Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.wpost From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: GOP: The Coming Night of the Long KnivesBy Jack Anderson and Michael Binstein Date: Sun, 1 Nov 92 09:14:31 EST Message-ID: <8.1992Nov1.091431@AmeriCast.com> GOP: The Coming Night of the Long KnivesBy Jack Anderson and Michael Binstein Like the spotted owl, Rep. Jim Leach (R-Iowa) is an endangered species. He and other Republican moderates can hear the chain saws of the far right cranking up on the eve of what could be the bloodiest ideological battle since Barry Goldwater's 1964 defeat. Republican moderates have been out-organized, out-financed and out-hustled by the ascendant Christian Coalition and other fac- tions of the far right. Someone is about to get booted out of the Republican Party's "big tent," because there isn't room enough for both conservatives and moderates, for pro-life and pro- choice, for "family values" and individuals' rights. "Let me tell you what I think is going to happen," Leach told us about the post-election GOP. "You're going to have a battle - the most extraordinary, argumentative battle in recent GOP history - and the right wing is going to be the first out of the box. They're going to say, presuming Bush loses, that Bush lost be- cause he was a mamby-pamby moderate. Virtually all the momentum in the party is on the right." Who owns the "momentum" is the only question that Leach and Tony Dolan agree on. Dolan served as Ronald Reagan's chief speechwrit- er, and continues to be an influential voice among conservatives. Ironically, both Leach and Dolan enjoy personal friendships with Bush, and are occasional advisers. "He (Leach) was lucky to be invited to the Houston convention," Dolan says. "Consulting Jim Leach about the future of the Repub- lican Party is like asking Dr. (Jack) Kevorkian for recommenda- tions about elder care. Whenever the pesto sauce/BMW/blame- America-firsters among the House Democrats needed a Republican to help squelch the Nicaraguan freedom fighters, Jim Leach was front and center." The great divide separating Dolan and Leach signifies the strug- gles now stirring beneath the surface. Some fear the political equivalent of an ethnic cleansing, the kind that not only poisoned Republican politics in the 1960s, but also did the same to the Democrats after Vietnam. Dolan calls Leach and other pro-choice Republicans "holdovers from the days of Jake Javits and Nelson Rockefeller," echoing the feeling of many conservatives. These seemingly irreconcilable rifts are reasons why the next chairman of the Republican Nation- al Committee is "fundamentally and critically important" to the future of the GOP, and "a very clear signal as to the intent of the party," according to former RNC Chairman William Brock, who is credited with having rebuilt the party in the wake of Water- gate. Brock's spadework paved the way for the Reagan revolution by re- building the party apparatus from the ground up, and reconciling warring factions within the GOP - exactly the prescription for recovery if Republicans lose the White House. Rep. Vin Weber (R-Minn.) whose disillusionment with politics caused him not to run for reelection, is emerging as the dark- horse candidate for the RNC chairmanship. Weber's political stock is blue-chip with most of Republican constituencies, yet few can match his fidelity to the conservative cause. He's as ac- ceptable to the Leachs as he is to the Dolans. Other people said to be in contention for the RNC job are Willi- am Bennett and former Delaware governor Pete du Pont, who has been actively campaigning for it. "It has not been something I had thought about until it was raised with me by some House Republicans, who are concerned about the future of the Republican Party," Weber says. "It still is not my plan, but I couldn't say I wouldn't think about it. I've had enough people talk to me in the event that Clinton wins. ... I think whether the president wins or loses, there are lots of dif- ferent fissures in the Republican Party that are going to become more apparent, a lot of issues (ranging from taxes to protection- ism) that have not been resolved." Since their votes and views often diverge sharply, Weber and Leach both understand the need for civility. "I value my relationships with people I don't agree with, includ- ing liberal Republicans like Jim, as well as a lot of Democrats with whom I almost never agree," Weber says. "I think it's always very important to keep in mind that no matter how strongly you feel about something, if you understand that if you have a brain in your head there's at least a chance that you're wrong. And you better try to establish some relationships with people who are equally smart or smarter who don't agree with you. Jim and I have a lot of disagreements, but he is a person of extraordinary abil- ity and extraordinary integrity." Though Leach is still a committed Republican, some of his friends believe he would consider joining a third party if the GOP was commandeered by the Christian Coalition, which already has a strangle-hold on Iowa. Leach himself seemed to leave the door open by speculating that the two-party system might be a relic. He told us: "What Ross Perot has demonstrated to the world is that the two-party system, on both sides, is breaking down and weak. That is one of the reasons why I think, in the next elec- tion, you're very likely to have a multiparty circumstance with three, four, five or six serious candidates for president." 02:08 11-01C9999----- Copyright 1992, The Washington Post. This story is from the Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar- chived or redistributed. For more information, send-email to American Cybercasting Cor- poration (usa@AmeriCast.COM)