Business Groups Tire of GOP Focus On Social Issues

[seemslikeadream]

By Jonathan Weisman and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, May 24, 2005; Page E01

John M. Engler, the former Republican governor of Michigan who now heads the National Association of Manufacturers, vowed before the November elections to use his trade association's might to back President Bush's judicial nominees. But as the Senate showdown approaches, the business group is delivering a different message: Judges are not its fight.

NAM's decision to sit out the brawl may be indicative of a broader trend. From Wall Street to Main Street, the small-government, pro-business mainstay of the Republican Party appears to be growing disaffected with a party it sees as focused on social issues at its expense.

"I'm inclined to support the Republican Party, but the question becomes, how much other stuff do I have to put up with to maintain that identification?" asked Andrew A. Samwick, a Dartmouth College economics professor who until recently was chief economist of Bush's Council of Economic Advisers.

"I don't know a single business group involved in the judicial nominees," said R. Bruce Josten, an executive vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "Nada, none, zip."
more
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/23/AR2005052301938.html

[NMDemDist2]

1. drip ..... drip........... drip ............... ..................

[Firenze777]

2. how tired can they be?

pensions, drug prices, lawsuits, bankruptcy protection....aren't they having a pretty good year?

[Canuckistanian]

21. That's the point though..

All this focus on "moral values" ain't getting the real business of screwing the consumer done.

The business interests want their changes done NOW. So many bills, so little time.

After all, they paid for it.

[Toucano]

3. This is laughable shit.

Like the business groups didn't get their bankruptcy legislation passed, their new tax cuts, their federal contracts, their estate tax repeal, their predatory lending "reform".

Children.

"Mr. Pwesident! It's not fair! We've go almost all the cookies, but Billy still has a piece of cookie. Give us his piece of cookie, too! There's just been too much focus on social issues!"

[lastliberalintexas]

17. I call hogwash too

It isn't as if the nominees are anti-choice, anti-gay, etc. while also being pro-labor, after all. They don't care about the judicial nominees because they are getting what they want, no matter how the people like Owen are described in the press. Indeed, I'd say Owen is even more pro-corporate than pro-religious right- which says a great deal, considering just how far right she is on the social issues, for her to be that much further to the right on corporate issues.

[Toucano]

18. That's a great analysis.

Owen is a perfect example.

[FlemingsGhost]

4. Time to cash-out, fellas? ... Do you need a dumptruck for all of it?

Don't know about you, but I will not forget what the John Englers, Andrew Samwicks and R. Bruce Jostens have encouraged, thus far.

They can change their tune all they like ....

[TexasLawyer]

5. great, great article- recommended

Some of this reads like poetry to me, like this:

Since the election, Washington Republicans resemble the German military during World War I, opening new fronts before old battles are resolved, said John E. Silvia, chief economist at Wachovia Corp. and a former top GOP economist for the Senate Banking Committee and the Joint Economic Committee. One week it's Social Security, the next week it's Schiavo, then steroids, then judges, he said.

"It's an unbalanced domestic agenda," Silvia said. "If you're going to go to the wall on one particular issue, you're telling me you're going to sacrifice other issues, and history is full of stories of battles won at the cost of missing issues that have lost the war."

Great analogy. Bush and Rove know how to steal power but they don't know how to actually govern.

[UpInArms]

6. okay, so who/what is *Co's base?

from the article:

Mark A. Bloomfield, whose business-backed American Council for Capital Formation pushes for lower taxes on savings, investment and inheritances, said the business community is no longer the GOP's base.

For social conservatives, the turnabout is fair play. Evangelical Christians had grown leery of a Republican Party that courted their interests in election years, then turned its legislative attention to business and economic concerns as soon as the polls closed, said Gary L. Bauer, a former presidential candidate and president of American Values, a conservative religious advocacy group.

After the 2004 election, for example, some evangelical leaders groused that the administration had launched a public relations blitz for its Social Security restructuring, not a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.

