No Room for Moderates in the Republican Party

[tsluver247]

The Wing Nuts Took Over the Party (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060812/ap_on_el_se/republican_infighting_5)

Conservative group sets sights on Chafee

By M.L. JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer Fri Aug 11, 10:14 PM ET

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Fresh off their first victory over a Republican incumbent, GOP conservatives seeking party purity on taxes and spending are focused on ousting moderate Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee (news, bio, voting record) of Rhode Island.

The Club for Growth and its 36,000 members spent around $1 million to help challenger Tim Walberg unseat first-term Rep. Joe Schwarz in Michigan's Republican primary on Tuesday. The win came despite Schwarz's support from
President Bush and the National Rifle Association.

Since its inception in 1999, the group has spent millions to help dozens of conservative Republicans win seats in Congress — often at the expense of more moderate party members. The Club's president, former Rep. Pat Toomey (news, bio, voting record), nearly defeated Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record) in 2004.

This year, the group's top priority is defeating Chafee, who angered many Republicans by voting against President Bush's tax cuts and then casting a write-in vote for the president's father in the last election. The Club has helped Cranston, R.I., Mayor Stephen Laffey raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to unseat Chafee, and polls show the two Republicans running even a month before the Sept. 12 primary.

The prospect of a Laffey win worries national Republicans, who consider Chafee the party's best bet for holding the seat in a heavily Democratic state. Polls show Laffey trailing far behind the leading Democratic candidate, former Attorney General Sheldon Whitehouse.

The Club's Web site says that's fine: "It wouldn't be much of a loss if a new Democrat senator were elected, as he would vote much the same as Chafee does now."

Republicans who support the Club say its refusal to compromise its ideology gives it credibility.

"They're not about getting more Republicans elected, they're about getting real Republicans elected," said Jerry Stacy, spokesman for Sharron Angle, a Club-endorsed House candidate in Nevada.

But Chafee is a Republican who votes with his party most of the time. His father, the late John Chafee, is revered in Rhode Island as a World War II hero who served three terms as governor and more than 20 years in the Senate. Like his father, the younger Chafee is a fiscal conservative and environmentalist.

Moderate Republicans criticize the Club for targeting incumbents like Chafee instead of going after Democrats.

"I refer to the Club for Growth as the enemy within," said Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (news, bio, voting record), R-N.Y., whom the Club opposed in GOP primaries in 2002 and 2004.

Economic conservatives founded the Club to encourage the federal government to adopt "pro-growth economic policies." That includes making the Bush tax cuts permanent, repealing the estate tax, cutting government spending and expanding free trade.

One Club tactic is providing campaign cash to candidates who espouse a free market philosophy. It raised $22 million for issue advocacy, candidates and operations in the last election cycle.

This year, the club and its 36,000 members were responsible for $1.1 million of the estimated $3 million spent on Michigan's Republican primary. The group opposed Schwarz even though he — like Chafee — was endorsed by Bush. Also like Chafee, Schwarz has criticized the war in
Iraq, supports abortion rights and favors stem-cell research.

Steve May, a former Arizona lawmaker who served briefly as a Club chapter president before being pushed out, said the organization throws conservative challengers up against moderate incumbents to scare them to the right.

"For the Club for Growth, it's all about the money, but you have to pass the social litmus test," May said.

May said he was ousted in 2003 because he was gay. Toomey said it was because May voted for a tax increase.

Toomey insisted the organization doesn't make choices based on party or positions on social issues. He noted that it endorsed its first Democrat this year — conservative Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar.

Many Club members hope Laffey, the Club's candidate in Rhode Island, will give them another win. They have contributed more money to his campaign than any other this election, well over $600,000, Toomey said. At the same time, the Club's political action committee has spent almost a quarter of a million dollars on anti-Chafee ads.

"Helping Steve Laffey win this race is as high a priority as we have for this cycle," Toomey said.

Sarah Chamberlain Resnick, executive director of the Main Street Republican Partnership, which is backing Chafee, said the Club's efforts will only help Democrats gain more seats in Congress.

"(House Minority Leader) Nancy Pelosi should make sure that Pat Toomey is on her Christmas card list," Resnick said after Schwarz's defeat.

___

Club for Growth: http://www.clubforgrowth.org/index.php

[White_Male_Canada]

Calling Chafee a "moderate" is like calling Castro an adherent of Von Mises.

