Posted on 10/27/2009 7:45:09 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
Gingrich calls GOP support for Hoffman a 'purge' By Jordan Fabian - 10/27/09 09:47 AM ET
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) late Monday had some choice words for Republicans supporting Conservative Party party candidate Doug Hoffman (N.Y.), accusing them of conducting a "purge" of the GOP.
Many national Republican figures, such as Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-Minn.) and ex-Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Alaska), have backed Hoffman over GOP candidate Dede Scozzafava in the 23rd district's special election this year. The district has been long-held by Republicans, but many conservatives have shied away from Scozzafava for her socially liberal positions and the local GOP's selection process that they say was not transparent.
Gingrich broke the mold and backed Scozzafava, saying her candidacy gave the Republicans the best shot of regaining a congressional majority. The former Speaker faced a push-back from the right after his announcement but he upped the ante on Monday.
"This idea that we're suddenly going to establish litmus tests and all across the country we're going to purge the party of anybody who doesn't agree with us 100 percent; that guarantees Obama's reelection, that guarantees Pelosi as Speaker-for-life," he told Fox News last night.
Gingrich called Scozzafava a "liberal Republican" for her support of gay marriage and abortion rights. But he defended those positions as in-step with her district and her predecessor, former Rep. John McHugh (R-N.Y.), who was tapped to be President Barack Obama's Army Secretary.
But he said that her endorsement from the National Rifle Association, her signing a no tax-increase pledge, and her opposition to cap-and-trade and healthcare reform legislation made her "adquately conservative in an upstate New York district."
Gingrich also attacked Hoffman for not having proper knowledge of local issues and living outside the 23rd district.
"So I say to many conservative friends who suddenly decided whether they're from Minnesota, or Alaska, or Texas, they know more than the upstate New York Republicans? I don't think so," he added.
The actual story is a bit more complicated, and a whole lot uglier than what has been generally reported.
The following link, courtesy of StatenIsland in another thread, is an account of how, in addition to Scozzafava, there were actually eight other GOP prospects vying for the spot, ALL of whom were acceptably conservative and would have been endorsed by the NY Conservative Party, thus guaranteeing a GOP win, except that the GOP committee chairwoman manipulated the voting process to put in her friend, Scozzafava. In fact, Scozzafava was the one the Conservative Party folks specifically told the GOP committee they would not endorse. The ugly truth is that not only were all eight conservative GOP candidates betrayed by a corrupt committee chairwoman, she also betrayed her own committee members.
Here's the link from the TCOT Report:
FUN & STFU
Now, I have a platter of Delectible Twinkies.
May I offer your favorite treat?
You ass is as big as your ego and we are going to pop it
Perfect, we just need a larger one with Sarah sitting their with the big gun ... Nice photo, says it all, vote the rino’s out
>>>Around here, Republican politicians are routinely called RINOs, despite having conservative ratings near or above 80%.<<<
I agree that the RINO label sometimes gets thrown around a little too lightly. However, 80% really isn’t nearly good enough to call someone a conservative. We might have to tolerate some 80 percenters in liberal states and districts, but we should not tolerate them where a real conservative can win.
Also, it makes a big difference which 20% the official disagrees on. Disloyalty or dissent in some areas is tolerable, but in others it is not.
Finally, with the Democrats pushing for such a radical, socialist, weak Ameerica, agenda, right now even a moderate Rebublican should be voting against the Democrats nearly 100% of the time.
Newt has lost it.
It makes 1994 look more like an accident than a brilliance.
IT was a blind man finding gold when he hit the triggers for the majority of the USA.
Newt is just acting like all beltway insiders. Parties are just to get elected and mean nothing. Newt does not get it beyond the effete elites of the beltway.
He is an ivory tower professor these days and acting like an ivory tower professor.
He is right, it is a purge. A purge of left wing nonsense supported by newt.
He has long since left us in Georgia. No, he is an inside the beltway profiteer who is out for himself.
If the R's manage to hold the line on health care issue, then we can blame the Dems for this disaster.
I heard Newtie arrogantly dismiss complaints about Dede by saying “ She won, Hoffman lost “ and then something along the lines of get over it.
I assumed that there had been a primary.
His tripling down on the hand picked ,non primary DIABLO ,
as Steyn calls her ,
is a good thing.
Because maybe it will end his ridiculous mewing about running in 2012.
And purge is too delicate .
What this party needs is a high colonic to flush out all the waste and toxins.
Moles can do a lot of damage. Newt should have seen what happened and gone public with that, not with a "liberal republican."
Thanks for the info and the link.
That is exactly what I was thinking.
I tried to post a comment and sent a letter to the editor about their writer trying to rewrite history.
Gingrich did not “break the mold”, he set the mold. Those conservative endorsments of Hoffman mostly came after Newts, they were breaking HIS mold.
That is the sad, sad truth. Newt was once my foremost conservative hero. No more.
And I hate it that I don't understand why he has changed. I just don't get it.
Newt regrets endorsing Sozzofava but he’s not going to admit it
Cheney looking over their shoulder...great concept!
Newt can’t spin. He’s Bovine.
His favorite activity is rolling in powdered donuts and chocolate.
Oop, guess that means he is pinneped
When Newt says “purge,” he wants us to think of Stalin or Mao having people shot, but this is more like kidney dialysis, or an enema.
As I recall, he grew up in PA and represented a district in GA. I’d say roughly half of the Congress(wo)men and Senators are not FROM the state/district they represent.
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