Free Republic

They call themselves Main Street Republicans, moderates consigned to the back alleys of politics by their own party. But despite a severe bruising in the fall election, this minority within a minority finds itself with new avenues to explore, including working more closely with Democrats. The Republican Main Street Partnership, a leading voice of GOP moderates in Congress, lost seven of its 48 House members to Democratic challengers in the November election. Two other senior members, Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., and Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., are retiring. The group also saw Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., one of its eight Senate members...

The 2006 election was tragic for conservatives who did lose several key races. But the losses were downright devestating for RINOs (Republicans In Name Only.) The following is a list of the RINOs, who scored under 60% as graded by the American Conservative Union, and how they fared in the last election: SENATE: Linc Chafee, RI: defeated. Olympia Snowe, ME: no contest. Sue Collins, ME: re-elected. Mike DeWine, OH: defeated. HOUSE Christopher Shays, CT: re-elected. Mike Castle, DE: re-elected. Sherwood Boehlert, NY: defeated. Jim Leach, IA: retired. Mark Kirk, IL: re-elected. Nancy Johnson, CT: defeated. Wayne Gilchrest, MD: re-elected. Scott...

Since Barbra Streisand hasn't weighed in yet with her advice to the Republican party as to how it might regain power, we'll have to settle for the counsel that WaPo columnist E.J. Dionne generously offers in his column of today, Can the GOP Find Its Center?His advice boils down to a two-part program: forget about conservatism already, and Be Like Bill.Dionne begins by proclaiming that "this fall's election defeat . . . revealed that the Barry Goldwater-Ronald Reagan political settlement has expired," by which he apparently means that conservatism as a winning political philosophy has gone the way of the...

I started blogging in June of 2004. In July of 2005, I was invited to co-blog here at The Moderate Voice, an invitation followed a short stint co-blogging at Centerfield (I still technically can post there, but I haven't in over a year). The site being called "The Moderate Voice," I've always felt a vague compunction to be a "moderate," even though I admittedly lean liberal. So, how do I justify calling myself "moderate"? Well, a couple things. A general abhorrence of partisanship and power politics would be one. A vague preference for free trade would be another. But the...

HARTFORD, Conn. --Just two weeks after the election, the shrinking Republican minority in the state's House of Representatives got a little smaller. State Rep. Diana Urban, a newly re-elected, six-year incumbent from North Stonington, announced she was switching parties and joining the majority Democrats. It marked another setback for the Connecticut Republicans, who had little to cheer about after this month's election except for Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell's overwhelming victory. Rep. Lawrence Cafero Jr., R-Norwalk, the new House minority leader, denies Urban's defection has anything to do with the party. He said it was more about Urban. But Cafero...

The Last Youth Standing - What the West and Islam share are elites detached from their own demographic realities Mark Steyn - November 20, 2006 I was watching Mansbridge One on One the other day. Don't ask me why. May have been an "encore presentation." Or more likely an encore presentation of an encore presentation. For a 24/7 news network, there's an eerie timelessness about CBC Newsworld: one would be only mildly surprised to switch on and find Mansbridge One on One with Lester B. Pearson or Sir Charles Tupper. Anyway, this week, the one he was on was the...

The bipartisan glow that swathed the Capitol this year may give way to partisan rancor, as combative conservative Michael Villines prepares to lead Assembly Republicans in the next legislative session, political observers say. Villines, a Clovis Republican who was raised in San Jose, seized power by riding the support of conservative lawmakers, who rejected the more accommodating leadership of former minority leader, San Diego Assemblyman George Plescia. But the move may end up marginalizing the Republican caucus.Jim Brulte, a former Assembly Republican Leader and a key architect of the Poizner campaign, said Republican anger simply ignores the reality that California...

“Far Right Soley (sic) Responsible for Democratic Gains.” That’s the title of a hastily written press release I received last Wednesday from the Republican Main Street Partnership. In fact, it had been posted on RMSP’s website Tuesday before midnight. “For the last two years,” wrote RMSP executive director Sarah Chamberlain, “centrist GOPers have warned the leadership of our party of the consequences of pushing a legislative agenda cow-towing to the far right in our party.” (For the record, I also oppose “cow-towing,” and all other forms of bovine abuse.) In the release, Chamberlain argues that if conservatives had only backed...

The classic New England Republican -- fiscally conservative, socially liberal -- is near death, following a long and quiet decline that began more then a decade ago when the GOP nationally began its move to the right. It is a political breed generations old. The Democratic tidal wave in Tuesday's elections claimed several victims in seats that had long been in Republican hands. Scholars say the losses may be the death knell for the traditional "rock-ribbed" New England Republican.

Holding to the Center, Losing My Seat By Lincoln D, Chafee LAST Tuesday, I was one of the many moderate Republican casualties of the anti-Bush virulence that swept the country. Despite my having voted against the Iraq war resolution, my reputation for independence, the editorial endorsement of virtually every newspaper in my state, and a job approval rating of 63 percent, I did not win. Why? Back in December 2000, after one of the closest elections in our nation’s history, Vice President-elect Dick Cheney was the guest at a weekly lunch meeting of a small group of centrist Republicans. Senators...

There have been a lot of warm and fuzzy self-congratulations since Tuesday's election about how California voters and candidates -- particularly Arnold Schwarzenegger -- have met in the middle of the political spectrum. The cheery theory is that when the guv and the plucky guys and gals who make up the Legislature return to the front lines in January, they'll all sip cocoa together and make toasts to the wonders of "centrism" and lead the state to new heights. This theory seems to be based on three things: 1. Schwarzenegger was easily re-elected as governor, even though he's a Reep...