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SELLING OUT PRINCIPLE BACKFIRES ON GOP
by Chuck Muth
April 19, 2004
When, oh when, will the Republican Party and the White House start listening to
its limited-government, constitutional conservatives? It seems every time they
make a "strategic" move for political rather than philosophical reasons it comes
back to bite 'em in the wahzoo. Yet they never seem to learn. Some recent
examples include...
Shoving that new prescription drug benefit down our throats - the largest
expansion of government since the reign of LBJ - in hopes of sucking up to
senior citizens for next November's elections. Not only is the plan going to
cost a king's ransom more than projected (just as limited-government
conservatives predicted), but it's had no effect whatsoever in moving
significant chunks of seniors into the GOP column.
How about that illegal alien amnesty program the president proposed in January
hoping for a political payoff from Hispanics in November? Major backfire.
Instead, he's lost considerable support from segments of his base which cleave
to the radical notion that if you reward illegal behavior you get...well, even
more illegal behavior. Go figure.
Then there's the president's endorsement for that anti-state's rights
constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages in order to shore up his
political support among social conservatives. Except that an exhaustive recent
poll of evangelicals shows a majority of them OPPOSE the federal marriage
amendment and believe the issue should be resolved at the state level.
But for my money, the most egregious sell-out of principle by this
administration and its cohorts in Congress was the cave-in to Sen. John McCain,
Arizona Republican, over campaign finance reform. And since there IS justice in
this world, that act of political cowardice is coming back to haunt them - in
the immortal words of Vice President Dick Cheney - "big time."
After steadfastly opposing McCain/Feingold for years, a handful of Republicans
gave up, packed it in and allowed a vote on this anti-American piece of
legislation. It passed. And why not? The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA)
included riders which (a) stopped opponents from saying bad things about
incumbent congressmen in the days leading up to re-election, and (b) made it
even harder for challengers to raise money while making it easier for
incumbents.
Now, no one can be too surprised at Congress voting for an unconstitutional law
which benefits them so handsomely (they do it all the time), but how does one
excuse the President of the United States for signing that bill? You can't.
The White House thought they'd buy off McCain politically while dumping the
whole mess in the Supreme Court's lap, believing the court would do their dirty
work and find the law unconstitutional.
Only the court, to its own shame and disgrace, shredded what's left of the First
Amendment and declared McCain/Feingold a perfectly acceptable infringement on
speech.
So it's with a perverse form of pleasure to watch the Republican National
Committee (RNC) and the Bush/Cheney team howling like scalded dogs these days
about liberal money from the likes of George Soros and those yo-yos over at
MoveOn.org being diverted to anti-Bush campaign efforts. Frankly, they're
getting what they deserve.
Nevertheless, the GOP is petitioning the FEC to intercede and stop these liberal
groups and individuals from using "soft" (generally, corporate and union) money
to fund their anti-Bush activities. And when that effort likely fails, they
intend to appeal to yet another court of law in yet another attempt to restrict
yet another form of political speech.
For the nation's sake, let's hope the FEC and the courts tell the Republicans
and the White House to pound dirt. You reap what you sow. Live with it. We
need MORE political speech in this country, not less.
Plus.forward-looking constitutional conservatives are going to need the same
flexibility and freedom to mount similar independent campaign expenditures in
2008 against the greatest gathering threat to limited-government since FDR:
Madame Hillary. God help us and pass the soft-money collection plate.
# # #
Chuck Muth is president of Citizen Outreach, a non-profit public policy advocacy
organization in Washington, D.C. The views expressed are his own and do not
necessarily reflect the views of Citizen Outreach. He may be reached at
chuckmuth@earthlink.net.
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