Posted on 10/27/2006 10:42:26 PM PDT by ConservativeMind
Facing the loss of fellow moderates in the Nov. 7 elections, Republican centrists in the House and Senate are faulting Congressional and party leaders for pursuing a strategy dominated by conservative themes...
...Democrats have also made a concerted effort against vulnerable Republican moderates, which Senator Susan Collins, another Republican of Maine, said was not much of a reward for those willing to try to work with the opposition party.
“There is no one who has voted more often with the Democrats than Linc Chafee,” Ms. Collins said. “Yet that didn’t stop them from going after him with everything they had. That is a good lesson.”
Ms. Collins and Ms. Snowe noted that although voters indicate a strong desire for bipartisanship, some lawmakers most likely to be punished are the very ones who have reached across the aisle.
Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, made no apologies for focusing on Republican moderates and said Republicans should blame the party leaders for its approach...
...While Republican moderates struggle to maintain their numbers, some top Democratic challengers are from the more moderate wing of that party, raising the prospect that some gains will come from the right.
That possibility also gives Republican moderates hope that even if they number fewer, they could potentially band with Democrats in the center to influence measures.
“I think,” Ms. Collins said, “the moderates in both parties could be empowered.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
They are.
Best news I've heard this election cycle.
There go the liberal Repubs, calling themselves 'centrists' again.
Wow! Great post! This is very encouraging, and good news indeed for the future of the Republican party. This is what it's all about - - unloading the liberal garbage and boosting conservatives.
They misspelled "Liberal" again.
Forget it, Jake. It's the New York Times.
That's only because it's poorly written. New York Times.
My names not Jake but I've already forgotten it.
"Chinatown" reference. ;-)
God help America.
How about moderate Democrats like Lieberman? The Dem party is moving rapidly to the extreme left.
OK. Where's the Rhino McCain px?
If you think about it, you sound a lot like a Ned Lamont supporter - only from the right.
Lamont and his supporters wanted orthodoxy too.
Dissent or differences of opinion within a political party are not tolerated...right?
Why should we "tolerate" idiots like Chafee who vote with the other side anyway?
Chaffe ain't a moderate Republican.
He's an old-school liberal Republican. Not even Snowe and Collins vote as liberal as he does.
The only reason I'd vote for him (if I lived in Rhode Island) is because he'd vote to organize the Senate on GOP lines.
What I'm talking about are those GOP members of Congress who don't vote in complete lock-step with conservative thinking.
Why are we so quick to trash them and throw them out of the party?
“There is no one who has voted more often with the Democrats than Linc Chafee,” Ms. Collins said. “Yet that didn’t stop them from going after him with everything they had. That is a good lesson.”
Geez, a Democrat would stab a supposed ally in the back? How shocking!
Reminds me of the story of the Scorpion & the Frog...the frog agrees to carry the scorpion across the river on his back, halfway across, the scorpion stings him. When asked why, as they both drown, the scorpion replies, "You knew I was a scorpion, it's in my nature". Never trust a Dem.
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