The 'Moderate Republican' Scam By Harold Meyerson

[jbfam4]

The 'Moderate Republican' Scam
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/26/AR2006092601138.html
By Harold Meyerson
Wednesday, September 27, 2006; Page A27


Chafee and Maine's Olympia Snowe and such deathbed converts to moderation as Ohio's Mike DeWine are seeking reelection to the Senate by claiming that they represent a Republicanism less rabid than the Bush-Rove strain. They point to individual votes in which they broke with the president and flouted the party line. But those votes have been negated a hundred times over by their votes to make Bill Frist the majority leader, just as they would be negated when the new Senate takes office in 2007 if the moderates backed any Republican unwilling to make a fundamental break with Bush and Bushism.

The issue isn't the individual voting records of Frist and McConnell, which are indistinguishable from each other and define the mainstream of today's gorge-the-rich, drown-the-poor, stay-the-course Republicanism. The issue is that under the control of the Republicans, both the Senate and the House have abandoned their constitutionally mandated obligation to oversee executive branch endeavors, most especially endeavors gone as awry as the war in Iraq. The issue is that under Republican control, both houses have abandoned any effort to address America's real problems.


Problem is, Chafee and his moderate band are an ever weaker force in a party whose very essence is extreme, whose electoral strategy is solely to mobilize its base, whose legislative strategy is never to seek votes across party lines. And unless these moderates boldly go where they have not gone before and cast their vote for majority leader (and I don't mean in caucus, I mean on the Senate floor) for someone other than the nominee of their party caucus, they are not moderates at all. They are loyal and indispensable foot soldiers in the Republicans' continuing campaign to drag the nation rightward and backward.

And guess what. The moderates will vote for the extremist. "Moderate," after all, is only an adjective; "Republican" is a noun. Chafee, Snowe, the whole lot of them, are moderate enablers of an extremist party. That leaves those voters in Rhode Island, Maine, Ohio and other states where these self-proclaimed Republican moderates are running only one choice if they seek a Congress to check and balance the president, if they want a more moderate nation: Vote for the Democrat.

[Demeter]

1. TAASTAAMR

"There Ain't Any Such Thing As A Moderate Republican"! Any truly moderate persons have long ago washed their hands of such pirates and joined any other party. Some have even converted to Democrat!

[grizmaster]

2. Chafee has been wearing bush kneepads for 5 years now

[Nite Owl]

3. So right on

anyone who still can identify with an R after their names are as responsible as the worst of them. Even if they couldn't switch to D they should at least to I like Jeffords did years ago. They are enablers and should not be given any quarter.

[Ian David]

4. A Moderate Republican is like a Nazi that just wants to kill HALF the Jews

[yurbud]

7. "give him less gas--if he lives, he can go..."

[depakid]

5. There's no such thing as a moderate Republican

After all that's happened, anyone who still chooses to identify themselves with that party needs to be clled exactly what they are- fundamentlists and extremists.

[Anakin Skywalker]

6. In the End, McCain Still Kissed Bush's @$$

I use McCain as an example because a lot of people seem to think he's a "moderate". But hey, twice he endorsed Bush. He's an enabler of evil as much as any Repug, moderate or not.

[yurbud]

8. read elsewhere how moderate scam works--vote against party only

when party has enough votes to pass the legislation without them. It's called "hold and release." Party leaders require moderates to commit to an important vote UNTIL they get more than enough to pass it. Then they "release" them.

The same could be true with hard righties going the other direction. If the GOP thinks some legislation the far right will bitch about is needed, they will let those with the most extreme constituents break ranks, so log as it doesn't affect the desired outcome.