Posted on 07/14/2002 10:30:52 AM PDT by rightwing2
The Battle for the Soul of the Republican Party
July 10, 2002 by David T. Pyne
It's primary season again and all across the country, there is a war being fought between the candidates of the liberal Republican establishment and the principled champions of the conservative grassroots members of the Republican Party who form its base. This conservative Republican base is responsible for every one of the nationwide victories of the Republican Party in recent memory; most notably the 1994 GOP landslide that swept Republican majorities into Congress. It continues to rebel against many of the moderate to very liberal candidates who are regularly foisted on it by an increasingly liberal Republican establishment disconnected from the Party’s grassroots membership. It is this grassroots conservative base that is responsible for transforming the GOP from a minority party during the 1950s-1980s into the majority governing party it has become today.
These battles are being fought in the individual congressional and gubernatorial races where conservative insurgents are often battling more fixtured center-left establishment candidates. The California gubernatorial primary this past March was the scene of one of the biggest battles between the conservatives and liberals in the Republican Party as former LA Mayor Richard Riordan, a Republican-In-Name-Only (RINO) - somewhat to the left of Bill Clinton on social issues like abortion and gay rights - faced moderate conservative Bill Simon for the GOP nomination for governor of California. Riordan had been all but anointed as the GOP gubernatorial nominee by the Bush Administration. In fact, he was personally recruited to run against two much more conservative primary contenders by President Bush himself. However, Simon pulled off a remarkable upset and won the primary against Riordan by a large margin.
Only last year, Bush and his top aides successfully and stealthily championed the appointment of liberal pro-abortion supporter Gerald Parsky as the de-facto chairman of the California State Republican Party. This move was clearly a bid to remake the California Republican Party in the Democrat Party’s liberal image in order to make it more electable. They succeeded and the California State Republican Party, previously one of the most conservative in the country, is now under the control of a man who has savaged all pro-life Republicans - including GOP gubernatorial nominee, Bill Simon, as extremist. What’s worse, Parsky has stated that he will sit out the election even though Bill Simon is leading California’s vulnerable Governor Gray Davis by as much as nine percentage points in a state that has been morphed by illegal immigration into a Democrat electoral stronghold. This massive rift between the Bush-championed liberal leadership of the California Republican Party and the Party’s grassroots led by Bill Simon threatens to abort the chances of a GOP victory in November against liberal Democrat Gray Davis.
There are other examples of the liberal Republican establishment’s support of moderates and liberals against solid conservatives. President Bush recruited pro-abortion center-lefter Elizabeth Dole to run for US Senator from North Carolina against former Senator Lauch Faircloth, one of the most conservative Senators in recent memory. Senator Faircloth had contributed a great deal of his time and money get Bush elected president and promised to spend millions of dollars of his own personal fortune to get re-elected to the Senate, but who has since abandoned the race in disgust at being stabbed in the back by the man whose election he had worked so hard to champion.
Bush’s recruitment of mushy moderate Lamar Alexander to run for US Senate in Tennessee against conservative House Impeachment Manager Ed Bryant is yet another example. The White House’s philosophy in backing liberals against their conservative opponents seems to be that the best strategy for getting Republicans elected is for GOP candidates to abandon conservative principles. The White House also selected a pro-abortion center-lefter, Marc Racicot to replace moderate conservative pro-lifer Jim Gilmore as RNC Chairman and championed the appointment of a liberal pro-abortion RNC Finance Chairman.
However, perhaps the most vivid current example of the ongoing war between the Republican left and right is the New Hampshire Republican Senate primary where Senator Robert Smith - who, during his 12 years in the US Senate, has amassed a record easily besting Jesse Helms as the most conservative member of the United States Senate - is under siege by a man who can only be described as a young “mushy moderate” upstart, Rep. John Sununu, Jr. This is by far the most interesting GOP primary race in that Smith, a Senate incumbent so staunchly conservative that he briefly left the Republican Party denouncing it for abandoning conservative principles, is facing a moderate congressman who is the son of former governor and chief of staff to President George H. W. Bush, John Sununu, a man who is the very definition of political centrism and political pragmatism.
Unlike Smith, who was rated among the top three conservatives in the US Senate during the current congressional session by the New American magazine’s Conservative Index, Sununu was ranked well below the House GOP average with a positively anemic Conservative Index of only 40%. Sununu, who is of Arab descent, supports the establishment of a Palestinian state and has received the financial backing of militant Islamic groups in the US. Sununu also voted in favor of President Bush’s proposed amnesty of two million illegal aliens, which passed the House by a one-vote margin, but was defeated in the Senate thanks to the venerable Senate President Pro-Tem Robert Byrd, a Democrat who is well to the right of both President Bush and Sununu on the issue of immigration.
