Word: centrists
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Bowles' appointment--and the manner in which it was made--is the clearest ideological statement about Clinton's second term since his election-night promise to govern from "the vital center." Clinton has turned over the most important job in the White House to a pro-business centrist who pushed hard for a balanced budget, advocated cutting a deal with Republicans and was an internal ally of the liberals' pariah, the consultant Dick Morris. If there were any doubts left, they disappeared when liberal-in-chief Harold Ickes read in the papers about how he was being passed over...
...Republican with moderate-centrist views that Democrats could relate to; his pals on the Armed Services Committee would treat him gently; Colin Powell is a buddy...
Perhaps the trickiest role belongs to Gephardt, the House minority leader. Clinton came back from his Little Rock economic summit in 1992 saying, "I love Dick Gephardt!" But after Gephardt opposed NAFTA and pushed Clinton away from centrist measures such as welfare reform, their interests diverged. A centrist who turned liberal when he ran for President in 1988, Gephardt has tacked back toward the center lately, promoting a distinctly moderate "families-first" agenda of baby steps such as portable pensions and health insurance for children. The two men could work together again, gluing Democratic votes to Republican moderates...
Which is why Clinton must move quickly to set the tone. "There is going to be a tension between getting bipartisan reform and fending off investigations," said Al From, who heads the Democratic Leadership Council, the centrist group Clinton helped found. "It's very important that Clinton move early to draw Republican and centrist Democrats in, work from the center out and build a broad coalition around reform. If he lets the thing deteriorate into partisanship, it will be a lot more bitter and a lot less productive...
...handful of Republican moderates have started to talk about establishing an institutional counterweight to the right wing. Their analysis is familiar. The candidates most likely to win presidential elections can't get past the conservatives who control the party's nominating processes. So they want to start a centrist think tank and cheering section modeled after the Democratic Leadership Council, the group formed in the 1980s to keep the Democrats from veering left on every issue. "All I want to do is enable the party to get back on course," says five-term New York Representative Amo Houghton...