With the defeat of Rep. Chris Shays of Connecticut, the Republicans no longer hold a single New England seat in the House. Sen. Susan Collins is the only Republican that won a New England election for federal office last Tuesday. Susan Collins is a moderate and that is the sole reason that she avoided defeat. So, the Republicans’ response seems just a tad off-point.
After a stinging rebuke of their party on Election Day, a group of soul-searching conservatives who met to map out the future of their movement on Thursday suggested that their best course was to turn their back on more moderate elements of the Republican Party.
And they said that if future candidates for public office want to tap into the vast fund-raising and grassroots resources of the conservative movement, they would have to fit a “job description” holding them to a set of core principles, like fiscal restraint, opposition to abortion, tough border security and a strong national defense.
“The moderate wing of the Republican Party is dead,” L. Brent Bozell, the founder of the Media Research Center, a conservative watchdog group, told reporters on a conference call after the meeting.
Keep it up, geniuses, and you won’t hold a single seat in the Upper Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, or West Coast.
