Moderates in both parties need to fight extremists

Political moderates predominate in the U.S. electorate, but thetwo parties are increasingly captives of their extremes. Will themoderates ever rise up and assert themselves?

In the Republican Party, they ought to do so by defending SenateMajority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee against right-wing attacksfor bucking President Bush (and Christian conservatives) overembryonic stem-cell research.

Republican moderates also ought to start speaking up for"emergency contraception" before the right makes banning it a litmustest of party loyalty.

Someone in the GOP ought to tell Bush that "intelligent design"is not a true scientific theory on a par with evolution. Andmoderates need to fight at the state level to prevent requiring thatintelligent design be taught in biology classes.

Except for Log Cabin Republicans and the Republican UnityCoalition, does anyone in the GOP dare to come out for civil unionsfor homosexuals and to resist the party's reliance on gay-bashing towin elections?

It's almost impossible for a pro-choice candidate to get the GOPpresidential nomination, but anti-abortion mania could be theundoing of the party in the long run if Bush installs a U.S. SupremeCourt that actually overturns the Roe vs. Wade decision, as thereligious right expects him to do.

If John Roberts proves to be a vote against Roe, it will takeonly one more rightist appointee to ignite struggles in every stateto ban abortion. Polls show that two-thirds of the electorate wantsRoe to remain the law of the land.

There's no question that the Democratic Party is just as muchcaptive of the left as the GOP is of the right. Unions, pro-choicefeminists, trial lawyers and civil rights liberals call the shots.

America-basher Michael Moore was lionized at the last Democraticconvention. MoveOn.org is a major party mouthpiece. Leftistsdominate the Democratic blogosphere. And Howard "I hate Republicans"Dean is party chairman.

But the Democratic Party has an influential moderate wing, led bythe Democratic Leadership Council, with which a number of 2008presidential candidates are affiliated, including front-runner Sen.Hillary Rodham Clinton.

There is no real equivalent in the GOP that can serve as anorganizational and intellectual base for moderate candidates suchformer New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, New York Gov. George Pataki andSen. John McCain of Arizona.

Moderate groups such as the Republican Main Street Partnershipare useful, but they are not powerful, and moderate office holdersare regularly targeted for defeat by arch-conservatives from theClub for Growth, the Free Congress Foundation and the religiousright.

Occasionally, a Republican moderate will speak out in aprovocative op-ed, as when former Missouri Sen. John Danforthcharged that "Republicans have transformed our party into thepolitical arm of conservative Christians."

But Danforth, an Episcopal minister, has no organizationalbackup. And, while his articles gained some momentary attention,they sparked no moderate rally.

Moderates need to organize and fight -- in both parties. Whenthey don't, they ill-serve a centrist public and miss a politicalopportunity.

A July NBC/Wall Street Journal poll showed that a plurality ofvoters, 39 percent, regards itself as moderate, compared with 33percent who say they're conservative and 22 percent who say they'reliberal.

A new Pew poll shows that the public supports embryonic stem-cell research by 57 percent to 30 percent, and that 53 percentfavors allowing gays to enter legal arrangements giving them thesame rights as married couples.

There is no new polling on contraception, but I would be shockedif its availability were not overwhelmingly supported by the public.

But the Bush administration is balking at approval of the"morning-after pill," which prevents a fertilized egg from attachingto the uterine wall.

Even though this is a process quite distinct from abortion, thereligious right is hostile toward the drug, and that opposition hasled two potential 2008 candidates, Pataki and Republican Gov. MittRomney of Massachusetts, to veto bills to make the pill availablewithout a prescription.

Frist, who is pro-life on every other matter, nevertheless cameout for federal funding of stem-cell research requiring thedestruction of embryos destined for destruction at fertilityclinics.

Despite all he's done for the right -- including making itvirtually certain that Bush's judicial nominees will get approved --Frist is being attacked for his stem-cell view.

The right insists that life begins at conception and thattherefore abortion and embryonic stem-cell research constitutemurder.

If this were truly the basis of its belief, fetuses should bebaptized as soon as it's clear a woman is pregnant and miscarriagesshould be the cause for a funeral and a religious burial.

No moderate would say that destruction of a human embryo is of nomoral consequence -- it constitutes a potential human life -- yetthere's ground for suspicion that some religious conservatives areas much about punishing illicit sexual activity as they are aboutsaving "life."

The religious right has every right to be politically assertive.So does the secular left. What's needed is for moderates to getmilitant and contest these extremes.