A move to push Republicans to the middle

The question, then, is just how polite the moderates will continue to be in the 109th Congress. One Republican abortion-rights supporter, Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, barely was allowed to take his spot as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, but he did get the seat, and despite promises he made to the White House, has continued to tweak the right with staffing appointments.

Aside from their sheer numbers, moderate Republicans point to key leadership positions their members hold, such as Rep. Jerry Lewis of California, the new chair of the House Appropriations Committee.

The GOP leadership is also not marching in as solid lockstep with the religious right as it might appear. The new party chair, Ken Mehlman, has just named as his cochair a pro-abortion-rights Republican, Joann Davidson of Ohio. However, as Whitman points out, there was such big pushback from social conservatives that, in order to get her approved, President Bush had to intervene and Ms. Davidson had to agree not to appear before abortion-rights fundraising groups.

Still, as much as moderates complain about the power of social conservatives in the GOP, the conservative activists themselves say they still don't have much to show for all their efforts in helping Bush and others win elections. In a recent private letter to presidential adviser Karl Rove, a group of religious conservative leaders expressed disappointment that the president has put Social Security and other economic issues ahead of their goal of a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

Gary Bauer, head of the group American Values and a signatory to the letter, denied it was a threat to the president. "It was more of a description of what we think is a political reality, which is that among many of the profamily groups, their base is divided on Social Security," said Mr. Bauer in an interview, explaining that many social conservatives are low and middle income, and nervous about changing the Social Security system.

All of these debates within the Republican coalition point to a core fact: that the most numerous and energetic foot soldiers for getting out the vote in many parts of the country come from the religious right. And therein lies the challenge to groups like the Republican Main Street Partnership (RMSP) and the new effort that Whitman is trying to organize via her book and her website. RMSP points out that in the last election, the group channeled $6 million to moderate Republicans, up from $5,000 in 2000.

Still, the challenge the Republican Party faces is to keep religious conservatives actively engaged without completely alienating the center, analysts say.

"The problem [Whitman] outlines is that the Republican Party without the religious right is a minority party; you're talking about sawing off a good third of the party," says Marshall Wittmann, a former official of the Christian Coalition and now a senior fellow at the Democratic Leadership Council. But, he continues, "the strength of her book is that she ultimately realizes that for her party to win, it has to grasp the vital center, which is largely up for grabs. Both parties face this difficulty."

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