Fixin' for a fight:In the GOP, the long knives are out for the neocons

[cal04]

In the GOP, the long knives are out for the neoconservatives
By Thomas Omestad

There's no question whom Richard Viguerie wants to see in the White House for the next four years. A founding father of the modern conservative movement, he is foursquare behind President Bush despite what he regards as undue influence from one wing of the GOP, the neoconservatives. In this, Viguerie reflects a hallowed Republican Party tradition: Mute policy differences and unite at election time.


But for Viguerie and other conservative leaders, maintaining that discipline this year is harder than usual. The Republicans' united front masks a growing struggle sparked by the president's hawkish and ambitious foreign policy--one that may burst into the open soon after the polls close, whoever wins. "Most conservatives are not comfortable with the neocons," Viguerie says. He decries the neocons as "overbearing" and "immensely influential. . . . They want to be the world's policeman. We don't feel our role is to be Don Quixote, righting all the wrongs in the world."

Viguerie's disquiet is widely shared by veteran conservative activists, who are increasingly blaming neoconservatives for placing Iraq at the center of the war on terrorism. "I'm hearing more discussion about foreign policy and the direction of the country than I have heard probably in the last 35 years," says Paul Weyrich, chairman and CEO of the Free Congress Foundation.

Heart and soul. The second thoughts on Iraq are re-exposing old ideological fault lines among GOP factions--Wall Streeters, Main Streeters, budget balancers, libertarians, and neoisolationists--that see their own policy priorities jeopardized. The fight within the GOP, Viguerie predicts, "will dwarf what took place in the '60s and '70s" --between the Barry Goldwater and Nelson Rockefeller wings of the party and later between Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan. "It's going to be early on November 3 that the battle starts for the heart and soul of the Republican Party, and it's not going to be neat and clean," vows Viguerie, who's known for revolutionizing direct-mail fundraising on behalf of conservative candidates.

long article
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/041025/usnews/25neocons.htm

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. this is the infighting many of us have seen

for a while already, developing ever so slowly

If bush looses (rather when he looses) you will see a fight inside that party like we hve not seen in DECADES.

We may even see it split

[GeorgeBushytail]

2. When * loses

it will be entertaining to watch the Repugs tear themselves apart over their internal contradictions.

[dand]

3. They are all marching in lock-step, good little Germans,

(oops) I meant Americans, backing the most dishonest corrupt regime in the history of the Republic.

[acmavm]

4. This is why I think that the republican party is full of traitors and

lying bastards. They KNOW, absolutely know, what a disaster bush* is and what a disaster his pResidency (right) as been for this country, but they have such a lack of scruples and integrity that they are willing to fight to put his ass back in the White House.

No true patriot would want that bunch of liars, thugs, thieves, and killers back in power. It's can be thought of as a choice between American or the party. They chose the party. Fuck 'em.

[KoKo]

5. They think they can "rebuild" while they have their Operation in Control..

so they refuse to break... In my mind that puts them in the same rigid mentality as the NeoCons that they claim they are going to be battling after the election. This is all just to keep "mainstream Repugs..the guys and gals all over America who will vote Dem or stay home, inline.

Hypocrits all!

[Skittles]

6. that's what I'm thinking

there's not a shred of decency in the lot of them.

[RainDog]

7. Viguerie is talking code for the Talibornagains

"Perhaps more than any of the New Right figures, Richard Viguerie has made a career--and a fortune--on the politics of resentment."
- Sara Diamond, Spiritual Warfare: The Politics of the Christian Right.

...in other words, sounds like he's up to his old tricks to me.

http://www.politicalamazon.com/viguerie.html

"Just as he was about to go under in early 1986, Viguerie won a lucrative account, the distribution of the Unification Church-owned "Insight "magazine. Then in October 1987, U.S. Property Development Corporation controlled by Rev. Moon's right-hand man, Col. Bo Hi Pak, paid $10.06 million for Viguerie's office building. Also in 1987, Viguerie took on the direct mail account of Moonie-dominated American Freedom Coalition (discussed below). Just as U.S. intelligence agencies have financed and organized right-wing political groups throughout the world, it was to the advantage of well-heeled international interests to help build a reactionary political movement within the United States."

...what you'd better hope for is that moderate Republicans can reclaim their party from the fascists who have taken over what used to be an honorable political group.

[RainDog]

8. And more b.s. in this article is the quote from Weyrich

Weyrich is a reactionary who is aligned with the extremist religious right.

Go to theocracy watch and google his name.

They're talking about talking control of the Republican Party and isolating Bush, even more, and reinforcing his idea that "god speaks through" George W. Bullshit.

Weyrich no doubt has problems with anyone who is not a Christian Reconstructionist having any power. That doesn't mean he's not just as much of, or more of, a bastard.