<snip>

But the shift in emphasis may be taking a toll on Republican political support. In an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll last week, 57 percent of the people polled said Bush had different priorities for the country from their own. Only 35 percent said he shared their priorities. The poll found the president's approval rating at 47 percent, but Congress's rating stood at just 33 percent. Among Republicans, approval of Congress's performance has dropped 11 percentage points since April.

Or is it just a rotating 35 percent? One day the business groups, the next day the fundies?

[Straight Shooter]

7. Sounds to me like bush brought too many partners to the dance.

Now they're all getting p.o.'d because he's waltzing with someone else instead of them.

Let me give them some music. :nopity:

[Fovea]

8. Note to business paleocons

you've already been punked way back in 2000.
As your new master's would say, 'shut up and sing.'

[Rowdyboy]

9. Good article, worth a recommendation

[DeepModem Mom]

10. kick

[Tesla]

11. I'm glad what comes around goes around

We have a lot of work before 08'!!!

[DoYouEverWonder]

12. Last night was just the bigging

of the split in the Republican party. This is a big blow for Lord Rove.

[Demeter]

13. Ah, Yes, John Engler, 12 Years of Pillage in Michigan

as governor, then hides out in DC, proving that some people TRULY never can go home again!

[lovuian]

14. Business is starting to realize this party isn't REALLY for Business

its for their OWN AGENDA of Power and NeoCon fundamentalism!!!

[rodeodance]

15. "social issues"--eey gods---we are humans!!

[Bandit]

16. Not a single Union has spoken out either

These corporate minded judges are no friends of the Union yet not a whimper. It is apparent to me no one in America really gives a rat's ass and will get all their just rewards. Sorry America you were once a thing of beauty for the entire world to behold now the world gags on you..

[sadiesworld]

19. Big bidness as victims in bushworld.

Somehow, they still manage to take my breath away at times.

[4_TN_TITANS]

20. Good Golly....

How much do these business want? It is somewhat satisfying to look on the choose blue pages and see the hoards of cash thrown at the Repugs and then those same corporations getting dissed (albeit just a little).

[iamjoy]

22. Must Appease The Masses

How dumb are these business people? It isn't greed, it's stupidity (possibly the two are synonymous in this case). Big business may provide the money, but the Radical Clerics provide the votes.

I have a hard time figuring out if the Republicans have been hijacked by the Radical Clerics or if the Radical Clerics are being bamboozled by the Corporatists.

[Miss Chybil]

23. Exactly what social issues are they talking about? I didn't know Bush

focused on social issues. I thought he was all about business issues and war issues and terrorist issues and spending all our money issues...

Oh, I guess they're talking about God, Guns and Gays, eh? Oh, and "Social" security. Well, you know what they say, "You lie down with dogs, you're going to get fleas." Start scratching Mr. Engler.

[mitchum]

24. Fuck them! Those money hungry pigs WILLINGLY formed an...

alliance with the religous nuts in order to gain power. They can go down in flames together.

[Octafish]

25. Ex-Gov. Sphincter's a real turd, too.

Met the condescending turd.



Never want to repeat the experience.

Oh yeah. He's just like the rest of them, at heart. All he really loves are things.

[Doctor_J]

26. The ol' misdirection

fer chrissakes. Business has gotten EVERYTHING they wanted over the last 4.5 years - huge tax breaks, union busting, wage depression, tax loopholes, immigration, freedom to move their work overseas,... This is a BULLSHIT dodge, most likely orchestrated by Rove.

[struggle4progress]

27. Let's play Bible verses for public buildings!

I think, "Easier for a camel to pass thru the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven" would be really nice for the IRS.

Maybe a Year of the Jubilee quote, about forgiving debts every seven years would go nicely for all our treasury and budgetary offices.

Wouldn't "Judge not, lest ye be judged" look great on Federal Courthouses?

And for business-related government offices, that oft-overlooked passage from Acts, about how the Apostles didn't have private property but "held all things in common" should do the trick.