From Andrew Sullivan:
What’s next? Ambers:
Where do the rest of her votes go? CW says that most go to Hoffman, but I’m with Jonathan Martin: I think half go to Democrat Bill Owens or they stay home. GOP registration exceeds Democratic registration by nearly 50,000. This is a Republican district that is likely to remain Republican, — only significantly more conservative than it’s been.
Within the GOP whatever nerve anyone had to resist the imprimatur of Erickson, Malkin, RS McCain et al is surely gone now. If a moderate cannot survive even in up-state New York, it’s over.
I beginning to think it’s time to pack up and leave and just become and independent. If a moderate can’t win in New York for God’s sakes, then they can’t win anywhere. Maybe Charlie Bass, Charlie Crist and those other moderates who are or thinking of running in 2010 might just want to give up. Why stay where you are not wanted?
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So – you’re talking about leaving because a moderate wasn’t able to raise as much money as a conservative? Or because she couldn’t hack the nastiness of national politics? C’mon Dennis….even if there is a ‘moderate’ revolution and the party moves in the direction you want, there will always be fund-raising struggles and political mud-slinging. The problem as I see it is when you have a Democrat-lite and a conservative, even if that conservative is hard core, a lot of Republicans are going to swing in behind the conservative. I feel like this sort of confirms what I’ve been saying for some time which is that the GOP remains a firmly conservative party.
No, but this move will embolden Conservative-lites and SoCons to continue their purge.
And yes, I called them Conservative-lites: they believe in Conservative principles, as long as those principles favor them. In this I respect Ron Paul: I many not agree with him, but he lives his principles, and doesn’t change them because a) his party is in power, or b) it doesn’t suit him at the moment.