GOP infighting is unproductive

The News Virginian
Published: May 1, 2008

A thumbs-up, thumbs-down assessment of newsmakers here and beyond:
THUMBS UP: Beyond the boundaries of Augusta County, Republicans are readying themselves for a run at the governor’s mansion by coalescing support around the two men at the top of the state ticket. Fifty elected and state party officials signed a letter Wednesday backing Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell and his running mate, Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, a pair with strong conservative credentials. The signatures included those of two onetime rivals, former governor James Gilmore and U.S. Rep. Tom Davis. Familiar fissures remain in the state GOP base: Del. Jeffrey Frederick, Prince William, is challenging state Chairman John Hager. Frederick and his band of backers represent a wave young toughs pushing the party toward deeper conservatism. Kurt Michael, now mired in a legal tussle for the Augusta County chairman’s post, falls into this category. We encourage Frederick, Michael and their legions of supporters in the blogosphere in their mission to return the party to its ideological moorings. In Michael’s case, we are less sure of his methods than his intent. His fight to remain chairman threatens to shift attention away from the more significant effort to limit government expansion by those marching under the GOP banner while seeking to alter its traditional, anti-tax drumbeat.
THUMBS SIDE: Venturing where few Republicans have gone before, Sen. John McCain unveiled Thursday on National Review Online a health-care reform plan that rightly emphasizes competition and individual responsibility over growing the federal government as the tonic for a system perpetually and morbidly fattened by its own excesses. He would provide cash through refundable tax credits — $2,500 for individuals, $5,000 for families — to allow employees of companies that do not provide insurance to purchase their own coverage. This is perceived by him and his backers as a potential savior for the 47 million people in America who lack insurance. Additionally, his plan would allow people to buy insurance across state lines, a welcome move that would smash insurance monopolies. McCain champions his proposal, with good reason, as antithetical to universal health care plans touted by the last two Democratic presidential candidates standing, Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton. But real reform would attack the system’s cancer: frivolous, multimillion-dollar lawsuits. Malpractice premiums springing from lawyerly greed run as high as $250,000 annually for some physicians. Those who are not driven from the profession as a result are compelled to pass the cost to consumers. Without significant tort reform, proposals such as McCain’s will accomplish little more than the temporary salving of wounds still gaping.
THUMBS DOWN: Evidently having slumbered through 20 years of vituperation from the lips of his spiritual mentor, Obama has awakened, though not greatly. The Illinois senator, who retains his status as Democratic frontrunner and likely party presidential nominee despite dwindling popularity, crawled from beneath the bus at midweek long enough to exchange that position with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Obama, correctly for once, described Wright’s antics-laden remarks to the National Press Club earlier this week as “a bunch of rants” not “grounded in truth,” then added: “Obviously whatever relationship I have had with the Rev. Wright has changed. I don’t think he showed much concern for me or what we are trying to do with this campaign or for the American people.” The change in relationship doubtless was precipitated by Wright’s dismissive reference to Obama as mere politician. “[H]e says what he has to say as a politician,” Wright shrugged. “ I say what I have to say as a pastor. ... I do what I do. He does what politicians do.” In this case, that equates to a denouncement of the man who once bellowed, “God damn America,” though the substance of his vitriol has remained unaltered. Obama apparently has misplaced the linguistic balm used in his post-Wright eruption speech in Philadelphia. Instead, he has applied a politician’s unction. Neither washes.