the pro-life plank, from credible sources, I am going to give the President the benefit of the doubt here. Despite the perpetual handwringing that goes on around here, I have never seen any evidence that Bush is anthing less than committed to the pro-life cause.
I have heard rumors of a big fight, bigger than usual, by those who are opposed to the life plank. "Trimming down" the platform may be an attempt to head this debate off at the pass. But it is much better for the cause AND for Bush to have the plank in there.
Bush is fine on the pro-life cause. He MAY be taking the wrong tactic here. Everyone considers Novak to be very reliable.
"Squelching of debate is always a cause for concern."
If Bush loses because of it, the debate will be about why he lost. The debate will be how life can be protected under and Kerry Adminsistration!
Isn't it just as likely that the effort to give the delegates a completed platform is to head off any attempts to remove or water down the pro-life plank? Why do you insist on presuming the worst about a president who has repeatedly proven his dedication to the cause of life?
Then it turned out the folks at the RNCLife had had the same concerns. I wouldn't have posted this if those steadfast champions of the unborn had not had the same reaction I did.
Abortion is one of the great issues of our time. It's a key issue for most Republicans and one that clearly defines and differentiates the GOP from the Democratic Party.
pro-life ping
This sounds like dissention in the ranks will not be permitted. I'm not sure if that's good for the party in the long term.
What part of, "The GOP is the pro-life party in America today", don't you understand?
ping
I agree and support the pro-life stand 100%. I just worry about the overall implications of shutting down debate.
Knowing the pro-aborts, it would be polite to call what they do debating. But in theory you are right. That's another side to it.
Hey, I'm all for the pro-life plank being in the platform. What I meant was other issues like campaign-finance or the out of control gov't spending. They are suppressing all dissention on all issues.
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