Iowa Republicans Are Concerned
Friday is Grand Ol’ Party Day
When I do my weekly radar scan for redeemable Republicans, I usually only turn up retiring or retired office holders. Such is the case in Iowa.
On a recent ice-swept morning, a group of self-described moderate Republicans met in a hotel convention room. About 60 people attended a the meeting convened by former Iowa Lt. Gov. Joy Corning, who served eight years under Gov. Terry Branstad until Democrats took over the governor's office in 1999. Their concerns had been heightened by a Republican presidential primary campaign that finds most of the leading candidates advocating a conservative social agenda. There, Corning is quoted as saying
When I do my weekly radar scan for redeemable Republicans, I usually only turn up retiring or retired office holders. Such is the case in Iowa.
On a recent ice-swept morning, a group of self-described moderate Republicans met in a hotel convention room. About 60 people attended a the meeting convened by former Iowa Lt. Gov. Joy Corning, who served eight years under Gov. Terry Branstad until Democrats took over the governor's office in 1999. Their concerns had been heightened by a Republican presidential primary campaign that finds most of the leading candidates advocating a conservative social agenda. There, Corning is quoted as saying
Our goal is to get traditional centrist moderate Republicans to get to the caucus and make their voices heard. The moderates who are out there, they've been rather quiet for a few years. Many of them have dropped out of the party or become independents, and so this is an effort to regroup and encourage people to be active.Christine Todd Whitman, a former New Jersey governor and former Bush Cabinet member who now leads the Republican Leadership Council, observed,
It means building the farm team and taking back the word 'Republican' to say we don't have to be the way we are perceived now at the national level, as a mean-spirited narrow-minded litmus-test party.Iowa resembles Illinois, where Republicans were a tighter organization until losing the governor's office in 2002 after a quarter-century of GOP chief executives. Chuck Laudner, executive director of the Iowa GOP, explained that his party was beset with a political free-for-all:
We can be moderate, conservative, liberal as long as we agree on the basic fundamental principles that make us Republicans. You can disagree with someone and not hate them. That's where we need to get, so that we can have the kind of campaigns at the federal level that actually talk about the important issues and try to solve them instead of trying to outflank the other person -- 'I'm more conservative than you are.'
The governor was the rudder of our Republican Party. Without that, we've fractured up a little bit.Former Congressman Greg Ganske, who is backing Sen. John McCain of Arizona, acknowledged that the presidential contest leaves some Iowa Republicans cold:
We've all fractured up, and everybody's gone and done their own thing. We've got to change the mind-set and bring everybody back in.
Probably all the people who are here are fiscal conservatives. We haven't been real happy with what has been going on with the federal budget and our deficits, our balance of trade, things like that. We have an unpopular war going on started by a Republican president, so I think it's fair to say there's less enthusiasm right now.Redeemable Republicans’ taking stock is way overdue.
posted by Vigilante at 12/28/2007 06:12:00 AM
10 Moderated Comments:
It means... taking back the word 'Republican' to say we don't have to be the way we are perceived now at the national level, as a mean-spirited narrow-minded litmus-test party....You can disagree with someone and not hate them.
Christi Todd Whitman said that? Who knew? However, they are less perceived as "mean-spirited" and "narrow-minded" than they are in actuality.
I would be happy to see Republicans like Teddy Roosevelt who, despite his stance against Suffragism, was a staunch environmentalist.
Roosevelt "made conservation a central policy issue of his administration." Sure, he was a typical Rethug in many ways, but someone ought to mention to Whitman that environmental concerns would be a good place to start shedding their "narrow-minded," hate-filled perspective.
A "redeemable" Republican sees evolutionary fascism coming in Amerika:
Ron Paul, Meet the Press, 23rd December:
"We're not moving toward Hitler-type fascism, but we're moving toward a softer fascism: Loss of civil liberties, corporations running the show, big government in bed with big business. So you have the military-industrial complex, you have the medical-industrial complex, you have the financial industry, you have the communications industry. They go to Washington and spend hundreds of millions of dollars.
That's where the control is. I call that a soft form of fascism -- something that's very dangerous."
Congrats, Vig! You finally found a Republican so obscure that I have no dirt in him. ;-)
GetaLife: If the Iowa Primary were restricted to blog-readers, Ron Paul would win hands-down. Look at this poll by Cyclone Conservatives.
Right-On, N-P!
BTW, Ron Paul's alleged connections to racist/racism is effectively refuted here.
An intersting but rather misleading view of the Hawkeye state Republicans.
Amazingly, in our state the Democrats routinely simply eject people from their party for being pro-life or for opposing homosexual marriage but to my knowledge I have never even heard of us doing anything even similar.
Moreoever, our intra-party ideological debate is far more robust than the madrassa like chant, "ush is bad, Iraq is lost, vote for the children, save the planet" flight of the lemmings that passes for debate amongst Democrats.
Yeah, just how 'robust' is your GOP 'intra-party debate' if it excludes Ron Paul from the upcoming Fox News debate? Real Truth(er) is, Republican candidates don't want to be embarrassed by a confrontation over Bush's war.
Brilliant Cole article you posted here Vigil.
One thing we in Europe are seeing is that seems that Iraq issue has is now lost on the US public as domestic issues take the center stage in the primaries' debates. Understandable but imperative not to let go of Bush that easy.
Could be that perception is wrong though....
Watch for (and respond to) my next post, Hills!
Darn! Posted the message under the wrong thread. Sorry 'bout that the Vigil.
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