Bush-whipped
Dealey, Sam
THE CAMPAIGN SPECTATOR by Sam Dealey Bush-whipped T he biennial Texas state Republican convention has a reputation for being a rough-and-tumble, downand-dirty, good or fashioned political...
...Platforms are a statement of principles, but I'll be campaigning on what I intend to do as governor," Bush later said...
...If the dinosaurs came back, they would be welcome...
...If—and it is still a big if—George W. does run for president, the mutual overtures in Texas may indicate that conservatives know he is their best chance against this administration's heir...
...There may be a touch of irony in all of this, too...
...The Texas Freedom Network, an organization opposed to parochial school vouchers, was also turned away...
...Until John Tower emerged some thirty-five years ago, finding a Republican in Texas was like finding a cathouse in Baptist Waco: it was there, but you had to look real hard...
...After the '91 redistricting, Texas sent 22 Democrats and eight Republicans to Congress...
...George W. Bush, they did not...
...There was more openness in the party when the moderates were in control," observed Steve Hollern, a respected conservative delegate...
...And Bush has concocted a rhetorical style that captures Texas Republicans' desire for party cohesion: a tough-love approach he calls "compassionate conservatism...
...But most either fall behind or trade in their dog-tags for the Republican Party...
...In 1992, liberals united behind then-Gov...
...But it requires more...
...Despite this, in 1996 Republicans swept the statewide races and captured the Texas SAM DEALEY is assistant managing editor ofThe American Spectator...
...If not sooner...
...And what a speech...
...He almost sounded more Reagan than Reagan," one commented sarcastically...
...They read the polls and newspapers...
...Court the faithful with a little lip service, throw in some murky middlespeak, maybe a couple of lines in Spanish (and Bush did), and you've got a Republican governor that will win re-election by a country mile...
...Phil Gramm, incidentally, was one of the first of these...
...The Democrats would not...
...He and the liberals made a silent compact, enabling him to concentrate on winning that fickle, elusive middle...
...These days the GOP is united—with the governor back in control—and poised to seize the House for the first time since Reconstruction...
...It wasn't so much that Clinton was their ideal candidate, but that he seemed good enough...
...But now it's Lovers' Lane on a warm, starry night...
...Against Sen...
...It was a snooze...
...And convention planners forbade any fliers or posters unless approved by the sergeantat-arms, the resident censor...
...First-term conservative Pete Sessions's Dallas district is a good example of this...
...In 1955, only one Republican sat in the state's House of Representatives...
...The delegates, however, were under no false impressions...
...Led by party chairman Tom Pauken, the overwhelmingly Christian conservative grassroots tried to keep two Party Elders with unconvincing pro-life credentials from going as delegates to the national convention...
...R edistricting won't happen until zoos, but the GOP's ticket is so hot this year that line-drawing was on the tip of everyone's tongue at the Texas convention...
...Two years ago the party base would have had the governor's head over a comment like this...
...But the Ralph Halls are a dying breed in Texas — tired, blue-dog Democrats caught underfoot in a statewide Republican stampede...
...Bucking all protocol and tradition, the party base defrocked the governor as chairman of the Texas delegation and nominated instead the state's Christian Coalition president, Dick Weinhold...
...By 1996 the GOP had five more seats, bringing the congressional Texas delegation to 17 Democrats and 13 Republicans...
...With brother Jeb the gubernatorial favorite in Florida, Texas wrapped up, and good prospects in California, a quick electoral tally shows you just how competitive Bush is for 2000...
...George W. spoke...
...I sense a real maturing, particularly of the religious conservatives," Dick Weinhold, the conciliatory Christian Coalition state president, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram...
...Make no mistake about it, though—Christian conservatives have not rolled over for Bush...
...Literally...
...In 1990, there were 6o Republicans and 90 Democrats in the Texas House...
...Add megabuck fund-raisers and not a few connections for good measure, and it's almost beyond competitive...
...Ralph Hall is of the former...
...Never mind that earlier a party spokesman linked the Log Cabiners with the KKK and said, "We don't allow pedophiles, transvestites, or cross-dressers, either...
...Today, 68 Republicans sit in the chamber and state Democrats are clawing to maintain their eight-seat majority...
...Fair redistricting would send him packing...
...If we win every statewide office in Texas in this election, we will see dinosaurs walk in West Texas and the Tyrannosaurus Rex swim in the Brazos River again before we ever see a Democrat in the Governor's Mansion," drawled Phil Gramm...
...58 August 1998 • The American Spectator Campaign Committee, has a mostly rural constituency far too conservative for his ilk...
...Of the 4.5 million votes cast in Texas in 1996, 2.5 million were for Republicans...
...They know he's the one guy who can run the Democrats out of Austin—and then out of the state...
...It worked...
...A party spokesman scurried to inform reporters that the most vocal jeerers were not delegates, and state GOP chairwoman Susan Weddington tersely said, "we denounce in any public forum and debate attacking other people in such a mean-spirited and derogatory way...
...With enemies like him, who needs friends...
...And a House victory would be the Big One, with national implications, because that body controls the single most important power-lever in Lone Star politics: redistricting...
...That line provoked almost as much hootin' and hollerin' as when Gov...
