A Small Tent for Big Government Conservatives?

Sen. Arlen Specter (D!-Pa.) insists that he will not be an automatic 60th vote in the Senate, giving Democrats a filibuster-proof majority, and told assembled reporters that, for instance, he will not change his opposition to card check. At Politico, centrist Republicans Lindsay Graham and Olympia Snowe, spoke out in support of Spector's decision:

Snowe said the party's message has been, "Either you're with us or you're against us."

Her frustration was shared by Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.), who slammed right-wing interest groups for pushing moderates out of the party.

Specter switched parties Tuesday after a recent poll showed him badly losing a Pennsylvania Republican primary next year to Club for Growth founder Pat Toomey. Toomey's staunchly fiscally conservative political action committee backs only those Republicans who support a low-tax, limited-government agenda and comes down hard on those who break with party orthodoxy.

This is the odd thing, though. Rather than arguing that the Republican Party is small-tent when it comes to heterodox social views, Graham seems upset that the party is too rigid on economics, despite its long-standing embrace of Bush's fiscal profligacy.

"I don't want to be a member of the Club for Growth," said Graham. "I want to be a member of a vibrant national Republican party that can attract people from all corners of the country-and we can govern the country from a center-right perspective." "As Republicans, we got a problem," he said.

You certainly do.

Comments

[crimethink]

Wasn't Lindsey Graham one of the House Managers for the Clinton Impeachment? Since when is he a moderate?

[Jeremy Kareken]

Since he decided he has a shot at a '12 nomination?

And "interest groups?" Seems to me the CfG has been the anti-interest group interest group.

[Gilbert Martin]

"Her frustration was shared by Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.), who slammed right-wing interest groups for pushing moderates out of the party."

Political rule # 1:

Anyone who claims to be a "moderate" is a liberal.

[Brandon]

I don't know what pisses me off more. Republicans who lie through their teeth when they say they've learned their lesson and they'll stop being socialists, or Republicans who say they lost because they're not socialist enough.

Either way, any libertarian that holds out hope and continues to support this party is just a fool.

[Orange Line Special]

What the GOP needs to do:
1. Ditch the Randroid loons.
2. Fight against just doing what big business wants. Yes, that's going to hurt and because of that this isn't going to happen: most GOP leaders don't really care about winning, they just want the $.
3. Instead of supporting CulturalConservatism, establish a combination of more lax guidelines together with a more - gasp! - libertarian position on social issues. But, without the libertarian habit of ignoring secondary and so on effects.
4. Stop supporting illegal activity and eviscerate the Dems on their support for illegal activity.

It's incredibly easy to beat the Dems due to all the bad things they promote. The problem is that the GOP leadership is completely corrupt and completely stupid.

[P Brooks]

Specter switched parties Tuesday after a recent poll showed him badly losing a Pennsylvania Republican primary next year

Everything else is irrelevant.

[joe from Lowell]

It's quickly getting to the point that libertarians can start leaving "This is why Republicans can't win elections" comments on Republican blogs.

[T]

It's quickly getting to the point that libertarians can start leaving "This is why Republicans can't win elections" comments on Republican blogs.

Personally, I find it much more entertaining to watch Republicans try to self-diagnose their electoral problems. There is a substantial chunk of the GOP that just doesn't get it and is hilariously clueless.

[Stagman]

Anyone who claims to be a "moderate" is a liberal career politician.

FIFY

[The Angry Optimist]

look what the cat dragged in. H+R is like cigarettes to joe; he starts chipping and next thing you know he's pack up to his 50-posts-a-day habit.

[crimethink]

If it hadn't been for liberal joe,
I'd a been married long time ago,
Where did ya come from,
where did ya go?
Where did ya come from, liberal joe?!

[Citizen Nothing]

joe (from Lowell), YOU never need modifiers around here.

[Tom]

"... profligacy."

Did everybody just discover this word or something? It seems that the world's pundits have, at least.

Instances of "profligacy" in the media, according to a Nexis search:

2006: 2,426 instances
2007: 2,536 instances
2008: 3,120 instances (nearly 60% of them in the second half of the year)

So far in 2009, we've got 1,337 instances. That's a pace that would hit 2,050 by June 30, and a whopping 4,135 by Dec. 31.

That's some profligate "profligacy." Enough!

[Rented Mule]

C'mon back joe.I like seeing somebody take a worse beating than me.

[John C Jackson]

The Club for Growth is not all about economics. They help out social con nutjobs, also.Or else they wouldn't target incumbents for opposing the War in Iraq or having a gay brother.

[Paul]

Wasn't Lindsey Graham one of the House Managers for the Clinton Impeachment?

No, he played with Fleetwood Mac, though.

Anyhoo... someone help me here. So small government conservatives are "taking over the party" with their extremist views, so the big government conservatives are leaving the party for the big government on stilts party: the democrats.

I guess now that George W. Bush is gone, these GOP party-switchers don't feel at home anymore? Is that what one should be taking from this?

[brotherben]

Democrats
Offer
Undeniable
Contest
Help in the
Election

[Jason]

As much as I dislike the prospect of the Democrats being a dominant party holding all the levers of party, I am getting quite the bellylaugh at the implosion of the Republican Party.

I mean, the Democrats are stupid but at least they're not proudly, militantly stupid like the Republicans.

[hmm]

Ready.

Get Set.

PANDER!!!

[There is a spectre haunting...]

I'm surprised they're letting him remain a senator after being convicted of killing that poor girl.

[Brandybuck]

Either way, any libertarian that holds out hope and continues to support this party is just a fool.

