GOP struggles with identity crisis

[Kadie]

GOP struggles with identity crisis
Carla Marinucci, Chronicle Political Writer

Saturday, September 8, 2007

It is the party of Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan, but today there is an identity crisis roiling the Republican Party as it approaches the 2008 election - as GOP moderates and conservatives confronting the Iraq war, corruption and the declining profile of President Bush engage in a heated debate over just whose party it will be in the future.

The painful struggle for the soul of the GOP was played out here at the state convention of the California Republican Party, the nation's largest, in shockingly different speeches by two leading GOP governors this weekend.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has championed "post-partisan" cooperation, issued a bold call for a return to Reagan's "big tent" and moderation during the opening night of the GOP gathering of 1,400 Friday. He warned conservative party activists who dominate the GOP to take the conciliatory middle of the road - court independents and address issues such as global warming and health care - or watch their party "dying at the box office."

Minutes later, conservative Texas Gov. Rick Perry shattered that mood with an incendiary address deriding Schwarzenegger-style moderation and decrying California's "bankrupt, liberal political philosophy"- exhorting Republicans to stand their ground on social issues such as abortion and gay marriage. And without ever mentioning the California governor's name, Perry launched a blistering attack clearly aimed at his direction.

"It's a sad, sad state of affairs when liberals campaign like Republicans to get elected, and Republicans govern like liberals to be loved," he said, getting whoops and repeated standing ovations from the 400 delegates at the opening dinner that put Schwarzenegger's polite reception to shame.

more...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/09/08/BAEBS23R2.DTL&feed=rss.bayarea

[Warren DeMontague]

1. Right. Arnold doesn't even really want to outlaw abortion, the GOP base wants women to get the death

penalty for taking the birth control pill.

Someone is clearly out of step.

[silverweb]

2. Tough.

They sold their souls long ago and became reTHUGs, the party of Greedy Old Perverts -- willing to lie, manipulate, threaten, and terrorize the unwilling into submission.

Time for them to wither away and disappear.

[bemildred]

3. Lincoln and Reagan,

What better measure of how far it has fallen? Well, Lincoln and Bush is an even better indicator of the decay. But my God, what would Lincoln think of the current Republican Party?

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. On some aspects Lincoln would whole hearttedly agree

see habeas corpus and suspention of such during the Civil War and USSC slaping him for it

[bemildred]

5. What's your point?

I should look down on Lincoln? I should have more appreciation for Bush?

[frogcycle]

6. ya gotta love it

Perry:

fuck that shit! we hate everyone! our 23% is going to rule! just you wait - the rapture will come and only us pious pustules will get to go; you sinners will be left behind for being civil to all those other sinners. hatred and bigotry forEVER!