Posted on 04/28/2009 11:14:42 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
Moderates blame conservatives By: Lisa Lerer April 28, 2009 01:38 PM EST
Two leading Republican moderates say Sen. Arlen Specter's decision to become a Democrat highlights the hostility moderates feel from an increasingly conservative GOP.
“You haven't certainly heard warm encouraging words about how [the GOP] views moderates,” said Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe, one of the few remaining moderate Republicans in the Senate.
Snowe said the party's message has been, “Either you're with us or you’re against us.”
Her frustration was shared by Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.), who slammed right-wing interest groups for pushing moderates out of the party.
Specter switched parties Tuesday after a recent poll showed him badly losing a Pennsylvania Republican primary next year to Club for Growth founder Pat Toomey. Toomey’s staunchly fiscally conservative political action committee backs only those Republicans who support a low-tax, limited-government agenda and comes down hard on those who break with party orthodoxy.
"I don't want to be a member of the Club for Growth,” said Graham. “I want to be a member of a vibrant national Republican party that can attract people from all corners of the country — and we can govern the country from a center-right perspective.”
“As Republicans, we got a problem,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Exactly. Mob mentality. These liberal Republicans are called moderates by many, and then anyone who is actually a moderate suffers by association.
Case in point: Most Freepers hate moderate Republicans more than Liberals; even though the Republicans who most Freepers hate and are ONLY called moderates by the MSM are actually Democrats/Liberals in disguise.
Mob Mentality transfers over: If you claim your a moderate(a real moderate), most Freepers automatically associate you with Specter or another clown, and you are talked down.
Most Republicans in the country are moderate in many views. A small fraction of Republicans are actually not moderate but are very liberal in their actions. Unfortunately, these are the ones who are referred to as moderates. A small fraction of Republicans are also way far right. They are referred to as extremists. If you are liberal and are way far left, you are called an Liberal activist.
Some moderate demmocrats are called "Conservative" Democrats. Why are the couple MSM favored moderate Republican politicians NOT referred to as "liberal" Republicans?
My personal theory is that the MSM wants to portray all Republicans as extremists, and try to influence a lot of the normal everyday moderate Republican people (half of the base as some refer to it) to leave the party and vote Democrat.
The Media wins again. Until we (or anyone not a Democrat or liberal) do something about the MSM's bias views, we are NOT going to win another election or make a point.
Snowe is a moron. Graham is a lap dog idiot. I can’t believe SC sends keep voting for him.
I wish ALL of these “moderates” would just go ahead and follow Arlen “Howard Sprague” Specter and officially become the Democrats they are.
Blame conservatives? If it wasn’t for them most of the moderates wouldn’t get re-elected.
Graham wears more flowery dresses.
Unfortunately you can throw in my two RINO senators also; Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum or The Two Stooges or Sen. Wishy and Sen. Washy - Lamar! and Bob Porker of Tennessee.
I didn’t vote for either of them.
What Republican leadership? The idiots that run the GOP are no better than RINO’s like Specter themselves.
The Republican Party can drop dead for all I care. No more will I vote for non-conservative candidates. And if they have a D after their name I might have to vote that way for the first time in my life.
As it stands today I’m starting to think Harold Ford, Jr. would have been a more conservative senator than Bob Porker Corker to whom he lost and Lamar!
No money, no volunteering, no working phones, no talking to my neighbors. The GOP is dead to me.
And the party is only going to get worse under Michael Steele. He’s nothing but a RINO beltway boy like the rest of those that destroyed the party.
No, I wouldn’t take the team off the field, but I’d bench the weak players and put in better ones. Snowe, Collins, et al are no better than if they were shaving points for a bookie.
Ladies, are you familiar with the expression “no one rides for free”?
I see your point, but if you only have 9 players left, would you play with 8 or leave the bum in right field? In Maine, Snow and Collns are as good as we are going to get. You know all the old platitudes, such as throw the baby out with the water, cut off your nose to spite your face, etc. I am doing what I can, one person at a time. It ain't easy, as we are surrounded by VT and Ma. BTW, Giuliani is ok with a woman's right to choose. Want him to be a Democrat?
Frankly, Guiliani is also a weak Republican. Sure, what he did as Mayor was pretty good but I don’t think he’d make a good executive and was a lousy presidential candidate.
I don’t care if he’s for “choice” but I lost interest in him when he tried to flip-flop on the issue for campaign sakes. That’s not leadership.
If some more moderate candidate on some issues ran on the GOP ticket and said while they personally were pro-choice they would vote their principle based on the rule of law, I’d listen. Regardless of thier stance, any candidate that doesn’t believe “Roe” was bad law from the bench doesn’t deserve to be a representative of the people IMO.
You are on my A+ list. Thanks !
A thorough house cleaning was inevitable. Snowebird is about as useless as Lindsay.
I say this to all: Lenin was able to take over a huge nation with a gang of crooks FGS! Conservatives can do as well...one way or another.
The Republicans suck at propaganda. If you listen to most Democrats they also support "a woman's right to choose" but will "work to end the need for abortions". Blah, blah, blah. But it makes them sound good. In actuality they could care less about abortions. How many, how often and how widespread. It's campaign bucks to them.
What the Republican Party should be doing is focusing on WHY "pro-choice" women want abortion on demand. Their reason for the past 40years has been to end "back alley" abortions. Ya, right. Like that has happened in the past 30 years. But it's a good sound bite so they continue to use it.
Fact of the matter is that women today who support abortion do so for the simple fact they don't want to be bothered with a pregnancy. They don't want to be inconvenienced by one. Why should they waste nine months of their life only to be given a life sentence at the end of nine months?
That's how you frame it.
Fixed it...
Unfortunately you can throw in my two RINO senators also; Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum or The Two Stooges or Sen. Wishy and Sen. Washy - Lamar! and Bob Porker of Tennessee.
I didn’t vote for either of them
_____________
When a state like TN elects TWO Rino’s, you know this country is headed into the abyss.
“We as Republicans need to be a little more pragmatic, and open the party...”
We need a party brand that means something. Collins dilutes the brand, discouraging potential GOP voters.
The GOP could not get agreement on a wh*rehouse for shoreleave of the Pacific fleet; let alone get anyone laid. The donks will run it for 80 years. The GOP congress and President Bush started this socialism. Can you imagine if we had let them privatize social security? The retired/disabled class would vote in anyone with a pulse that promised no 38% reduction in bennies.
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.