Whitman pushes GOP moderation

Star Ledger ^ | 04.17.06 | DEBORAH HOWLETT

[Coleus]

Former Gov. Christie Whitman believes the Republican Party is in deep trouble. The GOP, she says, is now where the Democrats were a dozen years ago in Washington when they lost control of the House for the first time in 40 years. President Bush's popularity is at a low ebb and several GOP leaders have been snared in ethics scandals.

"We're at a critical point," she said. "We're starting to see polls that look just like the polls looked to Democrats in '94." From a converted hayloft of the barn on her family estate in Oldwick, Whitman works each day on what she believes will be the salvation of her party.

She says Republicans must stop their internal bickering and adopt a broader view that allows a less conservative take on social issues such as abortion, gay marriage and stem cell research. She calls for a "new civility."

"The rhetoric is getting harsher, and we're having more divisive elections," Whitman said. "We can't just agree to disagree anymore without being disagreeable. ... People see their opponents as not just wrong, but evil."

Whitman is spreading her word of "radical moderation" and making campaign contributions to moderate candidates through a political action committee she formed last year after releasing her book, "It's My Party Too: The Battle for the Heart of the GOP and the Future of America."

The book has just been published in paperback, giving new spark for an effort she hopes will pave the way for mavericks like Sen. John McCain of Arizona or former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani to run for president in 2008. Whitman has collected $1 million for moderate Republicans in as many as 120 local elections across the nation.

[Coleus]

Armey, president of Freedom Works, a grassroots organization of fiscal conservatives, says the party has become "preoccupied by the Christian conservative agenda," which in turn has frustrated those he refers to as small-government, fiscal conservatives.

"That's a complete misconception," said Marie Tasy of New Jersey Right to Life. Tasy contends the majority of Republicans oppose abortion and considers Whitman's views too liberal.

"These people are crybabies. You can tell by the title of her book: It's like that song, 'It's My Party, and I'll Cry If I Want To,'" Tasy said. "They can't win elections without the base of the party, and the base of the party is pro-life and conservative."

[Coleus]

Ginty Calls on Kean to Disavow Whitman Endorsement

Whitman’s Poor Fiscal Record in New Jersey Damaged the State Republican Party

Whitman’s Radical Pro-Abortion Agenda Disillusioned Major Portions of the Republican Base

Ridgewood - Republican U.S. Senate candidate John Ginty today called on his primary opponent, state senator Thomas Kean, to disavow the endorsement of Kean and his campaign by former New Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman. Whitman’s comments appeared in the April 17 edition of the Newark Star Ledger.

Ginty said that Whitman, the state’s governor between 1994 and 2001, “racked up a miserable record of exploding state debt, ballooning state spending, and waste, fraud and abuse tied to the EZ-Pass project and auto inspection system. She effectively laid the groundwork for a series of statewide losses for the Republican Party in later years, as the Republican base in the state became increasingly disillusioned.”

“If Tom Kean views Christie Whitman as a model of fiscal rectitude, folks ought to hold on tight to their wallets,” said Ginty. State debt under Whitman, who strangely persists in referring to herself as a “fiscal conservative” when there is no evidence to support the designation, skyrocketed from about $6 billion to over $17 billion, much of the debt caused by pension and retirement giveaways to public employees from Whitman and her friends in the state legislature.

The most egregious part of Whitman’s meager legacy remains her veto in 1997 of a state law designed to outlaw the brutal practice of partial birth abortion. Against the wishes of the then Republican majority in the state legislature, Whitman exhibited her militant “pro-abortion at all costs” ideology by vetoing the attempt to make illegal the unnecessary and diabolical procedure in which a late –term baby’s skull is punctured and its brain vacuumed out prior to removal of the rest of the body from the womb.

Ginty said, “If Tom Kean wants to reach out to the vast majority of Republicans who support the ban on partial birth abortion, he will immediately make it clear that he will, demand that Christie Whitman disavow her 1997 veto of the ban on partial birth abortion in New Jersey before she makes additional comments or public appearances on his behalf leading up to the June 6 Republican U.S. Senate primary.” Paid for by Ginty for Senate

[Torie]

Civility is perceived as enhanced when one agrees with one's views. I am not sure what Whitman really wants or expects, with her little endeavor. One would think, to get what she wants, she would need to change minds of voters in the GOP about stem cells, abortion, and gay marriage. But she really doesn't address those issues, on the merits. She just moans and groans. A more ineffectual endeavor I cannot imagine, and I agree with her on stem cells, and gay marriage, and take an inbetween position on abortion. But she is really on a ego trip here. Nothing else can explain the inanity of it all.