Chafee`s ACU rating is 35. Moderate would be 50.

http://acuratings.org/singlerecord.asp?RepID=530&RatingsYear=2004

[chefmike]

Calling Chafee a "moderate" is like calling Castro an adherent of Von Mises.

Chafee`s ACU rating is 35. Moderate would be 50.

http://acuratings.org/singlerecord.asp?RepID=530&RatingsYear=2004

LMFAO @ the ACU...and at you....

Lamont Has Truly Arrived--American Conservative Union Hates Him


The American Conservative Union (ACU) is such a relic of political days gone by, that Progressive candidates for national office should covet their condemnation in much the same way that we in the media yearn to be on Bill O'Reilly's enemies list.

After all, groups like the ACU are so far outside the mainstream of American opinion that having them come after you is very much a badge of honor.

Such is the case with the ACU taking all of a nanosecond after Ned Lamont's victory as Connecticut's Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, to begin coming after him with guns blazing.

"Lamont's victory was a triumph for the left and a defeat for the United States because it may mean that future elections will be run between candidates of a pro-US party and nominees of an anti-US party," said ACU chairman, David Keene, in an August 8 e-mail dispatch to his followers. "Ned Lamont is a nobody with money who became the tool of the MoveOn.org crowd and has managed to demonstrate to the world that there is no room in the Democratic Party for candidates or office holders who disagree with the far left belief that our country is the source of all evil in the world."

I'm sure that comments like that would sting Ned Lamont considerably were Lamont not a respected man and his party's nominee for a U.S. Senate seat and Keene not, well, just another right-wing nutcase with a history of being wrong and making bizarre statements.

Here's more from Keene, a man clearly off his medication, as he describes Lamont and the 52 percent of Connecticut Democrats who chose him as their standard bearer on Tuesday:

"The Lamont victory over a former vice presidential candidate of the party means one thing and one thing only. The wealthy but crazed inhabitants of the left wing fever swamps are taking over a party that has been trying to reidentify with the voters that allowed it to dominate American politics for most of the last century. The purge that began with the McGovernite seizure of the party in the early seventies has been reinvigorated.
"The boys and girls who lionized Che, Mao and Fidel in the 60s and 70s have grown up and are now championing suicide bombers and telling us that the rulers of nations like Iran and North Korea are really just misunderstood. Their own country appalls them and they are convinced that if it weren't for the United States, the world would be a far safer and more pleasant place."


Wow, I was too busy playing in Little League baseball to study Mao and I can't say I recall the last fundraiser I attended for suicide bombers either.... Keene's charges would sound pretty damning coming from a more mentally-balanced person wouldn't they?

He must be talking about Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean who, speaking of the current security environment and the Democratic plan to protect Americans, said that the events in the United Kingdom yesterday "...are a troubling reminder that we are living in dangerous and trying times. These are times that call for real leadership. Not posturing, or name calling."

Said Dean:

"As Americans we must be unwavering in our commitment to fighting and winning the war on terror. We need a new direction in our national defense policies that's tough and smart. That means tracking down terrorists and providing our troops and agencies with the tools they need to stop future attacks, implementing the 9/11 Commission recommendations to close the gaps in our security, securing our ports and borders, chemical and nuclear power plants and properly equipping our first responders and our national guard.
"It also means we have to be honest about the failures of our current foreign policies, which have let Iraq slip into civil war, enabled Iran to increase its nuclear capabilities, failed to address the growing threat posed by North Korea, and Afghanistan has seen a resurgence of the Taliban. Osama Bin Laden, Al Qaeda's mastermind, is still on the loose, and the Middle East is deep in crisis."


Yeah, those must be the kind of wild-eyed, radical thoughts that Keene is talking about.

And let's hear from Lamont himself, the subject of the ACU's silly missive:

"We need to focus on our security, on apprehending Osama Bin Laden and other terrorist leaders and on building a credible, effective foreign policy with our allies. In the United States Senate, I will support policies to make us safer and stronger, and attentive to our true priorities," said the Democratic Senate nominee yesterday. "We need to change course, and that means standing up to this administration and fighting for our security in a rational, serious way rather than being bogged down in a war than is harmful to our security."

As a reminder, this is the candidate who legitimately won his party's Senate nomination and who the majority of Connecticut voters clearly did not feel considers America itself the enemy, as the delusional Keene says.

