Meghan McCain: A war brewing in the Republican Party

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Well, well, there really is a "Maverick" McCain, but it's not the tired old man who cowered before the right-wing of the GOP and sold out his principles to realize his ambition of becoming the Republican Party's nominee. No, it is his 24-year old daughter, Meghan McCain. Meghan has been giving the shrill harpies in the conservative media fits for weeks now – I like her, she's not afraid to speak her mind.

Speaking to an affectionate crowd of Log Cabin Republicans on Saturday evening, Meghan McCain ridiculed the party her father headed this past election, declaring that "old school Republicans" were "scared shitless" of the changing landscape. Meghan McCain: "Old School" Republicans Are "Scared Shitless"

The Senator's daughter, who has quickly become something of an iconic figure in the gay conservative community since the end of the election, took repeated shots at the GOP for its antiquated mores.

"I feel too many Republicans want to cling to past successes," said McCain. "There are those who think we can win the White House and Congress back by being 'more' conservative. Worse, there are those who think we can win by changing nothing at all about what our party has become. They just want to wait for the other side to be perceived as worse than us. I think we're seeing a war brewing in the Republican Party. But it is not between us and Democrats. It is not between us and liberals. It is between the future and the past."

Later, she called out those officials in the Republican tent who insist that tactical improvements, technology and brass-knuckle politicking are the path back to relevance.

"Simply embracing technology isn't going to fix our problem," she said. "Republicans using Twitter and Facebook isn't going to miraculously make people think we're cool again. Breaking free from obsolete positions and providing real solutions that don't divide our nation further will. That's why some in our party are scared. They sense the world around them is changing and they are unable to take the risk to jump free of what's keeping our party down."

The remarks, delivered at the Log Cabin Republican's national convention in Washington D.C., drew healthy applause and the occasional high-pitched whistling. McCain, at one point, declared herself a proud member of the GOP. But her pot shots at the Republican Party and its flashier figures were not thinly veiled. Describing her public tiff with Ann Coulter as non-delicate, she went on to refer to the brash conservative talker as "overly partisan and divisive." Later in the speech she insisted that "most of our nation wants our nation to succeed" – a pretty clear dig at the now-infamous remarks of talk radio host Rush Limbaugh.

Last Monday, McCain wrote an opinion piece urging the Republican Party to use more gay-friendly language. "Of all the causes I believe in and speak publicly about, this is one of the ones closest to my heart," she wrote in a blog post on the Daily Beast titled 'Memo to the GOP: Go Gay.' " If the Republican Party has any hope of gaining substantial support from a wider, younger base, we need to get past our anti-gay rhetoric." Meghan McCain warns of looming civil war in the GOP.

On Sunday, there was this remarkable interview of Log Cabin Republican Charles Moran by CNN reporter Don Lemon regarding Meghan McCain's speech to the Log Cabin Republicans. The money quote from Mr. Moran:

True conservatism… conservatism isn't defined through the scholars not since the… Reagan Revolution takeover of the evangelical wing of the party in the early 1980s, they do not get to define conservatism. Conservatism is having the ability to make choices that are the best for yourself and not having somebody else tell you what to do. That's what conservatism is.

Them are fightin' words to the theocratic Republicans in Arizona who pushed the anti-gay marriage proposition on last year's ballot.

Preceding Meghan McCain at the Log Cabin Republican convention on Friday evening was John McCain's senior campaign advisor, Steve Schmidt. Senior GOP Consultant Backs Gay Marriage

At a meeting in Washington of the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay rights GOP group, Schmidt dismissed conservative arguments that allowing gay marriage would weaken the institution, as well as objections from religious conservatives, warning that they could turn the Republican Party into a "sectarian" party.

"For the party to be seen as an antigay, that is injurious to its candidates in places like California and Washington and New York," Schmidt said.

He called heterosexual marriage "a tradition,"not a "creed."

"It is not how we define ourselves as Americans," Schmidt, who first declared his support for gay marriage in March, said.

His support of gay marriage not only puts Schmidt to the left of the McCain, who has said he believes that marriage should be between a man and woman, but President Obama, who took the same stance during his presidential campaign.

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Schmidt's view remains in the distinct minority within his party, although McCain's daughter 24-year-old Meghan McCain also recently declared her support for gay marriage. A spokeswoman for Sen. McCain declined to comment on Schmidt's remarks.

"I don't honestly expect our party will reverse in the very near term its opposition to same sex marriage. Nor do I yet see support for it from a strong majority of the general public," Schmidt told the Log Cabin Republicans. "And, I do believe that such a highly charged political question such as this should be settled by the freely expressed will of the people, and not by the courts." McCain campaign manager: GOP should back same-sex marriage

"One of the things that has definitely impacted my views on these issues and an evolution of thought over time is having a gay sibling," Schmidt told CNN. "As Americans get to know gay couples and or have gay family members, or work associates … they come to understand that these relationships are deep and worth being respect and being protected."

Log Cabin Republicans say they hope other party leaders now realize that election losses prove the GOP catered too much to social conservatives.

"It's great that the Republican Party is going through this soul-searching at this moment right now," said Charles Moran, president of the Los Angeles chapter of the Log Cabin Republicans. "Republicans are thinking outside the box."