The Myth of the Three Northeast Republican Moderates: They're Republicans, Stupid!
A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL
Lincoln Chafee, Susan Collins, and Olympia Snowe like to cultivate the perception that they are Republican "moderates" with their Rhode Island and Maine constituents, reluctantly being pulled along by a right wing jihad. They kind of pretend that they are Quakers kidnapped by the marauding troops of Genghis Khan.
How the "down east" common sense plain folk of Maine and the Democrats of Rhode Island can fall for this charade is beyond BuzzFlash.
Oh, yeah, Chafee, Collins and Snowe, it appears to us from a distance (we have never met any of them), don't seem to be your rabid, psychotic Tom DeLay or Rick Santorum type of Republican. They actually seem like people who might be nice neighbors.
But they made two big mistakes. First, they are Republicans, which means they give three votes to the Republican majority, which helps allow the Republicans to control the Senate, under the guidance of Bill "Cat Killer" Frist, which means the Republicans chair the committees, advance Bush's destructive legislation, and stop the investigations of any Republican wrongdoing, which is like trying to seal a crack in the Hoover Dam with super glue.
When a person runs as a "moderate" Republican, it doesn't mean much, because they are as powerful as a school of guppies amidst an ocean full of sharks. What can a "moderate" Republican do in a Bushevik Senate? Moan and groan a lot and pretend that they are seeking "centrist" consensus now and then, that's all.
But, basically, they only have one value to the White House, the three Republican seats that they bring to the table.
Secondly, they try to prove that they are so-called moderates by occasionally voting against Bush. But here's the BuzzFlash test. Show us how many times any of these three have made the difference between the passage of a Bush bill and its failure by voting against Bush's legislative position?
In short, they are a given "a walk" to occasionally vote against the Bushevik anti-democracy agenda in order to hold onto their seats, which helps the GOP maintain control of the Senate. But when their vote is needed on a close bill, like the old pop tune, they start singing to Rove, "I'll be there."
Ladies and gentlemen, there are no profiles of courage among Chafee, Collins and Snowe, just a lot of very public hand wringing and calculated angst.
Of course, the Bushevik Three "Moderate" Musketeers of the Northeast could have made it easy on themselves if they were really centrists. They could have become Democrats and joined the DLC. But if the DLC is too liberal for them, you know that they are not, by any stretch of the imagination, moderates.
That's one of the reasons we called Lincoln Chafee on his game playing over the nomination of John Bolton and made him our BuzzFlash GOP Hypocrite of the Week. Because these guys spout all kinds of vague misgivings, until the call comes from the White House.
When you have a one-party national government, you aren't voting for an individual candidate anymore -- even if they were independent -- which these three aren't really. You are voting for Bill Frist, Mitch McConnell, and Rick Santorum -- the top three Republicans in the senate leadership. And they all report to the White House. You are enabling a Biblical Supreme Court. You are helping wreak havoc on foreign affairs.
In the end, Chafee will vote for Bolton unless Voinovich votes "no," because Chafee has no courage, just a lot of mealy-mouthed "misgivings." Collins and Snowe will vote "yes" on the floor, unless they are not needed, but will probably vote "yes" anyway for a man to represent us at the U.N., an institution of peace that he wants to see dismantled.
These are not moderates; they are just people who want to keep their jobs -- even if it's within a morally bankrupt party that's bankrupting America and democracy.
A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL
BuzzFlash Afterword:
In case you wanted to know, you can easily find the Senate phone numbers of Lincoln Chafee, Susan Collins, and Olympia Snowe by going to http://www.senate.gov. Give them a call and tell them to become Democrats or stop pretending they're moderates. Because you can't be a moderate in the Bushevik Republican Party.