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Title: Palin, Gingrich, Armey: A GOP Divided
Source:
Tribune Interactive
URL Source: http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/p ... _gingrich_armey_a_gop_div.html
Published: Oct 23, 2009
Author: Mark Silva
Post Date: 2009-10-23 20:19:08 by Brian S
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Views: 447
Comments: 2
by Mark Silva Sarah Palin has issued an endorsement in the special election to replace a Republican congressman in an upstate New York district that hasn't elected a Democrat to Congress since the Civil War. That would be the Republican, right? Wrong, that would be the Conservative Party candidate, in a hard-fought three-way contest that has torn the GOP over a question of what values it will uphold as the party attempts to rebuild and regroup. The problem for the Republicans, in the 23rd Congressional District of New York, is that the Republican candidate supports abortion-rights and same-sex marriage. That wasn't enough to stop Newt Gingrich, the former Republican House speaker, from endorsing the Republican candidate. But it was enough to stop Dick Armey, the Tea Party organizer and former House Republican Majority leader, from backing the GOP's candidate, complaining that his party cannot become "Democrat lite.''And now it's enough for Palin, the Republican Party's 2008 nominee for vice president, to step up for the Conservative candidate, Doug Hoffman, over the Republican, Dede Scozzafava, in New York. "Political parties must stand for something,'' Palin writes at that Facebook page of hers that has become a forum for the former governor of Alaska to build her own base - followers numbering about 950,000. "When Republicans were in the wilderness in the late 1970s, Ronald Reagan knew that the doctrine of "blurring the lines" between parties was not an appropriate way to win elections,'' Palin wrote in a Notes entry on her page last night. "Unfortunately, the Republican Party today has decided to choose a candidate who more than blurs the lines, and there is no real difference between the Democrat and the Republican in this race. This is why Doug Hoffman is running on the Conservative Party's ticket. "Republicans and conservatives around the country are sending an important message to the Republican establishment in their outstanding grassroots support for Doug Hoffman: no more politics as usual.'' Palin and Armey - how does that sound for a third-party national ticket in 2012 drawing on the fervor of the Tea Party movement the way that the Conservative candidate for Congress in New York's 23d is rallying a conservative base outside of the major two-party lines? (Photos above, top to bottom: Sarah Palin is pictured above on the day in July that she gave her farewell address in resigning as governor of Alaska. (AP Photo by Al Grillo) Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) listened during a taping of NBC News' "Meet the Press" in April. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski / Getty Images). Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) addressed the World Affairs Council in Fort Worth, Texas, this week. (Photo by Joyce Marshall / Fort Worth Star-Telegram/MCT). And Armey and Gingrich are pictured together, when they were more politically aligned, in a 1996 photo by Dennis Cook / AP). "The people of the 23rd Congressional District of New York are ready to shake things up, and Doug Hoffman is coming on strong as Election Day approaches,'' Palin told her followers. "Our nation is at a crossroads, and this is once again a "time for choosing." Gingrich, House speaker from 1995 to 1999 and a potential presidential candidate in his own right, has sided with the Republican in the district that was represented by Republican John McHugh until President Barack Obama this year named McHugh secretary of the Army. "The special election for the 23rd Congressional District is an important test leading up to the mid-term 2010 elections," Gingrich said in a statement to supporters. "Our best chance to put responsible and principled leaders in Washington starts here, with Dede Scozzafava." A Siena Research Institute poll released this week found that the Conservative Party's Hoffman, who claims to be the "real Republican" in the race, is gaining ground with the support of 23 percent of voters in the 11-county district that covers a broad swath of upstate New York. Scozzafava was favored by 29 percent and Democrat Bill Owens by 33 percent of likely voters in the poll conducted Sunday through Tuesday. Hoffman has mounted a late surge in the special election with endorsements by prominent conservatives that include former Republican Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee, Campaign for Working Families founder Gary Bauer, a onetime presidential candidate as well, and the Club for Growth. Gingrich is willing to overlook Scozzafava's support for same-sex marriage and abortion rights. "The Republican Revolution in 1994 started very much like what we see today," Gingrich said in his statement of support for the Republican. "Like then, our country is reeling from misguided liberal policies, high taxes and out-of-control spending. This special election in New York's 23rd Congressional District could be the first election of the new Republican Revolution, but we need the momentum to get it started." Armey, who runs one of the major Tea Party organizing efforts, in endorsing Conservative Hoffman, told Redstate.com: "We [Republicans] win when we are us. We lose when we are Democrat lite. "We attract people by being small government conservatives," Big Government Republicans, I would tell the Republican Party leadership it cannot win if it insists on recruiting and supporting candidates out of step with the voters."
Palin, too, is sending a message: With her own memoirs, Going Rogue, ready for release on Nov. 17 - and a rollout for the book on The Oprah Winfrey Show scheduled on the eve of publication - the GOP's Palin is revealing that something may be more important to her than the GOP itself.
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#1. To: Brian S (#0)
(Edited)
And this Ms. Scozzafava is the "official" GOP candidate? No wonder it's called The Stupid Party. What a joke. Ms. Dede Scozzafava even has the Leftie female look.
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Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestMs. Scozzafava announced she supports Obama’s Stimulus Bill, she is an advocate of Card Check and holds liberal positions on social issues like abortion and homosexual marriage. The Weekly Standard reports that, if elected, Scozzafava may switch to the Democratic Party for the 2010 elections.
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