Graham: GOP must grow, not shrink

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) took another thinly-veiled shot at the conservative Club for Growth, insinuating that the group had contributed to the marginalization of the Republican Party.

“There are groups out there that go after Republicans in primaries and replace them with people who are unelectable,” Graham said Tuesday afternoon on Fox News. “I have got no desire to help the Democratic Party be stronger. I am a center-right conservative Republican who believes that our party has to grow, not shrink.”

Graham had blamed the Club earlier in the day for defections by Republicans like Specter, claiming that he preferred to be a member of a more inclusive GOP than a narrow Club for Growth.

“The Club for Growth is not a social organization, it’s a fiscally conservative organization,” Graham explained on Fox. “And I agree with them most of the time, but the people that they run in primaries wind up losing the general election.”

The Club’s vice president for government relations, Andy Roth, circulated a statement Tuesday afternoon responding to Graham and criticism by conservative blogger Ramesh Ponnuru of National Review.

“Some commentators suffer from ‘Battered Republican Syndrome,’ they cling to liberals like Specter hoping some day the betrayals will stop,” Roth wrote. “Get over it. If the Republicans are going to prosper as a political party, they must offer a consistent conservative alternative.”