Posted on 10/22/2009 3:20:36 AM PDT by markomalley
Many top Republicans are growing worried that the party’s chances for reversing its electoral routs of 2006 and 2008 are being wounded by the flamboyant rhetoric and angry tone of conservative activists and media personalities, according to interviews with GOP officials and operatives.
Congressional leaders talk in private of being boxed in by commentators such as Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh — figures who are wildly popular with the conservative base but wildly controversial among other parts of the electorate, and who have proven records of making life miserable for senators and House members critical of their views or influence.
Some of the leading 2012 candidates are described by operatives as grappling with the same tension. The challenge is to tap into the richest source of energy in the party — the disgust of grass-roots conservative activists with President Barack Obama and their hunger for a full-throated attack on his agenda — without coming off to the broader public as cranky and extreme.
Mitt Romney has purposely kept a lower profile and stuck to speeches on specific policy issues, in part to avoid the early trade-off between placating party activists and appearing presidential. Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, one of the most active potential opponents for Obama in 2012, said that media portrayals of a narrow-minded party could make it harder to attract the middle-of-the-road voters needed to make the GOP a majority party again.
“The commentators are part of the coalition, not the whole coalition,” Pawlenty said in a phone interview. “The party needs to be about addition, not subtraction — but not at the expense of watering down its principles.”
“We need more voices,” said House Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia, one of the party’s up-and-coming leaders. “Our party’s challenge has been that we need to be more inclusive — we need to attract the middle again. ... When one party controls all the levers of power in Washington, they’re going to try and villainize whoever they can on our side. It gives us an opportunity now to try and harness the energy and point it in a positive direction, so that we can attract the middle of the country to the common-sense conservative views that we have been about as a party.”
Political operatives of all stripes like to fancy themselves as coolly controlling practitioners — who can shape public images and direct the activities of party regulars from their perches in Washington.
But the reality of the GOP during the Obama presidency is that the party’s image and priorities are in many ways being imposed on Washington — driven by grass-roots energies that lawmakers and strategists can scarcely control.
At the same time, there are powerful incentives for Washington politicians to play to the crowd and bow to the influence of commentators like Beck, who at the moment is far more famous than any of the GOP’s congressional leaders.
When Republicans such as Rep. Phil Gingrey have complained about these figures in public, most have quickly apologized in the face of outraged phone calls and e-mails from conservative activists.
House and Senate Republicans both seized on the issue of federal funding for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now after Obama critic Andrew Breitbart launched the controversy on his site BigGovernment.com with video of two people posing as a pimp and a prostitute in the group’s offices.
As vividly illustrated by Rep. Joe Wilson, elected Republicans are seeing the benefits — national media attention and fundraising — from embracing the trash-talking style of talk show hosts. Wilson went from being a little-known member of the House minority who had repeatedly failed to get on the A-list committees to a cause célèbre for the right wing because he shouted “You lie” at Obama during a joint session of Congress.
Though he apologized to the president through chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, Wilson moved quickly to exploit his brush with fame, posting Web videos to raise money, appearing on Sean Hannity’s show, getting a coveted invite on “Fox News Sunday” — and even being asked to raise money for some of his conservative colleagues. Most rank-and-file Republicans have to spend hours on the phone pleading for money and relish the chance to be taken seriously by a major Sunday show.
But some Republicans worry the party could squander an opportunity to capitalize on voters’ concerns about Obama and the Democratic Congress because they come off looking shallow, sharply partisan or just plain odd to persuadable voters.
Warning of the influence of the Fox host, who recently accused Obama of racism against whites, George W. Bush White House veteran Peter Wehner wrote last month: “Beck seems to be a roiling mix of fear, resentment and anger — the antithesis of Ronald Reagan.”
Still, these concerns apparently are not powerful enough to prompt most elected Republicans to take public stands against the rhetoric coming from the web of conservative talk show hosts, websites and public activists.
Ed Gillespie, who was counselor to Bush and has started a conservative group called Resurgent Republicans, said his polling shows rising numbers of persuadable voters who are growing disenchanted with the Obama administration’s policies but nevertheless remain invested in the president.
“Our party has to bring those voters along with a critique of policies, not the kind of harsh rhetoric the left used against former President Bush,” Gillespie said.
“Without a good slice of the independents, we are doomed,” said former House Minority Leader Bob Michel (R-Ill.).
The only Republicans standing up to Beck and other conservative activists right now are familiar iconoclasts like Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and New York Times columnist David Brooks — both of whom are distrusted by many Republicans for their frequent departures from conservative orthodoxy.
