Salon.com > GOP Civil War

Paul Ryan to GOP: Don’t abandon abortion fight

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 14:32:00 +0000

In the ongoing war within the conservative movement over whether the GOP should continue its fight on social issues, Rep. Paul Ryan becomes one of the highest-profile Republican officials to weigh in last night, telling an antiabortion group that the GOP must continue its fight against choice.

"Our critics say we should abandon our pro-life beliefs. But that would only demoralize our voters," the Hill reports Ryan told the Susan B. Anthony List gala last night. "It’s an odd strategy, I think: the cynical ploy followed by the thumping defeat."

"Our task isn't to purge our ranks. It's to grow them," Ryan said at the event in Washington.

The congressman is known primarily as a budget wonk, but is well to the right of many Republicans on abortion, opposing it in all cases (including rape and incest) except for when the life of the mother is in danger.

Tony Perkins: Stop donating to the GOP!

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 13:45:00 +0000

Family Research Council president Tony Perkins is urging activists to stop donating money to the GOP, escalating the ongoing war between social conservatives and the mainline Republican Party.

"Until the RNC and the other national Republican organizations grow a backbone and start defending core principles, don’t send them a dime of your hard-earned money," Perkins said in the email to supporters obtained by CNN. "If you want to invest in the political process, and I encourage you to do so, give directly to candidates who reflect your values and organizations you trust-like FRC Action."

The Republican National Committee is this week meting in California, where the Christian right hopes it will adopt a resolution affirming their opposition to marriage equality. Perkins and a dozen other social conservative leaders wrote a strongly worded letter to committee members yesterday warning that if they do not adopt the resolution, it "will necessarily result in the abandonment of our constituents'" support for GOP candidates.

Will the Christian right flee the GOP?

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 18:51:00 +0000

Will social conservatives really make good on their threats, and form their own political party? With the course of history and their own political allies leaving them in the dust, the group is facing an existential crisis that has left them at the nadir of their power with no obvious path to recovery -- and now they're getting desperate.

Inside the conservative movement, the Tea Party has displaced evangelical activists as the dynamic force, pushing economic issues ahead of social ones, while voters affirmed their support for gay rights and punished candidates with restrictionist views on abortion in 2012. In their "autopsy report," the Republican National Committee essentially suggested abandoning social conservatives -- despite leaning on them heavily just a few years ago to elect and reelect George W. Bush -- and even the movement conservatives at CPAC had little appetite for the Christian-right causes of yore.

Needless to say, social conservatives who are not happy about this state of affairs are lashing out against their friends, threatening to leave the GOP if it doesn't join them on the wrong side of history.

A Republican website without “Republicans”

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 16:25:00 +0000

The new website for the National Republican Congressional Committee, the campaign arm of House Republicans, has earned a lot of attention in the past week for its bold new attempt to win the Internet and elections by imitating BuzzFeed. On the website today, you can find items like "13 Animals That Are Really Bummed on ObamaCare’s Third Birthday" or a video of President Obama whiffing 20 free throws. There's more substantive fare too, like a polling memo on the Keystone XL pipeline.

One thing you won't find on the front page, however, is the word "Republican," except for at the very bottom in a disclaimer box that reads, "Paid for by the National Republican Congressional Committee."

Ben Carson compares homosexuality to murder

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 16:55:00 +0000

It's been noted that the meteoric rise of Ben Carson, the world-class neurosurgeon hailed as the future of the GOP, hit a snag last week when he compared marriage equality to pedophilia and bestiality at a time when some conservatives are desperately trying to make their party more appealing to gay people. But while the rising star apologized for those remarks, it turns out a passage in his 1999 book may complicate the attempt at crisis cleanup.

In his book "The Big Picture," Carson went even further than his recent remarks, calling homosexuality a sin comparable to murder and cheating. The book decries the "obsession with politically correct speech," saying it has "reduced the quality of meaningful dialogue" and that it "discourages honesty."

Have Republicans read their new rebranding report?

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 21:13:00 +0000

How serious are Republicans about their effort to reach out to minorities, one of the core doctrines of their big new Growth and Opportunity Project report they released this morning? We may find out pretty quickly with a series of tests that will demonstrate whether Republican elites at the Republican National Committee can control the more unsavory elements in the base.

The report says "we have to engage" minority voters "and show our sincerity.” A first test of that strategy approached them almost instantly, with President Obama’s nomination today of Tom Perez to serve as labor secretary. And so far, they don't seem to be implementing it very deftly.

Perez, who is currently the head of the Department of Justice’ Civil Rights Division, has had his name dragged through the mud over factually inaccurate, race-baiting charges of impropriety. Some conservatives claim that Perez, a Latino working under the first black president and first black attorney general in history, dismissed a case against a handful of New Black Panther activists in some kind gesture of racial solidarity.

