Former Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm and U.S. Sen. Carl Levin took turns this morning taking potshots at the post-Michigan-primary Republican Party.
In a conference call with reporters, Levin said the winner of Tuesday’s GOP election was President Barack Obama because “the Republicans here have just driven off an ideological cliff.”
Winner Mitt Romney and runner-up Rick Santorum damaged both their candidacies with nasty, right-wing campaigning that alienated moderates and independents in the process, Levin added.
Romney’s narrow win here has been portrayed by the national press as a turning point that put him back on track toward the nomination.
But Granholm said it was a “hollow victory” because it pushed the former Massachusetts governor into a corner, forcing him to take conservative positions that will not be popular in a general election.
“He eked out a victory, but this victory comes with a real hefty price,” she said.
The Granholm remarks match a snarky column she wrote for Politico, which was published online on Tuesday, Election Day.
In the column, the former governor gleefully calls the Michigan primary lead-up “ground zero of the pander festival.” The GOP candidates spent far too much time talking about conservative social issues and “tea party dogma,” and too little time on the economy, according to Granholm.
She wrote: “I recognize that, as a Democrat, I’m in no position to offer advice to Republicans. But hey, keep it up boys. The version of Republicanism you are offering is a gift to Democrats looking for recruits. The anti-gay, anti-woman, anti-immigrant, anti-Latino, anti-Muslim, anti-Europe (particularly the French and the Greeks), anti-labor, anti-poor, anti-99 percent and now anti-college graduate rhetoric enables us to eagerly welcome your castoffs into the Democratic Party — where inclusivity is celebrated and their contributions are welcome.”
Granholm added that voters like her father who embraced the Republican Party of traditional conservatism have been left behind as the new GOP has “gone to tea,” as the Brits say.
Here’s more: “It’s a trend that would have caused former Michigan governor George Romney to grimace. Mitt Romney’s Detroit bashing stands in painful contrast to his father’s compassionate, moderate legacy. Where did the pragmatic Mitt Romney of Massachusetts go? The one who thought it was important to offer access to health care to all his citizens? He, too, has gone to tea.
“We’ve all watched Romney straining against his genes and his history, contorting himself into a human pretzel, twisting into an anti-immigrant frenzy, an unlikely chameleon of the severe far right.”
To read the full column, click here.
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Btw: Granholm has now added Politico columnist to her growing resume in the journalism world. Granholm is the host of Current TV’s newly-launched “The War Room”. The former governor is also a regular on NBC’s “Meet The Press” and makes periodic appearances on other national news shows. Last Sunday, she was on ABC’s “This Week.”Granholm, who released her book, “A Governor’s Story,” in September, will write for Politico every other week.
