CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
Oct. 29, 2009 – 2:27 p.m.
Van Hollen: ‘Extreme Voices’ Prevailing in GOP
By Shira Toeplitz, CQ-Roll Call
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen reveled Thursday in the Republican infighting on display in the campaign for the open House seat in upstate New York.
The Maryland Democrat told reporters that he believed the “right wing of the [Republican] party is winning” in the 23rd District fight between Conservative Party nominee David Hoffman and the National Republican Congressional Committee-backed candidate, state Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava.
Recent polls have showed the Democratic nominee, attorney Bill Owens, and Hoffman running close, with GOP nominee Scozzafava in last place. Several GOP House Members and prominent Republicans announced this week that they are backing Hoffman over Scozzafava, ignoring the endorsement of their party’s own candidate.
“I think you are seeing playing out this fight that’s going on within the Republican Party nationally, between those who believe the Republican Party is not ideologically pure enough yet ... and those who believe there should be greater pragmatism and greater breadth of opinion within the Republican Party,” Van Hollen told reporters at a breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor.
Van Hollen said the battle between Scozzafava and Hoffman is indicative of an ideological fight within the Republican Party, and so far he sees that the “extreme voices are prevailing in that debate.” He added that campaign financial disclosures show that many GOP Members are staying out of the contest entirely.
“By rejecting that candidate for a non-Republican ... and picking somebody else, I think they send a signal that they’re more interested in purist ideology than they are in problem solving,” Van Hollen said.
Van Hollen also expressed optimism about next week’s gubernatorial elections in Virginia, where polls show the Democratic nominee trailing by double digits. He said his committee will be examining the turnout numbers to look for evidence of drop off from last year’s presidential election, when Congressional Democrats were boosted by President Barack Obama ’s winning margin in almost every district across the country.
Van Hollen said the caucus was prepared for a tough cycle in 2010, given that the party in power historically loses seats in the midterm election after a winning presidential cycle. He dismissed any comparisons of this cycle to 1994, when Republicans won the House two years after President Bill Clinton was elected. He pointed out that, unlike 1994, there are no Democratic retirements. Plus, he said, his party’s members are prepared.
“The good news for us is that none of our members are going to be caught by surprise,” Van Hollen said. “In 1994, they were.”
Comments
I live in New York. The GOP is nutty right wing. But, the Conservative Party is for people so far out of the mainstream that even the GOP isn't crazy enough. Seeing major GOP leaders endorse Hoffman shows that even mainstream conservatives are being pushed out of that party.
I live in Maryland and I can tell you for sure that Chris Van Hollen is part of the lunatic left. Remember he is from the part of Maryland that tried to ban Santa Claus. Now they are trying to ban the free market. Loonies on the left are on the march, make sure you get you ballot punched for someone other than the loons. All you have to do to find the head loon is to look at 1600 pennsylvania ave in dc. there sits the crier-in-chief. the head loon is so far insulated that he attacks his critics for being unamerican. now that seems to be a central theme from the loonie toon democrats that are now running the country. remember this election is about keeping the loonies on the path hopefully to the deep recesses of failed political movements.
For decades, the mainstream Republicans used these extremists to rise to power and stay there. As long as they kept God, gays and guns at the forefront, they could count on them to show up at the polls until slowly but surely, the extreme right began to take power of their own. This is the inevitable result. Now The Base IS the Party.
Oh yeah, those of us that believe in God, work hard for a living, pay our taxes, don't commit crimes and don't live off the largess of others are just a wild eyed bunch of knuckle dragging loons.
It's not whether or not citizens believe in God. Windrider (rightly) is pointing out how Republican leaders exploit(ed) the religious tendencies of many Americans to demonize certain demographics and distort positions of non-Republican members/aides/workers in Congress, all to stay in power. The result is what they deserve; a permanent minority status until the party eventually severs into two and we finally have a real secondary party in the country.
You mean we Americans will finally have a choice? That would be a novel idea. Ever since the neo-cons bought up the republicans and yanked them to the left (appeasing liberals disguised as moderates) and the Clinton 'new democrats' bought up the dems and coaxed them down the garden path (posing with a moderate/centrist public face, but actually with an underlying radical, extreme left wing agenda only now being exposed for what it is), both parties have become for all intents and purposes one party: equally corrupt, differing in name only. The dems are no more the people's party of FDR than the repubs are the party of Reagan. Instead of representation of the people, we find ourselves being burdened by a thoroughly corrupt gov't of the special interests, for the special interests. It has to stop - DC is writing checks that we and our children and future generations could never hope to pay... We're being robbed by the very people who are supposed to represent US and OUR interests, not those that sponsor their campaigns. On so many levels, this nation can't afford to continue these ruinous policies. If you want to feel good about yourself and are proud of some "altruistic" liberalism or 'moderate' values - good for you, then by all means volunteer or practice it in your own life, but to vote for a 'liberal' or 'moderate' politician today actually means a vote for corruption, loss of liberty and an impossible debt (which can only lead to collapse of the dollar and inflation). It's time to pull our collective heads out and clean house - ridding ourselves of corrupt, professional politicians from both "parties".
I don't understand how so many people in the left and the right can't see how their attacks on one another are the exact same thing. Did it ever occur to you that maybe your opinion is not correct? Or that maybe youre actually part of the problem with this country? Maybe you should all just shut your mouths and listen for once, and see that your parties have destroyed this country. Vote third party no matter who it is, and demand an insitution of term limits, KICK THEM ALL OUT
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