[NYT] Conservatives Make a List to Measure Candidates’ Commitment

Conservatives Make a List to Measure Candidates’ Commitment

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/24/us/politics/24repubs.html

By JIM RUTENBERG and ADAM NAGOURNEY

Published: November 23, 2009

WASHINGTON — A group of conservative Republican leaders is proposing a solution to the internecine warfare over what the party should stand for: a 10-point checklist gauging proper adherence to core principles like opposing government financing for abortion and, more generally, President Obama’s “socialist agenda.”

In what was being dubbed a purity test when it leaked out to reporters on Monday, the proposal would require the party to withhold campaign money and endorsements from candidates who do not adhere to at least seven principles on the checklist.

While it is unclear whether the test will be adopted when it is put up for consideration before the Republican National Committee early next year, its drafting is a striking example of the intensified internal debate among Republicans about how best to handle pressure from conservatives to move the party more to the right and to recapture control of Congress and the White House.

Its introduction increases pressure on the party chairman, Michael Steele, as he tries to maintain a balance between those in his party who have been saying the road to a Republican comeback is to include divergent views and appeal to the political center, and those who say the party needs to more fully embrace conservative principles.

But it was also likely to inflame moderate party members who have been urging the party to resist pressure from activists — spurred by commentators like Glenn Beck on the Fox News Channel and leaders of the diffuse Tea Party movement — to move against those deemed insufficiently conservative or lose their grass-roots support altogether.

Gail Gitcho, a spokeswoman for the committee, said it was not clear what Mr. Steele would do about the proposed checklist. The list was in a resolution devised by a group of 10 conservative committee members who will introduce it when the party gathers for an annual conference in Hawaii in January.

“The problem is that many conservatives have lost trust in the conservative credentials of the Republican Party,” said James Bopp Jr., a committee member from Indiana who is the chief sponsor of the resolution. “So the task is to restore our conservative bona fides.”

The resolution was immediately embraced by Dick Armey, the former Republican House majority leader whose well-financed conservative group, FreedomWorks, has helped organize much of the protest against Democratic health care legislation and Mr. Obama’s spending plans.

“The Republican Party knows it has to repair its standing with the American people,” Mr. Armey said. “If you listen to the voters’ anger out there, I think they’re saying, ‘We want the Republican Party to define themselves as a real alternative to the Democrat Party.’ ”

Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform whose antitax pledge has become generally required signing for Republican candidates, said he was concerned that the proposal would lead the national party to step in where voters should.

“The party has a platform, and that platform and the pieces of it are enforced by primary voters,” Mr. Norquist said. “I think orthodoxy should be imposed from below not above.” Still, he said, forced adherence to 7 of the 10 principles listed “strikes me as eminently reasonable.”

The principles in the resolution include fairly basic proclamations, like “We support victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting military-recommended troop surges,” along with trickier propositions that have bedeviled the party, like one opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants — a form of which President George W. Bush was accused of supporting.

The resolution also calls for “Republican solidarity in opposition to Obama’s socialist agenda,” specifically citing the climate change “cap and trade” proposal and “government-run health care.”

The list was clearly influenced by the divisive Congressional race in upstate New York this fall, when conservative activists deemed the Republican nominee for the seat, Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava, too liberal and instead supported a third-party candidate, Douglas L. Hoffman.

Under conservative pressure, Ms. Scozzafava withdrew from the race but supported the Democratic nominee, Bill Owens, whose victory removed the seat from Republican hands for the first time in more than 100 years.

On first blush Ms. Scozzafava said she found the new proposal “ridiculous,” though she said she would have to read it in full before drawing a final conclusion. “I’m not a big fan of pledges,” she said in an interview, “because things don’t always fit through a keyhole and governing isn’t always that easy.”

The resolution dictates that Republican candidates’ adherence to the principles be determined through their public statements, voting records or signed questionnaires.

Mr. Bopp said reaction among fellow committee members had “run the whole gamut of enthusiastic support to opposition.” But, he added, some opponents had suggested changes that would earn their support. “I think we will get a resolution through.”

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Seriously? This can't be good for Repubs...

 

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/11/rnc-conservatives-call-for-uni.html?wprss=44

By the way, here's the proposed oath:


WHEREAS, President Ronald Reagan believed that the Republican Party should support and espouse conservative principles and public policies; and

WHEREAS, President Ronald Reagan also believed the Republican Party should welcome those with diverse views; and

WHEREAS, President Ronald Reagan believed, as a result, that someone who agreed with him 8 out of 10 times was his friend, not his opponent; and

WHEREAS, Republican faithfulness to its conservative principles and public policies and Republican solidarity in opposition to Obama's socialist agenda is necessary to preserve the security of our country, our economic and political freedoms, and our way of life; and

WHEREAS, Republican faithfulness to its conservative principles and public policies is necessary to restore the trust of the American people in the Republican Party and to lead to Republican electoral victories; and

WHEREAS, the Republican National Committee shares President Ronald Reagan's belief that the Republican Party should espouse conservative principles and public policies and welcome persons of diverse views; and

WHEREAS, the Republican National Committee desires to implement President Reagan's Unity Principle for Support of Candidates; and

WHEREAS, in addition to supporting candidates, the Republican National Committee provides financial support for Republican state and local parties for party building and federal election activities, which benefits all candidates and is not affected by this resolution; and

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Republican National Committee identifies ten (10) key public policy positions for the 2010 election cycle, which the Republican National Committee expects its public officials and candidates to support:

(1) We support smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama's "stimulus" bill;

(2) We support market-based health care reform and oppose Obama-style government run healthcare;

(3) We support market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation;

(4) We support workers' right to secret ballot by opposing card check;

(5) We support legal immigration and assimilation into American society by opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants;

(6) We support victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting military-recommended troop surges;

(7) We support containment of Iran and North Korea, particularly effective action to eliminate their nuclear weapons threat;

(8) We support retention of the Defense of Marriage Act;

(9) We support protecting the lives of vulnerable persons by opposing health care rationing, denial of health care and government funding of abortion; and

(10) We support the right to keep and bear arms by opposing government restrictions on gun ownership; and be further

RESOLVED, that a candidate who disagrees with three or more of the above stated public policy positions of the Republican National Committee, as identified by the voting record, public statements and/or signed questionnaire of the candidate, shall not be eligible for financial support and endorsement by the Republican National Committee; and be further

RESOLVED, that upon the approval of this resolution the Republican National Committee shall deliver a copy of this resolution to each of Republican members of Congress, all Republican candidates for Congress, as they become known, and to each Republican state and territorial party office.

Chief Sponsor:
James Bopp, Jr. NCM IN

Sponsors:
Avie Axdahl NCW MN
Donna Cain NCW OR
Cindy Costa NCW SC
Demetra Demonte NCW IL
Peggy Lambert NCW TN
Carolyn McLarty NCW OK
Pete Rickets NCM NE
Steve Scheffler NCM IA
Helen Van Etten NCW KA
Solomon Yue NCM OR

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It's interesting that while, according to the oath, Reagan would have considered someone who agrees 8 of 10 times a friend, and not his opponent... this proposal goes with a 7 of 10 grading system - as if that somehow shows they're being less exclusionary.