Graham, earlier this month, mocked Beck’s famous on-air cry and warned that the Fox News talk show host is “not aligned with any party as far as I can tell. He’s aligned with cynicism.” Not long afterward, he was heckled by conservatives at a political event back home.
Brooks, a Republican who has written both favorably and critically about Obama, amplified Graham’s concern with the party’s obsequious relationship with Beck and Limbaugh. “It is a story of remarkable volume and utter weakness,” he wrote. “It is a story as old as ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ of grand illusions and small men behind the curtain.”
Allies of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) have detailed for POLITICO how the former GOP presidential nominee is dismayed with the direction of the party and put an unusual amount of time and effort into trying to push the party in a more centrist direction.
All three figures are often irritants to establishment Republicans — but in this case, many Republicans said privately they were in agreement that they need to move beyond the hard-core right to succeed.
But this critique goes to a major fault line within the party. Many activists believe the party lost because McCain failed to present a clear and genuine ideological contrast — and that the party abandoned principles through excessive spending during the Bush years.
The debate means the argument over whether outspoken talk show hosts are reviving a beaten party or trashing its brand is likely to persist through the 2010 midterms and into the 2012 presidential primary.
On the one hand, the GOP seems to be surging a bit as it sharpens its attacks. The party is doing better than it has in recent history when it comes to generic matchups for the 2010 midterms. Beck, other Fox News commentators and Breitbart are clearly landing some punches on Obama.
Their efforts helped stoke turnout at the August town halls, forced the mainstream media and Obama himself to reckon with a scandal at ACORN and incendiary comments and led to the resignation of green jobs czar Van Jones.
On the other hand, the party’s image more broadly remains in the dumps. An ABC News/Washington Post poll this week found that only 20 percent of those surveyed consider themselves Republicans. A larger study by the Pew Research Center this spring captured a similar trend: The share of independents in the electorate is the highest in 70 years (36 percent), while the share of voters who call themselves Republicans is the lowest in 30 years (23 percent, compared with 35 percent for Democrats).
Republicans in Congress are even more unpopular than the very unpopular Democrats who are running the House and the Senate. This suggests something has to change for a true GOP resurgence to take place.
Karl Rove, the chief political strategist for Bush, said impressions of the Republican Party as a captive of a fringe reflect “a cynical and dismissive and small-minded view of who the American voter is.
“The question will be whether the Republican candidates next year can talk about a lot of kitchen-table issues and the deficit and spending,” Rove said. “Rush Limbaugh won’t be on the ballot.”
This big tension is playing out in a smaller way in the special election in upstate New York. Congressional leaders are backing moderate Dede Scozzafava, despite her liberal views on abortion and other issues, because they think she has the best chance of winning this swing district. Conservatives, including many who participated in the much-publicized “tea party” protests, are convinced she is insufficiently Republican, so they are throwing their support and money to third-party candidate Doug Hoffman.
The result: Polls show the Republican vote could be so split that a lackluster Democratic candidate could pull off a win. If Republicans blow this race, it will leave the GOP holding only two of New York’s 29 House seats. A decade ago, it had 14, most of which were occupied by Northeast moderates who no longer feel welcome in the party and were voted in by independents who remain very skeptical of the party’s policy solutions.
The dems are going to lose big in 2010 and the GOP is waiting to step in and say, “Everyone voted for us so we have a mandate to remain as we are!” The present configuration of the GOP is quite happy with the status quo and are comfortable being the minority party in Washington,even if it means watching the country go Socialist...Time to dredge the swamp!
If Reagan were running in 2010, the same angst would be on display about the ‘flamboyant rhetoric’ and ‘angry tone’ of his campaign and supporters.
What they fail to realize is that such ‘flamboyancy’ and ‘anger’ is exactly what gets the voters energized and interested in your candidacy.
We need candidates who stick their necks out, not bury them in the sand.
Pawlenty said in a phone interview. "The party needs to be about addition, not subtraction - but not at the expense of watering down its principles.""We need more voices," said House Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia, one of the party's up-and-coming leaders. "Our party's challenge has been that we need to be more inclusive - we need to attract the middle again. ..."
Doublespeak, gibberish: "no watering down of principle" simultaneous with "more inclusive"
Instead of rationalizing growth with taint, these guys need to articulate and sell the principles. The party needs to have consistent core principles, other than "win."
I wouldn't vote for or support Pawlenty or Cantor, based on my conclusion that neither of these guys has any principle that would override "win." They need to attract one "middle" to make up for the loss of my support.
What would be better is if the conservative leadership demanded hearings and investigations into some of the information Rush and Glenn are revealing. I want to know when we are going to have investigations as to why Obama is appointing Communist czars.
