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Two Republican Moderates in Senate Worry About Future of GOP

Posted June 1, 2009

When Maine's two U.S. senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, broke ranks with all but one other Republican and voted "Yes" on President Barack Obama's $787 billion stimulus, they handed the White House an early, critical win. As some Republicans seethed, the two were celebrated as the most powerful women in Washington.

The only Republican senator to join Snowe and Collins in voting for the stimulus bill vote was Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania. Democrats needed at least two of the three votes for the bill to reach Obama's desk. Weeks later, Specter, a moderate who had long been courted by Democrats, abandoned the GOP, his home for 43 years, in an about-face that was both stunning and predictable: stunning because he had often insisted that he would never flee his party, and predictable because in doing so he joined a long list of moderate Republican senators who are yesterday's news.

The Senate once was a comfortable home for GOP centrists, with household names like John Warner of Virginia, Alan Simpson of Wyoming, John and Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, and three Oregonians: Bob Packwood, Mark Hatfield, and Gordon Smith.

Another moderate, Jim Jeffords of Vermont, famously defected from the GOP in 2001 and restyled himself an independent. Jeffords declined to run again in 2006. Snowe felt the 2006 losses personally; she carried Maine handily with 74 percent of the vote, but two neighbors in the Senate's Russell Building went down, Mike DeWine of Ohio and Lincoln Chafee. And when Oregon voters threw Smith out in 2008, the three states on America's "Left Coast" lost the only GOP senator they had. "It's devastating, really, when you look at the totality of the picture and the imbalance it has created in our party," Snowe says. "Somebody wrote to me recently and said, 'If Republicans don't watch out, we'll have the smallest tent in history for a political party.' "

The stimulus vote demonstrated the clout Collins and Snowe wield with Democrats short of the 60 votes needed to advance controversial bills. But their outsize influence has done nothing to tamp down their real worries about the future of the Grand Old Party.

A pivotal figure in negotiations on the stimulus, Collins was bombarded with about 100,000 E-mails in the days leading up to the vote: about 13,000 from Mainers, who were split on the issue, and the rest from mostly angry out-of-staters who condemned her "in very personal terms," Collins says. National politics can be as much a contact sport as ice hockey, something Mainers know a thing or two about. But what's curious about the anti-Collins campaign is who she thinks was behind it. Though she won't name him publicly, she blames a fellow GOP senator for unleashing it.

It used to be that the Republican Senate caucus, which has shrunk to 40 lawmakers, was much more collegial. But while she is "disappointed" by the sharp elbows, Collins worries more about the broader implications of the dwindling number of GOP centrists. And her concern is echoed by Snowe. They say the loss of moderates is bad for the GOP, bad for their region, and bad for America. And they fear that the party ultimately could cede turf to moderate Democrats, jeopardizing hopes of regaining congressional majorities and putting the GOP at risk in future presidential contests.

Collins coasted to re-election last fall with 61 percent of the vote, but throughout the six states of New England (Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut) she saw a distressing pattern. With four Senate battles and 22 House races across the region, "I was the lone victor" among GOP hopefuls, she says. In the House, no Republican anywhere on the ideological spectrum now represents New England, once a GOP stronghold. Collins believes that as party allegiances become more entrenched in many places, the competition between parties is dropping off and debate is being stifled. And this, she says, isn't good for the GOP's prospects: "We're not going to win presidential elections if we become increasingly a party of white, Southern men."

Toe the line. The new chair of the Republican National Committee, former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, is an African-American whose choice was intended to prevent that. But he found himself in hot water with the Senate centrists when he threatened to fund primary challengers against them if they didn't toe the line on key votes. "Strange," says Collins. "Horrendous," says Snowe. "I have been in Congress for 30 years, and there was always sort of an understanding that, obviously, senators and members of the House are going to depart from the norm of the Republican Party" on some votes. "You're reflecting the views of your constituents," she says.

Reader Comments

Trillion-Dollar Bank Shakedown Continues:

Obama’s attack on our free market economy began long before the current crisis. The following legal documents, news articles, and videos show his part in causing this crisis over the past fifteen years. Now he uses it as an excuse to do even more damage. To him, our free enterprise system is a giant merciless beast that he and his allies have succeeded in wounding. In a free market, your choices as a consumer, select against society’s losers, which he represents. This is why the Obamabots, having won, are still seething with hatred for their opponents. Having wounded the beast they are now closing in for the kill. The recovery of our free market economy is not their objective. They would rather replace it with something else. So their policies are only making matters measurably worse. They want revenge for the unfairness they perceive in the free market.

