A wingnut in moderate's clothing

Gordon Smith knows full well that a wingnut cannot get elected to statewide office unless the Democrats run a lame candidate who runs a lame campaign, it's happened. As a result he has put on the suit of a moderate. But have no doubt, under that soft spoken moderate shell lies the heart of a wingnut. The Willamette Week reports that the Democrats are ready to make it difficult for him to have his cake and eat it too.
Republican Sen. Gordon Smith is under the Dems' hot lights.

When state House Speaker Karen Minnis refused to allow a vote last week on same-sex civil unions, the Democratic Party demanded U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith, step in with his Republican colleague.

"Gordon Smith should spend five minutes of his day to pick up the phone or declare publicly that Karen Minnis needs to grant an up-or-down vote on the most important legislation for gays and lesbians in the history of Oregon," state Democratic Party chairman Jim Edmundson said in a press release.

No major media picked up on the challenge to the state's highest-ranking Republican. And the issue-for Smith, at least-went away. But he knows the Democrats' newly intense spotlight on him will not go away.

"A giant red whale swimming in an increasingly blue sea."

Smith has long tried to bridge the gap between the right-wingers controlling his national party and the average Oregonian. But now, thanks to a new staffed-up party apparatus for the Dems, he will have to walk that tightrope with someone constantly lobbing eggs at him.

"He's clearly someone who tries to position himself as a moderate," says spokesman Kelly Steele of the state Democratic Party. "He's not."

Forcing him to take a stand.

Besides the plea for Smith to go to bat with Minnis for civil unions-which Smith ignored-a state Democratic ad campaign in April called on him to reject President George Bush's plan to privatize Social Security (Smith's only public statement so far: He opposes eliminating the Social Security tax exemption benefiting those earning more than $90,000 a year).

Having your cake and eating it too?

Steele, however, says Smith's differences with Bush are fewer and less significant than people think. He points to Smith's opposition to Bush's proposed cuts to Medicaid, which earned the senator a glowing editorial from The Oregonian. Steele notes that later, unnoticed by local media, Smith said he'd support Bush's budget whether it contained those cuts or not.

You will notice a recurring theme here; "unnoticed by local media". If there is one thing the blogosphere™ has been good at it's forcing the media to take notice. It's time to get Smith's hypocrisy in the open. Karen Minnis will be easy, she makes no apologies for being a wingnut, Smith will require more effort so it's time to start now. We might suggest to Mr. Wyden that he not play footsy with Mr. Smith so much.