Sam Brownback Seeks Winning Niche as Bleeding-Heart Right Winger

From the St. Petersburg Times:

Sam Brownback may be the most interesting and foolishly overlooked candidate in the crowded presidential field.

How many politicians can be a hero to antiabortion activists, and also work well with liberals like Ted Kennedy and the late Paul Wellstone to accomplish his compassionate conservative agenda?

Unlike the front-runners, the second-term Kansas senator opposes President Bush's troop "surge" in Iraq. He is campaigning first and foremost as a social conservative, but he also has impeccable credentials as a tax-cutting economic conservative.

Sure, the polls suggest the 50-year-old attorney and onetime radio broadcaster is not competing in the same ballpark as Arizona Sen. John McCain or "America's Mayor" Rudy Giuliani. He has nowhere near the establishment and fundraising support of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

But if Brownback can seize the opportunity, there's a wide open hole for him to run through.

"If any one of those top three Republicans hits a bump, the zone opens up and Brownback could move up to the top tier," said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.

Brownback has the highest lifetime rating from Americans for Tax Reform of all the presidential contenders. He and Romney are the only ones who have signed ATR's pledge never to raise taxes, though as governor Romney declined to sign it.

"What Brownback has is complete credibility on the social conservative issues and complete credibility on the economic issues," said Norquist, who is neutral in the primary.

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History suggests a hard-right Christian conservative can't win a majority of the electorate. But Brownback is not Pat Robertson, or even Gary Bauer. He's a leading Christian conservative who's admired by many liberals.

Brownback has worked with Barack Obama to call attention to Darfur and stop the genocide there. He and Ted Kennedy worked together to fight Down's Syndrome and human rights abuses in North Korea, and he has called the anti-human trafficking act he and Paul Wellstone sponsored his most significant legislative achievement.

Brownback, a Catholic, can rail against Roe vs. Wade and gay marriage with the best of them. But he also talks about prison reform, fighting AIDS and malaria in Africa, and about compassionate immigration policies. He led the effort to create an African-American memorial on the Washington Mall. He adopted two of his five children from China and Guatemala.

That's a sincere humanitarian streak that could well endear the Kansas senator to crossover voters looking for a palatable alternative to Hillary Clinton.

"I don't think you can pigeonhole Sam Brownback and say that he's just a conservative because he's a lot more than that," said Brownback campaign manager Rob Wasinger. "One of Sen. Brownback's greatest strengths is reaching out and challenging people to go beyond themselves. People want someone who can get results, and Sam Brownback has proven he can. He has a broad agenda that is inclusive of a lot of different people and interests."

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UPDATE
Oswald Sobrino, writing at Catholics in the Public Square and linking to the same article in the St. Petersburg Times to which I linked above, endorses Brownback:

A lot is at stake. But now is the time to go for broke and vote with our hearts. Here is a link to a good analysis of Sam Brownback from Kansas, a genuine Catholic on the life issues who is also a genuine Catholic on other issues of social justice. He doesn't fit the unfair stereotype of the conservative Catholic oblivious to the poor. The primaries are the time to vote with your heart...

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