Centerfield

Centrist Cabal

John Avlon makes a call to arms for militant moderates in an article in the New York Sun

If increasing numbers of militant moderates and middle-of-the-road warriors
to stand up and speak out in arenas from town halls, talk radio, blogs, and
television to the halls of Congress, they can ultimately win this fight. The
bipartisan centrist coalition of 14 senators who stopped the so-called
nuclear option and simultaneously secured confirmation for formerly blocked
judicial nominees like Priscilla Owen need to hear applause from the broad
public that appreciates their independent stand against the party
leadership. They will get no such vote of approval from their more partisan
colleagues.

Their counterattack has already begun. It was evident in the torrent of criticism from among ideological absolutists and their apologists. One headline from the conservative Michnews.com Web site summed up the tone of the attack: "Seven Cowardly Senate Republicans Surrender, Join Centrist Cabal." This is the sound of the paranoid style in America rearing its head. In the dictionary, "cabal" is defined as "a plot to carry out some harmful or illegal act" and "conspiracy" is offered as a synonym. The use of the word "cowardly" is instructive as well. In today's hyperpartisan political dialogue, if you are not an ideological ally, you are automatically considered an enemy. As a result, there is a determined confusion of terms: If someone votes in lockstep with party leadership, they are described as "courageous," where the far more difficult decision to take a principled stand of independence and vote conscience instead of straight party line is routinely described as cowardly. This is not a little Orwellian.

Look at the 14 members of the bipartisan centrist coalition and it is
evident that they are a balanced combination of Blue-State Republicans and
Red-State Democrats, Senate traditionalists and independent-minded
mavericks. There are Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins from Maine, Lincoln
Chafee from Rhode Island, Mark Pryor from Arkansas, Mary Landrieu from
Louisiana, Ken Salazar from Colorado, and Ben Nelson from Nebraska.
Arizona's John McCain and Connecticut's Joseph Lieberman are always steady
leaders of the independent center in the Senate, but they were joined out of
principle by figures ranging from South Carolina's Lindsay Graham, Ohio's
Mike DeWine, Hawaii's Daniel Inouye, West Virginia's Robert Byrd, and
Virginia's John Warner. This is not an ad hoc collection of special
interests but a broad and representative cross section of America fighting
for what they perceive to be the national interest.