GOP sets sights on one of its own (moving to purge moderates in N.C.)

[Thom Little]

Republican Party officials say they will cast aside a tradition of not picking favorites in primaries and use their influence to try to beat state Rep. Richard Morgan, R-Moore.

Morgan is a target of the party leadership because he has participated in power-sharing with Democrats in the state House. Many GOP members have criticized Morgan for striking deals that made him co-speaker in 2003 and speaker pro tempore in 2005.

Over the weekend, the state Republican Party's Executive Committee approved a resolution urging voters in Moore's district to pick someone other than Morgan in next May's primary. The resolution also gives state GOP chairman Ferrell Blount the authority to lend "aid and support" to Morgan's primary opponents.

"It is a very unusual step," said Bill Peaslee, the state party's chief of staff. "The party really doesn't want to involve itself in primaries. But in this instance, the executive committee felt the threat was so great, it felt compelled to act."

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/13238751.htm

[Norquist Nemesis]

1. Alan Keyes is available!

Republicans are VERY, VERY scared...in fact they're scared SHITLESS that their experiment on the American people will be fully exposed for the scam it it.

[Erika]

3. They are eating their own at an increased rate

Very amusing. They had the power of the presidency and the Congress but they are running around like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off. Truly amusing.

[WCGreen]

5. They have no idea how to govern...

The way they attained power... Through lies, intimidation and propaganda does not pave the way for reconcilliation once the election results are in...

They reap what they have sown....

[LiberalVoice]

2. Everyone remember this story!

Then next time some POS repug starts spouting about how the Dems are partisan on every issue and the repugs only want to work with the dems for the better of this country show them this article.

They are willing to fuck one of their already elected republicans because he worked with the Dems.

[Erika]

4. The Right wingers are screwed and they know it

About the time they harass a moderate GOP, they will lose the seat to the Democrats.

I'm shocked that many republicans haven't joined the dems and told the rabid right wing to screw off. I think that is coming.

[depakid]

8. and that's a bad thing how? n/t

[Toots]

6. Why didn't Democrats do this with Zell Miller?

There are a few other Democrats that could use a Primary challenge as well.

[Cha]

19. Maybe they will be doing

something of that nature now that the DNC is working at state levels in all 50.

[depakid]

7. Message to Dems- ahem-

This is how it's done.

Want to know why the Republicans control every branch of government and own the media?

Want to become relevant in national politics again- then take a look at the Republicans' winning playbook for a change AND LEARN HOW TO DEAL WITH YOUR DINO PROBLEM.

The Party's not going anywhere as long as it has people legitimizing the far right on the "news" shows every week and jumping ship to cooperate and vote with the Republicans on issue after issue.

[1932]

9. Lots of Democrats advocate same thing viz compromising Dems. However,

who here doesn't read this and think, "thank you for the gift, Republican Party of North Carolina -- this will surely help Democrats win seats!!!"

[depakid]

10. I don't see your reasoning at all

How's this going to help the Dems win seats? It's a primary race in a Republican district.

However, in terms of party discipline and chilling effects on others who might think about crossing over and betraying their party's principles, I see a huge effect. In the longer term- this is why they win- and why the Dems have become irrelevant over the past 11 years.

Here's a quote that pretty much says it all. How many current Dems can you think of that this might this apply to?

"Richard Morgan has done everything he can to destroy our party, and I don't like how he treated his fellow Republicans down there," Shaw said."

[1932]

11. My instinct is this:

If the average voters sees the Republican party as hostile to compromise and as demanding adherence to the party line, even if it helps them win this seat, it will hurt them in the long run.

Polarization is a bad thing for everyone and the party that reaches out to the mass of people in the middle will end up succeeding.

Morgan wasn't destroying his party. He was helping it by moving it towards the center so that it could represent more people.

Of course if the Democrats also engage in bunker mentality politics, then you maintain the status quo. But if only one party retreats to the bunker, while the other party reaches out to the middle, then the bunker party will lose.

