RADICAL RIGHT Conservatives Divided A Washington Post poll released yesterday found that the Republican Party is united on only one issue: opposition to President Obama. Beyond that, the poll revealed "deep dissatisfaction among GOP voters with the party's leadership as well as ideological and generational differences." There is also "broad frustration among Republican voters about the party's direction, detachment from its congressional representatives and a schism over its priorities." Fewer than half of Republicans and GOP-leaning independents surveyed said Party leadership is taking the GOP in the "right direction" and nearly 40 percent are dissatisfied with Republican policy proposals and "see the current crop of GOP legislators as out of touch with their problems and personal values." Moreover, those surveyed did not choose a clear leader. Eighteen percent said former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, 13 percent said Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), and 8 percent said "there is no leader." In a separate 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll issued on Sunday, respondents chose non-elected officials and hate radio hosts Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck as the top two most influential conservative voices. In fact, the polls' results reflect a wider chasm among remaining moderate Republicans hoping to expand the GOP and the right-wing fringes of the conservative movement angling for a more "pure" party.
THE PURITY TEST: Last week, a group of conservative Republican leaders led by Republican National Committeeman Jim Bopp, Jr. proposed a resolution to deny funding to candidates who do not adhere to right-wing ideology. In what has been dubbed the "purity test," candidates would have to meet eight of 10 core conservative principles. The measure -- set to be voted on this January -- is being touted as a mechanism for avoiding the party schism that occurred in New York's 23rd congressional district special election last month, when the local GOP nominated moderate Dede Scozzafava, who violated several of the resolution's standards (but said recently that she passed seven out of 10), and a more right-wing Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman emerged the fill the void. Neither candidate ended up winning. However, "its drafting is a striking example of the intensified internal debate among Republicans about how best to handle pressure from conservatives to move the party more to the right." The Progress Report found that at least 40 Republican members of Congress have violated at least one "purity test" principle. MSNBC's Keith Olbermann noted that -- despite the fact that the measure is titled "Resolution on Reagan's Unity Principle for Support of Candidates -- President Reagan himself violated six of the resolution's principles and thus would have failed the RNC standard. Highlighting the internal divide, "[e]stablishment Republicans are recoiling" at the proposal, Politico reports today. "We're becoming a church that would rather chase away heretics than welcome converts and that's no way to become a majority party," complained former GOP Rep. Tom Davis (VA).
DIVIDE IN SOUTH CAROLINA: Earlier this month, the Charleston County Republican Party in South Carolina "took the unusual step" of officially censuring Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) for stepping across party lines to work with Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) on a clean energy bill and other legislation. Graham's "bipartisanship continues to weaken the Republican brand and tarnish the ideals of freedom," the censure stated. Graham has been taking heat from oil company front group "American Energy Alliance," which has been running ads in South Carolina smearing Graham for working to address climate change. Pressure on Graham also stemmed from his recent spat with Beck when he claimed the Fox News host "doesn't represent the Republican Party," and the GOP is "not going to be the party of angry white guys." Soon after the Charleston vote, Graham narrowly avoided censure from the neighboring Berkeley County GOP only after he agreed to meet with party leaders. And in northern South Carolina, the "York County Republican Party stopped short of a censure but made its displeasure with Mr. Graham known by approving a resolution strenuously opposing cap and trade."
NEW YORK 23RD REPLAY?: Jim DeMint, the other Republican U.S. senator from South Carolina, is one of the leaders of the conservative movement's efforts to pull the party to the right. While DeMint has not called for Graham's censure or publicly criticized him, he "backs only candidates who are rock-solid conservatives, and adherents to his views have led the efforts to censure" Graham. Their contrasting views represent a microcosm of "the struggle over the future of the Republican Party and have put them on opposite sides of important Senate primaries" in states like Florida and California. In Florida, DeMint has offered support for vocal conservative candidate Marco Rubio -- a Rush Limbaugh favorite -- while Graham supports Gov. Charlie Crist. In California, DeMint backs right-wing candidate Chuck DeVore -- in defiance of national party leadership -- while Graham has said he would campaign for former McCain campaign senior adviser Carly Fiorina, who herself has been trying to placate to the GOP's right wing. Appearing to shore up her conservative bona fides last week, Fiorina told a group of journalists, "I share Sarah Palin's values," despite criticizing her leadership skills during last year's presidential election.
RADICAL RIGHT -- PASTOR RICK WARREN REFUSES TO CONDEMN UGANDAN LAW MAKING HOMOSEXUAL ACTS PUNISHABLE BY DEATH: The Ugandan parliament is currently considering an "Anti-Homosexuality Bill," under which any person "convicted of gay sex is liable to life imprisonment." If that person is HIV positive or has sex with a minor or a person with a disability, he or she would be guilty of "aggravated homosexuality" and face the death penalty. The bill also proposes up to three years of imprisonment for anyone who "fails to report within 24 hours the identities of everyone they know who is lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender, or who supports human rights for people who are." There are approximately 500,000 gay men and women living in Uganda. The author of the bill is Ugandan Parliamentarian David Bahati, who organizes the Ugandan National Prayer Breakfast and has been embraced by the far right in the United States. Journalist Jeff Sharlet, who has chronicled the secretive international Christian organization known as "The Family," says Bahati is "a core member" of the group, which has links to prominent U.S. politicians. Pastor Rick Warren -- whom President Obama controversially chose to deliver the invocation at his inauguration -- is now refusing to condemn Bahati's bill, which has been endorsed by Ugandan pastor Martin Ssempa. Ssempa has been welcomed by Warren's family and made appearances at his church. Newsweek reports that although Warren has distanced himself from Ssempa's views, he won't come out against the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. "[I]t is not my personal calling as a pastor in America to comment or interfere in the political process of other nations," said Warren. Both UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper have publicly condemned the Ugandan bill. Yesterday, on the eve of World AIDS Day, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton "made the strongest statement yet by an administration official that the United States will not tolerate efforts to criminalize homosexuality among countries that receive U.S. funding to combat HIV/AIDS."
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The International AIDS Society will hold its biennial conference in the U.S. in 2012 "for the first time in 22 years after President Barack Obama lifted the ban on travel by people infected with HIV." A report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the Senate health care bill "would leave premiums unchanged or slightly lower for the vast majority of Americans." The report undermines many of the fear-mongering arguments against health reform that have been put forward by conservatives. The Congressional Budget Office also said yesterday that "it estimates that the federal stimulus package sustained between 600,000 and 1.6 million jobs in the third quarter, and raised gross domestic product by 1.2 to 3.2 percentage points higher than it would have been without the program." Obama "has decided to expedite the deployment" of new troops to Afghanistan to bring the "total American force to nearly 100,000 troops by the end of May." "Until recently, discussions focused on a deployment that would take a year," but Obama decided to speed the pace in order to "reverse the momentum of Taliban gains." Special envoy to Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke is pushing for the U.S. to "extend its control over the day-to-day running of Afghanistan with the appointment of an international 'high representative'" that would serve on the "shoulder" of President Hamid Karzai. The proposal has "caused a split between Washington and its closest NATO allies," who believe it could undermine the legitimacy of the Afghan government.
Norah Niland, the U.N. human rights representative in Afghanistan, told reporters yesterday that rape in Afghanistan has become a problem of "profound proportions." "Women and girls are at risk of rape in their homes, in their villages and in detention facilities," Niland said. The D.C. Council is scheduled to vote today on a bill to legalize same-sex marriage in the District. "Marriages would begin in the city as soon as the bill passes a period of Congressional review." Congress will likely not alter the law, as "Republicans are pessimistic about their chances of preventing its implementation." The health care advocacy group FamiliesUSA warns in a new report that millions of unemployed Americans will face sharply higher premiums as temporary subsidies for the COBRA program expire. The subsidies were enacted under the $787 billion stimulus program and are set to expire at the end of December.
And finally: Corduroy skirts are a sin.
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"There's been no apparent increase in global temperatures over the past 11 years."
Fox News' Brit Hume, 11/30/09
VERSUS
"The last 10 years are the warmest 10-year period of the modern record. ... Even if you analyze the trend during that 10 years, the trend is actually positive, which means warming."
-- National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration climate monitoring chief Deke Arndt, 10/26/09
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