Schieffer Feigns Concern: Has Republican Party ‘Moved Too Far Right for Its Own Good?’

CBS’s Bob Schieffer, who in February asked New Jersey Governor Chris Christie whether the Republican presidential candidates “are pushing your party too far to the right to make the nomination worth anything when you get to November?”, on Sunday repeated his mantra, demanding of Peggy Noonan: “Do you think that the Republican Party has moved too far right for its own good?”

As if he cares about the success of Republicans or conservatives.

Schieffer fretted “the situation that’s happened out in Indiana, where Richard Lugar, who’s probably passed more significant legislation than any single member of the Senate right now, I would say -- that I can think of -- he might actually get beat in the primary because they think he’s not conservative enough.”

Noonan appeared with David Corn of Mother Jones, columnist Michael Gerson and CBS’s John Dickerson. None of them, nor Schieffer, raised any concern Obama or Democrats might be too liberal on anything.

From early April: “Embarrassing Conduct by Schieffer: Cues Up Biden to Pontificate, But Argues with Gingrich”

Exchange on the May 6 Face the Nation:

BOB SCHIEFFER: Peggy, I want to ask you because you wrote something about this. Do you think that the Republican Party has moved too far right for its own good? I mean, when you see the situation that’s happened out in Indiana, where Richard Lugar, who’s probably passed more significant legislation than any single member of the Senate right now, I would say-- that I can think of-- he might actually get beat in the primary because they think he’s not conservative enough.

PEGGY NOONAN: I think it’s kind of complicated, and the Republican Party has been complicated all of my adult life. When I was a kid coming up, I remember Ronald Reagan having to dance around the fact that the John Birch Society decided in 1980 that they were for him, and Reagan had too say, "Well I’m glad they’re for him. I’m glad everybody is for me, but that doesn’t mean I’m for them." It’s a dance between those on edge of movements and both movements have edges. Those on the edge of movements and those who are more centrist. I think Lugar has been a good Senator, and you know what my bias is. It’s towards stability and the adultness in Washington, DC. I happen to think, we’ll go through tough times and need the adults. But is it a daily struggle for the Republican Party to get it right? Yes. And will it have to get it right in this election? Yes.

Saturday’s Wall Street Journal carried a column by Noonan, “The Case for Sending Senator Lugar Back to Washington,” in which she argued for the value of his policy expertise and experience.