Holy Shit, Democrats like to curse a lot. Maybe it’s because we’re all kind of pissed off? Nah. It couldn’t be that. It looks like a lot Republicans are kind of pissed off, too. They’re not happy with the Republicans candidates for President. Guiliani is pro-choice, pro-gay rights, and, heaven fordid, he’s been married three times. Newt Gingrich has his checkered history with the ladies (see: cancer ward, abandonment, girl Friday). Huckabee raised taxes on cigarettes. Brownback doesn’t hate him enough furrenners (also, I am sensing a lack of resolve in the war on terror). And there is good old John McCain. Remember when he denounced ‘Jerry Falwell, along with Pat Robertson, Louis Farrakhan and Al Sharpton, as “agents of intolerance” who were “corrupting influences” in American politics’? The Christian conservatives sure do. And even if McCain has tried to do his kissy-and-make-up with Falwell, a lot of people aren’t buying it. It isn’t helping him mend fences that:
Sen. John McCain is the only major Republican presidential candidate who will not address the nation’s premier gathering of conservatives this year.
Sponsors of the Conservative Political Action Conference, which begins today in Washington and brings together thousands of conservative leaders and grass-roots activists, say the Arizona Republican has “dissed” organizers by attempting to schedule a private reception for attendees after rejecting invitations to speak at the event.
“It was a classical McCain move, dissing us by going behind our backs,” said William J. Lauderback, executive vice president of the American Conservative Union.
It all adds up to a discontented right-wing of the Republican Party that is going to focus on the House and Senate:
— Conservative activists are shifting their 2008 focus to recapturing the House and Senate, hoping that GOP control of at least one chamber of Congress would thwart liberal policies that could come either from a Democratic or moderate Republican White House.
Conservative leaders, who are gathering in Washington today for the first Conservative Political Action Conference meeting since the Republican Party’s electoral defeat last year, acknowledged in interviews that it will be difficult to reclaim control of Congress. But faced with a pack of GOP presidential contenders with spotty conservative credentials, the party’s fiscal and social conservatives say they are making a special effort to reclaim power on Capitol Hill to hold the next White House in line.
“For years, the party was completely president-centric, and put all their efforts into keeping the presidency,” said Grover Norquist , president of Americans for Tax Reform. “But going into 2008, it’s going to be equally important to pick up the House and Senate. Now, people recognize you can govern from either body,” not just the White House, Norquist said.
Paul Weyrich , president of the Free Congress Foundation, said the party’s top-tier presidential candidates — including Arizona Senator John McCain, former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani , and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney — are too liberal for many conservatives.
“If we can’t play a role in the presidential [election] , then at least let’s elect some senators and congressmen. Maybe we can play a role in Congress,” Weyrich said.
Funny thing is, this is exactly what I advocated that Progressives do, just yesterday. We don’t have a presidential candidate, so let’s make sure we are ready to go toe to toe with Weyrich and Norquist.
