It’s been over two weeks now and the GOP in-fighting over the speakers’ list for the Republican National Convention is getting worse, not better.
If you’re just joining us, the Republicans announced the convention’s speakers in late June, but the list didn’t include any actual GOP leaders. You had three left-leaning, non-DC Republicans (Rudy Giuliani, George Pataki, and Arnold Schwarzenegger), one real conservative whom the party generally hates (John McCain), and a Democrat (Zell Miller).
The Family Research Council, a religious right powerhouse, was the first to publicly protest the list.
“Understandably, the Bush campaign would like to portray the Republican Party as a “big tent” while the national spotlight is on, but surely there is some room in that tent for social conservatives. The Bush team admits it had trouble fully mobilizing Christian voters in 2000. Leaving real conservatives off the convention stage won’t do much to correct that problem in 2004.”
The National Review’s Kate O’Beirne wasn’t happy, either.
“When the only Reagan Republican to enjoy a prominent supporting role at the party’s convention is a Democrat, the G.O.P. has a serious identity problem,” O’Beirne, the Washington editor of the conservative National Review, wrote in a column posted on its Web site last Wednesday. The list, she wrote, “is not the mark of a self-confident party establishment,” adding, “if the lineup is intended to make an overwhelmingly conservative party attractive to swing voters, it does so by pretending to be something it’s not.”
And the New York Times noted today that the selections are causing real consternation among the GOP base.
“I hate to say it, but the conservatives, for the most part, are not excited about re-electing the president,” warned Paul Weyrich, the longtime Christian conservative organizer, in an e-mail newsletter on Friday. “If the president is embarrassed to be seen with conservatives at the convention, maybe conservatives will be embarrassed to be seen with the president on Election Day.”
Unlike most conservative complaints, I can understand these concerns. The Republican Party is trying to orchestrate a con — “If we hide our real right-wing leadership, maybe people will think we’re moderates.” The convention will be a masquerade ball with a bunch of centrist masks hiding right-wing faces.
Oddly, in 2000, the far right was satisfied with a back seat role because they were so anxious for a victory. They are, apparently, no longer willing to smile and wave from the back seat.
The truth is, O’Beirne is right about this — this is a party with an identity problem. It’s a conservative party driven by a far-right ideology in a country that would find the GOP’s agenda unpalatable if it were on display. That’s why political expediency demands that it be hidden.
Kevin Drum noted the consequences of this last week.
[I]f America is so damn conservative, why is the Republican party afraid to put any red-blooded conservatives on prime time TV shortly before the election? Why are they so afraid of the social conservatives who make up the heart and soul of their party?
I’m with Kate on this: Rick “Man on Dog” Santorum deserves a prominent speaking slot at the convention — and he should be encouraged to speak his mind. Let’s find out just how conservative America really is, shall we?
And that’s really the next phase. Conservatives are angry enough to complain publicly about the convention’s speaker list. Fine. But just how much of a fuss are they willing to make? We’re about to find out.