EJ Dionne’s Friday op-ed piece in the Washington Post describes how difficult it is to be a moderate Republican under the current hegemony:
“The 74-year-old Specter’s victory is thus a last hurrah, not the next new thing. Those conservatives gathered around the Club for Growth, a political action committee devoted to pushing moderate Republicans either to the right or out of office, can claim a tactical triumph for the nearly $2 million the group directed toward helping Toomey.
Stephen Moore, the Club for Growth’s president, always saw the effort as having a double purpose: to replace Specter with a conservative if possible, but also to demonstrate how much anguish conservatives could create for Republican moderates who did not fall into line. “
Lincoln Chafee, Olympia Snow, George Voinovich are other choice targets. Dionne suggests that the moderates will either be pushed toward retirement or, even if they hold on, succeeded by a new generation far to their right. If they choose to seek reelection they will inexorably be pushed rightward in their ideology. Dionne cites a roster of liberal Republicans who have been knocked off in primaries as the Republican Party has gotten more conservative. There is another option, however, Vermont Sen. Jim Jefford’s way — to defect from the GOP. Dionne suggests that the Club for Growth is trying to push the moderates to do just that and recreate the Republican Party in their image. Let us hope the moderates realize they should make such a choice far in advance of their retirement, which could result in incumbents shifting to the Democratic side of the aisle or a significant splintering of the Republican Party. A third party challenge that would siphon votes from the Republicans as the right wing analogue to the Nader Effect would surely be welcome, possibly even in the ‘Red States’. It is an open question how broad or sustained an appeal Rabid-Right Republicanism would have, especially as disaffection with the Bush League may be reaching a tipping point and especially if the Boy King is defeated in November. Here’s to the Club for Growth’s ideological wish fulfillment fantasies clouding their political realism. [And where is Ross Perot when we need him most?]
