Politics: February 2009 Archives

RealClearPolitics - HorseRaceBlog - Michael Steele's Empty Threat

Can an RNC chairman punish a sitting senator for straying from party policy? Not likely, says Jay Cost: "[A]n overwhelming majority of Specter's resources came from non-party sources in 2004, and the same will assuredly hold this cycle.... Party dollars are barely a drop in Specter's bucket. Arlen Specter does not need the Republican Party organizations - not the state party, not the RNC, and not even the NRSC. If anything, they need him. Michael Steele might be 'open to everything,' but the fact of the matter is that he's a paper tiger on this one. If Republicans are sick and tired of this, they need to focus on reshaping the rules that govern the relationship between party and candidates. Right now, they are geared almost exclusively for the benefit of candidates at the expense of the party."

RealClearPolitics - HorseRaceBlog - Stay Classy, Jim Bunning! (or, Why I Hate the Party Primary)

Why is it so hard for a party to ditch a crooked, incompetent, treacherous, or embarrassing incumbent? "[The primary process] has become one of many mechanisms that effectively guarantee incumbents will be on the general election ballot. What this means, in turn, is that the party usually has to tolerate guys like Don Sherwood, Stevens, and Bunning. There is no 'low cost' way for Republicans to hold their incumbents accountable, which means only the Democrats do. And the same goes with Democrats when their incumbents behave badly.

"Simply put, primaries are good for politicians, bad for the parties, and therefore bad for the tens of millions of people who sympathize with one party or the other. For all the talk that I hear from partisans about keeping their leaders accountable, I hardly hear any discussion about the primaries - and how inefficient they are at keeping them in line. Once a politician wins election, it becomes much more difficult for the party to make him responsible to the party....

"I'm not saying a wide scale return to the convention process is the best idea - though frankly I think it has some merit - but I do think some changes to the process are necessary. What is needed is a way to make it less costly and less risky for the party to monitor and hold accountable its own elected representatives."