I know a little something about being called an oxymoron.

As a registered Republican in the often liberal business of journalism – not to mention a former political consultant who represented both Republicans and Democrats – I've had my share of puzzled looks and questions about how I reconcile my political stances.

Maybe that's why Jim Pease of the Tampa Log Cabin Republican Club and I seem kindred spirits, and why he invited me recently to address the group founded for gay and lesbian Republicans – even though I'm straight (not that there's anything wrong with that).

Not too many "political whores" in the media are Republicans, a qualification the party-chartered club has for its speakers, he wrote in his e-mailed invitation to me.

We talked briefly about issues of importance to gays and lesbians. Surprisingly, Pease mentioned that the Tampa club has a significant number of straight members.

As parts of the Republican Party grow more rigid and neoconservative, Pease explained, there are few choices in political clubs for moderate Republicans to feel at home. Clubs that preach inclusiveness for the Grand Old Party. That focus solely on core conservative issues of less government and a stronger economy. That eschew the divisive politics of social issues that have driven campaigns for the past decade.

If there is any time since the Republican Revolution of 1994 for moderates to make a return to power, we may be fast approaching that day. Just look at the events of the past few months. The U.S. House of Representatives – including 50 Republicans – dealt a blow to President Bush by contradicting his stance on stem-cell research and inviting his veto by easing limits on the controversial studies. Seven moderate U.S. Senators struck a deal with Democrats to avoid the "nuclear option" in the filibuster fight over judicial nominations, a cease-fire that left a very sour taste in the right wing's mouth.

The top Republican stars on the national level are well-known moderates, including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sen. John McCain of Arizona. (The name appeal of leading Republican conservatives like Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist isn't even in the same ballpark.)

Florida is becoming Moderate City, too. State Senate President Tom Lee is a genuine centrist, more than willing to tighten down growth management and not too interested in pushing social issues to the top of the agenda. And the Republican field for governor? In Charlie Crist and Tom Gallagher, you have two moderates, though they will run far to the right to survive the Republican primary. Even Toni Jennings, not expected to make the governor's race after all, is a moderate.

Most pointedly, former Bush administration Cabinet member Christine Todd Whitman rang a clarion bell for "radical moderates" with her book It's My Party Too: The Battle for the Heart of the GOP and the Future of America, released earlier this year. The book rallied centrists and advocated the "Big Umbrella" theory for the party's inclusiveness while coming under withering fire from right-wingers such as Ann Coulter.

Many of these moderate Republican organizations, Log Cabins included, get criticized by both sides.

If you're gay or lesbian, pro-choice or pro-environment, and choose to be Republican, Democrats will label you an oxymoron. Hard-right Republicans say anyone in their party who is for gay or lesbian rights, pro-choice or pro-environment is a traitor to the cause.

For Republicans, straight or gay, who want to go against the grain in their own party, the choices are few but growing:

• Log Cabin Republicans, traditionally focused on issues important to the gay and lesbian community, more and more show up in support of non-gay issues. (www.lcr.org)

"Our organization nationally has more than doubled in the last year," to about 15,000 members, said Chris Barron, the Log Cabin Republicans' political director. "We're seeing an increase in chapters all over the country but especially in the red states.

"A lot of this has to do with how far things are getting pushed" to the right, Barron added. "Straight Republicans are concerned, quite honestly, with the direction the party is headed. We're getting a lot of folks who are concerned that core Republican principles of smaller government and lower taxes are getting pushed aside by those to the far right."

• The WISH List is the Republican version of Emily's List, a fundraising network that works to elect pro-choice GOP candidates. (www.thewishlist.org)

• The Republican Main Street Partnership talks of being "committed to building a principled but pragmatic center within the party." With "Growing Our Party" as its motto, the Partnership has campaigned actively in the stem-cell fight. Its May 15 TV spot made an emotional point for increased research by featuring a 2-year-old spinal muscular atrophy victim. (www.republicanmainstream.org)

• The Republican Majority for Choice, whose website says, "We know that our Party is best suited to keep our country and our economy moving in the right direction. However, we are concerned with the fragile majority we now hold in Congress and polling suggesting that we could lose that majority if we continue to push a social agenda that is intrusive and counter to the beliefs of many voting Americans." (www.gopchoice.org)

• REP America, or Republicans for Environmental Protection. Its former Florida chapter director and current board member is Joan Deguire of St. Petersburg, who confirms, "We are moderates." (www.rep.org)

April Schiff is a member of the Tampa Log Cabin club. She's straight and a former vice chairwoman of the Hillsborough Republican Executive Committee. Schiff joined to support the group during her term in party leadership and not just for its mainstream ideology. However, she understands the club's appeal to straight moderates.

"The Republican Party, it's tough for social moderates," said Schiff, who is a Republican political consultant.

Pease, the local chapter president, said about one third of the group's 25 members are straight, and for the most part the group shares a moderate social stance, from being pro-choice to largely opposing attempts by Gov. Jeb Bush to intervene in the Terri Schiavo right-to-die case.

"Most of the straight Republicans that are in [this club] consider themselves moderate," Pease said. "I can't think of anybody who is in the group who is pro-life."

Pease is used to being called an oxymoron and hissed at to leave the party and become a Democrat. But he is a Republican to the core; his chapter recommended that the national Log Cabin Republican Club endorse President George W. Bush despite Bush's stance on a constitutional amendment to ban gay and lesbian marriages. (The national organization chose not to endorse.)

"I'm not a one-issue person," Pease explained. "It's not that cut and dried. There are other issues. I don't want to send my tax dollars off to God knows where. I have less of a problem spending it close to home, but even that is getting out of control."

Despite this growth and interest in moderate GOP groups, hard-right Republicans are anything but a dying breed, and social conservative and Christian groups are in little danger of losing their hold on the party. They remain well-organized and well-funded. My guess is that all the moderate Republican club members in Florida added together wouldn't be enough to tip an election in an average-sized House district.

But the lessons are there from Democrats, who – accurately or not – became widely viewed as too far left and exclusive. Democrats in Florida watched as the pendulum swung to the Republican Party. The question remains: Can the middle of the Republican Party assert itself enough to grab the pendulum and stop it from swinging back?

Political Whore flubbed the May 18 ID of the cable channel that is recreating the Michael Jackson trial. It is E! The PoHo can be reached by e-mail at wayne.garcia@weeklyplanet.com or by telephone at 813-739-4805.

This article appears in Jun 2-8, 2005.