Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell told conservative activists on Thursday that if the GOP wins control of the U.S. Senate this year, the party will aggressively pursue and enact conservative policies, but legendary conservative leader Richard Viguerie says the track record suggests something very different.
McConnell and 2012 Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan were among the first speakers at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) near Washington.
“If I’m given the opportunity to lead the United States Senate next year, I won’t let you down. I will lead with integrity, we will fight tooth and nail for conservative reforms that put this country back on track, we will debate our ideas openly, we will vote without fear, and we will govern with the understanding that the future of this country depends on our success,” said McConnell.
But Viguerie doesn’t believe the promises.
“Well, that’ll be a first for him because his entire Senate life has been spent growing government, and that’s why we have a tea party today, because of the failure of the Republican leaders. When they’re in power, they act like Democrats except they grow government a little slower than the Democrats do,” said Viguerie.
Viguerie says it’s possible that McConnell could be a champion for conservative policies, but only if several more tea party Republicans are elected to give the Republicans a majority again.
“The opportunity to save America and return America to limited government and constitutional government is in the primaries. If we are fortunate in nominating and electing limited government constitutional conservatives this year, Mitch McConnell will be a far better Senate leader, providing he wins re-election, which is very much in doubt,” said Viguerie.
For his part, Rep. Ryan told CPAC attendees that he knows there’s an ideological rift in the party, but he says that’s good so long as conservatives come together in campaigns and policy fights.
“You fight it out, you figure out what works, you come together, and you win. It’s messy, it’s noisy, and it’s a little bit uncomfortable, but the center of gravity is shifting,” said Ryan.
He also stated conservatives cannot insist on 100 percent purity from every Republican on every issue, saying a party poised to win elections “doesn’t burn heretics, it wins coverts.”
Viguerie says comments like those diminish the major divide that’s consumed the GOP for over 100 years.
“I think he’s papering over a serious, serious problem. I’ve just written a book called “Takeover”, which describes that we’ve been engaged in a 102-year-old civil war inside the Republican Party, which is the most important political battle in America today. It’s not between Republicans and Democrats. It’s inside the Republican Party and it’s a serious disagreement over the role of government,” said Viguerie.
“Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell are on the side of the big government and big government constitutional conservatives have just woke up recently to realize their number one opponent is not Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Barack Obama, but it’s the big government Republicans and they’re in the way of conservatives governing America,” said Viguerie.
Paul Ryan is a big government Republican? In 2012, Viguerie hailed Mitt Romney’s choice of Ryan as a running mate and a sign conservatives would have a place in Romney’s administration if he were to win. Viguerie says he’s seen a lot of change in Ryan.
“You wouldn’t want a better next door neighbor or best friend. He’s just a wonderful human being, but he has been in Washington a long time now and it seems like he’s signed on to the establishment,” said Viguerie. “You don’t get selected to leadership positions unless you play ball with the big government types in Washington. So Ryan has been a disappointment to conservatives.
“We thought he would run a more aggressive, challenging, hard-hitting campaign in 2012 and he didn’t do that. Ever since then he’s been going along with the expansion of government,” said he said.
Viguerie believes conservatives have a good chance to add to their numbers, first in primaries against GOP senators he finds insufficiently conservative in states like Kentucky, South Carolina and Mississippi and in open seats like Nebraska as well as many seats defended by Democrats.
