In a previous post, Marcia Ellen rails against the Repubs who are overlooking the country's big problems to focus on gay marriage. We should expect to see much more of the same between now and the November midterm elections. Why? Today's NY Times provides a clue -- "Conservative Christians Criticize Republicans" ...
WASHINGTON, May 13 — Some of President Bush's most influential conservative Christian allies are becoming openly critical of the White House and Republicans in Congress, warning that they will withhold their support in the midterm elections unless Congress does more to oppose same-sex marriage, obscenity and abortion.
"There is a growing feeling among conservatives that the only way to cure the problem is for Republicans to lose the Congressional elections this fall," said Richard Viguerie, a conservative direct-mail pioneer.
Mr. Viguerie also cited dissatisfaction with government spending, the war in Iraq and the immigration-policy debate, which Mr. Bush is scheduled to address in a televised speech on Monday night.
"I can't tell you how much anger there is at the Republican leadership," Mr. Viguerie said. "I have never seen anything like it."
In the last several weeks, Dr. James C. Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family and one of the most influential Christian conservatives, has publicly accused Republican leaders of betraying the social conservatives who helped elect them in 2004. He has also warned in private meetings with about a dozen of the top Republicans in Washington that he may turn critic this fall unless the party delivers on conservative goals.
And at a meeting in Northern Virginia this weekend of the Council for National Policy, an alliance of the most prominent Christian conservatives, several participants said sentiment toward the White House and Republicans in Congress had deteriorated sharply since the 2004 elections.
From immigration policy to energy to emergency spending, House Republican leaders are publicly breaking rank with their counterparts in the Senate, fearing that Senate efforts at compromise are jeopardizing the party's standing with conservative voters.
The breach in congressional leadership has been especially stark in the past two weeks. As the Senate returns to the immigration issue this week, House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said House Republicans will not agree to any plan granting illegal immigrants a path to citizenship that does not require them first to return to their home countries. House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) dismissed Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's proposed $100 rebate for gasoline as "insulting" and "stupid." And House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) declared a Senate-passed, $109 billion bill to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, hurricane relief and a bevy of home-state pet projects "dead on arrival."
Let's chill out and enjoy the the spectacle of the Repub Nero impersonation, fiddling while Rome burns. The midterms always come down to whichever side can mobilize their base best. The Repubs may steer hard right and mobilize their base and get it together before November. It'll just be the beginning of the end. As Aravosis commented on the NY Times story above...
Oh yes, because what the majority of Americans are most concerned about right about now is gays getting married, bad words, and abortion. Yes, that's why Bush is sinking in the polls. Not enough gay-bashing.
Please do focus on these issues, Mr. President and Senator Frist. PLEASE. It will be a pleasure to watch the Republican party become a permanent minority party of out-of-touch un-American wingnuts and extremists for an entire generation.
