Jeffrey Lord: Is Mitt Romney the New Nelson Rockefeller?
Jeffrey Lord is a former Reagan White House political director and author. He writes from Pennsylvania at jlpa1@aol.com.
...Nelson Rockefeller.
Grandson of the legendary billionaire oil man John D. Rockefeller and son of philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, Jr. -- or "Junior" as he was frequently called. Nelson himself was one of the famed five "Rockefeller Brothers," John D. Jr.'s kids. Along with Nelson that included John D. III (father of today's Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, the West Virginia Democrat), Laurance, David, and Winthrop. (The remaining sibling of his generation was the frequently unmentioned sister Abby.) All devoted entire lives to philanthropic causes ranging from finance to architecture to the environment and more. While the others went about their varied interests it was Nelson who eagerly served Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, and Eisenhower in various national security, foreign policy and domestic capacities before plunging into his own political career as the longtime Republican Governor of New York, two-time presidential candidate and appointed-Vice President of the United States for Gerald Ford.
But as the political world eventually understood, Nelson Rockefeller came to represent something much more than all of the above.
In the world of politics it was Nelson Rockefeller who had the misfortune to have all the political assets one could possibly imagine -- looks, charm, brains, energy and literally all the money he could use. Yet with all of this Rockefeller was totally unable -- if not stubbornly unwilling -- to understand the significance of the conservative revolution that was swirling around him as his own career unfolded. And in not understanding, much less not leading that conservative revolution Rockefeller not only failed spectacularly as a presidential candidate but made himself into a defiant symbol of resistance. He transformed himself into a man so stubbornly enamored of the liberal status quo and its supporting Establishment that his very name attached to that of his party became not simply a descriptive to conservatives but an epithet:
"The Rockefeller Republican."
It was -- and in some quarters remains to this day -- a short-hand, derisive description for Republicans now labeled as a "RINO" -- Republican In Name Only. The Rockefeller Republican became immutably identified as someone whose philosophical moorings and political instincts lay not in the Constitution but rather with the American progressive movement and the liberal Establishment that movement had become....
Is Mitt Romney the new Nelson Rockefeller?...