Free Republic

Is Charlie Crist the new Arlen Specter? No, there’s no indication the Florida governor is looking at a party switch. But much like with Specter, conservative Republicans in Florida are speaking out against Crist and hoping his apostasy on the federal stimulus will open the door for a conservative to take him down. The parallels are striking, both because Crist and Specter were among so few major Republicans to support the stimulus and because both are set to wage big-time Senate campaigns in which they face primary challengers. There isn’t yet a chorus of anti-Crist voices in the Florida Republican...

For many Republicans, including Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, the reaction to Sen. Arlen Specter’s party switch was unequivocal: good riddance. Yet even as his jilted former party slams the door behind him, the GOP is quietly pursuing a 2010 strategy that relies heavily on candidates nearly identical to Specter. The party’s road to winning back a Senate majority, it seems, is paved with moderates whose records are sure to make conservatives blanch. For the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s recruitment list for 2010 reads like a roster of some of the party’s best-known RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) and...

Republican stalwarts are fond of recalling the 1992 Democrat National Convention, and the manner in which Bob Casey Sr., the Governor of Pennsylvania, was prevented from giving a speech on account of his strident pro-life views. Here was the incontrovertible proof that Democrats censor and oppress those who do not toe the party line. What is rarely recalled is that, four years later in the Republican National Convention, the official party policy was to avoid any mention whatsoever of the entire abortion issue. GOP candidate Bob Dole sought to sidestep controversy that party insiders feared might be overly "divisive," since...

Politics: Our former secretary of state savages as "mean-spirited" and "driven by social conservatism" the party that gave him prominence. Americans, don't you know, really want more taxes and more government. Seems there's no shortage of advice these days from inside and outside the GOP on what the Republican Party needs to do to return to power. Colin Powell is no exception as he continues to snipe at the party that, thanks to appointments by Presidents Reagan, Bush and Bush, made him a national icon. "The Republican Party is in deep trouble," the former general and secretary of state told...

Yesterday’s announcement by Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter that he would be permanently ‘reaching across the aisle’ should be considered another wake-up call for the Republican Party. As we all have witnessed, Senator Spectacle has proven to be nothing but a ‘Lib’ in sheep’s clothing throughout most of his Senatorial career. Just recently, Spectacle was one of three ‘moderate’ Republicans that supported President Obama’s ‘Porkulus Package.’ Speaking of pork, we also had another self-proclaimed ‘moderate’ Republican, Florida Governor Charlie Crist, endorse that same spending bill. Governor Crist has also expressed interest in running for the US Senate next year, but Crist...