Vanity Fair's Palin Piece Underscores Republican Split

Republican infighting over the recent trashing of Sarah Palin in Vanity Fair is bringing to the surface the long-bubbling conservative dislike of moderate "maverick" John McCain.

Once McCain won the presidential nomination last year, most conservative Republicans supported him because he was better than the alternative, Barack Obama. Support on the right for McCain became more enthusiastic when he chose Sarah Palin -- a true conservative -- as his running mate.

I'm a conservative, and I voted for McCain because he is more closely aligned than Obama with my politics. Plus, as I have written before, I believe that it's only by uniting a Big Tent coalition of moderates and conservatives -- bitter taste and all -- that we will win elections again.

Though McCain lost, conservatives have continued to push Palin to the front of the stage because she is so popular among the base, and a fresh face for the party. The Vanity Fair hit-piece on her was, I believe, an attempt by liberal elites to discredit Palin. It represented their fear of her popularity and another effort by Democrats to divide the Republican Party. In both regards, the story accomplished its goals.

I wish leading Republicans had not fallen for the obvious ploy to split our party. Bill Kristol, a staunch conservative and editor of The Weekly Standard, launched the first attack, suggesting that McCain's top campaign strategist, Steve Schmidt, was the unidentified source of an offensive observation in the article: that some top aides worried about Palin's mental state and wondered if she were experiencing postpartum depression. (Palin's youngest son was less than 6 months old.)

Schmidt, an avowed moderate, responded via email to Politico by attacking Kristol: "I'm sure John McCain would be president today if only Bill Kristol had been in charge of the campaign. After all, his management of [former Vice President] Dan Quayle's public image as his chief of staff is still something that takes your breath away."

Defending himself on a charge that he spread rumors of Palin's mental health, Schmidt wrote that the "attack on me is categorically false."

The Kristol and Schmidt vitriolic back-and-forth is not surprising to those of us who have worked in conservative circles in Washington. Conservative Republicans have long disliked John McCain almost as much -- maybe more -- than Democrats. He is the ultimate "squish"- conservative slang referring to moderates who cannot be counted on to vote party-line.

McCain and his self-described "maverick" ways are seen by conservatives as disloyal and self-aggrandizing. He could not be counted on for votes to pass legislation, and he was often on TV trashing the policies of his own party. Remember, conservatives are often guided by Ronald Reagan's philosophies, and Reagan said that the 11th commandment is: "Thou shalt not speak ill of any other Republican."

When McCain took on campaign finance reform as his central issue for his "Straight Talk Express" presidential campaign in 2000, he really ostracized himself from many in the Republican Party. After losing the nomination for president, McCain went back to the Senate to push for the McCain-Feingold bill in 2001. Conservatives and their allies viewed this as McCain's effort to twist the public's dislike for money in politics toward his own ambitions and fame.

Furthermore, McCain's focus on campaign finance reform was a self-destructive act for the GOP. At that time, Democrats raised most of their campaign money from unions that mandated their members' dues go to Democratic campaigns. Union money was considered "hard money," which was outside of the McCain-Feingold regulations. Republicans, on the other hand, raised most of their money from interest groups and PACs -- so-called "soft money," which was the target of McCain's changes. Many Republicans are still seething over McCain's perceived self-promotion at the expense of the GOP. For conservatives, McCain calling himself a "maverick" is code for "out for myself."

Unfortunately, Republicans are still cringing from our own self-destructive Ensign and Sanford sex scandals and reeling from Al Franken giving the Senate Democrats a filibuster-proof majority. This is the time to defend fellow Republicans and attack the Democrats. Kristol and Schmidt can vent about each other all they want in private, but keep the public rhetoric focused on the Obama plan to socialize health care and to raise taxes on middle-class Americans. Republicans have got to smarten up and stop falling for these blatant ploys by the Democrats to divide and conquer.