After initially backing Senator Smith for re-election last year, the White House has shifted to a stance of official neutrality even as Sununu continues to receive endorsements from icons of the Republican left including liberal former Senator Warren Rudman and liberal White House Chief of Staff Andy Card. It was Card who recently warned of the threat from mushy moderate Bush advisor Karl Rove, the chief architect of Bush’s liberal GOP candidate recruitment strategy, whom he mistakenly identified as a “conservative.” The Sununu decision to challenge the most conservative member of the US Senate, Senator Robert Smith, seems likely to make this a bloody primary which will greatly increase the chances at getting the Democrat candidate elected as many of the supporters of the defeated primary candidate, whoever that may be, sit out the election in protest.
I hereby urge all conservative Republicans to unite in support of their respective conservative primary contenders and take a stand against the White House’s attempt to defeat solid pro-life conservatives with their own hand-picked center-left candidates in the GOP primaries. Abandonment of conservative principles and recruitment of liberal and often abortion-supporting candidates will not win elections for the GOP. Instead it will only serve to transform the GOP into a virtual clone of the Democrat Party destined for minority party status and thereby stymie the conservative agenda for years to come.
© 2002 David T. Pyne
David T. Pyne, Esq. is a national security expert who works in the US defense establishment responsible for the countries of the former Soviet Union and the Middle East among others. Mr. Pyne has briefed Army transformation and related issues at the Pentagon. He is also a licensed attorney and former Army Reserve Officer. In addition, he holds an MA in National Security Studies from Georgetown University. Mr. Pyne currently serves as Executive Vice President of the Virginia Republican Assembly. He is also a member of the Center for Emerging National Security Affairs based in Washington, D.C.
No. The only reason he defected is because his defective radar sensed some groundswell for Bob Smith for President as an Independent. That, of course, fell flat on its ass, but he didn't have the honesty to say so. No, he blamed his flameout on some illness suddenly contracted by his wife.
The New American magazine's Conservative Index is by far the most reliable measure of conservatism and it rated Sununu at a pathetic 40% which means he voted the liberal line 60% of the time--a record well to the left of the average House Republican.
According to THE NEW AMERICAN, Jesse Helms is a liberal because he voted to free up money for AIDS!
The John Birch Society is not a serious player in mainstream conservative politics, and hasn't been for over a generation.
I remember speaking to a republican assembly candidate and he told me that he never brings up the gun or life issue while campaigning, THEY ARE AFRAID and after what I saw during the schundler election, are not worthy of my vote in 2003.
Guess again.
The JBS is the conservative movement's Jehovah's Witnesses.
How is Smith's vehement opposition to drilling in ANWAR pro-America?
I just returned from Alaska, and, while I didn't see the ANWAR property, the state is a beautiful wasteland.
Didn't the JBS once call Ronald Reagan a communist?
Back in the '60s and '70s, when the JBS could send a chill up the back of every Area 51 paranoid, labeling your next door neighbor a "communist" was its specialty.
Reagan had arrived when the NEW AMERICAN held his Hollywood past against him, even while he was running for president.
Hey, Sink...I don't teach you YOUR local politics....I live in NH, and I KNOW Sununu Jr. Smith is by FAR the better candidate....at least he isn't taking donations from the ENEMY, like Sununu Jr. is.
Are you linked thru the FBI's Carnivore...you pop up whenever there is a need to defend GW...even when it's buried in a thread.
Maybe you and _Jim have something in common....
Fine. You vote for Smith, although he is likely to lose in the primary.
Should he win the primary, he will lose to Shaheen.
If you believed the Smith soap opera in 2000, then I'm not surprised at your defense of this stealth opportunist.
Thanks for your voice of support. But if Kolbe and is $1.6 million campaign warchest are going to be defeated, Jim Behnke is going to need donations from all over the country. See what you can give and go to www.behnkeforcongress.com and click on the Donation link to donate online using your credit card. Behnke is purely grassroots and needs all the help he can get. Thanks.
What a jerk.
There is this WISH list group that supports female "pro-choice" Republican candidates; and to them, pro-choice means NO restrictions on abortion; not parental consent, not INFORMED choice. It's disgraceful.
I hear a lot of "pro-choice" Republican women in AZ threatening to vote for Janet NapoliReno for Gov if Matt Salmon wins the primary!!!
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