Republicans Search For An Identity As Lunatic Fringe Factions And Ideas Come Under Scrutiny From Virginia To Utah

Battle to the death on the far right fringe of the GOP

With South Carolina's staunchly Republican state legislature abandoning the extreme right partisanship of their lunatic fringe governor to side with President Obama over the Stimulus money for the state's hard-pressed inhabitants, and with Michael Steele seemingly in the midst of a noisy and very public death spiral, what more could go wrong for the Grand Obstructionist Party? Well, forget for a moment that the public-- including most Republican voters-- hold their congressional leaders in low regard and that the "All Obstruction/All The Time" strategy promulgated by John Boehner, Miss McConnell, Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan, and Jim DeMint is likely to acerbate Republican electoral losses in the midterms, and focus on the states.

Virginia and Utah have been two bastions of Republican strength. Utah still is but Virginia has been an absolute mess for the GOP in recent years and it's getting worse. After November Republicans had lost their one U.S. Senate seat (as well as the state Senate) and three more congressional seats. And not only had Obama won the state's electoral votes, he came out ahead in two congressional districts still held by Republicans, Frank Wolf's and Randy Forbes', both of whom could be looking at early (forced) retirement if the voters who helped elect Obama don't approve of the mindless obstructionism that Forbes and Wolf have pursued against Obama's plans to solve the nation's economic maladies-- maladies that voters understand were brought on because of Republican policies rubber-stamped by congressmen like Wolf and Forbes.

And just as Virginia gears up for an off-cycle gubernatorial race, the party's controversial and much-disliked state chairman, Jeffrey Frederick-- fresh off single-handedly guaranteeing that the Democrats would remain in control of the state Senate, has been told to get out of Dodge by the 5 remaining Republican congressman, led by the party's right wing enforcer, Eric Cantor, who has staked his own prestige on ousting Frederick. Today's Washington Post:

Virginia Republicans are engaged in an increasingly nasty battle over efforts to oust Del. Jeffrey M. Frederick as state party chairman, reopening long-standing divisions and underscoring the perils facing the GOP as it prepares for this year's governor's race.

The dispute has taken an unexpected turn into full public view as all five of the state's Republican members of Congress sent Frederick a letter Friday asking him to resign immediately instead of facing a no-confidence vote April 4.

"For the good of the Republican Party of Virginia, we write today asking that you step aside as chairman," the congressmen wrote. "Clearly it is the sentiment of the grassroots members of the party to move in another direction... No one will benefit from a protracted battle over the leadership of" the Republican Party of Virginia.

But Frederick, who is accused of mismanagement and incompetence, has continued to fight for his job. "I don't run campaigns to lose," said Frederick, who represents Prince William County in the House of Delegates. "Everyone always underestimates me, but that is fine with me."

The dispute is fast becoming a generational and ideological clash that threatens to destabilize the party when it can least afford it... Party leaders say Frederick is combative and contributed to the party's historic losses last year, when Democrats picked up three congressional seats and Obama carried the state's 13 electoral votes. He made headlines by comparing Obama to Osama bin Laden. And complaints about his management skills have including allegations that he steered party business to a company he owns.

"It is very clear that most of the party has lost confidence in Jeff's leadership and we have exhausted every other remedy," said Mike Thomas, the GOP vice chairman.

So what about Utah? Mormons, overwhelmingly, vote whichever way their cult leaders tell them to vote. The Mormons in the Utah theocracy delivered McCain his biggest victory of any state (tied with Wyoming, another state filled with Mormons). But today's NY Times reports trouble in Republicanville even in robotic Utah. The state's respected Republican governor, Jon Huntsman, have put the radical right kooks who control Utah politics on the defensive.

In addition to leading the fight to change the liquor law, he has embraced President Obama’s stimulus plan, restated his support for a cap-and-trade system of carbon emissions and announced support for legislation that would provide civil unions for gay couples.

...The new Republican direction is not going to come out of Congress, he said, or “empty rhetoric,” but from a handful of Republican governors who must compete in a “meritocracy of ideas” that voters will sort out for themselves.

“The party will be well served by looking at some of these examples of success,” Mr. Huntsman said, “whether it’s Louisiana or Minnesota or Vermont or California, where things are being done.”

...In February, for example, when the governor announced that he would support civil unions for gay couples, many politicians here braced for a backlash.

Utah voters had approved an amendment to the State Constitution in 2004 banning same-sex marriage or anything that might approximate it, and one opinion poll by Mason-Dixon Polling and Research in January said 70 percent of Utahans still opposed civil unions.

But the backlash never developed. Indeed, after his announcement, a poll by Deseret News/KSL-TV found that two-thirds of respondents said their opinion of the governor had not changed or had become more positive because of his position on civil unions. Over all, the governor’s approval rating had barely budged, with 80 percent of residents saying they thought he was doing a good job.
Numbers like that could bolster Mr. Huntsman’s position in the next legislative fight with his party’s most conservative elements.

“I do not think the base of the Republican Party of Utah has traveled with the governor-- at least not yet,” said State Representative David Clark, a Republican from Santa Clara and the speaker of the House. “He’s clearly on a new frontier.”

Virginia kook Frederick got one thing right-- in summing up the struggle the Republicans are going through to find an identity: "Anytime a party spends its time and energy battling its own, it's losing."