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EDITOR OF REDSTATE

By Even Academic Standards, David Dewhurst is “centrist”

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  March 30th, 2012 at 09:09 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

In the race for U.S. Senate in Texas, the conservative candidate clearly is Ted Cruz. His record of fighting for conservative ideals is clear, as I have noted before. Senator DeMint has endorsed him, as has Senator Mike Lee, the Club for Growth and a number of other important conservative voices.

But the establishment and conventional wisdom remains behind Lt. Gov Dewhurst as the favorite – despite the fact he has shown relatively poor polling, mediocre fundraising and is relying on his personal wealth to try to persuade Texans he is actually conservative. But the truth is hard to hide. I have pointed out before that Dewhurst is a moderate in the mold of Florida Governor Charlie Crist. Thus, we affectionately refer to him as Dewcrist.

Everyone in Austin knows DewCrist is a moderate. Everyone in Austin knows he stands in the way of conservative policy. Everyone in Austin knows he would be the first guy in the U.S. Senate to join the “club” and saddle up to Mitch McConnell to be a “team player,” no matter what principle dictates or what the people of Texas actually want.

But now, even academic research is making this crystal clear. In the Texas Tribune, Rice University Professor Mark Jones explains his rather detailed analysis of Dewcrist and his ideological placement among those in the Texas Senate, the body over which he presides as Lt. Governor. Jones describes him as follows:

“Is Dewhurst a “moderate?” Yes, if by that one means that he would appear to be significantly less conservative than approximately one-third of the Republican delegation in the Texas Senate.”

and

“The [data] reveals a Dewhurst-run Senate where the senators who enjoyed the most success were in the moderate and center wings of the Republican Party. Bills opposed by these senators rarely were passed — a sharp contrast with both their more conservative colleagues as well as the most liberal members of the Democratic delegation.”

Reports of cheering from Mitch McConnell’s office just came in…

The problem with the race for Senate in Texas is that no one is focusing on it and too many people believe Dewcrist is actually conservative because he can hide behind Governor Perry’s conservative leadership and he is ostensibly pro-life. But when push comes to shove, Dewcrist has consistently been a “centrist” – which is not-too-tricky-code for future establishment hack in Washington if we don’t stand up for the only real conservative in the race, Ted Cruz.

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COMMENTS

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  • edintexas

    Why my money went to Ted Cruz. And he’s currently running some decent radio ads (though I might be biased).

  • AceInTX

    I get so sick of seeing people use the terms “Moderate”, “Centrist”, or “Main Stream” to describe people like Specter, Crist, Snow, Collins, Bass, Murchowki, and others who vote left and act conservative only in election years…

    I’m convinced conservatives lose because, as much as we rant about the propaganda and ideological bias coming from the establishment and the so called objective press, we end up buying into their meme by using their language and we rely on their standard to frame the debate instead of standing our ground, setting our own standard for conservatives to rally to, and smashing the false memes put out by people who want nothing more than the defeat and utter annihilation of conservatives in the public debate

  • AceInTX

    x

  • TxCon

    it’s scary. Cruz is the most conservative, by a mile. And my money has gone to him as well. The only good thing about the redistricting court fight, is that it delayed our primary and allowed Cruz to get more name recognition.

  • Ausonius

    Outside of keep everything the same for the status quo?

    What is the “centrist” position on business taxes? What sort of thrird option exists beyond “status quo”? Raising business taxes is a leftist position, not centrist, and lowering them is a Conservative, notr centrist position.

    What is the “centrist” position on abortions, outside of of maintaining the status quo? Leftists want to increase them and have taxes pay for them, Conservatives want greater restrictions and no taxes supoorting them.

    At the most a “Centrist” would try to maintain the status quo, but since the world never stops changing, that is a stupid way to operate.

    And of course in many cases the “Centrist” would actually be a closet Leftist trying to sound fair and intelliegent and high-minded and “above the fray” by labeling himself “a centrist.”

    Jesus had something impolite to say about thiose who want to stay in the middle and be neither for nor against anything. :)

  • izoneguy

    It cannot get it to embed…..

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCohxy0RZ_A

  • philhoganjr

    If Rick Perry lifts a finger for Dewhurst, we’ll find out just how conservative The Governor truly is.

    I can understand Perry staying neutral. Sort of. And it would be great if he came out for Cruz, which probably isn’t gonna happen.

    But if he helps Dewhurst, he ought to be lambasted by conservatives across the country.

    The stakes are too high. Friendship, loyalty, etc, all take a back seat to conservatism these days.