RR was dissed up one side and down the other, from ‘76 on. And furthermore, he trailed JC by double digits late into the campaign.
I'd just add that both of these writers are demonstrably liars.
This is the first year of democrats power. Republicans dont need to ‘go positive’ as MSNBC, CNN, McCain and Grahm are demanding. All they need to do is drive up democrats negatives.
Taking positive pro-action positions this early out is dangerous. Look at McCain in 2008 flipping positions on domestic drilling, just to have oil prices crash.
I am reminded of ‘happy face’ Jack Kemp who preached that we can cut taxes, increase spending and magic economic growth will take care of it all. Add neo-cons and two wars and nation building, all paid for by ‘economic growth’
Idiots!
So, what you are really saying is that conservatives need to shut up, forsake their principles, and vote R no matter what.
In lieu of a more satisfying turn of phrase: Not only no, but hell no!
McCain lost the election and moved the center bar to the left. His solution is to move the party even more left.
He’s hijacking the town halls and tea parties by characterizing the protesters as folks who are “kind of in the middle and they haven’t found a home.”
It’s time to kick this poser to the curb.
We tried your way Johny boy and it did not work! It resulted in an election catastrophe. The Democrats have a majory in Congress which they have not had (at least in the Senate) since the fallout from Watergate.
I find it strange that the supposed evidence of Republican extremism does not included any elected officials. And these people still claim the party is too right-winged. The real problem is that the GOP has losted its voice. Why do we keep hearing from the same loser moderates?
Lets go back to the Reagan plan. Stand on principles and let the voters come to you.
Filed under *the Republican “leadership” still doesn’t have a single clue*.
“On the other hand, the party’s image more broadly remains in the dumps. An ABC News/Washington Post poll this week found that only 20 percent of those surveyed consider themselves Republicans”
Trust these guys to come up with the one fraudulent “poll” that ABC manufactured out of thin air to try and push their agenda to emasculate the Republican Party.
ABC's recent “poll” have been rubbish. In the same week they came up with that “poll”, ABC also came out with a “poll” that had 0bozo’s approval ratings soaring high, with strong “support” for 0bamacare, which is totally contrary to practically all other polls, where 0bozo is hitting new record lows.
In the real world Republicans are at one of their highest levels ever on the generic congressional polls, and all 3 Republican candidates are soildly ahead in the upcoming elections in Virginia.
Rasmussen Generic Congressional Ballot:
10-18-09
Republicans : 42%
Democrats : 37%
Back in November 2 2008:
Republicans : 41%
Democrats : 47%
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/mood_of_america/generic_congressional_ballot
Republicans have gone from being 6 points behind n Nvember 2008, to being 5 points ahead today, a swing of 11 points. Because of 0bozo’s extreme left wing policies, Republicans are making huge gains everywhere, despite the sheer stupidity of our elected representatives.
“Moderation” is taking the country down the sh*t tube.
“...telling the truth has now become “wildly controversial”.”
22 million listeners, 100% of whom vote......yeah, that’s “controversial”
LOL
Exactly.
Now perhaps we have to infiltrate the local Rep organization at the grassroots level..but that is hard to do with ‘spontaneous” citizen reactions.
Hey, Mr Cantor, putting up ACORN supporting, card check backing, gay marriage backing(even 0bozo doesn't back gay marriage) loony left crackpots like Dede Scozzafava to represent the Republican Party in congressional elections, is not called being “inclusive”. It amounts to selling your soul to the devil.
Heck, Scozzafava is so far left, that she is even to the left of 90% of Democratic Party voters. How the heck does selecting such a Stalinist candidate help the Republican Party in any way? Its pure suicide. Yet pinheads like Mr Cantor sent money, contributed by hard working Republicans, to such an evil woman to help her in her quest to beat the conservative candidate. The mind just boggles.
“Karl Rove, the chief political strategist for Bush, said impressions of the Republican Party as a captive of a fringe reflect “a cynical and dismissive and small-minded view of who the American voter is.
“The question will be whether the Republican candidates next year can talk about a lot of kitchen-table issues and the deficit and spending,” Rove said. “Rush Limbaugh won’t be on the ballot.””
Yeah boy! We need to hear more from Rove. The man who helped give us:
1) “ No NEA left unfunded”
2) Amnesty with chain migration
3) Prescription Drug budget buster
4) Threw J.D.Hayworth under the bus, and promoted Specter.
Yeah boy, bring on Rove!
The Oldest Con in the world...is “Good Cop-Bad Cop”....its how the Oligarchy maintains control....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.