{"id":4894,"date":"2005-08-04T13:30:53","date_gmt":"2005-08-04T17:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/4894.html"},"modified":"2005-08-04T13:30:53","modified_gmt":"2005-08-04T17:30:53","slug":"republicans-vs-republicans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/republicans-vs-republicans\/","title":{"rendered":"Republicans vs. Republicans"},"content":{"rendered":"

USA Today’s Susan Page had a fascinating, must-read item<\/a> yesterday, primarily about an initiative called the “Ohio Restoration Project,” which is a network of extremely conservative, vaguely theocratic, right-wing “Patriot Pastors” who hope to take over the state politically.<\/p>\n

Pastor Russell Johnson paces across the broad stage as he decries the “secular jihadists” who have “hijacked” America, accuses the public schools of neglecting to teach that Hitler was “an avid evolutionist” and links abortion to children who murder their parents.<\/p>\n

“It’s time for the church to get a spinal column” and push the “seculars and the jihadists … into the dust bin of history,” the guest preacher tells a congregation that fills the sanctuary at First Christian Church of Canton.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Johnson and others who lead this Ohio Restoration Project believe they have the numbers to dominate not only the state’s GOP, but all state elections. They’re rallying behind Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell (R), who plans to lead them in “reclaiming” the state.<\/p>\n

Not every Republican in Ohio, however, is on board with the plan.<\/p>\n

Neil Clark, a former chief operating officer for the Ohio Senate Republican Caucus and one of the best-connected lobbyists in Columbus, the state capital, says he and other moderate Republicans are worried about the state “going back to the Stone Ages of Salem.” <\/p>\n

They are ready to fight back, he says. “That could be in recruiting another candidate, or it could be in saying we’re not going to support a candidate that doesn’t have interests other than the three fundamental interests of the church — abortion, gay marriage and gambling,” he says. “There’s a lot of other things that make a state go.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is a division that could make the DLC vs. liberal Dems look like a tea party.
\n
\nAs Digby explained<\/a> very well yesterday, we are “beginning to see some big tensions building around the radical religious right and its symbiotic relationship with the Republican Party.”<\/p>\n

I think there is a good possibility that this is going to be played out all over the country in the next few years. This 50\/50 electorate is not confined to Ohio. And despite the RNC’s attempts to demonize Move-On as the modern Weathermen, the face of radicalism today is not Democrats who were opposed to the war in Iraq — the Republicans themselves are trying to distance themselves as fast as they can from that debacle. (Perhaps the DLC could take notice and stop flogging the GWOT, too. It’s been officially decreed as last year’s color.) No, the face of radicalism is guys like this pastor who are insisting that abortion is like kids murdering their parents and saying that the “secular jihad” should be pushed into the dustbin of history. Moderate republicans are getting nervous about this crap at long last. <\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, Paul Weyrich is quoted in that article saying that “Ken Blackwell ‘believes God wanted him as secretary of State during 2004’ because as such he was responsible for voting operations in a critical state during a critical election.” Weyrich added: “It is difficult to disagree with that proposition.” Paul Weyrich obviously has a sense of humor. He, along with a cadre of movement conservatives (that includes our boy Karl Rove) have been building an evangelical political machine for more than two decades. It’s the red state version of Tammany Hall. “God” placing Ken Blackwell in charge of counting the votes is one of his proudest achievements.<\/p>\n

It is, therefore, in our best interest to separate these people from the rest of the Republican party. I certainly do not believe it’s impossible.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I don’t either. The fact that an enormous number of self-described independents have abandoned Bush and are uncomfortable with today’s GOP tells us a great deal about the public’s anxiety about the Republicans’ direction.<\/p>\n

So, what are the wedges that will divide the party? Paul Hackett said during his campaign, “I don’t need Washington to tell me how to live my personal life, or how to pray to my God.” Like Digby<\/a>, that sounds to me like a good place to start.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

USA Today’s Susan Page had a fascinating, must-read item yesterday, primarily about an initiative called the “Ohio Restoration Project,” which is a network of extremely conservative, vaguely theocratic, right-wing “Patriot Pastors” who hope to take over the state politically. Pastor Russell Johnson paces across the broad stage as he decries the “secular jihadists” who have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4894\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}