Bull Moose, one of the Internet’s most interesting weblogs (it is closely associated with the DLC Democratic centrists), has a post that should be read in full about the plight of GOP Moderates…and what may be in store for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. A few excerpts:
The Moose urges the Environmental Protection Agency to grant endangered species protection to Republican moderates.
In recent weeks, a host of Republican moderates have lamented the subservience of their party to the religious right. Former Senator John Danforth and current Senator John Warner and Congressman Chris Shays have all spoken out against the GOP over-reach in the Schiavo case. Ex-Bush EPA official Christie Whitman has written a book decrying the influence of the “social fundamentalists” within the party.
All of which TMV views as quite feeble…and Bull Moose (we will not use initials for him) agrees. More:
With all due respect to the GOP “wets”, their problem is not that they are weak, but rather they are blind. They ignore the political reality that dictates that their party without the religious right is merely a full service concierge for big corporate money.
Indeed, if you go back to the GOP right after the monster defeat of Barry Goldwater by LBJ, the problem for the GOP was how to piece together a coalition that could match — or surpass — the Democrats’ working one. The religious right has helped fill the ranks of the needed loyal foot soldiers — soldiers who felt slighted, ignored or derided by the Democrats. More:
The moderates have largely made their peace with a party that is the province not of Danforth, Warner, Shays or Whitman, but rather of Tom DeLay – money power marinated in social conservatism. Ultimately, the real problem for the mods is not the religious right but a party that has made as its primary purpose the promotion of the economic interests of the great malefactors of wealth. Cultural conservatism is essential to provide a populist facade for the plutocratic agenda.
Some (including many of the diverse readers of this site) may dispute that paragraph. But we do believe he is solidly on the mark with this prediction:
Tom DeLay is the individual who offers the true face of the Republican Party behind the deceptive mask of “compassionate conservatism.” That is probably why Karl Rove will now manufacture his removal from power. Watch for signals emanating from unidentified White House officials expressing doubts about the Bug Man….
That is likely to happen: DeLay is the worst possible image for the GOP at the worst possible time. He’s probably the greatest asset to Democratic fundraisers since Newt Gingrich. Polls show his support slipping in his own district, let alone across the face of America where libertarian GOPers were not pleased with his actions in the Terri Schiavo case.
If appearances are reality in politics, then the GOP needs to get rid of DeLay — gently or otherwise — before the mid-terms. Democrats should be praying right now not just for the late great Pope John Paul II but that DeLay remains in place for at least two more years.
We suspect some interesting things may happen before then…
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.