GOP puts platform on crash diet

[August 26, 2008]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republicans are debating an election platform that differs in at least one striking way from the past -- it's purged of the dear-leader tributes that turned statements of party principles into an incessant hailing of the chief.

In fact, a draft of the document going to the GOP platform committee Tuesday mentions 2008 presidential candidate John McCain and President Bush not at all. They'll be worked in later, in a section or two to be added.

It's nothing personal, party officials hasten to say. Rather, they've put the platform on a crash diet.

The 2004 platform ran over 40,000 words, many of them turgid. It found 80 things to "applaud," 17 to "hail," a dozen to "commend" and several hundred opportunities to say what a great job Bush was doing and would continue to do. It was more than twice the length of the Democratic platform.

Now it's been cut roughly in half.

The GOP platform co-chairmen, California Rep. Kevin McCarthy and North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr, told AP on Monday they wanted the party principles to be about the actual party. And in the past, Burr said, "there was a lot of Washington-speak."

Despite the stylistic change, familiar divisions are back as Republicans debate the principles over two days and strive for a united front behind McCain. That means bridging some differences, detouring around others.

The platform draft calls for constitutional bans on abortion and gay marriage, two steps McCain does not support.

It would put the party on record as accepting that economic activity contributes to global warming, in line with McCain's views.

But the platform is loaded with caveats about the uncertainty of science and the need to "resist no-growth radicalism" in taking on climate change.

It warns that empowering Washington on the matter would have painful consequences, a less-than-rousing endorsement of McCain's ambitious plan for mandatory federal emission cuts in a cap and trade program.

Sharp divisions still exist in the party on social issues, but there appeared to be little taste for complicating McCain's chances by mounting a symbolic platform fight as the document is hashed out in Minneapolis.

"This isn't a hill we're going to die on," said Scott Tucker, a spokesman for the gay rights group Log Cabin Republicans.

"Unlike previous years," said Gary Bauer, a social-conservative veteran of platform struggles, "I just don't see deep divisions within the party."

Bauer, an evangelical Christian who is advising McCain, said the focus is on emphasizing Republican unity on the issues.

Ann Stone, national chairwoman of Republicans for Choice, said her abortion-rights group won't go to the wall this time trying to overhaul the anti-abortion plank. The platform takes a typically hard line against abortion rights and calls again for a constitutional ban on abortion as well as on gay marriage.

"This is not going to be the year that we make big changes," she said. "We know that we can't get major things done."

The 112-delegate platform committee meets as the Democratic National Convention unfolds in Denver. The platform will be adopted during next week's GOP convention in St. Paul, Minn.

Democrats adopted their platform Monday, mostly following candidate Barack Obama's prescriptions but going beyond his proposals in calling for guaranteed health care for all, in a compromise both with Hillary Rodham Clinton's supporters and with activists who wanted government-run health care.

Party platforms are not binding on candidates or the next president and tend to be largely forgotten once they're in place.

Even so, candidates want to make sure the document doesn't drift too far from their own agenda and the GOP in particular has seen platform fights over a variety of social issues in the past.

Tucker said his group is "more interested in substance than symbolism" and believes McCain to be an "inclusive candidate who understands that our party needs to reach out to all Americans to win this election."

McCain opposes gay marriage but also a constitutional amendment against it and has expressed limited support for the rights accorded couples in same-sex civil unions. Apart from opposing a constitutional amendment to ban abortion, he is against most abortion rights and says he would favor overturning the Supreme Court decision affirming those rights.

[Associated Press; By CALVIN WOODWARD]

AP writer Martiga Lohn contributed to this story from St. Paul, Minn.

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