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Voinovich launches a firestorm at GOP

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By Jessica Wehrman, Staff Writer 8:55 PM Sunday, August 2, 2009

WASHINGTON — Sen. George Voinovich appeared to launch a Republican war of the states last week when he made comments disparaging two of his Republican U.S. Senate candidates.

But however ham-handedly the message was delivered, Voinovich’s underlying point was one that’s been an increasing matter of concern to Republicans.

Voinovich, appearing before the Columbus Dispatch editorial board on July 27, lamented to editors that the Republican party has too many “Jim DeMints and Tom Coburns.”

“It’s the Southerners,” he said. “They get on TV and go ‘errr, errr...’ People hear them and say, ‘These people, they’re Southerners,’ The party’s being taken over by Southerners. What the hell have they got to do with Ohio?”

His comments launched a firestorm, with cable networks focusing on them and asking for a reaction from other senators. A newspaper in New Jersey ran an editorial on the comments. Even Washington, D.C., satirical political site Wonkette weighed in.

Sen. David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican, fired back at Voinovich via the Washington Times, telling that newspaper that Voinovich was “a moderate, really wishy-washy.”

“I’m on the side of conservatives getting back to core conservative values,” Vitter said. “There are a lot of us from the South who hold those values, which I think the party is supposed to be about. We strayed from them in the past few years, and that’s why we performed so badly in the national elections.”

Voinovich, who is retiring at the end of 2010, probably didn’t endear himself to many of his southern colleagues with his comments, but his criticisms aren’t exactly new. After President Obama won easily in traditionally red states last fall, political strategists wrung their hands over the idea that the Republican party had become a fundamentally regional party.

“One of the many reasons why the GOP is currently handicapped in many Americans’ eyes is that the Republicans have become a regional party rather than a national party,” said Larry Sabato, a political science professor at the University of Virginia. “Obviously that’s not healthy for them.”

Among those asked about the comments was House Minority Leader John Boehner, whose job entails helping Republicans win the majority again.

Did he think the party was too southern, he was asked last week?

“I think we need more northerners, southerners, westerners, easterners in our party,” he said. “I’ll take ’em all.”

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