...Eddie Bernice Johnson, Sheila Jackson Lee, and Martin Frost...
...But dissension was not widespread...
...This combination of push and pragmatism was evident in a supportive statement put out by the Dallas-based Republican National Coalition for Life, which read: "Although Governor Bush has not publicly stated whether he supports the restoration of legal protection of the right to life to all innocent human beings, but instead focuses his remarks on abstinence education and44 'He almost sounded more Reagan than Reagan,' noted a delegate...
...Now it looks as if even that will change...
...As the convention had painfully illustrated, these gains were not the work of a well-oiled party machine, but a reflection of just how conservative Texans really are—and how much they had come to realize that the GOP, not the Democratic Party, more closely represents their beliefs...
...Now Texas is unmistakably Republican territory...
...17 adoption, his [convention speech] brought the pro-life Delegates to their feet...
...Even the outgoing Democratic Lieutenant Governor Bob Bullock endorses Bush...
...Only a year later, state elections brought them back to 58...
...Johnson and Lee represent the blighted inner-cities of Dallas and Houston, and are unlikely to disappear...
...The latter—including Dick Armey, Tom Delay, and Sam Johnson—were packed into overwhelmingly Republican districts, whereas many Democrats were spread thin across districts where they enjoyed safe but not scale-tipping support...
...What happened...
...Though the governor was later offered a token honorary chairmanship (which he declined), the whole event was a political coup of the highest order: the pitchfork conservatives had wrested control of the party from its squishy elite...
...In a closely watched race this year, Frost faces a tough fight from young Republican Shawn Terry...
...they all know George W. is no true-blue conservative...
...With GOP senators, governor, and state Senate, the state House stands as the last bastion of Democratic control...
...The liberals include Reps...
...A vote for Clinton by this group was in fact a vote against Bush...
...Senate for the first time in 122 years...
...Just four years later, after court-ordered redistricting, Sessions won by six percent—not overwhelming, but a clear, clean win...
...And that's how the GOP would prefer it...
...The barely Democratic district of '92 has become the barely Republican today...
...Sen...
...I think they've found a real comfort level of pushing, but being pragmatic about what can be done...
...No more...
...Against Gov...
...Kay Bailey Hutchison, they failed...
...Cultures change one act of compassion at a time—one heart, one soul, and one conscience at a time...
...But Frost, chairman of the Democratic Congressional The Texas GOP undergoes a little soul-searching...
...Since Clinton assumed the presidency in '92, 367 elected Democrats have switched to the GOP—fully a quarter (91) have been Texans...
...That's when the place erupted...
...Two years ago, when Texas Republicans met in San Antonio, the state witnessed one of its bloodiest battles since the Alamo...
...You'll be getting a governor who believes in the power of faith to transform lives," Bush assured the delegates, "and who believes government should welcome and encourage the help of churches and synagogues and people of faith to bring hope and help to those who need it...
...The Democrats left in Texas tend to be of two stripes: the Democrat-in-nameonly and the hopelessly liberal...
...T o a certain extent, however, the harmony wasn't even skin deep: there was no dissent because party officials allowed no room for it...
...But Texas conservatives seem willing to cut Bush some slack...
...If I disagree with certain parts of the platform, I just move on and campaign...
...The American Spectator August 1-998 59...
...Republican-controlled line-drawing would devastate state Democrats—and the concern is no less at the national level...
...So when 13,000 delegates and alternates rode into Fort Worth in June, the local authorities had more on their minds than the usual cattle rustlers and barroom brawls...
...We can pass laws that hold people responsible and we will," he said...
...Delegates adopted a platform that flat-out contravenes the governor on key issues, approving planks that would deny party funding to candidates who do not oppose partial-birth abortions, establish English as the state's official language, and eliminate bilingual education programs...
...These moderates raised a minor ruckus with a protest, which turned ugly when hecklers showed up to taunt them...
...Have another drink, sheriff...
...Back in '92, liberal incumbent John Bryant sailed to re-election...
...And Clinton knew this...
...Clinton because they knew he was their best chance to defeat Bush...
...Several groups, notably the Log Cabin Republicans, an organization of gay and lesbian GOPers, were denied space for booths...
...THE CAMPAIGN SPECTATOR by Sam Dealey Bush-whipped T he biennial Texas state Republican convention has a reputation for being a rough-and-tumble, downand-dirty, good or fashioned political slugfest...
...With polls showing Bush head-and-shoulders above other GOP wannabes for 2000, the delegates know a winning horse when they see one...
...He politely begged off and urged his constituents to reinstate Bush, but the delegates would have none of that, and nominated Pauken, who accepted...
...If they can keep up, the GOP doesn't mind too much...
...One of Bush's few apparent obstacles is his avowed fear of leaving the governor's mansion to a Democrat, which a tight lieutenant governor's race this fall could make a reality...
...When Democratic gerrymandering occurred in 1991, the GOP fell to 47...
...From "tough on crime," to "reverence for life," to "end social promotion," the governor preached from the pulpit to a seemingly overcome congregation...
...With a 96-percent rating from the American Conservative Union last year, Hall's voting better than a lot of so-called Republicans...
Vol. 31 • August 1998 • No. 8
