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Message to the GOP -- 'Moderates Need Not Apply'
November 02, 2009 12:23 PM
ABC's Stu Schutzman reports from New York:
The race for New York’s 23rd Congressional district has fast become a political pundit’s dream. Sarah and Rush, Glenn Beck and the rest of the Republican right “have basically hung out a moderates need not apply sign” says former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe. In the 23rd, a Republican stronghold for more than a century, Palin and company successfully forced the GOP candidate, Dede Scozzafava, out of the race in favor of conservative party candidate Doug Hoffman (who doesn’t even live in the district).
Scozzafava’s crime apparently was that she was not Republican enough; conservative on some issues buta supporter of abortion rights and gay rights. So off with her head!
“I have stood for our honest principles and a truthful discussion of the issues,” she said as she endorsed her Democratic rival, “Even when it cost me personally and politically.” The price she paid raises a key question -- is the GOP tent becoming too small for a “discussion of the issues?" The pundits of all stripes are having a field day.
Frank Rich opines in the Times that this race “confirms just how swiftly the right has devolved into a whacky, paranoid cult that is as eager to eat its own as it is to destroy Obama.” “The Republican Taliban,” writes Conservative commentator John Batchelor, “Is slouching to a new low.”
Nonsense, counters The American Spectator’s Robert Stacy McCain, “A yawning chasm of alienation,” he writes, “between the GOP establishment and the party’s grassroots has been exposed.”
But some believe the right’s ideology police will swoop down on more women candidates. Scozzafava, they say, is only the first Republican woman to be targeted. Next on the chopping block, says author Linda Hirshman, is Texas Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison. Senator Hutchison is in a tight primary race for Governor “and unwilling to say women should go to jail for their abortions,” writes Hirshman, “She is the next duck in the barefoot and pregnant shooting gallery.”
But no apologies from the right. “Hell hath no fury like a RINO (Republican in name only) scorned,” writes McCain of Dede Scozzafava’s exit from the race, “That was a masterpiece of self-pitying distortion.”
Undeterred by the criticism or apparently potential consequences, Palin and company remain committed,reminiscent of the old saw; “when you’re right... you’re right”.
November 2, 2009 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (77)
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"Sarah and Rush, Glenn Beck and the rest of the Republican right “have basically hung out a moderates need not apply sign” says former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe." - ABC News
Ha ha ha!
David Plouffe must be some sort of Poufter.
Only a mental midget would draw that conclusion. Dede Scozzafava is a liberal disguised as a Republican. All the conservatives did was stay true to their convictions when they backed Hoffman instead of the Republican candidate. Moderates are welcome as long as they hold true to a few basic conservative ideals.
Posted by: Noz | Nov 2, 2009 1:01:26 PM
Moderates are welcome as long as they hold true to a few basic conservative ideals.
****************************************
AAnd those chasnge with the issues. Welcome as long as you agree with me you mean.
Posted by: Thinking | Nov 2, 2009 1:15:44 PM
By using his own logic, Rush is an expert on all women...just ask his three ex-wives. Or is he the expert pharmacist?
Posted by: repubswrong | Nov 2, 2009 1:56:55 PM
Message to GOP: Only Angry White Males need apply...........Special peference given to Southern, Religious Extremists.
Posted by: Sammy | Nov 2, 2009 2:18:28 PM
"Moderates are welcome as long as they hold true to ... conservative ideals." Which in plain english means that moderates are not welcome, only conservatives. Stop drinking the koolaid, you can't speak straight anymore. But I'm sure enjoying watching the lemmings march to the sea.
Posted by: Stan | Nov 2, 2009 2:24:18 PM
There's always degrees in politics and the way people think.
It's true for all parties. Just look at Pres. Obama. The hard-core democrats are not so happy with Obama and his actions or in-actions. The Times should write about that.
Sarah, Rush, and Glenn are in it for the attention and what it can get them.
That's obvious. Sarah might run for President, but she will never get the nomination.
"The Republican Taliban" was coined. That creates a funny picture in my head.
However, it's kind of true for some people. On the flip side, nothing fazes other people.
If a person is against abortion, then help the pregnant girl with her baby with time, care, money, and opportunities. That's the kind of grassroot we all should be involved with. Just telling the girl, "No abortion for you" is not enough.
It's putting up these rules without any help - it's abandonment.
I'm not for abortions, however, that's my opinion.
I don't pretend to know all of the answers. I do know, however, that more help is needed for girls - opportunities and guidance.
Can Sarah, Rush, and Glenn get behind that movement?
Posted by: ddg | Nov 2, 2009 2:47:11 PM
let me add this, please
For the people who are pro-abortion -
pro-choice as they like to be called -
You, too, are leaving the girls high and dry. So they get the abortion - then what?
Posted by: ddg | Nov 2, 2009 3:07:17 PM
So long GOP. This moderate is finished with the Republican Party. Can't wait until I'm contacted again by the RNC for a contribution.
