New York’s 23rd district is shaping up to have quite a fight over who should represent them from the right and will probably have some massive implications for the Republican party as a whole. The relevant candidates: Dede Scozzafava, the Republican, and Doug Hofmann, the Conservative. The instigators: conservative Internet activists. The inevitable outcome: a fractured and still weaker conservative movement.
The conservative movement has, at least for the last ten years, had difficulty coming to grips with any sort of dissent in their ranks. Bruce Bartlett, a former Reagan advisor, became a famous pariah in the movement during the years of George W. Bush because of his criticism. The newest is former house speaker Newt Gingrich, who has come out in support of the moderate Scozzafava and apparently dashed all hopes of running for president in 2012.
