December 18, 2005

Pamela D. Varkony - Tribune Papers Columnist

During this season the lion may symbolically lie down with the lamb, but the scene inside Republican power circles isn't fit for any Christmas card. Unwilling to wait for the 2005 holiday season to end and the 2006 political season to start, Sarah Chamberlain Resnick, executive director of the moderate Republican Main Street Partnership, and Pat Toomey, president of the conservative Club for Growth, went head-to-head in the media last week over the announcement that CFG was backing former Cranston Mayor Steve Laffey in a primary challenge to incumbent Rhode Island Sen. Lincoln Chafee.

In a Dec. 12, 2005, Wall Street Journal op-ed, ''Laffey vs. Chafee,'' Toomey called upon the spirit of Ronald Reagan to remind Republicans what they used to stand for. Like Marley's ghost rattling his chains in ''A Christmas Carol,'' Toomey seemed intent on pointing out Republican sins in the hope of frightening the sinners into reform.

Quoting Reagan's explanation for challenging incumbent President Gerald Ford in the 1976 Republican Primary, Toomey wrote; ''It is time to scale back the size of federal government, reduce taxes and government intrusion on our lives, balance the budget, and return to the people the freedoms usurped from them by the bureaucrats.'' He continued, ''Once again, challengers to certain Republican incumbents are needed to help restore limited government to its rightful place at the center of the Republican agenda.''

The center of the Republican agenda is exactly where Resnick thinks she and the Main Street Partnership stand. In a media conference call on Dec. 13, she defiantly challenged Club for Growth, ''We've beaten them the last 12 times they've run against one of our incumbent candidates, and 13 is not going to be an unlucky number.''

According to Resnick, Laffey is no Club for Growth poster boy. ''He's no tax cutting conservative. He's responsible for taking Cranston to the highest residential property tax rate in Rhode Island. Once again, Pat Toomey is off the reservation like he was against Sen. (Arlen) Specter. We spent $1 million in that race and if we need to do it again, we will.''

Republican Senate leadership in the form of the National Republican Senatorial Committee appears to be coming down on the side of Chafee. In October, it ran TV ads against Laffey throughout the state. Sen. Elizabeth Dole visited Rhode Island twice, and Andrew Card, White House chief of staff, was there for a fund raiser.

Rhode Island is heavily Democratic. John Kerry won it in the 2004 election by a wide margin, so a Republican primary fight could put the seat at risk. Chafee, with his centrist voting record, appeals to moderate Democrats and Independents. Republican primaries bring out the conservative base, giving Laffey an advantage. But in Rhode Island, Independents can vote in primaries, and this may be a factor. But, if Laffy were to win the primary, it is unlikely he could win the general election. A Republican consultant in Washington, who asked not to be named said, ''If we Republicans lose that seat, it will be Democratic forever. This doesn't make any sense. Isn't it better to have a Republican in there who votes with the party maybe not all, but some of the time, rather than a Democrat who may never vote with us?''

No matter how well funded both sides claim to be, the ripples of that fight reach far into Pennsylvania. If the National Republican Senatorial Committee gets bloodied and its war chest depleted defending Chafee, how much will be left for Sen. Rick Santorum in the General Election here? A Quinnipiac University poll of Dec. 13 shows Santorum down 12 points against likely Democratic challenger Bob Casey Jr. and only 40 percent of those responding approved of Santorum's performance.

From Toomey's perspective, the motivation for this fight may be more complex than a difference in Republican ideology. Toomey is originally from Rhode Island, giving him connections that go beyond his present position. And then there's that ax that needs grinding; Lincoln Chafee and the NRSC did not support Toomey during his own primary challenge to Sen. Specter. His Club for Growth position gives him a comfortable position from which to sling bricks into the Republican machinery.

Santorum, who is in the fight of his life, must find more than a little irony in the fact that Toomey, the conservative's conservative, may be a contributing factor if Santorum, an equal devotee of the right, loses his seat. Santorum, who swallowed hard and carried water for the party by supporting Specter against Toomey, may now reap the bitter fruit of that labor.