Kuhl a “moderate”?
Rotten links a very interesting article from the Watertown Times about how Randy Kuhl is one of the last of the moderates? It highlights in particular his onetime support from organized labor, which is mostly gone now, and was really a relic of his time in the New York State Senate.
While I disagree that Kuhl is a moderate — he almost always votes with the Republican caucus, which is very far to the right, the piece makes several interesting points:
- * Upstate Republicans have traditionally been moderate, but under the Bush/DeLay reign of terror, they often marched in lockstep with the southern loonies who run the Republican party (the paper didn’t phrase it this way, of course).
- * While more moderate northeastern Republicans got massacred in 2006, there is a some debate over whether they were being punished for their (relative) moderation or because they were part of a far right-wing party but represented center to left-center districts.
It is not clear what the future holds for upstate Republicans, especially in Congress (at the state level, they are more independent of Bush, DeLay, et al.). Will they successfully disassociate themselves from their extremist brethren in the south and midwest or will they be stuck promoting far right policies that their constituents dislike? If it’s the latter, they may not have any constituents much longer.
I looked up “moderate” in the dictionary, and it states in order to be considered one, you must have a SPINE.
Kuhl’s out!
Give me one example of a Northeast Rethuglican who was “punished” because (s)he was a moderate.
Let me see, what voters would vote to remove Rethuglicans from office — it would be Democratic and liberal voters who are all reacting to Congress’s lock-step march with President Whats-his-name.
Sorry, I don’t think the “punished because he was a moderate” holds water.
I tend to agree with you but some people believe that Walsh retired in part because his newfound opposition to the war caused the conservative party to take back their endorsement of him. This might have led to a three-way general, which he would have lost.
But the case involving Walsh is current. The quote from Rotten talks about 2006, so Walsh can’t be an example.
Good point.
[...] MPN LTE linking Randy’s votes to W’s policies and an article in the Watertown Times, claiming that Randy is a Moderate (? they site his support by labor which is all, but gone) stand [...]