Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
How do you take the textbook definition of a "safe" Republican district (a Democrat has not represented the region since 1854), a no-brainer that the Republican will win by default against token Democratic opposition, and lose the seat for the first time in 155 years? By caving in to pressure from the far-right extremist fringe Teabagger Taliban and the Mighty Wurlitzer of right-wing conservative "entertainment" personalities.
Blue Dog Democrat Bill Owens, the token opposition, won a stunning victory in the special congressional election in New York's 23rd congressional district only because the GOP Taliban and the conservative "entertainment" personalities declared civil war against GOP moderates and the GOP establishment, demanding ideological purity to conservativism - as they have defined it. This was an epic teabagger fail.
Daily Kos is right, we should thank those individuals responsible for handing this congressional seat to a Democrat for the first time in 155 years:
Let's all give a hearty round of applause to the teabaggers, who took what would've been a very good night for Republicans and ruined it by helping Democrats pick up a seat they hadn't held since the Civil War.
Glenn Beck? Thanks!
Sarah Palin? Thanks!
Tim Pawlenty? Thanks!
Club for Growth? Thanks!
Ironically, the NRCC, the RNC, Newt Gingrich and the smartest Republican in the world, Tom Davis (former NRCC chair) were right -- the Republican Party needs to be more of a big tent to successfully compete in the Northeast and other non-Southern parts of the country.
So let's sit back and watch the teabaggers go to war against the GOP establishment, even though it was the national and local GOP that knew how to best hold the seat.
While the Virginia and New Jersey losses hurt, governor races usually revolve around local issues. if the question was "are voters angry at the direction of Congress and want Democrats stopped", then the answer is clear -- Democrats won both congressional races, including the über-reliable NY-23. Even in conservative districts (at least those outside the South), people don't want what the teabaggers are selling.
Dick Armey's "tip of the spear" ... is kind of flaccid. Uncivil War: Conservatives to challenge a dozen GOP candidates (In what could be a nightmare scenario for Republican Party officials, conservative activists are gearing up to challenge leading GOP candidates in more than a dozen key House and Senate races in 2010.)
Thanks again, crazy conservatives, for giving us Democrats something to cheer about. While you're busy destroying each other in an ideological civil war, Democrats stand to pick up seats in 2010.
