McCain Palin-ized the GOP ... Can He Undo the Damage?

Posted by Booman, Booman Tribune at 9:47 AM on October 2, 2009.

I have to confess that I've never had a high opinion of John McCain. I remember Christmas 1999, when I gave one of my brothers a book by Bill Bradley and he gave me a book by Sen. McCain. I took a look, but I was unimpressed. It seemed then, and it seems now, too, that McCain's pattern in life is to make large mistakes and then spend years trying to atone for them. That's my understanding of his campaign finance reform efforts. And that's why he attacked Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell at the end of his 2000 campaign, after having sucked up to them and defended the Confederate Flag in South Carolina. McCain unleashed a howling, racist beast when he selected Sarah Palin. In effect, he Palinized the Republican Party. Now he wants to make amends.

McCain is recruiting candidates, raising money for them and hitting the campaign trail on their behalf. He’s taken sides in competitive House, Senate and gubernatorial primaries and introduced his preferred candidates to his top donors...

...It’s all part of an approach that is at odds with most other recent failed presidential nominees, whose immediate response to defeat was to retreat from the electoral arena. But those familiar with McCain’s thinking say he has expressed serious concern about the direction of the party and is actively seeking out and supporting candidates who can broaden the party’s reach.

In McCain’s case, that means backing conservative pragmatists and moderates.

“I think he’s endorsed people with center-right politics because he has an understanding that the party is in trouble with certain demographics and wants to have a tone that would allow us to grow,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican who is McCain’s closest friend and ally in the Senate.

In choosing Palin, McCain morphed what could have been a genuinely mavericky campaign into a drive for a third Bush term.

I said repeatedly during the 2008 primaries that McCain could not win a base election and that his only chance was to run madly for the center. He did the opposite. He embraced the know-nothing element of his party to a degree not seen in American history. And, in doing so, he empowered the kooks and freaks of the right.

Despite this, the Republicans do seem to have learned some lessons. They are pushing moderate candidates for the Senate races in New Hampshire, Connecticut, Illinois, California, and Florida, much to the consternation of their base. They'd love to convince moderate Rep. Mike Castle of Delaware to run for Biden's old seat. They're pushing a very moderate Republican in an upstate New York special congressional election (who is being opposed by the Club for Growth).

Because of his bellicose foreign policy beliefs, I've never really thought of McCain as a moderate. I haven't seen him casting too many votes with the Democrats on domestic policy, either. But it's clear that he doesn't like the fundamentalist strain of the GOP and he'd like to see some more tolerant colleagues on his side of the aisle. His failed efforts on immigration reform are the best sign of this.

McCain doesn't really fit in with the lost moderate caucus (Chafee, Jeffords, Specter) that has recently been run out of the party, but he shares certain assumptions with them. He knows that his party will remain in the minority unless it can win back some of that turf in the center.

For the good of the country, if the Republicans are going to start chipping away at the Democratic majority, it is imperative that they do it with moderate candidates. Some blurring of the ideological lines between the two major parties would be a very healthy development. But, it won't be enough to just regain a moderate wing. That moderate wing must be big enough and forceful enough to protect their own from the strong-arm tactics of the party leaders. During the Bush era, their chairs and committee assignments were threatened anytime they fell out of line. I don't see that changing any time soon.

Tagged as: gop, mccain, crazies, palin

Booman is the proprietor of the Booman Tribune.