Five Points

Guru says third party talk "not about Giuliani"

Matt Lewis reports on Townhall.com on his interview with conservative guru Richard Viguerie. Contrary to earlier reports, the meeting of social conservatives (notably James Dobson and Tony Perkins) about a possible third party effort in ’08 is not about Rudy Guiliani. Viguerie told him “It goes far beyond that. It’s the conservative base of the Republican party saying we’re fed up.”

Viguerie said that “when they turn their back on conservatives, bad things happen to the Republican party,” citing Dewey, Nixon (in 1960), Ford, and Bush (in 1992) as elections that were lost by Republicans attempting to run left of center with VP candidates or their policies as incumbents. Include the present administration, obviously.

The caution that an '08 third-party effort on the right may usher in another Clinton administration is dismissed as “a very unsophistocated argument that angers conservatives.”

“If they keep saying that, it’s just going to drive us off the reservation sooner,” Viguerie said. He is tired of the argument that conservatives have nowhere else to go, and says the Republican leadership needs to stop treating the conservative base – both social and economic – “like a mistress … respect in private, but wanting nothing to do with us in public.”

“This is not a one-time thing. The leaders of the Republican party need to understand we are very serious. They have mistreated us for the last time. They went crazy in Congress with spending, they have destroyed the Republican brand … they are governing by bribery, trying to bribe the voters, and we are sick and tired of no action on our issues.”

posted by Hal @ 7:34 AM