At this point, we all know that the Dede Scozzafava v. Doug Hoffman race in New York’s 23rd congressional district is a battle that might clear the way for Democrat candidate Bill Owens to take that seat. The Obama White House picked Republican Congressman John McHugh to be Secretary of the Army and open the opportunity to have a Democrat win the seat—another smooth move from WH Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel no doubt.
This move actually could have far reaching ramification because it sparked a civil war on the Right between the GOP establishment that wants to win elections and possibly take the House back, and the conservative movement that wants all candidates with them on most issues. Here’s the thing about hanging with revolutionaries: they want action and they want it now. Tea Partiers are no joke on the right and the progressives that voted for change are no joke on the left.
I saw Newt Gingrich on T.V. warning that far-right litmus test for candidates will lead the Right to becoming a very passionate 20% of the electorate and you can win nationally with those numbers. Then I saw the video on Speaker Gingrich “breaking it down” that Scozzafava is “adequately conservative” in an upstate New York district and that she would vote for Minority Leader John Boeher to be speaker. Period. The End. Jeb Bush tried to tell them; Colin Powell did the same.
A political party that gets beatdown decides to seek candidates relative to the situation in their particular districts. That the method Democrats employed when they came to understand that south Georgia is not south central L.A.; give the Blue Dogs some slack because Dems in the south are moderate if not somewhat conservative. Scozzafava would be the GOP version of this formula and folks on right are flipping out.
Centrists have called for less bitter GOP candidates in Blue Dog districts if the Red Team has any hope of taking the congress back soon (a Black GOP candidate would be the real answer but that would be to much like right.) Speaker Tom Foley once said any jackass can kick down a barn but it takes a carpenter to build one. Building consensus is key to governing a diverse nation. Without flexibility on who is “adequately conservative,” Obama will be president when the next Black Republican serves in congress from the South….President Sasha Obama.
Project Logic Ga 