Moderates? What Moderates?

I have posted a fair amount recently about the search for moderates in the Republican Party or at least moderate republicans in the congress. WashingtonPost.com may have gotten to the root of it. It seems the republican base is anything but moderate and the base is too big for republican congressmen to ignore, if they want to keep their jobs, and you know they do.

Just ask Rep. Wayne Gilchrist (R-MD) when he voted to start bringing the troops home. He went to some town hall meetings and got called a coward and a traitor. This guy is a Marine Corp and Vietnam veteran.

Then there is Rep. Bob Inglis (R-SC) who voted for a non-binding resolution opposing a Bush troop increase. He had to kiss some major ass to avoid a primary for his seat.

This is more evidence that the Republican Party is dominated by right-wing shitheads and evangelicals. They've thrown in with the republicans and the republicans better deliver.

"That's the dilemma for Republicans going forward," Kohut said yesterday. "They've got to look out for their base, but they have to acknowledge the independents have aligned themselves with the way Democrats are thinking on the issue of Iraq."

The majority of Americans are for a timetable to end the war, but the lines are sharply drawn on both sides.

It is also the dilemma facing both sides of the stalemate as they try to write a war funding bill that can be signed into law. A poll last week by the Pew Center found that 59 percent of Americans want their members of Congress to support legislation calling for troop withdrawals by August 2008. Only a third wanted their representatives to oppose such a bill.
But neither side wants compromise. Most of those supporting a timeline for withdrawal -- 54 percent -- said Democratic leaders should insist on that position rather than compromising with Bush. The same percentage of opponents of withdrawal say that Bush should give no ground to the Democrats.

Unless the war turns around the republicans are in a tough spot. They're in this thing with all they have and it seems without the ability to compromise, the 2008 election will be worse for the right-wing than 2006.

The search for moderates in the republican delegation is becoming a huge waste of time. There aren't any, and unless the grass roots moderates get active and actually become the base then we are going to be blessed with a long-term democratic majority in addition to a democratic president.

A one party government is not good for this country even if it is a democratic one. We are suffering the consequences now of republican one party rule and it will take years to get over the effects at home and around the world. Of course, a competent president the last six years would have made a big difference.

The curious thing in all this is that there is a large contingent of moderates in the Democratic Party. Apparently there is another name for a moderate, it's called a democrat.

Jim Martin

[thanks to The Moderate Voice for the link]