What is you take antiguv?

[NormsRevenge]

Republicans must stop their internal bickering and adopt a broader view that allows a less conservative take on social issues such as abortion, gay marriage and stem cell research. She calls for a "new civility."

---

'new civility' .. aka New Majority

Lib Lite

[A Balrog of Morgoth]

From a converted hayloft of the barn on her family estate in Oldwick, Whitman works each day on what she believes will be the salvation of her party.

A to-the-manner-born RINO tells conservatives to get in the back of the bus.

[EagleUSA]

How about some good old fashioned CONSERVATISM?? and forget the "moderation". We need hard action and fighting leadership...no, I have not been drinking...

[Williams]

There is no reason to believe that any bedrock conservative principle is undermining support for republicans. Republicans won all the recent elections with a conservative agenda. You have a failure of republican leadership to some degree, but it is a failure to stand up for what the party is supposed to believe in.

Let's face it, liberal kooks like Hagel, Spector, Collins, etc., have made a horse's ass out of the republican senate. It is their liberal cop outs that have unnerved people.

[A Balrog of Morgoth]

to-the-manor born, that is.

[TBP]

Headline should read Whitman Pushes GOP Liberalism, Support for RINOs.

[Torie]

She seems to vote GOP voters to vote for candidates with whom they don't agree on her pet issues, just to be civil. That seems, well, unrealistic. Frankly, she is very vague as to what she wants. She reminds me of those kvetching generals about Rumsfeld. I want specifics, damn it!

[A Balrog of Morgoth]

Tasy said. "They can't win elections without the base of the party, and the base of the party is pro-life and conservative."

Probably all that needs to be said about the Cristine Todd Witlesses, Lincoln Chafees, and Christopher Shays who have been hitching a free ride on our backs for these last twenty years.

[xrp]

Thanks Christie -- for summing up what the Republican Party IS ALREADY DOING! They've drifted so far LEFT, there is NO room for conservatism in the Republican Party anymore, save a select group of Congressmen/women.

[ClaireSolt]

I read her book, and she seemed petulant to me.

[Mike Darancette]

It was Conservatism and a clear picture of what was to be done that propelled to GOP to victory in '94 not to downplay what a bunch a Liberal crap the RATS had to offer.

[Dilbert56]

What was so funny was her book coming out just as the Republican party held the White House and gained seats in both houses. She's like Jimmy Carter or the ACLU;
whatever they say to do,

do the opposite.

[claudiustg]

--- Frankly, she is very vague as to what she wants. ---

She wants liberal stuff: gay marriage, amnesty for illegals, abortion on demand for teenagers, time table for withdrawal military policy.

[sionnsar]

She calls for a "new civility." pandering cave-in.

[Pukin Dog]

The only thing that has ever made me nervous about our President, is his friendship with Whitman. She and the other RINOs are really feeling their oats right now, salivating over returning to the minority, where they will have more power as swing voters.

If Bush is rope-a-doping again, I think he's holding back this time a little bit too long. I hope the cards he is holding are aces.

[Lancey Howard]

I remember being so proud of Whitman when she knocked off Florio. I was working in Trenton at the time (actually, Mercer County) and I remember listening to John and Ken on the radio every day and following the whole "Hands Across New Jersey" demonstration to protest Florio's massive tax hikes. Those were great times for New Jersey, and you got the impression there was hope for the place (LOL, so much for that notion!).

Whitman's two terms as governor came and went, but it seems that all that happened was that New Jersey's infamous education mafia was able to tighten its grip on the state to the point where the place is now utterly hopeless. What a shame. Oh well....

It certainly comes as no surprise that Whitman has now turned out to be a disgrace to her former party and an enemy of the nation.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Try Lib HEAVY. One of the worst RINO Governors in history.