Like the 17-year locust, Republican unity has made a brief appearance, but it's unlikely to survive the staffing of a putative Bush administration or reappear anytime soon. Even as liberal Democratic consternation over solid GOP support for Bush was growing, the first rumbles of conservative discontent with the likely shape of a new Bush administration began to be felt. Is Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge, some wondered, really the man to run the Pentagon?
The case for Ridge, besides his friendship with Bush, is that he's "a Vietnam War veteran, which would give him credibility with the troops, and also has experience on Capitol Hill, which would make it easier for him to work with Congress," as Mike Allen reported in the Washington Post.
The case against? As this page noted four years ago (when Ridge was one of the favorites to be Bob Dole's running mate), Ridge was not just a moderate during his 12 years as a congressman, but something of a liberal. He opposed President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, the B-2 bomber, and the MX missile and was one of only 16 House Republicans to vote in March 1986 against aid to the Nicaraguan contras.
Meanwhile, the prospect that Bush pal and outgoing Montana governor Marc Racicot may end up as attorney general is also causing heartburn on the right. Republicans are unanimous in their praise of Racicot's post-election Bush spokesman duties. And conservatives like the fact that he is a self-described "pro-life Catholic" who has bragged of signing "more regulatory reform of abortion services in the state of Montana than any governor in the history of the state of Montana." But conservatives also remember Racicot's criticisms of Henry Hyde's Judiciary Committee during the impeachment hearings, his apparent disdain for the Religious Right, and his proposal to add sexual orientation to Montana's hate-crimes law following the murder of Matthew Shepard.
Goodbye unity, hello angst.