Frank Rich: Hoffman Victory Good For Democrats

Frank Rich says that although it’s still conceivable that Democrat Bill Owens can win in NY-23, it’s even better for Democrats if conservative Doug Hoffman wins.

Punch-drunk with this triumph, the right will redouble its support of primary challengers to 2010 G.O.P. candidates they regard as impure. That’s bad news for even a Republican as conservative as Kay Bailey Hutchison, whose primary opponent in the Texas governor’s race, the incumbent Rick Perry, floated the possibility of secession at a teabagger rally in April and hastily endorsed Hoffman on Thursday.

The more rightists who win G.O.P. primaries, the greater the Democrats’ prospects next year.

The ideological purity demanded by the far right is a throwback to the days of the John Birchers whose tactics were much like the communists they decried.

Though they constantly liken the president to various totalitarian dictators, it is they who are re-enacting Stalinism in full purge mode. They drove out Arlen Specter, and now want to “melt Snowe” (as the blog Red State put it). The same Republicans who once deplored Democrats for refusing to let an anti-abortion dissident, Gov. Robert Casey of Pennsylvania, speak at the 1992 Clinton convention now routinely banish any dissenters in their own camp.

So, let the winner be the candidate who will best drive more from the left into public office.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.