Crone Sightings

Susan Adler Thorp discovers that there's a battle between Establishment Republicans and the grassroots.

Since last year, there has been a growing disconnect between Republican National Committee Republicans, led by White House strategist Karl Rove, and the more conservative grassroots Republicans who make up the rank and file. It has led to disaster and embarrassment for the White House. Last year, in Virginia and New Jersey, seats up to the Governorship of Virginia were lost because Rove has been lining up the RNC behind moderate-to-liberal Republicans with high name recognition.Elizabeth Dole, in South Carolina, is more of the same.

In California's primaries, Rove and the RNC backed LA mayor Richard Riordan against businessman Bill Simon. Simon wiped the floor with Riordan, thanks to massive conservative backing. Now, the RNC is behind Simon but stocking his campaign leadership with the same "moderate is best" leadership that has meant bad news up to now.

It's the same in Tennessee. The RNC quickly got the state establishment behind Lamar! Alexander to replace the retiring US Senator Fred Thompson. His opposition is the much more conservative US Rep. Ed Bryant. In this state's radicalised atmosphere, it's shaping up to be another California for Rove.

In this story, Thorp gets it wrong. She writes:

Alexander dismisses Bryant's attempts to define the race as an
ideological contest between a genuine conservative and a supple
moderate....

The GOP's right wing, driven by anti-tax fervor, seems bent on
changing the way the party does business. No longer is this
vociferous group of activists interested in letting party
moderates, in the political style of Howard Baker, Bill Brock and
Fred Thompson, remain in charge.

One of the things to watch for in a story is who the reporter quotes or references. In this case, it's Lamar! and his pollster Chip Ayres, and the director of development for the RNC, Chip Saltsman, which is indicative of her viewpoint. And all give her the usual bland, boilerplate quotes we'll not bother to repeat here.

She writes, "...the battle for this once-safe GOP seat has become one that Republicans can lose, which could dash their hopes of recapturing control of the Senate." Although she couches it in "can" and "could," she's clearly pumping up Democratic chances in this state that refused to support Al Gore in 2000 when she says "Although Tennessee is a swing state that leans Republican, the Senate election is not a slam-dunk Republican win."

That pumping continues:

Clement is politically seasoned. He's known around the state and
can tap political contacts - many of which he made during his
father's days as governor - to raise money. Most of his political
strength lies in his name recognition..."

The article is basically a pumping of Lamar! and Clement, with the concommitant disparaging of Bryant. Note the words she uses in conjunction with Bryant: fervor, bent, vociferous, fire, attacking, discontent, desperately, neutralize, attacks, extreme right winger. Very telling. Clement, by turn, is: well-positioned, seasoned, ideological middle ground.

And of course, she can't let a chance pass to praise the "not dead yet" Governor.

Their whipping boy is outgoing Gov. Don Sundquist, whose push
to resolve the state's budget crisis with a broad-based income
tax has stoked their anti-tax, anti-government feelings.
Sundquist is their symbol of what's wrong with the Tennessee
GOP leadership.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. It's Lamar! who is that symbol and August should tell the tale.

Until next time, that is all.