Republicans revel in wins but ideological fissures loom (WaPo)

[struggle4progress]

By Philip Rucker and Perry Bacon Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 4, 2009; 2:30 PM

... Conservative grass-roots activists drew national attention to New York's 23rd congressional district by bucking the party establishment and forcing out a Republican nominee, Dede Scozzafava, whom they deemed too moderate. But the conservative third-party candidate they backed, Doug Hoffman, lost by four percentage points to Democrat Bill Owens. The surprising Democratic win could spark new GOP disagreements ...

"We did exactly what we set out to do -- crush the establishment-backed GOP candidate," Erick Erickson wrote on his popular conservative blog RedState. "We have demonstrated to the GOP that it must not take conservatives for granted," he wrote, adding that the race was something of a trial run for the Florida GOP primary, which pits moderate Gov. Charlie Crist against conservative former state House speaker Marco Rubio for an open Senate seat ...

Across the country, some moderate Republicans in competitive primaries are shedding their moderate credentials to appeal to grass-roots conservatives. In Connecticut, for instance, former congressman Rob Simmons, regarded in Congress as a New England moderate, is linking himself to the tea party movement and now carries a tea bag in his pocket along with a copy of the Constitution to try to beat back primary challengers. In Illinois, moderate Rep. Mark Kirk (R) shores up his conservative credentials in the first advertisement of his Senate race ...

"Long term, I think they've handcuffed themselves in a negative way," said Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. "The most important thing is that Republicans keep moving to the right. A Republican candidate moving to the right in a blue state is never a good sign for viability in a general election" ...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/04/AR2009110402752.html?hpid=topnews

[Bitwit1234]

1. Let me get this straight

A state is more important than the over all well being of the whole of the 50 states. If you are governor than you have more say so than any body else in the country...gee didn't know that.

[h9socialist]

2. Cow Palace 1964

The Republicans are setting themselves up for another Goldwater debacle -- the nut-cases are going wild. The main thing that Democrats and progressives need to concentrate on is delivering-the-goods -- ie. Universal healthcare, jobs and peace. Deliver on those things and the neo-fascist teabaggers can have the Republican party because it will be in such electoral shambles to be worthless anyway. Fail to deliver and we are in big trouble.