The incredible shrinking Republican Party

So U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania has left the Republican Party and become a Democrat. Not only is this no great surprise, but the GOPers who are now dissing Specter are being naïve and hypocritical. But worst for them, these sour-grapes Republicans are proving that they are deaf, dumb and blind to the problems in their own party.

Whether or not you are a Specter fan, you have to give him props for being honest and up front. He said that he made the decision to cross the floor because his politics are increasingly “at odds with the Republican philosophy.” Ain’t that the truth.

Specter has always been an independent-minded moderate who confounded partisans on both the left and the right. He is more similar to “independent Democrat” Joe Lieberman of Connecticut than anyone left in the Republican ranks.

And it’s certainly no coincidence that Specter is from the Northeastern United States. More and more, the Northeast is becoming a Republican-free zone. That’s because Northeast or New England-style Republicans used to set the tone for the party, that of a moderate, populist, libertarian, big tent. But now, the GOP is a regionalized, Southern, right-wing, reactionary party that has become so extreme that moderates like Specter no longer feel welcome.

Make no mistake, however. This problem did not start with Barack Obama’s election in 2008. Another Northeasterner, former U.S. Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont, gave up his Republican membership in 2001 to sit as an independent. As he said at the time, he did not leave the party, but the party left him. And yet another Northeasterner, former U.S. Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, also turned his back on the GOP for the same reasons.

Now, there is not one single Republican member of the House from New England. And the only state from the region with Republican senators is Maine, with Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe as the standard bearers of a Republican Party that does not exist anymore.

To her credit, Snowe understands the problems plaguing her party. As she wrote in the New York Times this week, “In my view, the political environment that has made it inhospitable for a moderate Republican in Pennsylvania is a microcosm of a deeper, more pervasive problem that places our party in jeopardy nationwide. … There is no plausible scenario under which Republicans can grow into a majority while shrinking our ideological confines and continuing to retract into a regional party.” (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/29/opinion/29snowe.html).

Today, it is clear – to be a moderate is to be a Democrat. (How long before Snow and Collins follow Specter’s lead?)

To be expected, the few Republicans left are angry. But their comments miss the mark that Snowe hit with a bull’s-eye. And Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele – the guy in charge of the party – is the most clueless of all.

“Let’s be honest,” he said in a written statement. “Sen. Specter didn’t leave the GOP based on principles of any kind. He left to further his personal political interests because he knew that he was going to lose a Republican primary due to his left-wing voting record.”

OK then, let’s be honest. In fact, Specter was brutally honest about how he would likely lose next year’s Republican primary because Republican primary voters are now more extremist and right wing than ever. There is no shame in running away as fast as possible from the wing nuts who would vote in that primary.

Also, does Mr. Steele really thinks that his party and its politicians are free of acting out of self interest?

Most ridiculous, however, is how Mr. Steele goes after Specter as a Republican in name only who didn’t fit into the Republican Party because of a “left-wing voting record.”

If Specter’s record is so left wing and out of sync with the rest of the party, why the heck would Steele want Specter to stay? At least Rush Limbaugh was honest enough to say he was glad Specter left.

Ironically, it was Steele who got in trouble with his party earlier this year for saying he favors “individual choice” on the issue of abortion, opposes a federal ban on same-sex marriage rights, and thinks Limbaugh’s radio show “incendiary” and “ugly.”

Come to think of it, maybe Steele should become a Democrat, too.

Most likely, however, Steele and his misguided approach will stay in the GOP as the party grows smaller and smaller and smaller.