Throwing Out The Bums

by digby

Moderate Republicans say a planned summer push by the House leadership on conservative causes like gun rights and new abortion restrictions threatens the re-election prospects of embattled centrists, who are key to the party’s drive to hold Congress.

Frustrated and angry, they say the leadership’s new American Values Agenda, a list of initiatives heavy on ideological themes, seems short-sighted and ill-timed considering that few conservatives are at serious risk in November.

“It was stupid and gross,” said Representative Christopher Shays, Republican of Connecticut. “They have this obsession to satisfy conservative Republicans who will probably be re-elected no matter what happens. They get job satisfaction, but they are making it more difficult for me to win my race.”

Mr. Shays and others said the announcement of the agenda took them by surprise, particularly after House Republicans seemed to be back on track after a few strong weeks of emphasizing new fiscal controls and a push on national security issues. House moderates have also been supportive of the leadership’s hard line against the idea of potential citizenship for illegal immigrants, saying that reflects public sentiment.

I’ll be looking for the Sunday shows to feature lots of handwringing about the divided Democrats, particularly the crazed, angry purists of the left who are trying to drag the party away from the center of American politics. That is the operative narrative.

I’m sure they will not mention this from Chris Bowers:

Five weeks ago, I complained that the media and political establishment were unfairly focused upon the Connecticut Senate primary. While conservative Democrat Ed Case poses a serious threat to incumbent Senator Daniel Akaka in Hawaii, and while far-right Stephan Laffey poses a serious threat to Lincoln Chafee in Rhode Island, the media and political establishment has paid relatively little attention to those primaries. How much less? Look at these numbers from Google News:

* Lieberman Lamont: 1,590 matches in the last month
* Chafee Laffey: 97 matches in the last month
* Akaka Case: 79 hits in the last month.

Interesting, no? Chris continues with this observation:

…whenever I see the LA Times or any other rag editorialize on the Connecticut Senate primary, I just think back to these Google News numbers. If they, or any other organ of the political and media establishment think that primary challenges against incumbent Senators are wrong, then why aren’t they editorializing about Hawaii and Rhode Island? All of the complaints that have been leveled against progressives for trying to unseat Lieberman can easily be turned against the DLC for trying to unseat Akaka, or against the conservative movement for trying unseat Chafee. However, such complaints are not coming. Until they are, and until the news media starts giving those two races anywhere near the same level of attention they lavish upon Connecticut, anyone who complains about what we are doing in Connecticut is a hypocrite. As long as conservatives and the DLC are not criticized for using the primary system to enact change, progressives should not be criticized for using the primary system to enact change.

And while they’re at it, maybe they could also recognize that the national Republican party seems intent upon making it harder for moderates to win while the national Democratic party is working overtime to protect them. If “moderation” and “centrism” are what the media see as the gold standard, it certainly would seem that the Big Tent Republican establishment hasn’t gotten the memo.

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