Last days for the 'Rockefellers'

[Forkboy]

Moderate GOP tradition fades

Tuesday's election will not only decide the presidency, it may also determine the future of the New England brand of moderate Republicanism, which is facing extinction.

The Northeast moderates, often called the Rockefeller Republicans after the former New York governor, were once as much a New England tradition as traffic jams on the Kancamagus Highway in leaf-peeping season. Their ranks included James Jeffords in Vermont, Lowell Weicker in Connecticut, Edward Brooke and William Weld in Massachusetts, and two generations of Chafees in Rhode Island.

But the rightward tug of Southern conservatives on the national Republican Party for the past 40 years has left the Northeast moderates in a bind - Democrats are taking their voters, and hard-line conservative policies in Washington are scaring off their campaign contributors, said former Rhode Island US Senator Lincoln Chafee.

"I just saw a bunch of Rockefeller Republicans camped out under an underpass," Chafee deadpanned in an interview. "They're all homeless, pushing shopping carts."

In 1973, 10 of 25 US House members from New England were Republicans.

There's one left - Christopher Shays of Connecticut, who calls himself an "endangered species." Shays faces another tough race this year, against Democrat Jim Himes.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/11/01/last_days_for_the_rockefellers/

[HamdenRice]

1. As a New Yorker, I remember Jacob Javits, John Lindsay and others

There were actually "liberal Republicans" -- pro civil rights, pro environment, pro feminist, but somewhat more conservative on the budget issues.

I guess today we'd call them Clinton Democrats.

[madrchsod]

2. senator fitzgerald from illinois

was a liberal republican who refused to go along with the party.fortunate for us he quit and that lead rcksonthe way for the next president ....

others who are gone but not forgotten-chuck percy and everett dirkson

[midnight]

3. No one want's the policys that are destroying this country,

[cali]

4. This actually makes me sad. It was an honorable tradition

and it's gone. There are no more Jim Jefford types here in Vermont- at least not any with any kind of stature. I really got a kick out of voting for dear old Jim. I did so gladly, and felt kind of righteous about it. Sigh. Those days are over.

[ThomWV]

5. The only Rockefeller in Congress is a Democrat (well, he calls himself one)

Jay Rockefeller, Democratic Senator from West Virginia is the only member of the family serving in the Congress. I have voted for him in the past, but after the FISA bill he pushed through the Congress passed I vowed never to vote for him again and to ask other Democrats to pass over his name on the ballot too. His action on that bill was the straw that broke the camel's back.

[tanyev]

6. Wake up and smell the elephant dung, Rockefellers.

Sarah Palin's party doesn't want anything to do with you.