BTW, I don't think Zell Miller is a proper analogy to this situation. He's not reaching out to the middle. He reached out to the far right of the Republican Party.

[depakid]

12. I understand that point of view

except that it seems to me that it almost never plays out that way in real life. I think sometimes we project the fact that because we think reasonably- and have decent memories- that most others do too.

The evidence I've seen over the past 25 years (since the early days of the Reagan Administration) doesn't bear that out very often.

What I've seen- especially in the last 5 years- is a party that no longer has any discipline or accountability among its members at all- and is therefore widely perceived as standing for little or nothing- all in the vain hope of "reaching out" to some ephemoral middle.

As a practical matter- that's not proven to be a winning strategy.

[1932]

13. 1964 Republican Convention is an example of the this playing out.

"Extemism in the defense of liberty is no vice" ended up giving the Democrats one of the biggest landslide victories ever. And one of the (several) reason's reagan did well is because he invoked FDR to sell a set of economic policies that had nothign to do with FDR.

Accountability among members isn't the resason the Democrats don't seem to stand for anything.

Democrats who seem to stand for something more than a laundry-list of policy positions end up doing well.

[depakid]

14. This is 2006, not 1964

Extremism like Barry Goldwaters is pretty much the norm today among Republicans. It won in 1980- and it won again last year.

Sure, the Lieberman's, Nelsons, Bidens, et al keep getting re-elected. No one challenges them seriously. And I submit- therein lies the problem. Poll after poll keeps telling the Dems that people don't percive them as standing for anything- and they're genrally preceived as weak.

Add to that the fact that some 5 or 6 of them (or more) continually cross party lines to vote for the most extreme nominees and the most irresponsible and downright dispicable legislation, and it's not hard to see why, from a practical standpoint, they're lost their relevance in Washington.

The only reason I see that many people vote Democratic is because they're not Republicans. Very few times have I seen a candidate that people actually rally behind and vote for as opposed to choosing a lesser of evils.

[1932]

15. I don't think the rules have changed so much that extremism's now a virtue

when it was once a sure route to defeat.

Lieberman, Nelson and Biden aren't reaching out to the political middle -- the middle class and people who work for a living.

They reach out to the corporations and use their money to win elections that they'd probably lose otherwise.

Pro-corporate policies are not what the middle is about.

I suspect that what this Republican in NC was doing was reaching out to the working class and not siding with corporations. When I say the Democrats should appeal to the middle, what I mean is that they should be prepared to reach out to the working class and middle class, even if that middle class are gun owners and church-goers, and they shouldn't reach out be compromising on gun safety or the right to chose, but by explaining to them the larger reasons for being a democrat, which is that you believe that when people on the bottom are lifted up, you lift up all people, that you believe work creates all wealth in Ameirca, and because you believe that giving individuals more opportunities and if you promote equality, then society is stronger. These are positions that are antithetical to the ways that corporate America makes money and stays wealthy. I suspect that Morgan is probably being punished because he's not willing to protect the hegemony of the powerful.

[cornermouse]

17. Let me suggest another possibility.

People tend to see this as strength of character; standing firm on their principles. They see someone that appears to be a leader with uncomplicated, clearly defined goals and positions which are easily understood without much thought. And that's why they vote for them.

[leesa]

16. Good. I like to see them marginalizing themselves even further.

[Cha]

18. I can only imagine being

a moderate republican and watching your party being taken over by the religiously insane..

Pass the popcorn, please..

:popcorn: :popcorn:

[lolly]

20. Serves this guy right

If you are a "moderate," you don't belong in the Republican Party, period. Those "moderate" Republicans--Snowe, et al.--help keep them in the majority in Congress so that they can control the agenda and force their extremist views on all Americans.

Whether they want to admit it or not, if you're a Republican, you're advancing an extremist, anti-American agenda.

[xchrom]

21. repukes can teach a thing or two regarding

party unity.