With speculation ramping up that former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge may decide within the next few weeks to enter the primary for the GOP Senate nomination -- and the right to take on party-switching Arlen Specter -- you can expect conservative supporters of former Rep. Pat Toomey will begin working to frame the debate as conservative Toomey vs. liberal Ridge.
The first shots have been fired: National Review's David Freddoso takes a quick look at Ridge's record as a congressman (1983-95), and finds it worrisome on a number of fronts to conservatives:
While in Congress, writes Freddoso, Ridge "voted to expand welfare eligibility (1984), to fund abortions with public money, and in favor of the fairness doctrine (in 1987)."
"Ridge voted against an early school choice program in 1992," Freddoso continues.
Ridge also "voted against an early school choice program in 1992," the article states. "He also voted for a number of union priorities -- in 1988, he voted to re-hire the air traffic controllers who had gone toe-to-toe with President Reagan seven years earlier and lost."
Later, Matt Lewis at AOL's PoliticsDaily joined the fray:
"Roll Call reported in June of 2008 that Ridge failed to register a hefty-sized lobby contract with Albania for nearly two years. Then, in 2005, questions were raised about whether Ridge used his position as secretary of Homeland Security to direct contracts to his buddies.
"In 2005, the Associated Press reported that a day after, President Bush named Ridge secretary of DHS, Ridge stayed at the home of David Girard-diCarlo, head of a major lobbying firm, representing many clients seeking contracts from DHS," Lewis continues.
"A month later, two of Ridge's aides left the government to go work for Girard-diCarlo's company, and luckily for them, ethic laws barring the aides from lobbying the White House did not apply to the newly created Department of Homeland Security. These aids successfully lobbied DHS for millions of dollars in government contracts."
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Comments
Preemptive attacks on Tom Ridge by the knee-jerk right crystalize the fact that the Republican party is only for the most rightwing, out of touch extremists. After back-to-back electoral dabacles you'd think the GOP would be sincere in its 'rebranding' effort. Attacks such as these, however, prove that Republicans are not interested in being a 'center-right' party. They are only interested in remaining the ultra rightwing knee-jerk party that they currently are. Hopefully Ridge opts out of a Senate bid and gives Pat Toomey the chance he and his ultra rightwing backers deserve: to lose to a centrist candidate in the general election after driving moderates from their own party.
Posted by: mag_amberson
| May 6, 2009 12:34 AM
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