GOP Kicks Another Moderate to the Curb

The race in the NY 23rd just lost its appeal.

A New York Republican on Saturday abandoned her bid to enter the US Congress, days before an election that pitted her against a Conservative Party rival and divided the country’s political right.

"The United States Capitol in Washington, DC. A New York Republican on Saturday abandoned her bid to enter the US Congress, days before an election that pitted her against a Conservative Party rival and divided the country’s political right."

In a statement Dede Scozzafava said that after several months of campaigning her supporters should feel free to defect to rival camps, even though her name would still appear on the ballot.

The mother-of-four was figured in what would have been a low-key Congressional race for New York’s 23 district, but which has been transformed into a battle for the soul of the Republican party.

Despite her selection as the Republican candidate, Scozzafava — who backed legal abortion and gay rights — struggled to rally the party’s conservative base.

Many Republican Party notables flocked to her deeply conservative rival Douglas Hoffman, including former Alaskan governor and failed vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, and Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty — both believed to nurse White House ambitions…

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This means the Democratic candidate has no chance to pick up the seat, but that doesn’t really matter.  What does is that the GOP has made it crystal clear that it will exhibit zero tolerance for moderates.  If you are a GOP candidate for office you have two choices.  Number one: you can goose-step, brain addled with GOP Kool-Aid, and parrot the proclamations of co-Fuhrers Glen Beck and Rush Limbaugh, putting total faith in Supply-Side Jesus to make America safe for war, greed and intolerance.  Number two: you can kiss your political career goodbye.