Posted by: NewYork 23rd voter | Nov 2, 2009 3:41:45 PM
I implore the Republican party to continue on this right wing , extremist road of disaster. Democrats will continue to rack up victories! LOL!! Please keep listening to right wing nut cases like Beck, Limbaugh, and Palin and propping them up as your leaders. Also, please make sure that all right wing protests show angry , White males carrying signs threatening and insulting the President . Democrats LOVE it!!!
Posted by: TLJ | Nov 2, 2009 3:43:40 PM
We love Palin and Limberger and Beck. Really we do. LOL
Posted by: Jim Bob | Nov 2, 2009 3:46:57 PM
Force out Crist. Take out Mike Castle next, and make sure Mark Kirk doesn't make the Illinois ballot. That kind of take no prisoners march to the sea by Conservatives is actually the only way I see Democrats holding onto their 58 seats in the mid-term elections.
Posted by: jhw539 | Nov 2, 2009 3:53:15 PM
True conservatives will win elections. Abortion, pro life, pro choice, that needs to become a state right's decision. The supreme court blew it when they made it a federal problem, it split this country in half.
Posted by: steve | Nov 2, 2009 3:54:09 PM
I got a questionnaire from the Republican National Committee, asking if I agreed with a bunch of statements they suggested. They were so slanted to the right with semantically powerful words, that I was disgusted. I threw it out, but now I wish I'd written "Only radical right-wingers would agree with these! You're kicking the moderate Republicans out of the party! Enjoy your minority status -- you won't win elections any time soon!"
Posted by: Mary Ann | Nov 2, 2009 3:56:02 PM
I think the bigger issue is that with majorities in the House, Senate and holding the White House, the Democrats can't get anything DONE! The real war is between Obama and his own party. He has betrayed EVERY promise to the progressive wing of the party (just ask Nader) and they STILL love him. Gitmo OPEN! Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan maybe 100 more years! Wall st. bailouts for everyone! (No pesky audits thanks to D- Mel Watt, he's right, better we DON'T know where OUR MONEY went anyway!) Big banks buying up small banks, no problem! Health care bill that takes from those who have it and gives to those who don't pay for it (illegal immigrants!) Perfect! Rationing care so that you can't get covered for Cancer treatments past a certain age! Wonderful! Shooting up children with Guarasil that gives them fatal side effects, "it's because we LOVE you!". Jeez Obamanation!!! SLOW down, the people are suffering from all of this "progress" already! Oh and Happy midterms!!!
Posted by: jafo | Nov 2, 2009 4:02:33 PM
Amazing. Scozzafava wasn't selected to be the republican nominee by a primary where real voters choose but she was selected in a "smoke-filled backroom" and when she is rejected as polls show her to be is the story "Democracy in Action"? Well yes, just not here at ABCNEWS. LOL
Posted by: Grey Stone | Nov 2, 2009 4:04:09 PM
Just keep shrinking that tent. It's so small already that you can hardly tell the circus is in town, save for the elephants and clowns.
Posted by: Yukon Sam | Nov 2, 2009 4:05:03 PM
Abortion, pro life, pro choice, that needs to become a state right's decision------I completely disagree. Just like slavery could not a 'states' issue. this is very much the same. No state should ever have jurisdiciton over another person's body, in the guise of forcing them to develope a baby against their will. We dont lay eggs. IF God wanted all fertilized eggs to be developed, he'd have us lay eggs, so if a girl didn't want the baby, you can sit on it and develope it. But instead God gave WOMEN sole KNOWLEDGE of the pregnancy for the first four to five months, he gave WOMEN The domain of the pregnancy, INSIDE THeir bodies. In doing these two things he gaVe women the POWER over their pregnancies. If a women doesn't wnat to tell you she's pregnant, then you will never know. period. Why? Argue with God. He gave women that knowledge, that power, and far be it for you to try to strip women of whta God gave them. God NEVER told you, Jesus NEVER told you to force women to develope babies against their will. They NEVER told so much as a single women to develope a pregnacy she didn't want even though abortion has been going on so long as there have been people. My Lord people if ever there were SIGNS everywhere the abortion is between a women and God, READ THEM!!!!! This is NOT your place. It's your delusion. You excuse to feel important maybe. How boring to just have to work on your own sins, huh? Well, surprise surprise, that IS what Jesus told you to do. How about you start actually caring about the things Jesus told you to care about, like helping the sick and the poor. You dont have to make up topics, Jesus did give you some. TOo bad those are the causes of 'liberals' huH? Funny, but liberals are far more in linewith Jesus' actual words than self proclaimed "christians".
Posted by: justsayn | Nov 2, 2009 4:05:03 PM
says former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe.............and why would they care what he says. We let the press and the moderate pick our last nominee and got our hats handed to us. Thank you but conservatives are going to take the party back.
Posted by: 'Un-American' | Nov 2, 2009 4:06:23 PM
Looks like the Democrats just picked up another seat in the house. These wing nuts would rather have a lock step of a few then have a honest debate of many.
Good Bye GOP.
Posted by: ant | Nov 2, 2009 4:13:10 PM
ABC why would you present this woman as a "moderate" republican??? She is so left wing liberal it isn't funny. Try doing some "accurate" reporting.
Posted by: Motney | Nov 2, 2009 4:15:28 PM
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