Graham, DeMint differ on strategies for GOP to regain power

By James Rosen - McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON -- The national debate among Republicans over their party's future is nowhere sharper than in South Carolina, where Sens. Lindsey Graham and Jim DeMint pursue distinctly different visions for restoring GOP primacy at the polls.

Graham and DeMint, who profess to be friends and live within an hour's drive of each other in the conservative Upstate, prescribe conflicting cures for the Republican ailments that led to sweeping defeats in the last two national elections.

Graham, a Seneca Republican elected to his second term last year, says the party must stop alienating young people and Hispanics and start promoting pragmatic, “center-right solutions” to the country's most pressing problems.

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“I'm trying to make sure that conservatism doesn't get hijacked by political fringes,” Graham told McClatchy. “I don't want to be in a party that's consistently losing market share. Our problem is we're going to have to broaden the base of our party.”

Graham joins many other analysts in predicting a GOP rebound in the 2010 elections, but he says shifting demographics among younger, more diverse voters will challenge Republicans over the next decade or two.

DeMint, a Greenville Republican seeking to win a second term next year, believes that young voters and ethnic Americans will flock to GOP candidates if they push plain conservative principles and offer a stark contrast to Democrats.

“When someone provides a clear alternative to continued government growth and spending, people respond to that, even in different states like Pennsylvania or Florida or Ohio,” he said. “As long as the Republican Party doesn't stand for anything, it doesn't matter whether we have 50 or 55 or 60 votes in the Senate.”

Graham believes in the art of compromise and says partisan politics can't create jobs, reverse climate change, provide good health care or address other major concerns.

“The overwhelming majority of conservatives and independents appreciate the fact that their elected leaders are trying to solve hard problems,” Graham said.

“South Carolinians could care less who I work with,” he said. “Most people in South Carolina are looking for their elected officials to improve their lives, get the unemployment situation turned around and help our environment to get cleaner.”

DeMint says lawmakers from both parties have been on a spending binge. True compromise, he claims, is impossible with Democrats.

“Both parties talk about fiscal responsibility and cutting out waste, but we haven't cut one program since I've been up here for 10 years,” DeMint said. “What I'm trying to do is put out a marker of where we should go.”

“The Democrats want to centralize power and grow government,” he said. “Their idea of compromise is growing government a little slower. That's not a compromise to me.”

Some Republicans blame DeMint for helping compel former Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania to switch parties in April — which put the Democrats closer to holding a filibuster-proof 60 Senate seats.

DeMint told Specter that he was backing former Rep. Pat Toomey, founder of the Club for Growth conservative advocacy group, in their GOP primary next year.

Closer to home, DeMint has declined to endorse Rep. Bob Inglis, a Travelers Rest Republican who also faces significant 2010 primary opposition from four foes who say he's not conservative enough. Graham has endorsed Inglis for re-election.

Graham and DeMint have split as well in the closely watched Florida primary race for a U.S. Senate seat. Graham backs Gov. Charlie Crist, a moderate Republican, while DeMint supports his more conservative opponent, former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio.

“I would rather have 30 Republicans in the Senate who really believe in principals of limited government, free markets, free people, than to have 60 that don't have a set of beliefs,” DeMint told the Washington Examiner in a comment that has been widely quoted.