The Senate Manchurian candidates
Monday, November 12, 2012
The Senate's Manchurian candidates
By: Rep Steve LaTourette
Nov. 12, 2012
In the 1962 film "The Manchurian Candidate," Staff Sergeant
Raymond Shaw is brainwashed into becoming an unwitting accomplice
for an international communist conspiracy. Shaw, a good man and a
patriot, is conditioned into taking actions that advance a cause
that he does not support.
Over the past two election cycles, Republican primary voters in
several states have been subject to the Manchurian Candidate
treatment - helping to hand at least five U.S. Senate seats, and
control of the Senate, to the Democratic Party.
In Nevada in 2010, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid retained
his seat, despite abysmal approval ratings, because Nevada
Republican primary voters had chosen possibly the one person in the
entire state who couldn't defeat Harry Reid - Sharron Angle.
That same year, Delaware Republican primary voters defeated Rep.
Mike Castle - the one Republican who could win statewide in the
deep blue state. Instead, choosing to go with Christine O'Donnell,
a candidate whose first general election ad famously declared, "I
am not a witch."
Republicans left a third seat on the table in the 2010 midterms,
when Colorado Republican primary voters chose right-wing firebrand
Ken Buck over former Colorado Lt. Gov. Jane Norton. Despite a
historic Republican wave, Democrat Michael Bennet was able to
prevail over Buck in the general election.
In 2012, this disastrous trend continued. In Missouri,
Republican primary voters chose Rep. Todd Akin. Akin's primary
campaign received a big assist from Democratic incumbent Claire
McCaskill who spent money in the GOP primary painting Akin as the
most conservative of her challengers. McCaskill's money was well
spent and she got her wish. Akin won the primary and within weeks
of winning became a national albatross for Republicans after
comments about "forcible rape." McCaskill, who was one of the
highest priority targets for the National Republican Senatorial
Committee, cruised to reelection.
The Missouri Senate seat wasn't the only unforced error by
Republicans in 2012. In Indiana, Republican primary voters ousted
longtime Sen. Dick Lugar and instead chose tea party favorite
Richard Mourdock. The once safe Indiana Senate seat suddenly was
lost to the GOP after Mourdock made comments about rapes that
resulted in pregnancies were "God's will."
That is five Senate seats in two cycles essentially given away.
Five seats that Republicans could have and should have won, which
were lost because Republican primary voters chose candidates that
could not win in a general election.
I do not believe that Republican primary voters in any of these
five states intended to elect a Democrat in November by selecting a
candidate that could not win. I do not believe that any of these
Republican primary voters intended to hand Harry Reid and the
Democrats control of the Senate. That is, in fact, however, what
they actually did.
What could possibly explain this behavior then? How could good
and loyal Republican primary voters be convinced to take actions
that actually aided Reid and his liberal Democratic majority in the
Senate? In short, because Republican primary voters were convinced
by a handful of special interest groups that the problem was
Republicans and that the answer to what ailed our party was a
circular firing squad.
Over the past decade or so, the dysfunction in Washington has
rightfully frustrated voters of all ideological stripes. Washington
is broken and few serious people in either party will argue that
point. Ultra-conservative special interests took that justified
anger and frustration with the dysfunction in Washington and
funneled it - not against Democrats - but instead against
candidates they deemed not to be "pure" ideologically.
Republican primary voters were conditioned by these ultra
conservative special interest groups into believing the way that we
could change a Washington crippled by partisanship was by
nominating even more bitterly partisan candidates.
The results for Republicans - and for the nation - of this
process have been nothing short of devastating. We have a
paralyzing gridlock in Washington, even as we stare into the jaws
of incredibly serious challenges as a nation.
It is time for Republican soul-searching. It is time for
grass-roots Republicans all across the country to recognize that
they have been manipulated by the special interests.
If Republicans are going to build the coalitions necessary to
win all across this country, if we are to restore the American
people's faith in our party and in our ability to govern, then it
is time we start nominating serious people. It is time our party
stops nominating Manchurian candidates, and start nominating people
who are committed to coming to Washington to make this city work
for the people of this country.
More than 23 million Americans are looking for work, real wages
have declined, and we face a debt crisis that could shake the very
foundations of this country. These challenges will not be solved by
one party. They will require two parties willing to work together
to find common-sense solutions. It is time Republicans do our part
to make sure that our party is one-half of that equation.
Rep. Steve LaTourette is a Republican from Ohio.