GOP to Hear Conservatives at Convention (they revised the moderate lineup [View All]

[papau]

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-speakers21jul21,1,4031411.story?coll=la-news-a_section

GOP to Hear Conservatives at Convention
By Maura Reynolds Times Staff Writer

July 21, 2004

WASHINGTON — After protests from the party's conservative wing, the Republican National Committee has invited several conservative Republicans to speak during the presidential nominating convention, which begins next month in New York.

Additions include Sens. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Sam Brownback of Kansas and House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois, three of the most prominent conservatives in Congress.

Originally, the party announced a lineup of speakers heavy on moderates, such as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California and former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who supported abortion rights and opposed a constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriage.

That troubled social conservatives such as Paul M. Weyrich, chairman of the Free Congress Research and Education Foundation.

"If the president is embarrassed to be seen with conservatives at the convention, maybe conservatives will be embarrassed to be seen with the president on election day," Weyrich wrote recently.<snip>