Posted on 01/31/2005 3:16:14 PM PST by srm913
Whitman: Let's Get Moderate WASHINGTON, Jan. 31, 2005
This story was written by Linda Feldmann. It was a vision of big-tent Republicanism: At a panel discussion held around the GOP convention last summer, Christine Todd Whitman sat comfortably near Newt Gingrich - a standard-bearer of the middle engaging in measured discourse with a standard-bearer of conservatism.
When asked about the GOP's longstanding drift rightward, Ms. Whitman was polite. The former New Jersey governor and EPA administrator stressed the breadth of the Republican coalition and noted that some of the biggest names to address the convention in prime time - Arnold Schwarzenegger and Rudy Giuliani - favor abortion rights.
Now it's no more Ms. Nice Gal. In her new book, "It's My Party Too," Whitman takes off the gloves and lays down her manifesto to prevent, as she puts it, "the extreme right from run[ning] away with the party."
"It's time for me to get radical moderate," she says in an interview. "I've been going along to get along, to a degree."
The GOP, she says, has to get back to its core principles of fiscal responsibility, individual freedom, protecting the environment, and US leadership in the world based on strength and wisdom, or it will lose its middle and be relegated to the minority.
"Over the years, more and more people have come up to me and said, look, I've been a good Republican all my life, I don't want to leave the party, but it's getting harder and harder for me to stay," she says with a tone of urgency.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
"core principles of fiscal responsibility, individual freedom, protecting the environment, and US leadership in the world based on strength and wisdom"
I think the Senator from Chappaquidic would only agree with the tree-hugging part of this.
Radical moderate??? That's an oxymoron. Like unusually average. Or chillingly mild. Being moderate means never having to commit to anything.
Her battle cry's about 24 years too late.
Christie Todd Whitman, winner of the "Leslie Gore Award" ("It's my party (too), and I'll cry if I want to.")
That means DON'T TOUCH OUR GUNS MCCAIN!!!!!
2 things you missed:
"There's this attitude that if you believe that you can even have discussion about embryonic stem-cell research, you're not a good Republican. If you believe that government has a role to play in environmental protection, you're not a good Republican. If you're pro-choice, you're not a good Republican. And that just is nonsensical." C.T. Whitman
- - -
"The problem [Whitman] outlines is that the Republican Party without the religious right is a minority party; you're talking about sawing off a good third of the party," says Marshall Wittmann, a former official of the Christian Coalition and now a senior fellow at the Democratic Leadership Council. But, he continues, "the strength of her book is that she ultimately realizes that for her party to win, it has to grasp the vital center, which is largely up for grabs. Both parties face this difficulty."
Now thats not being a good 'Team Player', Christy.
This from a former governor who left the New Jersey treasury in shambles, due to her idiotic combination of steep income tax reductions and massive increases in state bond debt. No matter how big the GOP decides to make its "tent," this jack@ss isn't going to be inside it.
Tell us more...
Every time I see that photo, I cringe. What on earth was she thinking?
Voice of Reason moment #1,095:
The GOP in its current ideological form has been and is continuing to win widespread popular support. Why would you take an axe to the machinery that drove you to Washington?
/Reason
Sarcasm
By the way, didn't Whitman do a fine job of getting Jersey to turn to the GOP? I thought so.
/sarcasm
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