Who is the True GOP Conservative?
Jules Witcover

The fight for the Republican presidential nomination seems to have gotten down to an argument over which candidate is the true conservative. Is it Rick Santorum, who has the record to prove he's the one? Is it Mitt Romney, who just says he's the one? Is it Newt Gingrich, who dares anyone to challenge that he's not the one? Or is it Ron Paul, who probably is the one but whom nobody is taking seriously?

This quest for ideological purity on the right conveniently overlooks the fact that for all the obvious shift rightward in the Republican Party, there remain major differences of opinion within it. The havoc that the tea party has caused over the last two years in Congress, especially in the House, bears ample witness to that.

Also being overlooked is the continuing existence not only of the Democratic Party but of a growing mass of independent voters in the country with whom ideological purity cuts no ice at all. Yet the four surviving Republican presidential aspirants are bending themselves out of shape striving to be seen as more Catholic than the Pope.

Maybe that's not the most appropriate metaphor, considering the current row over the federal rule that would require certain Catholic institutions to make birth control coverage available to employees. The issue has become the latest litmus test of true conservatism. But you get the point.

It's really not that surprising that much of the GOP seems today to be engaged in a mad dash to embrace unadulterated conservatism, whatever the issue may be. After all, this is the party that practically rode former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman out of town on a rail for blatantly declaring himself a moderate in the first round of Republican primaries.

Romney, for one, has become so determined to shed his once honorable identification as a moderate that he was induced by some inner urge to declare to the recent Conservative Political Action Conference that he is "severely conservative." It's doubtful that even Gingrich, with his amazingly, fundamentally abundant storehouse of ready adverbs, could top that one.

Gingrich, for his part, in his scorched-earth efforts to obliterate Romney from "the planet," as Newt likes to say, has taken to going nuclear against Mitt. He has escalated his charge that the man is a "Massachusetts moderate" to -- cover your ears, children -- a "Massachusetts liberal."

Seemingly lost now in this quest for ideological purity on the right is the previously paramount yardstick for the nomination: which Republican can beat President Obama in November? Santorum argues that he's the one because he offers the sharpest difference from the incumbent on the social issues such as abortion, same-sex marriage and now federal health care for contraception.

He also contends that the severely conservative Romney would be easy pickings for Obama in a fall debate. He can't effectively make the case against "Obamacare," Santorum says, because he is the father of "Romneycare," the twin brother or at least the second cousin of the former.

The former Pennsylvania senator, however, is still little known around the country, and his track record on electability is somewhat marred by the fact he lost his last bid for reelection by the staggering margin of 18 percentage points. He can point out, though, in a modest comparison that Abraham Lincoln lost his Senate race to Stephen Douglas in 1858, but still won the presidency two years later.

Romney still insists he's the best bet to beat Obama because he's never worked in Washington. He can cite another outsider, George W. Bush, who never worked here and still won two presidential terms. But the former president is about as unmentionable in today's purist Republican circles as Indiana's moderate Sen. Richard Lugar, who is facing a stiff tea party challenge for reelection. W after all was the preacher of compassionate conservatism. When was the last time any true conservative peddled that?

So the party's competition goes on over which of the surviving 2012 hopefuls is the purest of them all. And in doing so, each flirts with defeat in November at the hands of Obama, that liberal in moderate sheep's clothing, who may be looking better every day to moderate voters.