Prominent REPUBLICANS For Kerry (or at least anti-Bush)

[liberalpragmatist]

Just for those who didn't know it, a group of prominent Republicans, former Governors and Senators, other high-ranking state officials, all Classical Conservative, Moderate, or Liberal Republicans took out a full page ad in the New York Times the other day bashing Bush and urging the GOP to move back into the mainstream.

Includes:

* Gov. David Cargo (NM)
* Gov. Dan Evans (WA)
* Gov. A. Linwood Holten (VA)
* Gov. William Milliken (MI)
* Gov. Walter Patterson (NH)
* Sen. Robert Stafford (VT)
* Sen. Charles Mathias (MD)
* Russell Train, EPA Administrator under Nixon and Ford
* Nathaniel Reed, Asst. Sec. of the Interior under Nixon and Ford.

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20040829_1449.html

The "Come Back To The Mainstream" ads say what many moderate Republicans are thinking, said A. Linwood Holton, who was Virginia governor from 1970-74.

The problem lies with the "extremist element that controls the Republican party," Holton said, "which has polarized this country."

"I see the ads as an effort to try to get the Republican party to widen its appeal" to moderates around the country, Holton said. "Bush talks that way, but I don't see him or the rest of the party doing that."

The group in its ads called on Bush and the GOP to "stop weakening environmental law"; start using "pay-as-you-go" budget discipline to end deficits; clear the way for embryonic stem cell research; and appoint mainstream federal judges.

The way the party is now, Holton said he wouldn't vote for President Bush. "Not unless they change substantially between now and November," he said.

For the record, A. Linwood Holton was Virginia's first modern GOP governor. Even HE thinks they've gone too far right.

***

And: http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/4952079.html from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

Former Gov. Arne Carlson, who calls himself an independent rather than a Republican these days, was asked, but didn't sign. He's on vacation, an aide explained, and couldn't be reached before the ad's deadline.

Former Gov. Elmer L. Andersen also declined -- even though he was a personal friend of the late Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, an uncle of the ad's instigator, Larry Rockefeller.

It's naive, Andersen explained, to think that a plea from a roster of former party luminaries would change the thinking of the people in charge at the New York convention.

Further, Andersen said, the ad's critique and prescription for change do not go far enough. It does not explicitly mention the war in Iraq, which he calls a "mistake, entered into under false information." It does not oppose the "enormous tax break for the wealthiest people" that Bush engineered. It does not fault Bush's No Child Left Behind act for "failure to produce the promised results."

"The Republican Party is not the progressive engine that I was associated with," said Andersen, who was governor from 1961 to 1963. "I'm going to vote for John Kerry."

- Um, Minnesota DU'ers, wasn't Arne Carlson just GOP governor a few years back?

[NewYorkerfromMass]

1. A nation in emergency responds

this is great!!!

[AspenRose]

2. Wonder if Jack Kemp signed it

(?)

On edit: I guess that's not likely. He likes to put forth this image of trying to make the GOP more inclusive, but he continues to hang out with neocon thugs, namely Hastert and Cheney.

[UrbScotty]

3. WOW! Governor Milliken attacks Bush! Great!

This doensn't surprise me. Milliken had similar words for 2002 gubernatorial nominee Dick Posthumus.

[denverbill]

4. I'm glad they did this, but....

the only way the Republicans are ever going to rejoin the mainstream is if they are thoroughly beaten in elections.

Why should they bother returning to the mainstream if they are winning running as right-wing nuts?

These folks should've grown up long ago and changed their registrations. I was a moderate in 1980, and even voted for Bush in the Republican primary, because he was a pro-choice moderate Republican. When Reagan won the nomination, no way in hell would I vote for a right-wing nut-job over a moderate Democrat like Carter. Since then, the Republicans have continued to move right, and Democrats have as well.

Many southern conservatives dumped the Dems and became Repubs when the Repubs became conservative. However, not nearly as many northern liberals/moderates dumped the Reps and became Dems. Here's hoping that changes soon.

[liberalpragmatist]

6. I disagree partly

PLENTY of old Northern Republicans (the voters) started voting Democratic. As for the politicians, I think a lot of them did, but it's been gradual. Frankly, the media has mostly focused on the story of Southern Democrats moving to the Republicans but has almost completely ignored the corresponding trend: Republicans moving to the Democrats. Jeffords switched (sort of); Lowell Weicker abandoned the party; so did these guys. And that's just a few of them. I'm sure there are more, they just haven't spoken up.

Plus, the sad truth is that many of the most prominent Liberal and Moderate northern Republicans died long back, i.e. Jacob Javits.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

7. Chaffee, Snowe, Collins, Specter (sometimes)

there are lots. Giuliani used to be halfways normal too.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

5. It's nice to know there are at least a few sane people on the other side

of the aisle.

[progressivebydesign]

8. I think the term "extremists" is a good one for us to remember.

That should be a talking point for us all. Because it's TRUE. The GOP has been taken over by extremists. People got all hot under the collar over the term, AMerican Taliban, but I can't see that it's all that different.