True Republicans Speaking Out Against Addition Of Moderates Into Party

May 8, 2009 11 Comments ›› Erik Wong

POLITICO: Social conservatives are blasting the National Council for a New America, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor’s (R-Va.) nascent effort to rebrand the Republican Party, as a misguided and weak-kneed initiative that is out of touch with the GOP rank and file.

The council, unveiled last week by Cantor and Sen. John McCain, is designed to be a “forward-looking, grass-roots caucus” that formulates policy prescriptions and communicates with voters in a way that could expand the Republican ranks. In announcing the formation of the group, McCain said he hoped the group would attract moderates and “like-minded Democrats” to a series of public forums around the country.

But social conservatives couldn’t help but notice that the policy areas the group will focus on included no mention of same-sex marriage, immigration or abortion. And the roster of GOP luminaries who signed on to the effort was missing a few of the pols who are most popular with values voters.

“The moderates have been saying the same thing all these years, and now they’re just seeing a renewed opportunity to push their ideas,” said Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), a leading opponent of gay marriage.

“It’s a losing proposition to try to divide social and economic conservatives,” Ken Blackwell, a one-time Ohio secretary of state and former candidate for Republican National Committee chairman, told POLITICO. “They will constantly find themselves backpedaling and apologizing and repositioning because the composition of that group does not reflect a basic reality, which is that social and economic conservatives complement one another.”

Blackwell noted that the slight did not go unnoticed among social conservatives, as they “have the experience of being used and then abused and then forgotten.”

Mike Huckabee, the former presidential candidate who was not invited to join the so-called GOP panel of experts involved with the effort — a list that included Govs. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Sarah Palin of Alaska and Haley Barbour of Mississippi and former Govs. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and Jeb Bush of Florida — said that it was “sad day” in Republican politics when “we think it is necessary to form a ‘listening group’ to find out what Americans think we should be fighting for.”

“Our problem is not lack of ‘experts,’ but too many of them and not enough attention to the hard working people in our communities that aren’t connected to the Beltway, but to the heartland,” he said in a statement.

The former Republican presidential candidate also knocked Bush, who suggested at the group’s first town hall event on Saturday that it was time to get past “nostalgia” for the Reagan era.

“Frankly, the party was in pretty good shape then and can be again, but Ronald Reagan didn’t summarily dismiss values voters like this new group of ‘experts’ has by not listing any of the issues that still matter to many of those common Americans this group wants to listen to,” Huckabee said.

Rob Collins, Cantor’s deputy chief of staff, said the expectation that every top national Republican would be included in the council would be “unrealistic.”

“Were we perfect in the rollout? No,” Collins said. “We want to get all these national leaders on board and we’re going to try to do that.”

Collins said the seeming omission of certain issues from the domestic policy categories the council is examining isn’t a sign that the group is excluding social conservatives or overlooking the issues that matter most to them.

“How is the life issue left off when we’re talking about the economy and education?” he asked.

Indeed, the council’s roster is stocked with prominent Republicans with nearly unassailable conservative credentials, ranging from Bush to Barbour to Jindal. Palin was also invited to join at the same time as the others, though she did not sign up until after the group’s rollout.

A source close to the group’s planning said McCain personally called Palin to urge her to join before the group’s announcement.

Cantor has insisted that no slight toward any of the party’s constituencies was intended.

“The National Council for a New America is meant to be a wide-open policy debate,” he said Monday during a CNN interview. “There is no exclusion about what we’ll talk about.”

Still, for some the very creation of the council has proven to be a sore spot. Nearly a dozen conservative politicians and leaders contacted for this story either declined comment or did not return multiple calls.

“Too many Republican leaders are running scared on the claims of the left and the media that social conservatism is a dead-end for the GOP,” the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins said in a statement. “If that were the case, why are pro-family leaders like Mike Huckabee creating such excitement in the conservative base? The Republican establishment doesn’t draw a crowd.”

Another critic, influential conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, ripped the group’s proposed “listening tour” as a “scam” on his Tuesday show.

“Maybe we’ve gotten to the point where you have to scam the American people in order to get their votes. I hope not,” Limbaugh said. “See I’m enough of an idealist, probably a little naïve, and hopefully a bit of a realist, to understand that it really works out best if you respect your audience, respect their intelligence, approach them that way.”

Cantor’s team, which is planning a phased unveiling of the council, is not planning to announce any new members or appearances for a few weeks. In addition to Palin, the council has gotten Sens. John Ensign of Nevada and Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas to sign on in recent days.

After the council’s initial events, invitations were also extended to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and Gov. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.), though neither has agreed to sign on yet.

“We got the invite on fairly short notice,” said Joel Sawyer, Sanford’s communications director.

Sanford may join the group, Sawyer said, but will wait until the conclusion of his state’s legislative session to look more closely at the group and make his decision.

Collins, Cantor’s aide, said that despite some sniping, the overall response among the Republicans he has talked to has been very positive.

“It’s been an incredibly successful rollout,” he said, noting the inherent difficulty of organizing any group comprised of political figures. “There has been some grumbling, but there has been an incredibly positive response.”