Limbaugh slams RNC rebrand plan

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 16:26:00 +0000

Rush Limbaugh is not a fan of the new report released this morning by the Republican National Committee about what the party needs to do to rebrand itself, saying the RNC completely misunderstood the lessons of the 2012 election.

"The Republicans are just getting totally bamboozled right now. And they are entirely lacking in confidence. Which is what happens to every political party after an election in which they think they got shellacked," the influential conservative radio host told his listeners this morning. "They think they got landslided, but they didn't."

GOP expert: Anti-gay views hurting party’s tech recruitment

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 15:24:00 +0000

In its massive autopsy report released Monday, the Republican National Committee says the party needs to get a lot better at technology if it ever hopes to win a presidential election again. "A commitment to greater technology and digital resources in all areas referenced above is critical," the task force report notes. And according to a poll conducted by the group, GOP political operatives say data analytics and better digital outreach are among the top priorities for the party heading into the 2014 and 2016 elections.

But Republicans have one very big problem when it comes to recruiting the talent needed to modernize the party's digital infrastructure: its hostility towards gay people.

That's according to Liz Mair, who was the RNC's online communications director in 2008 before leaving to start her own political consulting firm. Since then, she's worked with Carly Fiorina on her 2010 California Senate bid, with Rick Perry’s 2012 presidential campaign, and with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s successful reelection effort after a recall attempt last year.

Marco Rubio vs. Jeb Bush

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 15:00:00 +0000

The always crucial Florida Republican primary in the 2016 presidential race is still almost three years away, but the state’s real primary battle may not be decided by voters at the ballot box, but by a small group of wealthy Florida donors after a battle fought on the airwaves and in backrooms.

Regardless of which names actually end up on the ballot in January 2016, there are two participants in a Florida primary happening right now: Jeb Bush and his ascendent former protégé, Marco Rubio. And it took on added intrigue this week with the flap over Bush’s book.

People who have worked in Florida politics say Rubio would be nowhere without the former governor. His initial election as a young state legislator; his meteoric rise in state House of Representatives to speaker after just five years; his improbable victory in the 2010 Republican Senate primary against establishment-backed Charlie Crist; his national visibility as a GOP rising star -- none of it would have happened without Bush’s imprimatur and guiding hand, they say.

GOP civil war: Limbaugh vs. the consultants

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 15:55:00 +0000

The last time we checked in with the post-election GOP civil war, Herman Cain was threatening to form a new party to compete with the GOP, Bill Kristol sparked a schism over tax increases, and Grover Norquist, the high priest of anti-tax dogma, was losing his grip on congressional Republicans.

This week, the Republican soul searching and polite recriminations via anonymous quote exploded into an all-out war of words between representatives of two wings of the party that have never gotten along, but largely kept quiet for the good of the conservative cause.

In one corner are the consultants, Steve Schmidt, who managed John McCain’s 2008 campaign, and Mike Murphy, who advised Mitt Romney. In the other corner is Rush Limbaugh, the embodiment of the conservative id in human form. We don’t have a dog in this fight as there’s blood on both of their hands, so just sit back and enjoy.

Rubio flirts with creationism

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 16:10:00 +0000

Two things have defined Florida Sen. Marco Rubio in the post-election era, and they may be connected. One, he's become the first potential 2016 candidate to take any of the traditional steps one makes when laying the groundwork for a presidential bid, traveling to Iowa this weekend for a political event. Rubio is the front-runner, for the moment, at least, even though the dust has yet to settle from 2012.

Second, he seems to have zagged to the right while the rest of his party is zigging (or at least head-faking) to the middle. While other national leaders in his party, almost to a person, have condemned Mitt Romney's postmortem "gifts" comments and the candidate more generally, Rubio brushed aside the comments and generously defended Romney. "I hope Mitt will stay involved in politics. I thought he was a great candidate, would have made a great president, and I hope he stays involved in our party," he said in Iowa.

Sunday best: Bill Kristol wants to raise taxes on millionaires

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 18:15:00 +0000

With the election over, the hot new thing that all the cool kids on the Sunday political chat shows were talking about today was the looming fiscal cliff and what Congress should do about it -- and you’ll be surprised by one recommendation.

The tax increases and government spending cuts set to go into effect early next year are so massive that they could plunge the economy back into recession, unless Congress figures out a less painful way to reduce the deficit. The argument has so far broken down along the predictable partisan lines that we’ve seen in countless congressional battles over the past few years. Democrats want a balance of spending cuts and tax increases, while Republicans insist on zero tax increases, and maybe not even a dime in new revenue increases of any kind.

But just as the election has chastened Republicans on immigration, it may be doing the same thing on taxes. Bill Kristol, the editor of the Weekly Standard and one of the most prominent establishment conservative voices in Washington, threw the door wide open to tax hikes as part of fiscal cliff negotiations today. "It won't kill the country if we raise taxes a little bit on millionaires ... It really won't, I don't think. I don't really understand why Republicans don't take Obama's offer," he said on "Fox News Sunday."