DLR'sCock
04-25-2004, 01:20 PM
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Pennsylvania-Senate.html
GOP Targets It's Own Moderates
The Associated Press
Friday 23 April 2004
PHILADELPHIA - Sen. Arlen Specter's fight for his political life against a conservative challenger is more than a tight primary race, it stands as a struggle for survival of a dying breed: moderate Republicans in an increasingly polarized Senate.
The four-term incumbent has the second-most centrist voting record in a GOP class largely made up of conservatives elected to the Senate following the 1994 "Republican Revolution" that gave the GOP control of the House and Senate.
His independent ideology and willingness to side with Democrats on social and economic issues have long irked rank-and-file conservatives who are now cheering on Republican Rep. Pat Toomey in Tuesday's primary.
Public polls this week show the primary race has narrowed to as few as 5 percentage points.
Acknowledging that "we have lost a lot of our centrist senators," Specter hopes he won't be the next.
"The polarization causes a problem in the way the Congress is functioning with very bitter disputes in the House and almost as bitter disputes in the Senate," Specter said. "We have been dysfunctional for a long period of time. And that hurts the country when you don't have centrists who can walk across the aisle to transact the public's business."
Specter's lifetime Senate voting record gives him a 43 percent approval rating from the American Conservative Union and 59 percent from the liberal Americans for Democratic Action. Only Republican Rep. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island has a higher liberal and lower conservative rating among the number of moderate Republican senators that is dwindling to about a half dozen.
Republican Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado is retiring.
By contrast, Toomey has lifetime approval ratings of 96 and 5 percent from the conservative and liberal groups.
The Senate's shrinking centrism reflects the nation's own political polarization, as Democrats become more liberal and Republicans more conservative, said political scientist Jack Pitney at Claremont McKenna College in southern California.
"It's good for clarity, bad for comity," said Pitney, who worked for the Republican National Committee and was on the staffs of former Sen. Alfonse D'Amato, R-N.Y., and then-Rep. Dick Cheney. "Things do get done, but the politics can get very harsh."
But Toomey argued on Friday that he has reached across the aisle on banking and health care legislation in the House and looked forward to doing the same in the Senate.
"My criticism of Arlen Specter is when he reaches across the aisle to help advance the cause of Democrats," Toomey said, ticking off Specter's alliances with Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., on issues such as tax cuts, stem-cell research and tort reform.
Toomey's biggest primary backers are a group of tax watchdog groups, most notably the Club For Growth, which has poured nearly $2 million in contributions and TV ads into the race. A Toomey victory, Club president Stephen Moore said, could scare moderate GOP senators back to conservative causes.
"Finally, we have a Republican House, a Republican Senate and a Republican president and yet the budget is still growing like weeds," Moore said. "And people are saying, 'Well, wait a minute, if we've got all these Republicans in posts of power, why is it that we're not seeing this free-market revolution taking place? And the answer really is, the people like Arlen Specter who really hold key votes in the Senate often times defect and vote with the Democrats."
If he wins re-election, Specter is in line to chair the Senate Judiciary Committee, presiding over judicial nominations that have put Democrats and Republicans at loggerheads for the last two years. If he loses, the Judiciary Committee will likely be chaired by Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona -- one of the more conservative lawmakers in the Senate.
"If Arlen were not in the Senate, the Senate would be an even more gridlocked and partisan institution than it already is," said Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, a moderate Republican.
"It suggests that our party is not a big-tent party," Collins said. "And we cannot afford to send that kind of signal."
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Jump to TO Features for Sunday April 25, 2004
GOP Targets It's Own Moderates
The Associated Press
Friday 23 April 2004
PHILADELPHIA - Sen. Arlen Specter's fight for his political life against a conservative challenger is more than a tight primary race, it stands as a struggle for survival of a dying breed: moderate Republicans in an increasingly polarized Senate.
The four-term incumbent has the second-most centrist voting record in a GOP class largely made up of conservatives elected to the Senate following the 1994 "Republican Revolution" that gave the GOP control of the House and Senate.
His independent ideology and willingness to side with Democrats on social and economic issues have long irked rank-and-file conservatives who are now cheering on Republican Rep. Pat Toomey in Tuesday's primary.
Public polls this week show the primary race has narrowed to as few as 5 percentage points.
Acknowledging that "we have lost a lot of our centrist senators," Specter hopes he won't be the next.
"The polarization causes a problem in the way the Congress is functioning with very bitter disputes in the House and almost as bitter disputes in the Senate," Specter said. "We have been dysfunctional for a long period of time. And that hurts the country when you don't have centrists who can walk across the aisle to transact the public's business."
Specter's lifetime Senate voting record gives him a 43 percent approval rating from the American Conservative Union and 59 percent from the liberal Americans for Democratic Action. Only Republican Rep. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island has a higher liberal and lower conservative rating among the number of moderate Republican senators that is dwindling to about a half dozen.
Republican Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado is retiring.
By contrast, Toomey has lifetime approval ratings of 96 and 5 percent from the conservative and liberal groups.
The Senate's shrinking centrism reflects the nation's own political polarization, as Democrats become more liberal and Republicans more conservative, said political scientist Jack Pitney at Claremont McKenna College in southern California.
"It's good for clarity, bad for comity," said Pitney, who worked for the Republican National Committee and was on the staffs of former Sen. Alfonse D'Amato, R-N.Y., and then-Rep. Dick Cheney. "Things do get done, but the politics can get very harsh."
But Toomey argued on Friday that he has reached across the aisle on banking and health care legislation in the House and looked forward to doing the same in the Senate.
"My criticism of Arlen Specter is when he reaches across the aisle to help advance the cause of Democrats," Toomey said, ticking off Specter's alliances with Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., on issues such as tax cuts, stem-cell research and tort reform.
Toomey's biggest primary backers are a group of tax watchdog groups, most notably the Club For Growth, which has poured nearly $2 million in contributions and TV ads into the race. A Toomey victory, Club president Stephen Moore said, could scare moderate GOP senators back to conservative causes.
"Finally, we have a Republican House, a Republican Senate and a Republican president and yet the budget is still growing like weeds," Moore said. "And people are saying, 'Well, wait a minute, if we've got all these Republicans in posts of power, why is it that we're not seeing this free-market revolution taking place? And the answer really is, the people like Arlen Specter who really hold key votes in the Senate often times defect and vote with the Democrats."
If he wins re-election, Specter is in line to chair the Senate Judiciary Committee, presiding over judicial nominations that have put Democrats and Republicans at loggerheads for the last two years. If he loses, the Judiciary Committee will likely be chaired by Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona -- one of the more conservative lawmakers in the Senate.
"If Arlen were not in the Senate, the Senate would be an even more gridlocked and partisan institution than it already is," said Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, a moderate Republican.
"It suggests that our party is not a big-tent party," Collins said. "And we cannot afford to send that kind of signal."
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Jump to TO Features for Sunday April 25, 2004