Congressman Quitting GOP Calls It ‘Uncaring’

Rep. Michael P. Forbes went to Congress in 1994 as a conservative Republican in the Newt Gingrich mold, but almost from the beginning, he said Saturday, he was frustrated by leaders who put hard-line ideology before the concerns of working families.

Then, he said, a couple of weeks ago his dissatisfaction crystallized when House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas) suggested that the increasing use of day care by American families was behind the April massacre at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo.

“My wife and I had to use day care for all three of our children,” the New York congressman said. “Most of the young families on Long Island have to use day care. And then you have the leaders of the Republican Party saying day care is why children took up guns and killed other children?”

It was, Forbes said, “irresponsible garbage.” And it was one of the reasons why he will quit the Republican Party on Monday to become a Democrat.

In a news conference Saturday on his front lawn, Forbes made official the break that surfaced late last week. He described the decision as “painful.”

But many high-level Democrats were delighted, seeing Forbes’ switch as proof that the Republican Party is being undermined by ideological war within its ranks.

Forbes’ defection was the second for the Republicans in a week. Sen. Bob Smith, a Republican presidential hopeful from New Hampshire, quit the GOP to become an independent, charging that the party isn’t conservative enough.

Republicans believe Forbes is “obviously putting his personal ego ahead of principle and ahead of the interests of his district, which is solidly Republican,” said Jill Schroeder, a spokeswoman for the GOP campaign committee.

Forbes said he was willing to give up his seat on the powerful Appropriations Committee and alienate some Republican donors because the party is increasingly hostile to Northeastern moderates.

He said the national GOP and its “extremist” leadership “no longer really speaks to the concerns of my friends and neighbors.”

He cited disagreement with the GOP leadership on a range of issues, including education, environmental protection, reform of “abuses” by the health care industry and the reform of Medicare and Social Security.

Forbes acknowledged that his move brings considerable political risks. Although he said Democrats next year could gain the six seats needed to take control of the House, he insisted that his decision was purely philosophical.

And he burned his bridge to the Republicans with a withering, almost contemptuous attack.

“With no Communist menace to rail against and with the economy the strongest to be sustained in our lifetime, the national Republican Party in the last 4 1/2 years has allowed itself to become defined by extremists,” he said.

“It’s become angry, narrow-minded, intolerant, uncaring--incapable of governing at all, much less from the center. And it’s been tone-deaf--truly tone-deaf--to the concerns of a vast majority of Americans.”

DeLay could not be reached for comment.