Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Bipartisanship is a punishable offense

Specter, Collins, and Snowe are put on notice:
An influential conservative political action committee is pledging to support primary challengers to any Republican senator who supports President Obama's stimulus package - the latest public show of dissatisfaction from the right over the massive measure before Congress.

"The American people don't want this trillion dollar political payoff that will just line the pockets of non-governmental organizations who supported [President] Obama in the election," said Scott Wheeler, the executive director of The National Republican Trust PAC, an organization that calls for less government spending and lower taxes.

"Republican senators are on notice," Wheeler said. "If they support the stimulus package, we will make sure every voter in their state knows how they tried to further bankrupt voters in an already bad economy."

This is how the final purge of Republicans from New England begins. If Collins and Snowe are forced to move rightward to fend off primary challenges, or if they lose their primaries to more doctrinaire Republicans, those seats go Democratic. I'm sure the folks at the National Republican Trust PAC know this and rationalize it by saying that it's not worth weakening the Republican Party by defending such disloyal RINOs. Perhaps. But that's a risk when Democrats control 59 Senate seats.

No comments: