The GOP’s big secret:funding a non-extremist or two
by digby
The National Republican Senatorial Committee paid for an ad that attacks the Republican budget in Congress last month — and appears to have spent quite a lot doing it.
At the time, NRSC officials did not comment on the commercial run by the Montana Republican Party on behalf of Rep. Denny Rehberg, who is challenging Democratic Sen. Jon Tester.
The spot, with an initial cost of $200,000, could only have been funded by large transfers from the NRSC, since the the Montana GOP did not have enough cash on its own. The latest federal campaign filings show that the national team transferred $540,000 to the local party — $315,000 on June 19, the day before the ad started to run, then $45,000 on June 21 and $180,000 on June 25.
While the Montana Party is free to spend the money it gets from Washington how it wants, it’s clear that the big shots in D.C. knew of the message in the ad, at least after the fact, and the spot continued to run.
And it’s quite a message for Republicans to be delivering. The ad notes that “Rehberg refused to support a Republican budget plan that could harm the Medicare program so many of Montana’s seniors rely on,” referring to Rehberg’s opposition to the budget of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the chairman of the House Budget Committee.
It’s interesting because the Democrats do this all the time, of course. They actually spend more money on right wing Dems than liberals and make no bones about it. But the Republicans are ashamed of any moderation and go to great lengths to hide it. Their base gets very riled up. Here’s an example:
Massachusetts Tea Party activists are not happy with their state’s Republican establishment.
At a meeting for the Leicester/Holden/Paxton/Rutland Tea Party group, grassroots leaders accused the Massachusetts GOP of being “too moderate” and “too elite,” according to a report from GoLocalWorcester.
The state’s GOP leaders are a bunch of “country club Republicans,” said Jim McGrath, co-chairman of the LPRH Tea Party. Amongst other concerns, McGrath expressed concern that they hadn’t done enough for state representative races.
Another local conservative activist, Dana George Reed, characterized the party in an interview with the local Worcester website as “moderate to liberal,” which, of course, is a derogatory statement in the right-wing activist world.
So, assuming that the “center” is in that sweet spot where the two parties meet, I think you can see why it keeps moving rightward. While the Republicans do it with reluctance and distance themselves from any activity that shows the need to moderate in order to get elected, the Democrats celebrate their “moderation” and even identify themselves with it. Over time it inches to the right and the Democrats willingly own it.
For instance, here’s what’s considered so “moderate” that the Republicans have to hide their involvement in it:
“Rehberg refused to support a Republican budget plan that could harm the Medicare program so many of Montana’s seniors rely on.
You cannot refuse to support Paul Ryan’s dystopian budget and still be considered mainstream in the GOP. There used to be room for non-Randian extremists, but no more. And what that means is that when the inevitably agree to some “bargain” it will be much further right that we can imagine. And the whole village will extoll it for its moderation.
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