Anyone libertarian who expects the LP to ever get more than 0.5% of the vote in a national election is an even greater fool.

I spent the weekend at the California LP convention, and while a few guys get it, most still think they can win with an ultra-purist platform. All of politics is about compromise, and the LP refuses to compromise on any issue. The sad truth is that most people are not, nor ever will be, anarcho-purists. There has started to be some shift away from the traditional LP top-down campaigns towards more grassroots local elections, but it's a shift that should have been made thirty years ago.

p.s. You also need a party hard-nosed enough to keep Starchild away from the press.

[R C Dean]

The Club for Growth is not all about economics. They help out social con nutjobs, also.Or else they wouldn't target incumbents for opposing the War in Iraq or having a gay brother.

Now, targeting an opponent's weaknesses other than his profligate (hey, Tom!) taxing and spending ways doesn't mean they support a social con agenda. If you're trying to get a tax and spender out of office, all is fair in my book. Its For The Children, after all.

[R C Dean]

Also, what Brandybuck said. Libertarians are fighting the tide, here, the natural tendency of politicians to accumulate power and small-d democratic constituencies to shift responsibility for their own lives to Big Daddy in D.C. That means that, unlike the "progressives" of yore, they aren't going to get their agenda into place by osmosis, they are going to have to get it into place by politics, meaning, they actually have to start winning elections.

[BakedPenguin]

I spent the weekend at the California LP convention, and while a few guys get it, most still think they can win with an ultra-purist platform.

I disagree with Brandybuck about a lot of things, but not this. The LP is full of those types. They remind me of Jerry Stiller's Seinfeld character, only shouting "ABSOLUTE LIBERTY NOW!!" instead of "SERENITY NOW!!"

LP candidates are going to have to take position that are plausible given the current political climate. If an LP candidate was talking about vouchers, for example, I would be okay with that, so long as he/she mentioned that he/she viewed this as a step towards 'greater reforms'.

It's not about abandoning the ultimate goals of a much freer society, it's about getting elected so there can be a presence to talk about what those ultimate goals should be, as well as a presence to show what a real free marketer looks like when the Democrats/media point to the likes of G W Bush.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Another Senate douchebag get's to keep his job. I'm not sure why we don't just crown these assholes and get it over with.

[John Thacker]

The Club for Growth is not all about economics. They help out social con nutjobs, also.Or else they wouldn't target incumbents for opposing the War in Iraq or having a gay brother.

No, they target any fiscally liberal Republican that they can and looks vulnerable. They've never targeted anyone who wasn't among the biggest spenders in the Republican Party.

It happens that in elected and electable politicians, fiscal liberalism goes along with social liberalism. For all the talk about "fiscal conservative but socially liberal" voters, politicians like that don't win elections.

[jkp]

Their complaints are just stupid.

I mean, after all, the GOP has long been a home for George W. Bush, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, and other fiscally liberal, "big government" conservatives

[NAL]

Either way, any libertarian that holds out hope and continues to support this party is just a fool.

That said, I voted for McCain hoping for divided government. So many libertarians, independents and undecideds just couldn't stomach voting for anyone with an "R" after their name, but look where it's gotten us...the most liberal government in U.S. history with nothing standing in its way now (and a fauning press egging it on).

[engineer]

Duh, everyone knew Arlen Spector was a Democrat in all but name anyway. Bring us some news.

[Credible LP Candidate]

"LP candidates are going to have to take position that are plausible given the current political climate."

Well, I think we can hold off the complete abolition of private property for a few years...

[duderman]

"So many libertarians, independents and undecideds just couldn't stomach voting for anyone with an "R" after their name, but look where it's gotten us...the most liberal government in U.S. history with nothing standing in its way now (and a fauning press egging it on)."

Liberals have gotta be laughing their asses off at libertarians who approved of Obama. Maybe the arrival of a fully nationalized medical system will awaken a few libertarian minds still stuck in Republican-resentment mode.

[Jim Walsh]

When libertarians (like myself) used to bitch that the Group of Old People had no room in the tent for us, the response was, "Sure we do; we have Arlen Spector."

Now - tell me again why the Stupid Party should get one whit of my support...

[Tony]

Liberals have gotta be laughing their asses off at libertarians who approved of Obama. Maybe the arrival of a fully nationalized medical system will awaken a few libertarian minds still stuck in Republican-resentment mode.

Why wouldn't you laugh your ass off at people who are shocked that the person they voted for is enacting the agenda he campaigned on?

[NAL]

Now - tell me again why the Stupid Party should get one whit of my support...

Because the alternative is the Exceedingly Stupid Party, and more importantly, when you have divided government, the GOP actually do start to oppose big government. Don't ever let them have full control again, but the same can be said for the Dems. The GOP never had a filibuster-proof majority, however, and even when they had both houses, they had many moderates (McCain, Spectre, Snowe, Graham and a few others) who were RINOs.

[nj]

Fuck the republican party.

[Nikola T]

Ever try herding cats? Libertarians are individualists which by their very nature are unlikely to unite behind ANY party.

If freedom is to ever return, we'll need a cat herder.

[Creech]

Herd what cats? The total number of libertarians in this country is laughably small. Our ideas have not been presented in an attractive enough manner to win over a majority of citizens. (Oh, sure lots of flag-waving about liberty and freedom and shit but all those goes out the window when Santa Claus I and Santa Claus II appear at the voting booth.) Libertarians need a ton of education activities, with little to no need to count the votes yet, until both parties are freaking demanding libertarian candidates.