Rebuke to Moderates

When moderate Republicans in the Senate ensured their party a chamber majority, they held a special kind of power: They couldn’t drive an agenda by themselves but they could stop legislation they didn’t like. That gave them clout. With the GOP about to hold 55 seats and moderates now accounting for four, perhaps five of them, that power is diminished, and one effect of that could be seen recently when the party changed the way it will choose committee membership.

By a single vote last week they gave Majority Leader Bill Frist the authority to make appointments to top committees – including Appropriations, Armed Services, Finance – thereby giving him the ability to reward good behavior and punish those senators who do not adequately follow party doctrine. The new GOP rules approximately follow the way Senate Democrats have made committee appointments and the way the House does it, but for a state with two moderate Republican senators, the change is not good – though neither of them can be removed from committees they are currently on, if one wanted to move to another committee, she may not be able to do so based only on seniority.

There is some sense to increasing power for a party leader when a majority grows large enough that more ways to promote party discipline are needed. But Senate Republicans would have done better to notice that the Demo-crats, while in the majority, spent an inordinate amount of time talking to and serving a narrowing base. Litmus tests became as common as donkey stickers at Democratic gatherings, and voters, tired of being told they did not measure up, went elsewhere. Republicans should not want to follow that model, but have just taken the first step toward it.

The GOP still needs its moderates for breaking filibusters, and, as important, it will need moderate voters during elections, which, as events have shown over the last four years, often turn on a very small percentage of voters. Two questions should be in Dr. Frist’s mind on this issue as he mulls how to use his new power: Does he want the support of moderates? Why should they support him or the party if it punishes the senators who best represent their politics? It is worth noting that people who identify themselves as moderates make up a significant percent of voters; among young adults, 30 percent say they are moderates.

That suggests the majority leader would be wise to use his authority sparingly, if at all.