Media Advise GOP to Dump Conservatives

Media Advise GOP to Dump Conservatives

Republicans owe defecting Senator James Jeffords a hearty handshake and deep gratitude for exposing the awfulness of their partys conservatives at least according to the medias twisted take on next weeks scheduled Senate switchover. Journalists insist that Jeffords jump proves that conservative policies are political poison, and are advising Republican leaders to follow the guidance of the partys most liberal members.

"Is this a chance for the party to look at itself and perhaps move more to the center, become more moderate, in the wake of his defection?" NBCs Matt Lauer advocated to White House counselor Karen Hughes on Fridays Today.

"The message from Jeffords is not a new one," NPRs Nina Totenberg lectured on Saturdays Inside Washington roundtable: "Republicans, when they govern from the right and castigate their moderate members, do so at their peril." Totenberg then compared conservatives to wife-beaters: "The modern Republican Party and its moderate wing are in a sort of, to use the psychobabble of the era, in an abusive relationship." For viewers who failed to grasp her insult, she explained: "The conservatives are the abusers."

The notion that conservatives are a bunch of thugs was also featured in print coverage. "Moderates dont survive in the Republican Party without a thick skin. Over the years, the proud, laconic Jeffords had endured countless arm twistings, cold shoulders and petty slights for taking stands at odds with his party," upbraided Times Douglass Waller in the magazines June 4 edition. "By last year, the hostility had begun to wear him down."

No one explained why, if conservatives were really so mean, the liberal Jeffords had been elevated above more conservative colleagues to the chairmanship of the Labor and Human Resources Committee. And, even as the media condemned the Gingrich revolution of the 1990s, the "maverick" and "independent" Jeffords kept his Republican label; the party didnt become ideologically asphyxiating until its majority had been thinned to a bare 50 seats.

Never mind the details; to the networks, Jeffords is a hero. "For every Vermonter who looks at Jim Jeffords and sees a traitor," gushed CBSs Jim Axelrod on Thursdays Evening News, "there seem to be ten who see a Profile in Courage. In Vermont, a state with an independent streak that can blaze as boldly as its leaves, Jim Jeffords appears to be a snug fit from the barber shops on Main Street...to the dairy farms in the rolling green hills."

"He is a man of principle," Times Margaret Carlson insisted on CNNs Capital Gang this weekend. "He is a man who is a rare breed now, a moderate Republican and he gave word to what some of us have not been able to, which is that Bush campaigned as a moderate, but hes been governing as an arch-conservative."

Reporters showed no skepticism of the Senators liberal swipes: "Suggesting the Republican Party no longer stands for tolerance and moderation, Jeffords today says he leaves with a heavy heart," NBCs Lisa Myers reported on Thursdays Nightly News, adding, "Moderates worry the party is off track... Maverick John McCain blames GOP leaders, says Its well past time for the Republican Party to grow up."

The medias assertion that conservatism is the ideology of political losers is not supported by the facts. In the 20 years before Ronald Reagan became the Republicans standard-bearer in 1980, the GOP seemed unlikely to ever lead Congress, averaging just 169 House seats and 38 Senate seats. In the two decades since Reagan supplied the party with a purpose and a conservative vision, Republicans congressional ranks have swelled to an average of 192 House members and 50 Senators, with Jim Jeffords and the liberal media grumbling each and every step of the way. - Rich Noyes