Republican Senators Blast Steele Over Talk Of Primary Challenges

[babylonsister]

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/02/gop-senators-blast-steele-over-talk-of-primary-challenges.php?ref=fp2

GOP Senators Blast Steele Over Talk Of Primary Challenges
By Eric Kleefeld - February 26, 2009, 9:21AM


Michael Steele's back-and-forth flirtation with possible primary challenges to the party's pro-stimulus Republicans is now causing him to catch some real flak. And it's not just from those same Republican, but also from conservatives concerned about winning elections -- perhaps indicative of internal strains in the GOP between a hard-line conservative agenda, versus the basic electoral goal of winning office.

Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME), a pro-stimulus Republican who will be up for re-election in 2012, told Roll Call that she approached Steele about his comments and asked him bluntly: "You didn't really mean that, did you?" She said that Steele has agreed to set up a meeting with the three pro-stimulus GOPers to discuss this.

Snowe pointed out that the loss of GOP moderates, and the view that they don't belong in the party, has contributed to the party's overall decrease. "When we were in the majority, there were more of us. Now that we're in the minority, there are less of us," Snowe explained, also adding: "If that's what they want to be, well that's their choice."

And NRSC chairman John Cornyn, a right-winger whose job description right now is quite simply to elect more Republicans, said that while Steele has backed off a bit, Republicans should focus on attacking the Democrats and not each other: "We need to be finding candidates that can win in different parts of the country ... not forming circular firing squads, especially when our numbers are so small."

[BridgeTheGap]

1. News to Cornyn: your numbers will get smaller before all is said and done...follow the whigs out.n.t

[TwilightGardener]

2. They want purity. That's what the Freepers demand--no more RINO's.

The GOP is being led by its loonie-tunes fringe--and they can't figure out why most (moderate) Americans are rejecting them.

[Historic NY]

3. I'd wet my pants if a few of those RINO's turned formally.

[TheCowsCameHome]

4. The inmates have taken over the asylum. It's a thing of beauty.

[Pab Sungenis]

5. There's a way to avoid a primary challenger in 2012, Olympia.

Come into the light. You know you'd be better off as a Democrat, anyhow.

[xultar]

6. Why would she do that? And be blasted for being a conservative Dem and a DINO by Democrats?