MontyB
All-Blacks Supporter
Not sure about anyone else but I found this rather interesting, it makes me think that if this is the general line of thinking a GOP comeback in 2010 may be delayed.
Conservatives Cite Defeats as Rebuke of Moderates
By Michael Falcone After a stinging rebuke of their party on Election Day, a group of soul-searching conservatives who met to map out the future of their movement on Thursday suggested that their best course was to turn their back on more moderate elements of the Republican Party.
And they said that if future candidates for public office want to tap into the vast fund-raising and grassroots resources of the conservative movement, they would have to fit a “job description” holding them to a set of core principles, like fiscal restraint, opposition to abortion, tough border security and a strong national defense.
“The moderate wing of the Republican Party is dead,” L. Brent Bozell, the founder of the Media Research Center, a conservative watchdog group, told reporters on a conference call after the meeting.
The group of about 20 prominent conservative who met at Mr. Bozell’s retreat in the Virginia countryside said the election was a signal that conservatives had become too accommodating of moderate Republican views.
“Conservatives were silent when Republican Congressional leaders massively expanded government,” said Richard A. Viguerie, a longtime leader of the movement. “Going forward you are going to see conservatives look to themselves for leadership.”
The defeat of Senator John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, as well as Democratic gains in the House and Senate, was the catalyst for Thursday’s discussion. In House races, in particular, it was the view of the group that conservatives held onto many of their seats while moderate Republicans fared poorly.
Keith Appell, the senior vice president of a public relations firm active in Republican causes, said on Friday that conservatives were not lamenting the losses of moderate members of the party.
“I don’t think any of us are going to shed any tears over losing Chris Shays,” Mr. Appell, said. Mr. Shays, a Republican Congressman from Connecticut, has long drawn the ire of conservatives for his left-leaning views. He was defeated in his re-election bid on Tuesday by Democrat Jim Himes.
The members of the small group, who planned to continue their meetings, suggested the future of their movement rested on a return to fundamental conservative principles coupled with a more effective use of technologies, like social networking and text messaging, that Democrats have so successfully harnessed.
Others who attended the meeting included Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, Tony Blankley, who served as a spokesman for Newt Gingrich, Al Regnery, the publisher of the American Spectator, and Kellyanne Conway, a Republican pollster.
Tony Perkins, director of the Family Research Council and a participant in the deliberations, said in an interview that Tuesday’s election confirmed that the Republican Party is “in a ditch.” Candidates for elected officials who are “squishy on conservative principles” would not longer be tolerated, Mr. Perkins said.
And even after a bruising campaign, some said they regarded the Republican vice presidential candidate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, as a rising conservative star.
“I can tell you that the candidacy of Sarah Palin was immensely helpful — actually essential — to making this a reasonably close race,” said Morton C. Blackwell, a conservative activist. Had Mr. McCain not selected her to be his running mate, Mr. Blackwell said, “I think the Republican ticket would have fared like Senator Dole’s did back in 1996.”
Many polls, though, suggested that while Mrs. Palin initially provided a boost to the McCain campaign, by the last weeks of the race her presence on the ticket had turned away many voters, particularly more moderate ones.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/conservatives-cite-defeats-as-reason-to-move-right/
Conservatives Cite Defeats as Rebuke of Moderates
By Michael Falcone After a stinging rebuke of their party on Election Day, a group of soul-searching conservatives who met to map out the future of their movement on Thursday suggested that their best course was to turn their back on more moderate elements of the Republican Party.
And they said that if future candidates for public office want to tap into the vast fund-raising and grassroots resources of the conservative movement, they would have to fit a “job description” holding them to a set of core principles, like fiscal restraint, opposition to abortion, tough border security and a strong national defense.
“The moderate wing of the Republican Party is dead,” L. Brent Bozell, the founder of the Media Research Center, a conservative watchdog group, told reporters on a conference call after the meeting.
The group of about 20 prominent conservative who met at Mr. Bozell’s retreat in the Virginia countryside said the election was a signal that conservatives had become too accommodating of moderate Republican views.
“Conservatives were silent when Republican Congressional leaders massively expanded government,” said Richard A. Viguerie, a longtime leader of the movement. “Going forward you are going to see conservatives look to themselves for leadership.”
The defeat of Senator John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, as well as Democratic gains in the House and Senate, was the catalyst for Thursday’s discussion. In House races, in particular, it was the view of the group that conservatives held onto many of their seats while moderate Republicans fared poorly.
Keith Appell, the senior vice president of a public relations firm active in Republican causes, said on Friday that conservatives were not lamenting the losses of moderate members of the party.
“I don’t think any of us are going to shed any tears over losing Chris Shays,” Mr. Appell, said. Mr. Shays, a Republican Congressman from Connecticut, has long drawn the ire of conservatives for his left-leaning views. He was defeated in his re-election bid on Tuesday by Democrat Jim Himes.
The members of the small group, who planned to continue their meetings, suggested the future of their movement rested on a return to fundamental conservative principles coupled with a more effective use of technologies, like social networking and text messaging, that Democrats have so successfully harnessed.
Others who attended the meeting included Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, Tony Blankley, who served as a spokesman for Newt Gingrich, Al Regnery, the publisher of the American Spectator, and Kellyanne Conway, a Republican pollster.
Tony Perkins, director of the Family Research Council and a participant in the deliberations, said in an interview that Tuesday’s election confirmed that the Republican Party is “in a ditch.” Candidates for elected officials who are “squishy on conservative principles” would not longer be tolerated, Mr. Perkins said.
And even after a bruising campaign, some said they regarded the Republican vice presidential candidate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, as a rising conservative star.
“I can tell you that the candidacy of Sarah Palin was immensely helpful — actually essential — to making this a reasonably close race,” said Morton C. Blackwell, a conservative activist. Had Mr. McCain not selected her to be his running mate, Mr. Blackwell said, “I think the Republican ticket would have fared like Senator Dole’s did back in 1996.”
Many polls, though, suggested that while Mrs. Palin initially provided a boost to the McCain campaign, by the last weeks of the race her presence on the ticket had turned away many voters, particularly more moderate ones.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/conservatives-cite-defeats-as-reason-to-move-right/
