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Specter and the Republican death wish

by Tom Ferrick

In all the blather last week about Arlen Specter’s defection to the Democrats, one comment brought me up short. In wishing good riddance to Specter, Michael Steele, chair of the Republican National Committee, cited the senator’s “left-wing voting record.”

If Arlen Specter is a left-winger, then I am a prima ballerina. Arlen Specter is no Leon Trotsky. He is now and has always been what is called a moderate.

While that word may have been expunged from the lexicon of post-modern Republicanism, it still has a nice ring to it among the millions of Pennsylvania voters who have shown a decided preference for electing moderate politicians, Democrat or Republican.

Like Goldilocks, we like our governors and U.S. Senators to be not too conservative, not too liberal, but just right.

There have been exceptions, of course, but voters have used the electoral process as a self-correcting exercise when that happens. That’s why Senator Joe Clark, a bona fide liberal, was defeated by moderate Republican Dick Schweiker, while Senator Rick Santorum—now that’s a conservative!—lost to moderate Democrat Bob Casey.

Specter’s defection may be the occasion to note the strong correlation between being moderate and being successful in politics in Pennsylvania.

Think of these Republicans we have sent to the U.S. Senate: Schweiker, John Heinz and Hugh Scott, who was so relentlessly centrist there was even a joke about it. (When asked what his favorite color was, Scott was said to reply: “Plaid.”)

Now, onto the GOP governors: William W. Scranton, Raymond Shafer, Dick Thornburgh and Tom Ridge.

It makes me wonder, what would be the book on Scott, Schweiker or Heinz if they were serving in the Senate today? Like Specter, I suspect that they would fail the modern Republican litmus test, with traces of pink found in their voting records.

How about Scranton, Thornburgh and Ridge? They would be in trouble, mostly because of being on the wrong side of the abortion question. In addition, they would sometimes consort with—and even hire—known members of the Democratic party.

Therein lies the problem in declaring that there is a right and a left and no in between in politics. It may satisfy the psyche, but it defies political reality. It is out of step with the disposition of most voters.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the Philadelphia suburbs, once the home base of moderate Republicanism. To varying degrees, every one of the above-named Republican politicians owed their elections to support among voters in Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties. They served as an antidote to the strong numbers that Democratic candidates usually rolled up in the city of Philadelphia.

Who has won the suburbs in recent years? Barack Obama, John Kerry, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Ed Rendell, Bob Casey Jr., Bob Casey Sr., Bill Clinton—and Arlen Specter.

At first, moderate Republicans switched their votes. Lately, they have switched their registration – about 124,000 suburban Republicans have defected to the Democrats in recent years.

True-blue (or is it true-red?) Republicans may say good riddance to those voters. After all, who needs those wishy-washy cafeteria Republicans in the party? The Big Tent theory of Republicanism, already in disfavor before last year’s election, is anathema to the emerging conservative wing of the party.

On second thought, it’s imprecise to call it the conservative wing. It may now constitute the whole party. As Specter realized this week, it’s hard to rally party moderates to your cause if none are left.

Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. Not only that, it can draw a good-sized audience on talk radio. But, out here in the real world, where real voters live, it doesn’t have legs.

The Republicans just lost Specter. Democrats already outnumber them by 1.2 million voters in the state. With a little luck, they could also alienate the remaining moderate Republicans and independent voters. Who’s left to support the party?

Conservative, right-thinking Republicans that’s who. That’s not a political party. That’s a private club.

It is also the path to political oblivion.

The writer is a former political reporter and metro columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer who covered Arlen Specter’s first race for the U.S. Senate in 1976.

Previous columns on pa2010.com by Tom Ferrick:

Specter the survivor had no choice

Specter’s ‘Santorum Syndrome’

May 4, 2009 at 8:33 am

--Tom Ferrick

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