Asked about his support for liberal Republican Dede Scozzafava in
the New York-23 special election, Newt Gingrich
said on Fox last night:
GINGRICH: Well, there's no question, on social policy, she's a
liberal Republican.
VAN SUSTEREN: On such as abortion?
GINGRICH: On such as abortion, gay marriage, which means that
she's about where Rudy Giuliani was when he became mayor. And
yet Rudy Giuliani was a great mayor. And so this idea that
we're suddenly going to establish litmus tests, and all across
the country, we're going to purge the party of anybody who
doesn't agree with us 100 percent -- that guarantees Obama's
reelection. That guarantees Pelosi is Speaker for life. I mean,
I think that is a very destructive model for the Republican
Party.
The problem is that Gingrich is making a valid point in general,
but one that doesn't apply in this specific instance. There's no
doubt that if you want to build a majority, you have to be
willing to accept less conservative candidates in certain regions
where a conservative has no chance of winning. As many problems
as I have with Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, I concede that
it's unrealistic to believe that we could get a genuine
conservative Senator elected in Maine, which Obama won by 17
points. In the case of Giuliani, you were dealing with a city
that hadn't elected a Republican who remained a Republican in
over 50 years. He was conservative on economic issues, and
uniquely suited to deal with the most pressing problem facing the
city -- rampant crime. The only option was to support him, or
allow David Dinkins to have another disastrous term as mayor.
But the New York Congressional race is entirely different.
Scozzafava isn't just a social liberal -- she's an economic
liberal, too. She supports card check legislation that would
allow labor unions to expand their ranks through intimidation.
She called the cops on a conservative journalist who was asking
her questions about her position on taxes. And there's actually a
conservative in the race who has a realistic chance of winning.
Gingrich made a clear mistake here. Maybe he privately realizes
it, maybe he doesn't. But his efforts to double down and explain
his decision keep making him look sillier.
