Posted on 12/01/2006 9:39:14 PM PST by Aussie Dasher
They call themselves Main Street Republicans, moderates consigned to the back alleys of politics by their own party. But despite a severe bruising in the fall election, this minority within a minority finds itself with new avenues to explore, including working more closely with Democrats.
The Republican Main Street Partnership, a leading voice of GOP moderates in Congress, lost seven of its 48 House members to Democratic challengers in the November election. Two other senior members, Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., and Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., are retiring.
The group also saw Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., one of its eight Senate members and possibly the most liberal Republican in Congress, get swamped by the Democratic deluge.
"We had some difficult losses, people who had been very vocal and active in terms of being moderates," Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del., a Main Street leader, said in an interview. Castle said his group still can be a force in the new Democratic-controlled Congress by working with conservative and moderate Democrats.
Holding one-fifth of the GOP's seats in the House, Republican moderates will be needed by Democrats, particularly on such issues as expanding stem cell research, improving access to health care and promoting alternative energy. Republicans moderates also hold the key to any Democratic hope of overriding vetoes by President Bush.
Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., a Main Street member who also heads an overlapping group of centrists called the Tuesday Group, said he plans to work with the Blue Dogs, conservative House Democrats who are demanding a bigger role in policymaking because of their pivotal role in the elections.
Kirk is promoting a "suburban agenda" that includes such issues as tax-deferred savings programs for children and protecting suburban open space.
The election losses for GOP moderates were all the more painful because moderates on the Democratic ticket flourished, helping carry their party back into the majority. Indiana, a solid red state, went from a 7-2 Republican advantage in the House to a 5-4 Democratic edge because three Democratic moderates ousted conservative incumbents.
"Indiana is really more moderate than it is Republican," said Robert Schmuhl, a political analyst and University of Notre Dame professor. "That is something we learned from the election."
But GOP moderates tend to come from more diverse, Democratic-leaning districts that make them vulnerable when the political winds shift. That was the fate of losing Main Street members Reps. Rob Simmons and Nancy Johnson of Connecticut.
Another victim was Rep. Jim Leach, a 15-term lawmaker from Iowa who opposed the war in Iraq and supported abortion rights. Other defeated GOP Main Streeters were Charles Bass and Jeb Bradley of New Hampshire, Sue Kelly of New York and Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania.
Another departed member is Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., who resigned in September after it was revealed he had sent sexually explicit electronic messages to former House pages.
Main Street executive director Sarah Chamberlain Resnick said fiscal conservatives in her group who share some views with Democrats on social and environmental issues were also hurt because "the Republican Party wasn't a big enough tent" for them.
While the new Democratic majority ranges in political philosophy from liberal Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi of California to conservative freshman Heath Shuler, a former NFL quarterback from North Carolina, Republicans concentrated on shoring up their conservative base, Resnick said.
"If it all adds up to just appealing to a more conservative base, then we are dealing at the margins in terms of gaining seats," Castle said of fellow Republicans.
Moderates were heartened that Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, considered to be open to all wings of the party, defeated conservative standard-bearer Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., in party leadership elections earlier this month. But Main Street's only spot in the leadership went to Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, one of its more conservative members, who was elected GOP conference vice-chair.
Pence made a name for himself by heading the Main Streeters' conservative counterpart, the Republican Study Committee. It went into the election with 110 members, almost half of all House Republicans. Despite GOP losses in the election of 30-plus seats, the RSC expects to come close to maintaining its current membership level.
Meanwhile, of the 13 Republican freshman in the next Congress, only one, Dean Heller of Nevada, has said he is joining the Main Street caucus.
If a district is too liberal to elect a conservative, than a RINO serves a purpose. Problem is, RINO's taking themselves too seriously.
Mitt was a member of the Main Street Republicans until just a few weeks ago. Mitt has never been the "conservative" that way too many conservatives outside of Massachusetts believe him to still be. Here's a link to prove that Mitt Romney is no conservative: "The Mitt Romney Deception" http://www.alainsnewsletter.com/s/spip.php?article325
Everyone that you know of that truly is a Mitt Romney supporter needs to look at "The Mitt Romney Deception". It bothers me to see how many conservatives really don't know Mitt Romney's political record.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
That statement isn't entirely true when talking about the present major U.S. political parties as whole "entities". I wasn't expecting to play the part of devil's advocate when talking about the Democratic Party. Rep. Collin Peterson, Rep. Charlie Melancon, Rep. Melissa Bean, and U.S. Senator Ben Nelson are four Democrats who don't have a liberal voting record no matter what people presently think of them. It will be interesting to see if these four continue to vote the same way after the Democrats become the Congressional majority next year. There are still many Democrats at every political level who vote with conservative Republicans on a variety of issues, and there are also many Democrats who end up switching parties and becoming Republicans while they are still in office. I'm also guessing that there are probably many more Democrats at every political level that become Republicans than there are Republicans at every political level that become Democrats.
There are also many moderate and conservative voters throughout the U.S. who are registered with the Democratic Party even though the Democratic Party continues to veer more to the left every year.
Yea, former Mayor John Lindsay made turning R to D unsavory.
In 1994, a good Republican year, Mr. Romney failed badly in his challenge to EMK. He almost apologized for having the temerity to challenge the MA icon.
Mitt Romney lost by 17% to Senator Kennedy in '94 in Massachusetts where the majority of the state's voters always treat Senator Kennedy like a God. This only shows that it's impossible for anybody to defeat Kennedy in Massachusetts. Senator Kennedy will probably die in office. The majority of Massachusetts voters continue to live in their own socialistic world for their entire lives, and Massachusetts is pretty much its own country.
Dick Morris has a new column that says there is NO conservative under serious consideration for president in 2008. The closest he could think of are the open-borders Mike Huckabee and Sam Brownback.
'08 is a long way off, but if the conservatives in the GOP can't find themselves a candidate dynamic enough to win the nomination and the party winds up nominating a moderate for President, then many conservatives like myself will simply vote for a third party candidate.
BUMP!!!
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