Posted on 09/21/2003 2:14:21 PM PDT by quidnunc
There's a reason why California Republicans can't unite behind a single candidate even when that candidate has a decent chance of winning: Many of them feel they'd rather be right than vote for a winner.
That's what's happening now, as most opinion polls show Republican actor Arnold Schwarzenegger could win the ongoing race to replace a recalled Gov. Gray Davis — if he were the only major Republican left in the race. The same polls indicate Ventura County state Sen. Tom McClintock, No. 3 in the polls, most likely cannot win.
But winning alone isn't enough for many in the GOP, apparently including McClintock. "Great parties are built on great principles," he told the GOP's state convention last weekend. "This is not a time to change our principles; this is a time to showcase them."
McClintock says he's convinced that, if he stays in the race long enough, it will be Schwarzenegger who's forced to stand down, not him. After all, the actor is dogged by tales of his groping women, illegally manipulating his decades-ago immigration applications and multiple failures to buy city licenses for businesses he runs. He's contradicted himself several times, and he's refused the great bulk of press interview and debate invitations.
"I expect an avalanche toward me in the last few days before the election," McClintock said. "It happened with Ronald Reagan. People said he was too conservative to win, just like they're saying about me. But he stuck to his principles when he ran for governor in 1966, and the final days saw a massive swing to him."
No such swing to McClintock is yet evident, and California is not the same place it was 37 years ago. Yes, McClintock has risen in the polls, but only after candidates like former Olympics czar Peter Ueberroth and financier Bill Simon dropped out and their supporters had to find somewhere to go.
Meanwhile, some Republicans are willing to gulp hard and swallow Schwarzenegger's background and un-Republican stances in favor of abortion and gun-control in exchange for a chance to win. That's what motivates the likes of his campaign chairman, Congressman David Dreier of San Dimas, and a host of other Republican officeholders who endorse the actor.
Many Republicans have long believed a similar acceptance party-wide of candidates who disagree with some previously inviolate GOP social dogma is necessary to make the party competitive again in California. They note the only Republican to win a top-of-the-ticket race in California since 1988 was ex-Gov. Pete Wilson, a prochoice, pro-gun control moderate who is now a lead adviser to Schwarzenegger.
"Many thousands of Republican women have felt forced to vote for Democrats or just not vote over the last 10 years or more because they couldn't stomach the insistence on anti-abortion platform planks by the men who run the party," observed businesswoman and Central Coast GOP congressional candidate Beth Rogers last year.
In fact, the gender gap has done more than the vaunted Latino vote to assure recent Democratic victories for every statewide office and produce a Legislature where Republicans can take few initiatives of their own, but must be content with occasional successes in blocking pet Democratic proposals.
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at dailynews.com ...
So, with potential victory staring them in the face, Republicans still can't unify. Yes, there are unification efforts from folks like Dreier and conservative state Sen. Ray Haynes of Riverside County, normally a firm McClintock ally.
But feelings among some in the GOP run high against unity, if it means backing someone who's not sufficiently conservative.
"Death before electability" – Mark Steyn
McClintock is on record stating that he prefers that Bustamane wins this election.
Burton, one of the more conservative members of Congress, also said McClintock had seemed to suggest that it would be acceptable for a Democrat to hold the governor's office, because he might create a clamor for a Republican in 2006.
He said McClintock had drawn a historical parallel to the 1980 presidential election, when Republican Ronald Reagan defeated Jimmy Carter, en route to a two-term presidency.
"I was saying I hated to see the Democrats and especially Gray Davis keep control, and Bustamante may want to give California back to Mexico — I said that tongue in cheek," Burton said, referring to the incumbent Davis and to Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante. "And he said we had four years of Jimmy Carter and eight years of Ronald Reagan and that was a fair exchange. And the implication was maybe that leaving the Democrats in would show that they can't govern properly."
Nobody forced you to be a traitor to babes in the womb and to your party, lady.
Somehow, I don't think Dreier and some of the other "conservatives" who back Arnold have to "gulp hard" to "swallow" his stance for abortion and gay adoptions. I suspect these people don't really care about those issues, they just say they do to pacify some of their constituents. If right to life and integrity of marriage and the family are really important to you, Arnold is too big a gulp to swallow. Only if these issues really don't matter to you, in my opinion, can you have a clean conscience while pulling a David Dreier (or Hugh Hewitt or Eric Hogue) and try to muscle McClintock aside because he's too principled.
The problem is not that he is not 'sufficiently conservative'. It is that he is not conservative at all.
I've heard it before from the liberal likes of you. The media said it all the time in the 70s when we were trying to get Reagan nominated --- they said the GOP (or at least GOP conservatives) had a "death wish" because they couldn't swallow Rockefeller or other Eastern "we know best for you" liberals as their standard-bearers. Thank G-d Reagan didn't listen to sneerers like yourself who accused him of trying to lead the GOP on a death march.
It doesn't matter in the least what party sends a guy to the Governor's Mansion. California is spiraling into into oblivion because of liberal policies. A Republican can't change that if his "policies" are liberal.
In any venue liberal policies are prescriptions for the same chaos if you carry them as far as liberals want. It would be nice for producers in the world for Democrats to see this.
Some of the few statements of fundamental philosophy that Schwarzenegger has uttered that have been picked up nationally suggest that he really doesn't understand the cause and effect that flows from bad policy to catastrophe in society.
So how about you enlighten us and explain exactly how McClintock is going to outlaw abortion on CA.
Abso-frikkin'-lutley! I am happy with the outcome either way. Actually, though, I prefer Davis or Bustamente. Cuz let's get real folks, do you REALLY think any Republican can do anything other than collect the blame when the crappola hits the fan in a major way - by 2004?
Better to have the idiots that created this mess be the ones in the docket, to answer to a spoiled-brat electorate when the disasters and bills arrive.
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.