Van Buren built up the national Democratic Party with the same methods he used to build his political organization in New York state.
VOA: special.2009.01.01
He has edged to the right on two other areas where heused to be hated by his party's conservatives as a dangerous maverick: on torture (he won't rule out water-boarding) and immigration reform (he says fix the border first, which will take an eternity).
Within his own party, he has cleverly usedhis struggle with John McCain to silence the right-wingers who have often seen the Bushes as unsound Rockefeller Republicans.