GOP Base Rejects Pro-Choice Republicans: "We Would Never Bend On That"

[Are_grits_groceries]

House Republicans, in search of an identity, are playing with fire.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), in charge of recruiting Republican candidates for the House, told Bloomberg that the party is searching for people who are "ethnically diverse, female, less partisan and even supportive of abortion rights."

Pro-life organizations have another word for such candidates -- pro-abortion -- and they're not happy to have them in the GOP tent. The Huffington Post didn't have to look far to find conservative groups threatening revolt over the move.

"I think it's dumb," said Joseph M. Scheidler, founder and head of the Pro-Life Action League. "If they start supporting pro-choice -- or pro-abortion -- candidates, they're going to really rile up their conservative base. We don't want pro-choice Republicans or Democrats, because we're issue-oriented, not party-oriented. We'd just as well have our own party."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/15/gop-base-rejects-pro-choi_n_204131.html

That went well.

[MrModerate]

1. Throw six or eight wharf rats into a burlap sack and tie it shut . . .

And they tear each other to pieces. I'm OK with that.

[iamjoy]

2. That's How It Goes

I mean, the Democrats won back both houses in 2006. I guess one could argue we did it by moving to the center (or right). Regardless of whether or not having Conservative Dem candidates is the cause of us winning back Congress or not, the effect is not disputable. It's a more conservative Congress than it was in 1993

From a Reproductive Rights perspective, we "lost" Lincoln Chafee in Rhode Island. The Democrats "gained" Bob Casey in Pennsylvania, but that's not much of a gain if you're Pro-Choice. It's better than Santorum, true, but that's not really hard to achieve.

Jim Webb, Brian Schweitzer and Jon Tester don't toe the liberal line on gun control.

So, the Republicans will move more to the center and their base will suck it up, like Liberal Democrats do because to them it is still better than the alternative.

I often wish we had more viable political parties in this country, but the way our elections are, it won't happen.