Commentary

GOP moderates should go nuclear

Susan J. Demas

Wingnuts of the world unite. You have nothing to lose but election ... after election ... after election.

That's the lesson from the far right's stinging defeat in a New York Republican congressional district this week. Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman harangued GOP Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava into dropping out -- hailed as a huge victory for Real Republicans -- and then the teabagger-cum-carpetbagger lost the upstate New York seat to a little-known Democrat.

Brilliant strategy. But it's one we've seen from Republicans over and over, thanks to the shadowy anti-tax group Club for Growth. Its first scalp was here in Michigan -- moderate former U.S. Rep. Joe Schwarz, R-Battle Creek, who was ousted by preacher Tim Walberg in the 2006 primary.

Walberg managed to do two years later what Republicans thought impossible when they carved out the 57-percent GOP district -- relinquish it to a Democrat. And not some Blue Dog, but Mark Schauer, the pro-choice minority leader of the state Senate with a penchant for voting for tax hikes.

That was just the beginning. Obsessed with hunting RINOs (Republicans in Name Only), the Club for Growth has bagged an impressive list, including U.S. Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., U.S. Rep. Wayne Gilchrest, R-Md., U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., and now Scozzafava.

There's just one problem. All of these seats are now held by Democrats.

So what is Club for Growth? Think of it as the spiritual godfather of the Tea Party movement.

Officials claim ad nauseum, as President Chris Chocola did recently to The Atlantic, that there's no litmus test on social issues, but that seems laughable. Both he and former Club for Growth chief Pat Toomey (whose greatest accomplishment is turning Sen. Arlen Specter into a Democrat) were religious right darlings in Congress.

Like Hoffman and Walberg, Club-endorsed candidates almost unfailingly are anti-abortion hard-liners who will rant about the evils of gay marriage. Besides Club for Growth, their biggest backers are Right to Life, the Minuteman groups and gun-rights organizations.

Hoffman went into Tuesday the odds-on favorite. Club for Growth officials puffed up their chests and let it be known that they were a-comin' for GOP Gov. Charlie Crist in Florida.

But a funny thing happened. Hoffman lost, thanks in no small part to Scozzafava's endorsement of Democrat Bill Owens (just as Schauer can thank Schwarz for his seat).

But you'd never know it from the alternate-reality universe of the extreme right. Erick Erickson of Redstate.com immediately declared Owens' win a "huge victory for conservatives."

No one can top the scatological acrobatics of Rush Limbaugh, who accused Scozzafava of "widespread bestiality," adding that she's "screwed every RINO in the country." Now that's high-quality programming for the family values set.

Of course, it was the rabid horde of Rush, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Dick Armey and the once-respectable former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty that messed up the party. Blather all you want that Scozzafava and Owens are one and the same, but the average member of Congress will vote with his or her party most of the time.

Ronald Reagan knew that. But then again, he was more interested in winning and governing than party purity.

Club for Growth is uncowed, ready for jihad against Crist, Carly Fiorina in the California Senate race and a host of other Republicans. Its intimidation campaign is working. Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele quickly warned the anemic GOP minority in Congress to "walk a little bit carefully" on votes. Translation: Vote for ideology, not your districts' interests.

Although centrist Illinois U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk knows he'll never get the Club's blessing for Barack Obama's old Senate seat, he's scrambling to lock down an early Sarah Palin endorsement to inoculate himself against right-wing venom. It's a curious twist, since when the Chicago Tribune asked him in '08 if the sassy former Wasilla mayor was qualified to be a heartbeat from the presidency, Kirk replied, "Quite frankly, I don't know."

This is a game moderates are bound to lose. The deck is stacked against them in primaries dominated by pro-lifers and Tea Partiers. Centrists inexplicably don't vote in primaries.

But reality sets in come the general election, when extremists are a minority. And to the spoils go the Democrats, who look comparatively sane.

There is a way for moderates to fight back, but it's a nuclear option. Let CFG puppets take GOP primaries and then run well-known moderates as independents in the general. They might not win, but they'd at least guarantee the Kool-Aid drinkers would go down.

Bet that would grab the party poobahs' attention.

Susan J. Demas is a political analyst for Michigan Information & Research Service.