by Fran Eaton
Conservative Republican women leaders from around the nation declared over the weekend that they are not happy with any of the current "Tier 1" Republican presidential candidates, and vowed to stop progress of the likes of John McCain, Rudy Guiliani, Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney.
Conservative icon Phyllis Schlafly (pictured right), who hosted the weekend Eagle Forum state presidents' pow-wow in St. Louis, said that conservatives need to engage now to eliminate leading unacceptable candidates to clear the field for true conservatives to emerge in the next couple of months.
Citing her concern about "early money," Schlafly said an "invisible primary" is already in progress. "Whoever reaches the $100 million mark first will be declared the GOP primary winner way before we get to Minneapolis next August," she said.
She urged conservatives to push back against those GOP candidates weak on social issues, because "only a Reagan-like candidate strong on social issues will win in 2008."
Schlafly's son Andrew of New Jersey, agreed.
"The nation is divided evenly, and the voting bloc of social conservatives will be the defining difference in defeating a Democrat in 2008. We must have a social conservative as the GOP nominee," he said.
Meeting attendees included an RNC officer, RNC convention delegates, state GOP party leaders, UN conference observers as well as longtime influentials from California to Alabama, Texas, Missouri, Ohio, New Jersey, D.C., Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, Oregon, Iowa, Oklahoma, Washington state as well as Tennessee, Kentucky and Illinois.
The list of the conservative women's complaints about GOP front runner John McCain included his McCain/Feingold campaign finance law, his support of embryo experimentation, his being one of the 14 who blocked conservative judges from confirmation, among other egregious conservative snubs.
A top Arizona GOP officeholder told fellow female conservatives "John McCain is a loser" in his home state. Over this weekend, she said, a scheme to take over the Arizona state party with a McCain puppet fell flat as independent conservative leader Randy Pullen gained re-election by a mere six votes. "He can't win in his own Republican state!" she said.
From Arkansas, a former elected official reported that Gov. Mike Huckabee is a "pro-life, pro-gun liberal" and that he'd rather raise taxes than decrease spending. "He's just like a Baptist preacher," the Eagle Forum national board member said, "If they need money, they just pass the hat." Huckabee was formerly a Southern Baptist youth pastor in Arkansas.
MA Gov. Mitt Romney was deemed by the group as "a phony," and "not to be trusted" on social issues. Rudy Guiliani's pro-abortion and pro-gay views and his personal indiscretions took him out of consideration. Newt Gingrich's personal life was also a problem for the state leaders.
Those Tier 2 candidates such as Cong. Duncan Hunter and Senator Sam Brownback were lauded for their pro-life stands, but Brownback's weak position on immigration caused them hesitation.
"We're very concerned about what the GOP will do in 2008. We would like to see conservatives clear the slate early on and see someone emerge we can all support," Schlafly said.
That hope is yet down the road. He (or she) simply isn't on the radar yet.
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