With the Pennsylvania Republican party undergoing its own de facto purification, Specter concluded he couldn't win the nomination and decided to save his own skin. As a result, he found himself on the club's list of RINOs (for Republicans in Name Only) and facing a hard-line right-winger, selected by the group, to unseat him in the Republican primary next year. Specter's heresies included his pro-choice views on abortion and having voted for Obama's stimulus package. Specter was, in fact, chased out of the party by a conservative purity squad called the Club for Growth, a free-enterprise, anti-tax group bankrolled by such figures as billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife, cosmetics executive Ron Lauder and financier Charles Schwab. These are the Republicans who actually cheered - cheered! - when Arlen Specter, a Republican senator for nearly 40 years, defected to the Democrats last week. First, any taxation today comes with representation (full congressional approval) and, second, the protesters called themselves "teabaggers," not understanding that term's raunchy double meaning, which we are not going to explain here but which was picked up immediately by delighted left-wing critics. Unfortunately, that idea didn't work out so well. cities to protest what they saw as taxation without representation. They are the hardliners who organized a latter-day version of the Boston "tea party" last month in a handful of U.S. And who still answer the "Ban Gay Marriage" war cry, as state after state legalizes it and polls find a clear majority of younger Americans in support of the idea. They're also the ones who denounce President Barack Obama as a "socialist" for spending trillions to fight a recession that has taken the jobs of more than five million Americans. These are the same people who, if it had been feasible, would have had Palin at the top of the ticket last fall. The purifiersĪs the Republicans ponder how to return from political Siberia, a significant constituency in the party is arguing that the solution is ideological purification - a return to conservative principles they believe were lost in the pursuit of power. You do have to wonder, though, given the machinations going on today in the Grand Old Party. "We're not crazy," he replied, in a flash of electoral pragmatism. Obama's newest pal: former Republican, Senator Arlen Specter crosses the floor and all but ensures the Democrat's ability to pass their ambitious legislative agenda without serious opposition. There could, after all, be no doubt about W's conservative bona fides. In one conversation, I couldn't resist asking him why there wasn't a greater role for Bush at the convention. The presence of a down-the-line rightie on the ticket, someone with unquestionable ideological purity, was, for him, soothing evidence that his party was resisting a pull to the centre just for the sake of a few votes. That said, he was utterly delighted McCain had chosen Palin. He was a pretty conservative fellow and any discussion had to begin with a lecture on the left-wing, anti-Republican, pro-abortion, anti-military, pro-gay bias of just about all reporters. We were both staying at the same hotel and I was determined to gain whatever insights he could offer into his party's plan to remain in power after eight years of George W. Last fall, when John McCain arrived at the Republican convention in Minnesota with his newly chosen running mate Sarah Palin in tow, I met, and persistently tried to cozy up to, one particular delegate among the thousands gathered in the lovely city of St.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |