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Carol Platt Liebau - Columnist
Carol
Platt Liebau is editorial director and a senior member
of theOneRepublic and CaliforniaRepublic editorial
board. She is an attorney, political analyst and commentator
based in San Marino, CA, and has appeared on the Fox
News Channel, MSNBC, CNN, Orange County News Channel,
Cox Cable and a variety of radio programs throughout
the United States. A graduate of Princeton University
and Harvard Law School, Carol Platt Liebau also served
as the first female managing editor of the Harvard Law
Review. Her web log can be found at CarolLiebau.blogspot.com [go
to Liebau index]
 The
More, the Merrier
What Arlen Specter Can Teach the California GOP...
[Carol
Platt Liebau] 11/15/04
By
all accounts, last week should have been wonderful for the
GOP. Not only
was the
party basking in the glory of President
Bush’s reelection, but Republicans won four Senate seats
(for a 55-44 majority), four House seats (for a 231-200 majority)
and may well pick up a net gain of one governorship for a 29-21
majority there, as well.
Rather than
celebrating, however, many Republican activists spent last
week locked in
combat – with one another. Under
the seniority rules of the Senate, moderate Republican Arlen
Specter is due to chair the Judiciary Committee, ground zero
for key conservative agenda items including tort reform and judicial
nominations. And mindful of Specter’s opposition to Robert
Bork in 1987, conservatives across the country launched a campaign
to prevent him from assuming the chairmanship – notwithstanding
the senator’s support for every one of President Bush’s
nominees and his spirited defense of Clarence Thomas’ Supreme
Court nomination.
Conservatives’ resentment of Arlen Specter is understandable,
even justified. He has never bothered to hide his contempt for
the right wing of the party, is personally unpleasant, and is
given to embarrassing displays of too-much-cleverness-by-half – as
when he relied on Scottish law to vote “not proven” on
President Clinton’s impeachment, rather than taking a stand.
Even so,
the effort to strip him of his chairmanship is misguided, absent
some
display of malfeasance or bad faith in the execution
of those duties. Why? Because he is a Republican – and
as such, is part of the majority party and entitled to its prerogatives.
Yes, his segment of the party is shrinking; yes, his (often obnoxiously
outspoken) pro-choice views are unpopular. But the job of a majority
party is not to “purify” itself and punish dissidents – otherwise,
it becomes a minority party very, very quickly. Rather, a party’s
job is to unify as many people around its position on any particular
issue at any particular time as it possibly can.
Let’s be clear: Leaving Senator Specter in the chairmanship
does not constitute an endorsement of his positions on any issue
or nominee -- but so long as he promises to treat President Bush’s
nominees with procedural fairness (i.e. allowing the nominations
or legislation to come to the floor for votes), he should not
be punished for the substance of his views. Stripping Specter
of his post will not help Republicans win his vote for judicial
confirmations – and may lose them his vote on tax matters,
for good measure.
Last week’s Specter brouhaha has special resonance for
California Republicans – even though they only aspire to
the problems accompany majority status. It serves as a reminder
that political parties need not be composed of people who agree
on every subject all the time – a successful political
party can be made up many people who agree on some things some
of the time. And it’s up to those in the state party to
find reasons not for excluding Californians, but for bringing
them aboard.
Do you like
Arnold Schwarzenegger? You’re a Republican.
Are you fervently pro-life? You’re a Republican.
Are you pro-choice, but dislike taxes more than you dislike pro-lifers?
You’re a Republican, too. Are you a traditionalist with
respect to social arrangements? You’re a Republican. Are
you fine with gay marriage, but opposed to Gavin Newsom – or
the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court – trying to effect
wholesale social change without any regard to the democratic
process? Then you’re a Republican. Are you tired of the
legislature’s big-spending, arrogant, free-wheeling ways?
You’re a Republican. And so is everyone who believes that
taxes are a gift to politicians, not an entitlement – and
that government should be trying to maximize entrepreneurship,
creativity and opportunity, not stifle it. If any of the issues
above determines your vote, then you’re a Republican. And
you’re welcome when you agree with the majority of the
party, and even when you don’t – as long as you’re
willing to vote Republican at the ballot box.
California
Republicans are approaching a time of unprecedented opportunity.
It can
attract hard working, entrepreneurial Latinos,
Democratic men and Republican working women, all of whom voted
for George W. Bush in numbers greater than four years ago. But
if the Republican Party is to succeed on either the state or
the national level, it can’t “draw circles that shut
others out,” just on the basis of what they say – not
what they do – whether they’re Arlen Specter or his
Christian conservative counterpart. To achieve the promise of
a stable Republican majority, we must make the circle big enough
to accommodate everyone who’s willing to join us. tOR
Columnist
Carol Platt Liebau is a political analyst, commentator and CaliforniaRepublic.org editorial
director based in San Marino, CA. Ms. Liebau also served
as the first female managing editor of the Harvard Law Review.
Her web log can be found at CarolLiebau.blogspot.com
copyright
2004
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