Barbour makes pitch for bigger GOP tent

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) said he is optimistic about the Republican Party’s chances at returning to power, but to do so, he said, the party has to accept some more centrist leaders.

“We’re not going to elect Haley Barbour senator from Vermont, and we have to understand that, as a party, that there are great Republican governors who are more moderate than I am, who are different on issues than I might be,” Barbour told reporters at a breakfast sponsored by The Christian Science Monitor.

{mosads}”In a party that got 60 percent of the vote for president twice in my lifetime, it’s silly to think everybody’s going to agree on everything,” he added. “We’re not. But in a two-party system, both parties are coalitions.”

Barbour, whose lengthy career includes a stint in Ronald Reagan’s White House, years building one of Washington’s most successful lobbying practices and a term at the helm of the Republican National Committee (RNC) before winning two terms as governor, said he has seen enough in politics not to despair at news that significant demographic groups are abandoning the GOP.

“I don’t believe, from my experience in politics, that the votes of demographic groups, because they went in one way one election, are going to go that way in every election,” he said. “Except for the African-American vote, which is the most monolithic voting group, a lot of these voters move around.

“In politics, nothing is ever as bad as it seems or as good as it seems,” Barbour said. “We had far fewer Republicans in office in 1977 than we do today. We’re not a lot different than we were in 1993. … ’78 and ’94 were pretty good elections for us.”

Barbour, making his 20th appearance before reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast, refused to echo calls from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) for current Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to step down. He also refused to pass judgment on whether former Vice President Dick Cheney’s new visibility is hurting the GOP, or on RNC Chairman Michael Steele’s current tenure in Barbour’s old position.

Barbour said he had been criticized during his first year as chairman for spending time flying around to various states to help local parties become self-sufficient. He helped rebuild Republicans’ small-donor base and set up cutting-edge technology, including a satellite system and a new website — the GOP’s first Internet presence.

{mosads}That, he said, is what a party should focus on after it loses the White House. Still, Barbour did not offer any encouraging words about the new chairman, whose tenure has been marked by public gaffes and private infighting among committee members.

“I’m not going to try to critique somebody else,” was all Barbour would say.

But the governor did speak out against two resolutions the RNC is expected to vote on late Wednesday. One resolution would ask the Democratic Party to call itself the “Democrat-Socialist Party,” a proposal Barbour called unhelpful.

“That doesn’t do any good,” he said of the resolution. “Calling people names is not useful.”

The former lobbyist also spoke out against a resolution encouraging members of Congress to give up earmarks. Instead, Barbour said, earmarks are a useful way for states to control federal spending in their own backyards.

“My senior senator doesn’t hide earmarks, he puts out press releases about them,” Barbour said, referring to Senate Appropriations Committee ranking member Thad Cochran (R-Miss.). “He is trying to take the federal money coming to Mississippi and put it to where it will do the most good for Mississippi.”

Finally, Barbour — a former political director for President Reagan and a self-professed Reaganite — said the GOP needs to stick to overarching principles but apply them in a new way.

“President Reagan was dealing with the Cold War, the Evil Empire, ‘tearing down this wall.’ We now have a new issue set, and Republicans and Democrats have to take their principles and values and apply them to this new issue set,” he said.