We all know Republicans loathe anyone who deviates from their agenda and actually does anything that makes sense, especially when that person is a member of their own party, but they may have hit a new low (again) with this one.
I can't believe I missed this from Thursday. Seems the Republican party is continuing it's assault on any member of their clan that breaks with the party on even the most farcical of issues.
Conservative Republicans, fed up with Sen. John H. Chichester's habit of selling them out on taxes, say they are aggressively pursuing a candidate to unseat him in the Republican primary.Robin DeJarnette, president of the Virginia Conservative Action PAC, told The Washington Times that conservatives are looking for someone who would focus on the Stafford County Republican's record of abandoning the conservative tenets of lower taxes and less government. Republicans tried to oust Mr. Chichester, who has been a state senator since 1978, with a conservative challenger in the 2003 primary.
Continue reading below the fold.
That's not even the funniest part though! DeJarnette went on to essentially admit that in the Republican party, the PARTY comes first - not the correct thing to do, not individual beliefs, not what's best for the State or country, but the Republican party. DeJarnette went on to declare Chichester the "number one target" in the 2007 elections:
"He is not loyal to the party, he is not loyal to principle, he is not loyal to the transportation crisis, he is loyal to himself," Mrs. DeJarnette said. "Without a doubt any conservative candidate that runs against Chichester, we will be behind them 100 percent, [and] after this week, absolutely he would be the No. 1 target."The most humorous, but at the same time pathetic part of all of this though, is perhaps the "insults" and accusations Republicans are using to denigrate Mr. Chichester. In their effort to be "clever," but still failing miserably, Virginia Republicans have attempted to brand Chichester as a "RINO," or Republican In Name Only, accused him of "taking a baseball bat to the Republican party," and labelled him "Virginia's most Liberal state senator." Pardon me but LOL!!!!!!!
So you see, because Senator Chichester supports a slightly more "progressive" tax code than the rest of the Republican Party of Virginia, it means the party must conduct a witch-hunt in an attempt to unseat the "deviating" member. In this case, a man who has served in the Virginia Senate for nearly three decades!
[By the way, I was interviewed by Chris Graham, editor of "The New Dominion" magazine a couple of weeks ago on the topic of hard line Conservatives challenging more moderate Republicans in primaries this year. I believe Mr. Graham said the edition of the magazine the article will appear in is due out in March or April if anyone is interested in picking up a copy and checking it out!]
This session is a good example. GOP members of both houses were working to create a plan, and chichester not only refused to participate but created his own plan which was introduced at the 11th hour. This might be fine were he a democrat, but by not even attempting to work with his own party he sows the seeds of discord and makes any type of legislative compromise difficult to impossible.
Should he be primaried? Good question.
I suggest it is actually good politics for both parties for Chichester to retire. If that happens-
1. The state senator from that district is a GOP who votes GOP, or
2. A state senator is a democrat who votes democrat...and not a mix of 1 and 2...
3. Neither Governor Kaine nor the party legislative leadership introduced a transportation funding plan, prefering instead to hide behind Chichester and hopefully benefit from political disarray. This tactic may be a good idea in terms of winning elections, but it is a horrible tactic if one expects a political party to craft a vision of the future and to work to pass laws to make that a reality.
Our parties should stand for something, and be willing to put up in their names the legislation to make it happen. The democrats hid behind Chichester this year, and will continue to do so as long as he in the state Senate.
It is unfortunate but true. Chichester's contrarian course helps neither party, if does not foster dialogue, and it exacerbates hostility between the parties.