| Dante Scala weighs in on Marc Ambinder's post about the NH Republican primary for US Senate. The title of his diary: "She's no Susan Collins".
Dean diaried about Ambinder's post yesterday.
Scala sees parallels between this GOP Senate primary and the one in 2002.
The Sununu vs. Smith race is especially instructive. Sununu, the challenger to the incumbent, did not run as a moderate insurgent. If anything, the contrast was one of tone and personality, between the coolly cerebral Sununu and the flamboyant, Buchananesque Smith (who quit the Republican Party and ran for president before returning to the GOP).
Ayotte and Lamontagne are both running to the right to win the primary. Then what?
Now to the general. Ambinder implies that only a Susan Collins Republican can now win a general election in New Hampshire. But in the last two election cycles, moderate Republicans (Congressmen Charlie Bass and Jeb Bradley) and conservative Republicans (Sununu) alike lost here. Arguably, no one with an (R) next to his name could win a statewide election in New Hampshire the last two cycles. It doesn't necessarily follow that a conservative Republican cannot win a general election in New Hampshire in the new Obama era, when economic and fiscal issues appear to be dominant once again.
I guess Scala is holding to the meme that Democrats won the last two cycles because of the war and Bush fatigue. I'm not so sure. Also, I don't think Bass and Bradley, who voted with W. Bush most, if not all the time, can be considered moderate.
Also, I hope the parallels end at the primary election. We don't need any more illegal actions, such as phone jamming, leading to lawsuits, jail time and whatnot. |