But Keene has a history of being embarrassingly wrong. It was him, along with Tony Perkins of the ultraconservative Family Research Council, who launched a campaign to defend that stand-up guy, Tom DeLay, against corruption charges -- including a dandy little fundraising scheme to pay for DeLay's mounting legal bills.

"A literal cabal of left wing groups -- in concert with the liberal media -- have initiated a multi-million dollar smear campaign of ABSURD lies and distortion at House Majority Leader Tom DeLay," yelped Keene in 2005.

"It's unbelievable!" he continued hysterically. "The left is actually trying to paint DeLay -- a man who celebrity Ben Stein described as, 'a man with more moral decency in his little finger than his detractors have in their whole bodies' -- as corrupt and ethically challenged. And what is probably more distressing is that THEY ARE SUCCEEDING!"

Of course, Keene leaves out the fact that the real people who succeeded were the people of Texas, who hit Tommy Boy with criminal charges of conspiracy to violate election laws and money laundering.

"But for now -- rest assured that these attacks are nothing more than a combination of lies and trumped-up charges designed to smear the reputation of a man who is well-known for his honest and moral integrity," wrote Keene in 2005, I'm sure somehow managing to keep a straight face. "When I hear the attacks against Tom DeLay, I am reminded of the slogan from George Orwell's novel 1984: "WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH. I tremble when I realize just how far astray things have gone. But I also know that we can beat them at their own game."

So when Keene calls Ned Lamont, his supporters and Connecticut voters "crazed," it kind of makes it hard to do anything but snicker.

What I want to know is, what am I doing wrong that the ACU isn't coming after me?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-geiger/lamont-has-truly-arrived-_b_27020.html

[White_Male_Canada]

Calling Chafee a "moderate" is like calling Castro an adherent of Von Mises.

Chafee`s ACU rating is 35. Moderate would be 50.

http://acuratings.org/singlerecord.asp?RepID=530&RatingsYear=2004

LMFAO @ the ACU...and at you....

Lamont Has Truly Arrived--American Conservative Union Hates Him



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-geiger/lamont-has-truly-arrived-_b_27020.html

The fluffington post,sure. Pravda lost it`s glamour now that the USSR is dead?

LOL @ Bob Geiger
is a writer, activist and Democratic operative in Westchester County, NY.

Just another left-wing shill who thinks the Constitution means whatever he feels it means.

[tsluver247]

Calling Chafee a "moderate" is like calling Castro an adherent of Von Mises.

Chafee`s ACU rating is 35. Moderate would be 50.

http://acuratings.org/singlerecord.asp?RepID=530&RatingsYear=2004

You forgot to point out that Bush and GOP endorsed him and he lost. It looks llike any congressmen that supported the Bush Administration policies and his war in Iraq are getting back lashed that includes Lieberman and Schwarz, who scored a 58 rating). Walberg beat Schwarz, who is a moderate, while Walberg is a conservative minister. Schwarz was targeted by the Club for Growth, a national conservative organization that seeks to replace centrist Republican incumbents — which the group labels as RINOs, for Republicans in Name Only — with candidates who lean more strongly to the right. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/cq/20060809/pl_cq_politics/repschwarztrailingconservativewalberginmichigans7t h_1) Like I said there is no room room for moderate conservatives in this country.

[tsluver247]

Calling Chafee a "moderate" is like calling Castro an adherent of Von Mises.

Chafee`s ACU rating is 35. Moderate would be 50.

http://acuratings.org/singlerecord.asp?RepID=530&RatingsYear=2004

LMFAO @ the ACU...and at you....

Lamont Has Truly Arrived--American Conservative Union Hates Him



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-geiger/lamont-has-truly-arrived-_b_27020.html

The fluffington post,sure. Pravda lost it`s glamour now that the USSR is dead?

LOL @ Bob Geiger
is a writer, activist and Democratic operative in Westchester County, NY.

Just another left-wing shill who thinks the Constitution means whatever he feels it means.

Read the Power Surge: The Constitutional Record of George W. Bush (http://www.catostore.org/index.asp?fa=ProductDetails&method=cats&scid=15&pid=1441309).

You will see how Bush is trying to destroy everything the Constitution says for, all in the name for national security. Why do you think the Cato Institution (a libertian organization) and the American Bar Association are objective to the Bush Administration abuse of executive power?