Gop Talks Tough At Convention

Washington state Republicans declared war Saturday on the Democratic Party, and their platform and rhetoric suggested they plan to give no quarter.

Invoking the names of Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater, Republican heavy-hitters from Washington and across the country rallied the 1,300 delegates at the party’s state convention in Spokane.

It was an invective-filled day at the Spokane Convention Center, as speaker after speaker took the microphone.

Democratic policies in education and welfare have failed miserably, they said.

They also demonized the Clinton-Gore administration, attacked the record of Washington Gov. Gary Locke, defended Microsoft and proposed sweeping education reform.

U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton drew a rousing ovation when he vowed to fight any attempt to breach dams on the Snake River, a move proposed by some scientists to save salmon runs considered endangered.

“Not now. Not next year. Not ever,” Gorton said. “As long as I am your United States senator, the dams will stay in place.”

The party’s platform also took aim at the dam-breaching issue, calling for a “balanced approach to salmon recovery.”

“While we agree the extinction of salmon is `not an option,’ we also assert that the economic extinction of communities is also `not an option,”’ the platform states.

Gubernatorial candidates Harold Hochstatter and John Carlson also pledged their support for keeping the dams in place.

Hochstatter, a state senator from Moses Lake, said fishing should be curtailed, including that guaranteed to Indian tribes by treaty rights.

“I’m saying the dams need to stay and the nets need to go,” he said.

Carlson, a former Seattle-area talk-radio host, warned that the dams could be in jeopardy if Democrat Locke is re-elected.

“Gary Locke won’t be any more effective in defending the dams from the federal government than he’s been in defending Microsoft from the Clinton-Gore administration,” he said.

It was clear that the Republicans hope to capitalize during this year’s campaign on the scandals that rocked the Clinton White House.

The barbs hurled at President Clinton on Saturday were some of the sharpest, especially when the subject turned to his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky and his subsequent impeachment.

Keynote speaker Lindsey Graham, a Republican congressman from South Carolina, whipped the crowd to near frenzy with his address about the Lewinsky affair.

“Any man who’s willing to ruin a 22-year-old woman’s life to save his own hide shouldn’t be president of anything,” said Graham, one of Clinton’s chief antagonists during the impeachment. “He loved power more than he loved the country.”

Education reform also was a big topic for the Republicans.

Both Carlson and Hochstatter advocated more local control of money and curriculum.

“A schoolteacher in the classroom knows more about improving education than any union official or administrator,” Carlson said.

Hochstatter mocked Locke’s stand on education.

“He’s fond of saying education is the great equalizer,” Hochstatter said. “If equal is our goal, we’re going to dumb everybody down. Education needs to be decided by the parents so you get reading, writing and arithmetic instead of reading, writing and Ritalin.”

The party’s education plank called for performance bonuses for successful teachers, tax credits for parents who send their kids to private schools and a policy dictating that public schools “not promote or identify homosexuality as a healthy, morally acceptable or alternative lifestyle.”

Speakers also called for unity among the party in support of presidential hopeful George W. Bush and a change in Republican campaign tactics.

The chief among them, according to author David Horowitz, is for Republican candidates to show a caring, compassionate side.

Visit a church in the inner-city or volunteer at a youth club used by minorities, Horowitz advised.

“We don’t need to tell people we’re fiscally responsible and tough on crime. People already know that,” said Horowitz, a former “leftist” turned conservative activist. “The part they don’t know about is the caring. I know and you know that we care, but the public does not know.”