Meathead
November 9th, 2006, 12:19:07 PM
As party purges begin, top members in the recrimination mode (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15628775/from/RS.3/)
By Michael Grunwald
Updated: 2 hours, 40 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - After minutes upon minutes of soul-searching (lol i love that line), Republicans are now in recrimination mode. And the GOP's various factions all agree: This wouldn't have happened if the party had listened to us.
In the aftermath of the historic GOP losses Tuesday night, moderate Republicans quickly concluded that the party needs to be more moderate. Conservative Republicans declared that it should be more conservative. Main Street is angry at Wall Street, theo-cons are angry at neo-cons, and almost everyone is angry at President Bush and the GOP congressional leadership.
...
"We ought to just mend our wounds, bury our dead, learn from our mistakes and move on," said GOP lobbyist Ed Rogers. "But first we're going to have go through this. Look, bad policy and bad politics makes for bad elections."
Lost its way?
The common theme of the Recriminatathon is that the party lost its way after seizing control of Congress in 1994, focusing on power and perks instead of principles. But behind all the maneuvering, posturing and backstabbing lingered a serious debate over the party's future, and what those principles should be. It's a familiar argument between confrontation and compromise: appealing to base voters on the right or independents in the middle.
The moderate Republican Main Street Partnership fired its first salvo on election night, unleashing a news release titled "Far Right Solely Responsible for Democratic Gains." Sarah Chamberlain Resnick, the partnership's director, complained that GOP leaders had rejected popular causes such as the minimum wage, embryonic stem cell research and lobbying reforms while ignoring health-care issues that did not involve Terri Schiavo. The result, she said, was that moderate suburban voters saw Republicans as extremists.
"This election isn't a repudiation of the GOP," Chamberlain said. "It's a repudiation of a handful of zealots (that were allowed to dominate because they were winning), and a reminder that you can't build a majority party without securing the middle of the American electorate."
That wasn't the conclusion the right drew from Tuesday's losses. The main theme on GOP conference calls and the conservative blogosphere was that Republicans need to act like Republicans, returning to the small-government principles that helped them seize power in 1994. The RNC's first talking point for the day was: "Recommitting to conservative reform." Reps. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) and John Shadegg (R-Ariz.) announced campaigns for minority leader and minority whip by invoking the GOP's "Contract With America" and criticizing Republicans for betraying principles of stronger ethics and tighter budgets.
"The American people did not quit on the contract," Pence said. "We did."
...
"Republicans became the party of government," said conservative activist Richard Viguerie. "With earmarks, with spending, with the prescription drug benefit, with the Foley case, it became clear that they would spend anything and do anything to hold on to power."
To Viguerie, the solution is clear: Cut spending, shrink government and lead from the right on abortion, same-sex marriage and other social issues.
But moderates are convinced that's a formula for electoral irrelevance. Moderate Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-Calif.) easily won reelection by finding common ground with Democrats -- and defying Bush -- on such issues as global warming and education spending. Moderate Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) was reelected yesterday with 73 percent of the vote in a blue state.
"We misread the election of 2004 as a conservative mandate when 45 percent of the American people describe themselves as moderates," Snowe said. "If we move even further towards hard-core ideology, we'll be in the minority for a long time."
By Michael Grunwald
Updated: 2 hours, 40 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - After minutes upon minutes of soul-searching (lol i love that line), Republicans are now in recrimination mode. And the GOP's various factions all agree: This wouldn't have happened if the party had listened to us.
In the aftermath of the historic GOP losses Tuesday night, moderate Republicans quickly concluded that the party needs to be more moderate. Conservative Republicans declared that it should be more conservative. Main Street is angry at Wall Street, theo-cons are angry at neo-cons, and almost everyone is angry at President Bush and the GOP congressional leadership.
...
"We ought to just mend our wounds, bury our dead, learn from our mistakes and move on," said GOP lobbyist Ed Rogers. "But first we're going to have go through this. Look, bad policy and bad politics makes for bad elections."
Lost its way?
The common theme of the Recriminatathon is that the party lost its way after seizing control of Congress in 1994, focusing on power and perks instead of principles. But behind all the maneuvering, posturing and backstabbing lingered a serious debate over the party's future, and what those principles should be. It's a familiar argument between confrontation and compromise: appealing to base voters on the right or independents in the middle.
The moderate Republican Main Street Partnership fired its first salvo on election night, unleashing a news release titled "Far Right Solely Responsible for Democratic Gains." Sarah Chamberlain Resnick, the partnership's director, complained that GOP leaders had rejected popular causes such as the minimum wage, embryonic stem cell research and lobbying reforms while ignoring health-care issues that did not involve Terri Schiavo. The result, she said, was that moderate suburban voters saw Republicans as extremists.
"This election isn't a repudiation of the GOP," Chamberlain said. "It's a repudiation of a handful of zealots (that were allowed to dominate because they were winning), and a reminder that you can't build a majority party without securing the middle of the American electorate."
That wasn't the conclusion the right drew from Tuesday's losses. The main theme on GOP conference calls and the conservative blogosphere was that Republicans need to act like Republicans, returning to the small-government principles that helped them seize power in 1994. The RNC's first talking point for the day was: "Recommitting to conservative reform." Reps. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) and John Shadegg (R-Ariz.) announced campaigns for minority leader and minority whip by invoking the GOP's "Contract With America" and criticizing Republicans for betraying principles of stronger ethics and tighter budgets.
"The American people did not quit on the contract," Pence said. "We did."
...
"Republicans became the party of government," said conservative activist Richard Viguerie. "With earmarks, with spending, with the prescription drug benefit, with the Foley case, it became clear that they would spend anything and do anything to hold on to power."
To Viguerie, the solution is clear: Cut spending, shrink government and lead from the right on abortion, same-sex marriage and other social issues.
But moderates are convinced that's a formula for electoral irrelevance. Moderate Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-Calif.) easily won reelection by finding common ground with Democrats -- and defying Bush -- on such issues as global warming and education spending. Moderate Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) was reelected yesterday with 73 percent of the vote in a blue state.
"We misread the election of 2004 as a conservative mandate when 45 percent of the American people describe themselves as moderates," Snowe said. "If we move even further towards hard-core ideology, we'll be in the minority for a long time."