米共和党内の保守派と実用派の争い |
保守派と実用派の争い
11月2日の米中間選挙において、下院(任期2年。2年ごとに全議席改選)は共和党が圧勝し多数派を奪い取ったが、上院(任期6年。2年ごとに3分の1改選)では共和党が議席を伸ばしたものの過半数を制するには至らなかった。
上下両院の結果の差異は、選挙制度の差異を反映した面が大きい。が、共和党内では、上院の「とりこぼし」をめぐり、実用派(pragmatists)と保守派(conservatives)の間で興味深い批判の応酬が見られる。
政治情報サイト『ポリティコ』の下記記事に詳しい。
実用派の代表格グラハム(左)と保守派を代表するデミント
実用派と保守派は、順応主義者(accommodationists)と運動保守(Movement conservatives)という言い方もされている。
日本の自民党に無理に当てはめれば、前者は谷垣禎一氏を総裁に担いだ勢力、後者は創生「日本」グループ(安倍晋三会長)ということになろうか。
米共和党では、前者のリーダー格の一人がリンゼー・グラハム上院議員、後者のリーダーがジム・デミント上院議員である。デミント議員は、草の根保守の「ティーパーティー(茶会)」運動と強く連動している。同議員については、本ブログでも何度か紹介した。下記エントリ参照。
■8上院議員による北朝鮮「テロ再指定」要求と国務省の言い訳(法的要件が…)
http://island.iza.ne.jp/blog/entry/1068183/
■レーガン保守と中共の関係を注視せよ
http://island.iza.ne.jp/blog/entry/1515331/
さて、とりあえず記事の論点を一言でまとめておく。
実用派の保守派に対する批判はおおむね以下の通り。
デミント議員およびティーパーティーが、リベラル派優位の州においてまで、「勝てる穏健派候補」を押しのけごりごりの保守候補を予備選で勝たせたため、結局、本戦で民主党候補に敗けてしまった(デラウェア州、ネバダ州など)……。
一方、保守派の実用派に対する批判は以下の通り。
共和党全国委員会(実用派が要職を占める)が、接戦のコロラド州、ネバダ州、ワシントン州の候補ではなく、勝てる見込みの薄いカリフォルニア州候補(実用派のカーリー・フィオリナ元ヒューレット・パッカードCEO)に大量の党選挙資金をつぎ込む戦略的誤りを犯し、また予備選に勝ったティーパーティー候補を実用派がいさぎよく応援しなかったことが、いくつもの取りこぼしにつながった……。
この共和党内の実用派・保守派のせめぎ合いは、日本政治を考えるに当たっても色々参考になる。今後とも適宜紹介してみたい。
GOP senators fight over failure
By: Jonathan Martin and Manu Raju
November 3, 2010 06:56 PM EDT
Long-simmering tensions within the Republican Party spilled into public view Wednesday as the pragmatic and conservative wings of the GOP blamed each other in blunt terms for the party’s failure to capture the Senate.
With tea party-backed candidates going down in
Movement conservatives pointed the finger right back at the establishment, accusing the National Republican Senatorial Committee of squandering millions on a California race that wasn’t close at the expense of offering additional aid in places like Colorado, Nevada and Washington state, where Democratic Sen. Patty Murray holds a narrow lead as the votes continue to be counted.
The back-and-forth following an otherwise triumphant election amounted to a significant ratcheting up of the internecine battle that has been taking place within the GOP for the past year.
“Candidates matter,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). “It was a good night for Republicans but it could have been a better one. We left some on the table.”
Referring to the debate within the right about whether the party was better off losing the
“If you think what happened in Delaware is ‘a win’ for the Republican Party then we don’t have a snowball’s chance to win the White House,” he said. “If you think
Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott put it plainly: “We did not nominate our strongest candidates.”
Had Republicans run Castle in
“With those three we would have won and been sitting at 50 [senators],” he observed.
Another high-profile senator went even further, placing the blame for the Senate GOP’s failure squarely at the feet of Graham’s
This Republican senator said that the tea party was the “big winner” by helping bring enormous energy behind GOP candidates Tuesday, but he said that “Sen. DeMint was the big loser.”
“It’s like you’re on the five-yard line ready to score and the quarterback calls the play and some member of your team tackles one of your members and keeps you from scoring,” the senator said. “We came tantalizingly close to a majority.”
“I’m completely mystified by it,” the senator said of DeMint’s tactics.
The senator credited House Speaker-in-waiting John Boehner for keeping House Republicans unified behind a common purpose but he said that DeMint took a selfish path that hurt the party’s common cause.
“In the Senate, we had one senator, with almost no following within the caucus, engaged in DeMint-style tactics and kept us from realizing our potential,” the senator said.
The
DeMint aides declined to make the senator available for an interview, but depicted Republican leaders as accommodationists while touting the senators who won that they endorsed.
“We’re very proud of the conservative leaders who won their races yesterday,” said Matt Hoskins, a DeMint aide. “Many of these candidates were initially opposed by the
DeMint got behind newly-elected GOP senators Pat Toomey (
Sources close to DeMint also sought to rebut the criticism they’re taking for their role in pushing conservative candidates by pinning the blame instead on the NRSC’s spending decisions.
“If the establishment is doing finger-pointing this morning it’s because their $8 million gamble in California didn’t pay off,” jabbed a source close to DeMint. “That money could have been used in
Republican Carly Fiorina lost by about 10 percentage points to Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer in
NRSC Chairman John Cornyn, while declining to publicly criticize DeMint, defended the decision to spend money in the
“But in deep-blue California that wasn’t quite enough,” Cornyn said on a conference call with reporters, noting that Democrats also spent considerable sums trying to snatch such long-shots as Missouri and Kentucky from Republicans.
As for
Rush Limbaugh, taking issue with a statement Karl Rove made Tuesday night about the “lesson” learned in nominating O’Donnell, argued that both Angle and O’Donnell lost because they were abandoned by party elites.
“Christine O'Donnell could have won were it not for all the backbiting after her primary victory,” Limbaugh said on his radio show Wednesday. “Had the party gotten behind her, had [RNC Chairman Michael] Steele had some on-the-ground money for
Both O’Donnell and Angle actually raised significant sums of money and the latter got millions of dollars in assistance from third-party conservative groups, including cash that went to voter turnout efforts.
Mike Duncan, the former RNC Chairman who heads American Crossroads, noted that his well-funded organization spent millions on Angle, Paul and Buck.
But, citing his fellow Kentuckian’s triumph,
Graham said the problem with such candidates was not that they didn’t get enough financial assistance, but that they ran campaigns outside the mainstream of states that favor candidates closer to the political middle.
“Hard-right politicians in purple states didn’t turn out very well,” he said. “Candidates who embraced center-right politics in purple states did very well.”
Crowing about the large group of more mainline Republicans coming into the Senate such as
Other Senate Republicans who bridge the two wings of the party sought to tamp down the anger Wednesday.
“We didn’t have the “A” candidates for this election, but how many election cycles do you have that?” asked Sen. Richard Burr (N.C.). “You got to play the hand you’re dealt.”
Still, even with the election over now, there is little doubt that the fight within the party will continue. Now joined by the likes of Lee and Paul, DeMint is likely to be emboldened to continue his guerilla tactics.
He wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed Wednesday that read like a combative welcome manual to new GOP senators: “Tea party Republicans were elected to go to
© 2010 Capitol News Company, LLC