Frank Rich: Hoffman Victory Good For Democrats
Frank Rich says that although it’s still conceivable that Democrat Bill Owens can win in NY-23, it’s even better for Democrats if conservative Doug Hoffman wins.
Punch-drunk with this triumph, the right will redouble its support of primary challengers to 2010 G.O.P. candidates they regard as impure. That’s bad news for even a Republican as conservative as Kay Bailey Hutchison, whose primary opponent in the Texas governor’s race, the incumbent Rick Perry, floated the possibility of secession at a teabagger rally in April and hastily endorsed Hoffman on Thursday.
The more rightists who win G.O.P. primaries, the greater the Democrats’ prospects next year.
The ideological purity demanded by the far right is a throwback to the days of the John Birchers whose tactics were much like the communists they decried.
Though they constantly liken the president to various totalitarian dictators, it is they who are re-enacting Stalinism in full purge mode. They drove out Arlen Specter, and now want to “melt Snowe” (as the blog Red State put it). The same Republicans who once deplored Democrats for refusing to let an anti-abortion dissident, Gov. Robert Casey of Pennsylvania, speak at the 1992 Clinton convention now routinely banish any dissenters in their own camp.
So, let the winner be the candidate who will best drive more from the left into public office.
Seems Democrats not only demand ideological purity from their own party but the opposition as well.
OldLefty Reply:
November 1st, 2009 at 3:23 pm
Most on the ACTUAL left think the problem with the Democratic party is that there IS no ideological purity, while it was ” ideological purity” in the form of Nader voters that gave us six years of the “loons” from the right.
And the conservatives piled TONS of money into Toomey’s campaign to unseat Specter, and the same far right wingers who support Hoffman campaigned against Lincoln Chafee with “20 Reasons to Dump Chafee”.
As for Ned Lamont, what’s wrong with a healthy primary? Or should incumbency be an entitlement?
And Bernie Sanders was never a Democrat, just someone who seems to be able to stick to his principles, which is why, even though he calls himself a socialist, he won in districts that went 80% for Bush.
EricG Reply:
November 1st, 2009 at 5:50 pm
You are smoking a crack pipe, Piffle.
Step away from the FOX NEWS! Hands in the air and step away from the squawk box of anti-American nonsense!
jasperjava Reply:
November 2nd, 2009 at 5:46 pm
Seems Democrats not only demand ideological purity from their own party but the opposition as well.
Huh? Isn’t the fracas in NY-23 a purge of RINOs who aren’t ideologically pure enough for the rabid right-wingers?
We don’t want ideological purity. The people’s interests are better served by pragmatic, common-sense people, not raging ideologues.
Here’s an idea: how about politicians who make decisions based on the good of the country rather than blind adherence to discredited dogma?
November 1st, 2009 at 3:07 pm
Oh not to mention Hoffman wasn’t picked in a primary. Thats the whole point. Republicans back up Lincoln Chafee and Arlen Specter at the same time the Kos loons were pimping Lamont and Bernie Sanders.
karthiks030977 Reply:
November 1st, 2009 at 3:51 pm
“Seems Democrats not only demand ideological purity from their own party but the opposition as well.”
They’re just being smart politicians…bulk of the electorate has figured ideology is an excuse,a smokescreen for politicians not catering to the interests of the people they’re representing…
On the other hand, you have the Republicans trying the well-caught-out horse manure strategy of “Ideological purity”…oh well, idiots will be idiots…
November 1st, 2009 at 3:08 pm
Piffle must be dizzy doing all that spinning……you say the dems want purity!?! Good grief, they still let Lieberman caucus with them and he’s campaigned for the GOP as well as joining hands with them in threatening to filibuster health care reform. Please sell me some of the stuff you’re smoking!
November 1st, 2009 at 4:38 pm
How much am I supposed to clap and giggle before it’s inappropriate?
Because I could do a little dance.
They are going to crash and burn, and it’s exactly what they deserve.
November 1st, 2009 at 5:48 pm
it would just prove you are as much an idiot as we all think you are…
speaking of inappropriate comparisons to dictators, likening the disagreements of a political party to Stalin is absolutely off base.
November 1st, 2009 at 6:50 pm
The Democratic Party needs to find ways to appeal to the GOP moderates who are being eliminated from the GOP by the zealots in the Taliban wing of the GOP.
These Republicans need to figure out they are not wanted and the extent to which they are reviled by the uber-conservatives….
November 1st, 2009 at 9:19 pm