Republicans have a nasty habit of shooting themselves in the foot. Over the last few years, we have become a party so obsessed with “principles” that we have allowed the party to shrink in size and in influence.

The latest case is the furor surround Dede Scozzafava, a Republican Assemblywoman in New York State who is running to fill the seat vacated by Republican John McHugh, who was tapped to become President Obama’s Secretary of the Army.

Many conservatives are upset that national Republicans are supporting Scozzafava who supports gay marriage and is pro-choice. According to a story in Politico, she has been accused of being a “flaming liberal.” Erik Erikson of the blog RedState has urged Republicans to not support Scozzafava because of her socially liberal views and instead support Doug Hoffman, who is running under the Conservative Party ticket.

Conservative activists seem to forget that currently there are only 3 Republicans representing the Empire State in New York. If Scozzafava wins in November, she would keep the seat in Republican hands and maintain the the 23rd congressional district’s long history of being a Republican seat.

But these so-called true Republicans seem destined to make sure that her Democratic opponent, Bill Owens wins, simply because they see her as “liberal.”

While her views on gay marriage and abortion would run to the left of the GOP these days, I check up on her record in the New York legislature on various issues which puts her in the mainstream of conservatism. According to Project Vote Smart, she has a pretty conservative record when it comes to taxes. And the National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund gave her an “A” in 2008.

In fact the liberal blog, the Albany Project devoted a post to dispel the notion that she is a liberal by doing a pretty thorough review of her records. They note:

The conclusion I draw from looking over numerous pieces of legislation is that Scozzafava on most issues is nothing more than your average Assembly Republican. Most of the votes that she did support the Democratic (or progressive) positions came when the whole Assembly voted unanimously for a bill. Scozzafava’s conservative positions are not reflected in the mainstream media, where she is labeled a “liberal” because of her stances on two social issues that, while important, should never define any candidate and should never be the sole indicator of a candidate’s ideology.

I see Scozzafava as someone who is far from the Glenn Becks of the world. But that doesn’t mean she is not conservative. The modern-day conservative is a different breed, but a lot of what Scozzafava stands for resembles an old school conservative. At best, she’s a moderate with conservative leanings. At worst, she’s a conservative Republican whose liberal stances on two social issues have given her an inaccurate label.

I believe in the end what bothers many conservatives who are against Scozzafava is her stance on two social issues. Because of this she is tarred a “liberal” even though the rest of her record is pretty conservative.

If Scozzafava were to make it to Congress, my guess is she would stand with her party 80 percent of the time. Ronald Reagan had something to say about having someone as their 80 percent friend and not their 20 percent enemy. It’s too bad his supposed heirs have missed the message.