The Battle for the Soul of the Republican Party

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.

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.

But then again I strongly suspect you know that and are just trying to carry out your SMERCH campaign against conservatives in furtherance of the RINO agenda to complete the very liberal takeover of the Grand Old Party which was the rationale for conservative hero Senator Smith's brief defection.

As I said before, Smith's defection was in furtherance of an ill-fated presidential quest, which crashed and burned within a month of his quixotic declaration. He gave a wink-and-a-nod after John Chafee died, since he coveted the chairmanship of a committee Chafee headed. Smith's human, just like the rest of us, and threw principle to the wind when it stood to benefit him.

Frankly, ANWAR doesn't do anything for me. It is not even on most conservative's radar screen whereas Sununu's consistent support for increased illegal immigration and support of Palestinian and other Islamicist terrorist groups IS.

You slur Sunnunu as a terrorist supporter with no, or anecdotal, evidence, where I can point to ANWR as a further lessening of US support on foreign oil, with the evidence that Smith is against exploration there.

Smith's going down, one way or another.

If you believed the Smith soap opera in 2000, then I'm not surprised at your defense of this stealth opportunist.

And if you think that Sununu isn't a Pali/Arab-loving opportunist riding on Daddy's and the Bush Family coattails, then you are deluding yourself.

There is NO statewide support for Jean Shaheen the Taxing Machine...just in the gay parts of Portsmouth, Manchester, Salem and Nashua.

Folks here know SHE is one of the root causes of the Claremont debacle, and all Smith needs to do is ask folks in the Donor towns to look at how high their property taxes are...no love for her there!

Sununu Jr. and mammaries on a bull have a lot in common...except that the mammaries aren't TRAITORS taking $$$ from Terrorist support groups!

Care to refute THAT part of Sununu's portflio?

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.

This is easily verified by a glance at Sununu's campaign finance records. Sununu has gotten cash from the worst of the worst on the Cynthia McKinney terrorist sympathizer list. I happened upon it myself by accident while looking to see who one of McKinney's most notorious donors, a guy who had publicly proclaimed his support for HAMAS at an islamic rally in Washington a few years ago, had also supported. It was a list of the left's top names including Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton plus several dem congressmen including McKinney. Then in the middle of it all was a Republican sticking out like a sore thumb. It was Sununu.

Think what you may about Bob Smith. I'll readily concede the guy's a loose cannon, but a right wing one at that and I happen to think we need more of those. But a word of caution on Sununu - you owe it to yourself to look up his campaign contributers.

I found them by accident and discovered he shares some names with the Cynthia McKinney terrorist sympathizer list of donors, including one that is arguably the single most notorious name on McKinney's list. Conservatives rightly went after Cynthia when the flap about her islamic radical donors broke and consistency dictates that we should do the same for others who take money from these same people. Fortunately most of them give almost exclusively to Democrats including the ones Sununu took from...but there are GOP exceptions who took money from the same terrorist supporters and Sununu is one of them. I was leaning in favor of advocating Smith's reelection before I foudn out about Sununu's terrorist donor baggage, but ever since I have firmly sided with Smith.

I'll readily concede that Shaheen makes a tougher challenger in the general to Smith, but think about it. Your claims that Smith can't beat her are becoming a self fulfilling prophesy. Right now the absolute worst thing you could ever do to Smith's chances in November is run him through a bloody primary battle. From what I've heard so far, polls show Smith only slightly behind or even with Shaheen in a head to head matchup. One must ask if this would necessarily be the case if Smith weren't being hammered from his own party by the Sununu campaign's challenge, itself partially paid for by known terrorist sympathizers. I'm willing to bet Smith would pull ahead if his party were united behind him. But it is not, on the grounds that the laziness of some lends their support to a candidate with a percieved easier ride in November. Hence a self fulfilling prophesy is created.

You hit the nail on the head with Sununu. He funds his campaigns with money from Cynthia McKinney's pals, including her most notorious donor Abdurahman Alamoudi of the American Muslim Council.

Alamoudi is the guy who stated at a protest rally "I have been labeled by the media in New York as being a supporter of Hamas. Any supporters of Hamas here? [Cheers from protesters] Hear that, Bill Clinton? We are all supporters of Hamas ... I wish they added that I am also a supporter of Hezbollah."

Here's what I discovered by accident while looking to see if Hillary & co. had recieved donations from Almoudi like McKinney (Hillary did along with the left of the left Democrats like Kennedy). Sununu recieved at least two checks from Alamoudi:

$500 on 9/21/1999
$250 on 5/9/2000

This discovery raised my curiosity so I made another comparison between Sununu's donors and the notorious Cynthia McKinney list. A brief glance over the two found another Democrat mohammedan activist linking the two, Abdulwahab Alkebsi. Alkebsi cut a $700 donation check to McKinney on September 11, 2001. A brief internet search for his name revealed an article in which he was quoted complaining about post 9/11 government raids on the assets of islamic groups with terrorist ties. Alkebsi's name appears next to a donation to Sununu's current campaign

$1000 on 3/7/2002

Didn't Alamoudi also give money to Mrs. Arkansas Antichrist's successful capture of the US Senate seat from New York? Isn't Shaheen also an Arab-American? Did she receive money from Alamoudi as well? I actually have no idea but some of you have access to the campaign finance reports.

