Anti-war GOPers face tough times

News comes this week that Rep. Walter Jones, R-NC, is facing a primary challenge from Onslow County commissioner Joseph R. McLaughlin, a retired Army officer who tells Congressional Quarterly that “a number of us have become very concerned about his drift to the left, espousing ideas that we don’t think reflect the views of the conservative base back in the district. Virtually every major vote on the war on terror, he has lined up with the liberals.”

This is fairly standard now for Republicans who have opposed the war in Iraq.

In Nebraska, Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., will likely have to fend off Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning.

Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, is being challenged by former aide Eric Dondero, who recently blogged that after former Mayor Rudy Giuliani took on Paul at last week’s former debate, “My former boss looked like a complete nutcase. He looked frail. His hands shaked. He showed his age. He was completely unprepared for Giuliani’s romping response. Is this the man that should be representing South Texas Congressional District 14 in the US Congress?”

Last weekend at the Maryland GOP convention, Rep. Wayne Gilchrest, R-Maryland, can’t have been happy to see activists wearing “Run, Andy, Run” stickers. Those were a reference to state senator Andrew P. Harris, a Baltimore County Republican, who will likely soon announce that Gilchrest, too, will face a Republican opponent.

But it’s not merely those Republicans who have voted to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq who face challenges.

In February, after seven Republican Senators and 17 Republican House members voted for a non-binding resolution expressing opposition to the so-called “surge,” Weekly Standard editor William Kristol said “there will be primary challenges in the Republican Party against some of those congressmen and, I hope, against some of those senators, and they deserve to be primaried, because they are acting, I think, in a shameful way.”

Conservative activist/blogger Hugh Hewitt launched a group to do just that, the “Victory Caucus,” to “primary” the so-called “Surrender Caucus” — the 17 House GOPers who voted against the surge.

Rep. Ric Keller, R-Florida, has drawn a primary challenge from Todd Long, who raised more money than Keller last quarter.

In South Carolina, Rep. Bob Inglis, R-SC, may also face a challenge. The GOP chairman in Spartanburg County told a local newspaper that “I’m not going to discourage challenges. Bob has stepped on a land mine that he didn’t really need to.”

– jpt