Dede Scozzafava and the search for the perfect ‘moderate’ Republican
The bizarre circumstances surrounding the special election in New York’s 23rd Congressional District has been used as evidence by many media pundits to demonstrate that a “civil war” is brewing in the Republican Party. Based solely on the thin reed of this singular and unusual event, many liberal Democrats have attempted to bootstrap an argument that concludes that the Dede Scozzafava affair, and the concomitant conservative uprising against her candidacy, demonstrates the Republican Party has been taken over by right wing fanatics who seek to impose a litmus test on all future candidates.
MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, characterized those who thought the views of the Republican nominee should not conform so closely to unabashed liberals of the Democratic Party as “wing nuts.” During his Hardball broadcasts for the previous week, Matthews persistently referred to Scozzafava as a “moderate” Republican; many other cable TV hosts followed suit.
If Dede Scozzafava is an exemplar of a “moderate” Republican, the term “moderate” no longer has any meaning in our political lexicon. Scozzafava can be characterized as a “liberal Republican” or as a RINO, but when assessed against the spectrum of principles that establish the Republican Party as a conservative party, Scozzafava was clearly no middle of the road Republican.
Let’s review Scozzafava’s credentials as a “moderate.” She is for partial birth abortions. She supports union card check, which would abolish secret balloting. She supports same-sex marriage. She supported the stimulus bill, a fiscally reckless, and extravagant piece of legislation (a view incidentally shared by a large swath of the electorate) for which not one Republican in the House voted.
To add insult to injury to the party which poured nearly $1 million on her doomed campaign, after withdrawing from the race, she then promptly endorsed the Democrat. These are the views and actions of a moderate Republican? A question for Chris Matthews: if Scozzafava is a moderate, what would a “liberal” Republican look like?
Yet somehow we are told that this incident is indicative of a civil war brewing in the Republican Party, prompted by far right extremists, who by their opposition to a liberal on the ticket are engaging in a Stalinist purge (to use Frank Rich’s terminology) of moderates.
Would it be asking too much of these same pundits to apply consistently the label of “extremist” to their preferred political party? When neo-Marxist crackpot and Green Jobs Czar Van Jones was exposed as a fringe left winger, who believed that whites were deliberately steering pollution to communities of color, I don’t recall many pundits in the media characterizing his views as “extremist” nor was this bizarre appointment used to illustrate the far-left ideology of the president.
Yet, which of the two parties is more likely to impose a “litmus test?” When lifelong liberal Joe Lieberman ran for reelection in Connecticut, he was banished from his party because of his unabashed belief that securing victory in Iraq was the only viable course of action for the United States. For his heresy against established Democratic Party orthodoxy, Lieberman was forced to run as an Independent and subsequently was reelected. Former Pennsylvania Governor, Bob Casey, was refused a speaking slot at the Democratic Party’s 1992 convention because of his staunch pro-life views. Litmus test, anyone?
It is also interesting to note that one of the most vocal proponents for Ned Lamont, Lieberman’s Democratic opponent in that race, was none other than far-left blogger Markos Moulitsas of the Daily Kos — the same Markos Moulitsas who characterized “Republican moderate” Dede Scozzafava as the most liberal of all the candidates (including the Democratic nominee) in New York’s Congressional race. Is there not a trace of incongruity here?
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- Dede Scozzafava is one of the “fake” Republicans… (stinkbug1.choseit.com)
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Lefties are doing exactly the same thing to their moderates as Conservatives did to Scozzafavabean: Purity Purge
I have no problem with that, but if it is a “Republican crack-up” or a “Republican civil-war,” then it is the same thing on the left, not just a “principled policy dispute.”
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Check this out … I agree with you. Even by liberal standards, such as my own, Dede was far more a Democrat than a moderate Republican. I do think, however, that her choice by the local GOP, had meaning in terms of who they thought could win. That, to me, was one of the more interesting items in the race- the fact that the GOP believed it requried a very liberal candidate to succeed. Does this mean that the typically centrist-right 23rd district in NY is growing more liberal? I don’t think we know. Despite the fact that the Democrat succeeded, had Hoffman been the GOP candidate from the outset, I’m fairly sure he would have won. I also think that voters in the district did not approve of all the big-name outsiders using them as their laboratory.
If you’re looking for a moderate Republican, she have shown up in the guise of Carly Fiorina in the upcoming California Senate race.
Rick,
It’s nice to get clarification on this issue from you. In the end, I think one could argue plausibly that Owens, the Democrat who won, was more conservative than Scozzafava, the alleged Republican “moderate.”
It will be interesting to see what happens if Hoffman decides to run again…
In response to another comment. See in context »Mr. Kinsellagh,
I am not clear on what point you are making. The beginning of your post seems to say that the story of a “civil war” within the Republican Party is false and a figment (or product) of the imagination of the MSM. However you then seem to go on to say that that Ms. Scozzafava was so liberal that she does not belong in the Republican party. This seems to me to say is that “moderates” are acceptable so long as they are “really” moderate, which is to say “moderate” as defined by conservatives. The implication is that a Republican candidate who is not “really” moderate can then be targeted by conservative, i.e. “real”, Republicans for defeat, even if it means giving the Democrats an extra seat in the HoR. If “liberals” are not welcome in the Republican Party and conservatives get to decide who is or is not liberal, moderate, or conservative, then it seems to me that conservatives have indeed set up a litmus test that they themselves are the only judge of.
That great bastion of liberal thought, the Wall Street Journal, notes that Club for Growth is happy with the results in NY-23 and “on the hunt” for those Republicans who do not fit their bill.
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2009/11/03/club-for-growth-is-on-hunt-for-republicans-who-dont-fit-the-bill/
Is that a “civil war”? I don’t know. However it certainly does not bode well for anyone who conservative Republicans do not approve of.
It will be — or, at least, should be — impossible for Scozzafava to win re-election to the New York assembly as a Republican. No doubt her agreement to endorse Owens was accompanied by guarantees — an administration job or something similar.
[...] spending a considerable amount of air time falsely postulating that liberal Democrat Dede Scozzafava was somehow a “moderate” Republican, far less prominence is given by these same pundits [...]