    It’s that simple.

  • westcoastpatriette

    Something like the lukewarm being spewed out of His mouth.

  • jfree

    when Dewhurst appeared with Gov. Perry before the Iowa caucus. I think it would be a big mistake for the Gov. to come out in support of DD. I sure hope he doesn’t do that.

  • gracie

    floating around about Cruz. It is so bad that Cruz stalwarts are doubting him!

    We appreciate youinterest in Texas and particularly your help in this race. I have sent it out and I am sure my Tea Party will to its considerable list.

  • whitetop

    Dewhurst is so far to the left he can’t even be classified as a RHINO. We don’t want to send him to Washington just to get him out of Texas, we need to defeat him and the establishment.

    We also need to promote Sheriff Richard Mack for representative in Dist. 21 and send Lamar Smith into retirement.

  • RJLigier

    Republicans Quietly Retreat on Gay Marriage

    http://littlegreenfootballs.com/page/273209_Republicans_Quietly_Retreat_on
    http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0312/74661.html

    Should we be surprised by the minority liberal Republican Party and the push for the “Father of Homosexual Marriage”?

    Gay ?marriage? not a right, prohibiting gay adoption not ?discrimination?: European Court of

    Human Rights (REJECTION OF THE SOCIAL ACTIVISM OF THE APAs/ABA AND THE SWEDISH MODEL)

    http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/gay-marriage-not-a-right-prohibiting-gay-adoption-not-discri

    mination-europe#

  • hayekwasright

    For any Texans that care about preserving, or perhaps I should say restoring, liberty.
    My question is why you might think the folks that are trying to force Romney on us would sport anyone other than Dewhurst. Despite conservatives giving the GOP the house in 2010, the current GOP leaders have no commitment to conservative principles. We must awaken the GOP and reform the party.

  • ihateliberals

    That is how McCain was returned by AZ. The facts are that our so called Conservative Republicans in Congress only vote for conservative values 40% of the time and that was in 2011. We called them RINO’s but the real truth is that they are left-wing Republicans. They are liberal Republicans. Now while they aren’t as bad as Democratic liberals a liberal is still a liberal. We continue to send these people back to congress and wonder why we keep getting the same results. Dewhurst is but one of the left-eing Republicans running this time around. We need to recognize who these people are and not buy into their rhetoric. Right now we are about to lose the Presidency because we have bought into the Liberal Republican mainstream on Romney. Romney is not much better than Obama. Granted I would take Romney over Obama anyday but it wouldn’t put us in much better position. Romney is from Mass. and there are no conservatives there. they are refereed to as moderates etc.

    I am a life long Conservative Republican and i am 64 years old. I use to think that we could save the Party and return conservatism to the GOP. After the 2010 elections I realized that would not be possible. The only way to defeat the Republican Party is to split the Party and create a conservative one. the last time this happened the Republican Party was born. It is time to do this again. There is not enough of the GOP to defeat the conservatives if we can combine our efforts. we almost achieved that with the Tea Party but was qickly demonized byt not only the Democrats but the mainstream Republicans even though without the Tea Party they would not be in power in the House. That doesn’t seem to matter to them. They have become so arrogant and Elite that they think they don’t need the conservatives and for the most part have told us to hit the road. People like Karl Rove, Both Bush presidents, McConnell, McCain and John Boehner just to name a few. They don’t want us in their party. They will promote Dewhurst as a conservative but we all know what he is. why then do we conservatives continue to make the same bad judgement mistakes? It makes me sick.

  • http://twitter.com/michael_s_grant msgrant

    (and I’m not even from Texas.)

  • remalimo

    is a conservative for he has been taught how the economy and the constitution works. I know him from his days in a Houston High School and he has continued to carry his early education to the top. I did ask him if his stent at Harvard Law runt him and he assured me that it did not change him. Ted was one of the smartest and brightest in a program “Ten Pillars of Economic Wisdon” as well as the Constitutional Group. I can safely say that you should put your $ on Ted for he is everything that we conservatives want and need to recalim D.C.

  • conservativerock5

    In each case, they are taking on the good ole boy moderates.

    Cruz and Mack!

  • http://wingright.org bnuckols

    the tax changes in 2005 lowered property taxes, while attempting to limit local school taxes – all in resppnse to court rulings and “robin hood” redistribution.
    Dewhurst ensured parental consent, waiting periods, the sonogram law and defunding abortionists passed.
    We also have a voter ID, DOMA, and tort reform.
    The Texas Tribune article is bad data and bad hypothesis. A bad reference, Erick.