These legal documents show Barack Obama suing Citibank under the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) from 1994 to 1998, where he and other lawyers got $950,000 in legal fees without finding any evidence of wrongdoing:

http://clearinghouse.wustl.edu/chDocs/public/FH-IL-0011-9000.pdf

http://clearinghouse.wustl.edu/chDocs/public/FH-IL-0011-0007.pdf

This was part of a legalized protection racket perpetrated on our nations banks, and part of a widespread systematic shakedown, described in detail in this article published in the year 2000: "The Trillion-Dollar Bank Shakedown That Bodes Ill for Cities":

http://www.city-journal.org/html/10_1_the_trillion_dollar.html

The New York Times reported on this in 2003, and explained what additional regulatory action the Bush administration tried to initiate to protect the banks, in "New Agency Proposed to Oversee Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae", only to be blocked by Democrats in congress:

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/11/business/new-agency-proposed-to-oversee-freddie-mac-and-fannie-mae.html?sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1

Obama, ACORN, Bill Clinton, the Clinton Administration, and members of congress explain what happened here in their own words in these videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN31-nKndg8&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-TyH6Yupso

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lr1M1T2Y314

This video connects the dots:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RZVw3no2A4&feature=iv&annotation_id=event_597487

Thomas Sowell summarized it all in his column, "Do Facts Matter?":

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NGRjODM1MTJlOGZiZDk2ODI4NTUzMWMxYjgwMjliMGQ

The Washington Post provides additional detail: ("Where Was Sen. Dodd? Playing the Blame Game On Fannie and Freddie"):

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/11/AR2008091102841.html

The Wall Street Journal provides additional detail: ("Blame Fannie Mae and Congress For the Credit Mess "):

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122212948811465427.html

This pattern of behavior must be stopped to protect the economic future of our country.

Barry of CA
Aug 03, 2009 13:09:09 PM [permalink] [report comment]

Trent,

Had your read my first comment on this article you would know that I actually advocated the philosophy of Lincoln and Jefferson explicitly. I will re-post my first comment on this article for you again here:

“Katherine Skiba, You wrote:

"Weeks later, Specter, a moderate who had long been courted by Democrats, abandoned the GOP, his home for 43 years, in an about-face that was both stunning and predictable: stunning because he had often insisted that he would never flee his party, and predictable because in doing so he joined a long list of moderate Republican senators who are yesterday's news."

You think it's stunning when a politician breaks his promise? Those of us paying attention to such things think it's stunning if they don't break their promises. For the sake of your own credibility you may want to consider choosing your words more carefully in your pursuit of irony, as I doubt you could be that naive. Obviously Specter knew that his Republican constituents counted his vote on the stimulus package as one betrayal too many. Obama’s promised bipartisanship exists in name only as it depended on such treachery. Apparently Specter had polls showing he could not get re-elected as a Republican after that. Apparently polls showed he had a better chance as a Democrat. He had already switched sides long ago; this just makes it official. Now Republican voters will have the opportunity to vote for a Republican who agrees with them, not a closet Democrat calling himself a Republican.

You wrote:

"And this, she says, isn't good for the GOP's prospects: "We're not going to win presidential elections if we become increasingly a party of white, Southern men.""

I've never been a Southerner, but I'm offended by this constant impulse to categorize people demographically. Is it impossible to discuss the philosophical issues affecting us all, related to how people should govern themselves, or must we always be divided into categories assigned to us by others, and pitted against each other based our demographical or geographical differences, for the purpose of defeating each other? We are united in defense of our certain inalienable rights, but the politicos always want to divide and conquer us. The politics of group identity is profoundly bigoted, and has ravaged Europe, Asia, and Africa for thousands of years. Our ancestors escaped such tribalism coming to this continent. Why must we return to it?

The philosophical beliefs expressed by Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln are alive and well, and would be successful if journalists and politicians had any interest to discuss and defend them. Unfortunately, seeing how such an awareness would limit the power of their political class, they go to great lengths to obscure such an understanding.”

Barry of CA
Jul 29, 2009 18:18:21 PM [permalink] [report comment]

The Trillion-Dollar Bank Shakedown Continues: