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Finally, Bush Put To Good Use

By W. James Antle, III on 4.30.09 @ 1:12PM

The National Republican Senatorial Committee is reminding Pennsylvania Democrats of that 2004 endorsement by George W. Bush, sending robocalls of Bush's kind words for Arlen Specter to approximately 100,000 of them. Of course, this was an endorsement they were touting five years ago and this NRSC money would have been spent on Specter's behalf had he remained a Republican. But it's still nice to see. (Hat tip: Mark Hemingway at The Corner.)

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Alan Brooks| 4.30.09 @ 2:11PM

sure, agreed.
however it is not the Bush legacy, really.

it is the Future, Newt... a RINO future. BTW Which compromise hack can you imagine might be POTUS in 2013. You had Reagan.
But Nixon, Ford, Dubya, Dole, McCain... there's always a hell to go through.

John| 4.30.09 @ 2:32PM

This is interesting. The establishment GOP actually making an attempt to distance itself from Bush? I never underestimate the NRSC's ability to shoot the GOP in the foot. Especially since less than a month ago the NRSC endorsed Specter (??). I guess this would make up for that. Too bad it takes a defection for the NRSC to notice a RINO.

Also, Chariman Steele said earlier today that it would be "disingenuous" for the GOP to rail against Democrats for supporting bailiouts, when said bailouts began under a Republican president. I'll take that as well.

Baby steps...

Jrs| 4.30.09 @ 3:03PM

Let's be careful here. While I wish Toomey well, if Toomey can't win in PA (very likely), and a RINO> liberal, then we could be worse off. While being pure sounds great, in politics it doesn't matter how you run the race if you don't win it. Let's get back to basics. That means less government- less taxes, less spending and also less self rightous individuals telling me how to run my life.

John| 4.30.09 @ 3:58PM

I agree Jrs. But neither party is ideologically pure. They cannot simply be purged of all "firm believers", if you will. It's the Republican party, not the Conservative party after all. The "Specter-defects-therefore-GOP-is-intolerant" narrative is being played by the media and liberals. The liberal blogs are eating the story up and giving unsolicited "advice" to be more of a "big tent".

Despite being in power, the Democratic party is hardly ideologically pure to progressives. One can argue that the majorities gained in 2006 wouldn't have been possible if it weren't for a slew of conservative Democrats (Heath Shuler comes to mind). These Democrats are not held in high regard by the Pelosi/Reid liberals.

That being said, there's no need to "rebrand" anything. Reaffirm conservative roots that were always there, but that the GOP tossed aside.

BJC| 4.30.09 @ 6:31PM

But there are several noteworthy double standards that need to be outed and assessed seriously regarding Left vs. Right politics and anti-conservatives vs. conservatives within the Republican Party. First off, John Cornyn has just made pleasant noises about following suit in "Chuck-You" Schumer's DSCC ploy of recruiting "conservative" Ds to run in Right-leaning districts, in the faulty belief that the GOP might gain numbers by propping up "liberal" Rs to run in Left-leaning districts.

But here's the thing: Conservative Democrats are more popular across the board with voters than liberal Republicans are. Part of that results from the Democrat Party having itself moved so far to the political Left in its positions that a somewhat-less-Leftist candidate bearing a "D" designation looks reasonable by comparison. By partisan contrast, the Republican Party has striven for consistency in staying true to a moderately Rightward set of official planks -- in other words, not racing into the slipstream of the Left-acceleration of the Democrats. Contrary to Arlen Specter's self-serving allegations, the Republican Party hasn't "gone far Right" and isn't located at the "far Right fringe" -- the GOP simply hasn't moved while the Democrats have been speeding off Leftward at astonishing rapidity, which is what has actually been widening the D-R partisan split. And any issue-by-issue polling of American voters proves that rank-and-file citizens are Center-Right, about where the GOP positions the party in formally adopted stands.

But also the elected Democrat leaders are far more ruthless with their token numbers-padding "conservatives" than elected Republican leaders ever have been with their perfidious "liberals." Can you bring to mind a single example you can cite of the Democrats in Congress pushing any bill on which their Rightward members take the lead? I can't, and I don't believe there are any such examples in evidence. The opposite is mostly the case with liberals in the GOP, who can get whatever plums they want depending on threats to bolt and join up with the Democrats on something -- especially so in the Senate these days. Whenever they demand to do so, the Leftward-leaning elected officials in the Republican Party call the shots and force their party regular counterparts to follow. And the odd upshot is that "conservative" Ds thrust the Leftist Democrats into political power while enjoying no power within the party, at the same time as the "liberal" Rs diminish the political power of the GOP overall while themselves having lots of power within the Republican Party.

My preference -- and indeed my best considered advice -- for the Republican Party would be straightforward and simple. Mildly turn aside any outside queries about intra-party squabbles, saying as Ronald Reagan often did, "Anybody who agrees with me politically 80% of the time isn't my enemy." These questions mostly come from Leftists who are trying to foment discord; don't help them succeed. And adopt only one hard rule about party "purging" or "purification" -- which is that you're banished from the GOP if you go into a Leftist venue to criticize conservatives in the Republican Party. That is the message of the Leftist Democrats -- why echo it and broadcast it for free? Distressed, restive "moderates" in the GOP ought to practice a few phrases such as the above, or something along the lines of "Hey, when I've got a fiscal conservative issue, the traditional values conservatives stand with me better than anybody else does." That has the virtue of being true.

Alan Brooks| 4.30.09 @ 8:09PM

baby steps?

that's jive. if you do an interview with Newt he'll say "we are at the beginning of a sea change, a global transformation led by this nation to a new paradigm.."

interchangeable with puff regurgitated decades ago by prognosticators out to lunch. but Sure, given centuries baby steps do add up--be patient.