I know some people think that it is unfair to visit the sins of Sununu the Elder upon Sununu the Younger but I am not soon going to forgive the father's foisting of David Souter onto Bush the Elder for appointment to the SCOTUS. Souter makes the fortunately departed William Brennan look moderate by comparison. He even tried to put Gore in the White House by his attempts to fashion a majority which failed.

I also note for the cognoscenti in New Hampshire GOP circles that the despicable malcolm and Susan MacLane of Concord accompanied Souter to his Judiciary Committee hearings which is about all anyone needs to know about Souter, about his Senate sponsor Rudman who is supporting the younger Sununu and is about as conservative as Abbie Hoffman, and about the Sununus.

Bob Smith is a great senator and a very decent guy who is being pilloried for not being "flexible" on matters of principle (sort of like Styles Bridges, Norris Cotton, Gordon Humphrey, the late and great Meldrim Thompson, and the best of the New Hampshire GOP) and for not being a poster boy for hair spray. He is substantive. His opponents are hopelesly shallow and New Hampshire at least used to know the difference better than most states. If Bill or Nackey Loeb were alive, Sununu the younger would be broiled alive by them and by all of their editorial employees.

Has Gordon Humphrey been nominated again for governor by the GOP? Who are the Demonrats running? Any predictions on the outcome?

I do know Alamoudi gave money to Senator Hitlary. I remember that Teddy Kennedy got some as well. Those two were the ones I was looking for and expecting. There were also other Democrats on the list - mostly Dem congressmen, plus Sununu. I'll have to check the reports again and see who else.

I'm not sure about Shaheen, but it's definately worth a check to see if she's got terrorist donors. We did a search down here in Texas for the Democrat senate nominee in our open seat, Ron Kirk. It turned up all sorts of arab activists. One of them, who gave to Kirk's campaigns when he was mayor of Dallas, was arrested back in February for shipping computer parts to suspected terrorist cells in Syria etc. Now he's facing a 60 year jail sentence. Kirk needs to be hit hard over his terrorist donors, so i'm spreading the word wherever I can.

The primary isn't until 9/10. No one has been nominated for anything yet. Humphrey is behind Benson right now because he has run a novice campaign. He's bungled a lot of things --including going negative so early and so hard when no one else is going negative. His favorables are really low and it just reinforces the picture Shaheen painted of him in 2000-- he's a grumpy old man with a far right ideology. New Hampshire isn't conservative enough to elect someone like that. Humphrey had this nomination in the bag, but pissed his lead away.

Benson is a very formidable challenger who has focused on the issues and not his opponents. Neither Democrat (Fernald or Hollingworth) will beat Benson. Both support an income tax. Fernald probably has a slight advantage for November simply because Hollingworth has marshmallows for brains and it shows on TV.

Good article, though it did omit what was done to Schundler in NJ.

I agree. What the republicans did to schundler was worse then what is going on with Simon. For those of you who do not live in the tri-state area of NY, NJ and CT. The republican leadership of N.J. wentout and fully attacked Schundler in the press every single chance they got. Calling the man a crazy and an extremist. One member of the NJ GOP even went on a newscast the night before the election and stated that he hopes Schundler loses.

Schundler was a mayor of an almost all black city in NJ and won two races. He also turned the city around in eight years. He was even with the N.J. Dem from the start but no money came in for the man and after being attacked by his own party he did not have a prayer.

The Society's founder, the candy manufacturer Robert Welch, had called Dwight Eisenhower a Communist (his semi-underground tract, The Politician). To which Russell Kirk, the conservative historian/critic, replied tartly, "Eisenhower isn't a Communist. He is a golfer."

Not true. I know because I bought a copy of the Politician about 15 years ago. Welch, never called Eisenhower a Communist. He merely said Ike was a pro-Communist dupe because he refused to fire the Communist agents that the House Committee on Unamerican activities and Sen. Joe McCarthy had publicly exposed. Ike also ordered US and British forces not to occupy what later became Communist East Germany and to withdraw from a large tract of territory that FDR and Truman had decided was to be ceded to the most murderous dictator in the world at the time, Josef Stalin and his Soviet Union. He also happily delivered 1,500,000 innocent East Europeans to their deaths at the hands of the Communists in the infamous Operation Keelhaul. So Ike had blood on his hands from his endeavors meant to appease the Communists. That didn't make him a Communist, but it did make him pro-Communist as Mr. Welch correctly pointed out.

Your claims that Smith can't beat her are becoming a self fulfilling prophesy. Right now the absolute worst thing you could ever do to Smith's chances in November is run him through a bloody primary battle. From what I've heard so far, polls show Smith only slightly behind or even with Shaheen in a head to head matchup. One must ask if this would necessarily be the case if Smith weren't being hammered from his own party by the Sununu campaign's challenge, itself partially paid for by known terrorist sympathizers. I'm willing to bet Smith would pull ahead if his party were united behind him.

My point exactly. Smith would be running even with Shaheen if it weren't for the internicene warfare sparked by pro-PLO terrorist Rep. Sununu. Smith is eminently electable. He has won every election, but one--his ill-fated race for President in 2000. However, almost nobody ever wins that one.

Well said. Smith is constantly underestimated by this crowd in his campaigning abilities. From what I've seen it also appears that Smith has the biggest warchest of all three.

I believe Sununu was in third behind Shaheen and Smith - not exactly the kind of candidate i'd be looking for to run in an artificially created open seat against a DNC-backed Democrat. Then again, I suppose Sununu could call up one of his HAMAS supporting donors and get a bunch of mohammedan cash if he really wanted it.

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