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EDITOR OF REDSTATE

Will The Media Cover This Angle?

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  February 16th, 2010 at 05:00 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

The media, liberal Republicans like David Frum, and every left-winger out there has for a year decried, bemoaned, ridiculed, and laughed at conservatives for an alleged “purity test” for candidates.

I have been a chief target of those attacks from the Republican establishment, pundits, the left, and the media. Never mind that is was never true. I’ve always said the GOP should go right where it can go right. That’s not everywhere.

Unperturbed, folks from the GOP establishment and Republican pay-to-play organizations to your friendly national news correspondent, have gone after me and conservatives for our alleged purity test. Charlie Crist is a victim. Kay Bailey Hutchison is victim. Carly Fiorina is a victim. Bob Bennett is a victim.

You get the idea. These “fiscal conservatives,” which increasingly means someone is pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage, and pro-tax increase, are all victims of the conservative movement’s purity test.

The media has droned on ad nauseum about this.

But what of yesterday? Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana is bidding goodbye to the United States Senate. He’s had enough. But why? Well, CNN reports this little gem that might otherwise be missed:

“He hates the Senate, hates the left bloggers,” a friend and longtime adviser to Bayh said. “They are getting their wish, pure Democrats in the minority.“

[insert the scratching sound of an abruptly halted record here]

So the left has a purity test? They are running Evan Bayh out of the Senate because he is not liberal enough? Really?

I hope the media and David Frum will spill as much ink and exhale as much carbon dioxide on this as they have the conservative movement’s alleged purge.

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COMMENTS

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  • http://www.pmm.nl/philo/philo.htm#really roncdeweijze

    Yes the Left has it’s purity test. Mene Tekel Ufersim was my condemnation as well beginning of last year on a leftist Dutch blog. I was called names, but never a sensible reason, or even a reason (sec) was provided along with the insults. Primary cause seemed to be referring to outspoken rightist people and sites. The fact that I used to be left too (20 years ago) and now only want to be on the right because of the power abuse I see happening on the left, was never addressed.

    All I want to say is that the Right has always had a purity test, one that cannot be beaten as long as people want to play fair (unfortunately that is not the case). The test is: independent confirmation. Science, justice and journalism should not be able to do without (yet they can: climate hoax, class justice, elitism bribing journalists). Essantial to independent confirmation is 1) no power is used to put ‘the other’ down into dependency and 2) confirmation is always sought and people are not simply rejected when they disagree. When these criteria are not met, people reside to either independent rejection or dependent confirmation. Worst is dependent rejection. I hardly ever see progressive, liberal democrats pass this test and often reside to the worst.

  • http://www.suvstrategery.blogspot.com SoFiMil

    The MSM and the left are portraying conservatives as partisan, when it’s the “excessive partisanship” by Democrats that locked out Republicans from the healthcare debate and ran Baye out of the party. For example, last month Baye called his party’s efforts at reconciliation “ill-advised.”

    http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/01/26/moderate-dems-reject-reconciliation-to-pass-health-care/?fbid=OzZtxba6ReQ

  • smitch61

    The msm is ridiculous.

  • JadedByPolitics

    have heard from their SANE constituents and their friends on their soul selling on Christmas Eve and they can hardly look themselves in the mirror each day. I know my bosses father has had chats with a long time friend who is a Congressman in PA and he told him that the citizens including himself will have to be sending him home to rest because they don’t know who he is any longer and that he certainly is NOT the man they sent to Washington.

    The purity test on the left is DESTRUCTION of America and ANY Congresscritter who signs on to that will be defeated at the ballot box. The left may find they have purity but they will be in a SMALL minority.

    I could not have imagined a little over a year ago the swiftness with which the American public has REJECTED the socialism of the left but I am thrilled by it. I do believe the election cycles since 2000 have been the public saying STOP SPENDING and no one is listening and each party that wins immediately sets about to out spend the last one and they like the one before them will be sent home to think about the MISSED message!

  • Viet71

    fighting on Dkos and FDL, I can say the posters and site managers there COMPLETELY misrepresent your point of view.

    I am taken aback, pleasantly, at what you write here.

  • peg_c

    Especially disgruntled little crickets like Frum, Brooks, etc. We want good, strong conservatives in everywhere we can do it, but MA proves we don’t have to just go with RNC RINOs. No, Brown is not hardcore, but (as evidenced by his shot right back yesterday at Clueless Joe Biden) he will pull his conservative weight when necessary, I believe and we didn’t have to run a RINO there to win. Lesson to be learned in deep blue states!

    The Dems absolutely have a purity test. Again, projection is their stock-in-trade. What the left accuses the right of is what the LEFT is doing. Always!

  • peg_c

    I’m going to start challenging folks on that one. It’s a beard for sure! Totally bogus. “Socially liberal” = BIG GOVERNMENT.

  • NeoKong

    It was called the health care bill. Nobody can name a single Democrat who spoke out against it. The tax payers were shouting screaming no from their roof tops and still they tried to jam this down our throats. Look at how they went after Lieberman’s wife when it appeared he might vote no on it.
    They wanted to destroy her.
    The left was willing to sell their soul and everybody’s future for that damn bill and we are still not sure the damn thing is dead yet.

  • jeremyz

    …as he would like us to think he is. See my new diary:

    http://www.redstate.com/jeremyz/2010/02/16/why-bayh-is-actually-retiring/

    to see why Bayh is ACTUALLY retiring.

  • ashland_avenue

    Fyi Frank Lautenberg, 86, was taken to hospital Monday after suffering a fall

    http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/81119-sen-lautenberg-hospitalized.

    Sorry if off subject.

  • dmartin

    Just bad candidates.

    Everyone applies a “purity test” of some sort to every voluntary association they participate in, it’s just a matter of where they draw the line.

  • fpete13527

    Frum, Brooks, and the other lame stream media will not change. They are beyond clueless.

    However, they COMPLETELY lack integrity and connectivity to what’s really going on with the American people. This fact alone will greatly lessen their audience… even more than it already has.

    The Dems showed that they ABSOLUTELY have a purity test – socialism/communism. The health care vote showed that there is no such thing as a moderate Dem…and that isn’t changing…AND….as a result, they are falling apart FAST.

    The American people really want small government, lower tax/fair tax, strong national defense and foreign policy, maximum personal choice and personal responsibility, free market solutions, and strict adherence to the origninal constitution as written (not as a living document!)

    The Republicans are starting to see that people like McCain, Crist, Fiorina, Hutchison, and Bennett are actually just Dem lite and will gladly vote with progresive issues right along with the progressive Dems, and not for what the American people really want.

    The American people definitely do NOT want socialism and they are clear that the above “Dem Lite RINO’s” will NOT take a stand against socialism and will vote with the Dem ocialist progressives at the drop of a hat.

    Erick, your stand has been 100% dead on appropriate and valid. Don’t change it one bit. The vast majority of America agrees with YOU……NOT the progressive Dems and the cluless media who support progressives and attack conservatives.

  • Scope

    He pushed for moderate Democrats to run in order to have a D in those seats. Now he is paying the price, as they have provided the speed bumps that have slowed the bills, especially Obamacare. They must go.

    Speaking of “purity tests”, I understand that tomorrow the Conservatives are going to release a “manifesto” which addresses fiscal responsibility, conservative social values, and a strong national security position. It is not to be a purity test, but, rather a statement of a renewed commitment to the principles that have been abandoned by the more moderate wing of the Republican party. The authors of the manifesto hope that the Tea Party people will adopt the platform. Interesting, and timely, that it is being released the day before CPAC.

    http://newsmax.com/InsideCover/Right-Wing-Manifesto-Mount-Vernon/2010/02/15/id/349879

  • johnt

    If Bayh detests the left bloggers so much and is such a dedicated moderate where was he all these years? Just another phony, in this case leaving for his own reasons.

  • toughintn

    That’s just a ploy — probably cooked up with his father, Birch Bayh, to distance himself from the branch of government that has the worst approval rating, and to prepare him for a presidential ticket.

    Yes, he does hate the “left bloggers,” but not because they demand that he be more liberal than he is personally. He completely agrees with them, but hates them for trying to force him to show his true colors. He thinks the leftist bloggers just don’t know how to play the game. His only success has come from being a stealth leftist.

    Richard Lugar (R-IN) is on the flip side, ironically. He wants the conservative bloggers to ignore him because he’s a beltway sellout, and truly disagrees with conservatives on most things. RINO isn’t a strong enough description.

  • qurys

    He said he met with Barack Obama in the WH and the Prez told him that the difference between 1994 and 2010 is “you’ve got me”. Obvioulsy that is the tipping point for many Democrats. Do you want Barack Obama coming to your home state and campaigning for you….or Joe Biden? Obviously that game plan has been disastrous. Do you want to campaign on the failed legislation of 2009 or the failed domestic, foreign and terror policies? Sort of “Let’s win one for the Obama/Gipper”? Obviously that would be disastrous. With all the talk about a third party being formed by folks involved in the Tea Parties, maybe there is a more serious problem for “just plain ol’ Democrats….people without a Party. They have two choices….change party or resign to avoid a costly and ugly campaign and disastrous defeat.
    And pundits thought Obama might govern from the center?

  • greyfox65

    regardless of what we believe, attest to, tolerate, or disallow, whether in politics or in life. Political parties in particular should have such tests, and the hard-left liberals certainly have theirs, as do the hard-right conservatives. What you are left with if you don’t have such guiding principles, is pragmatism and maverickism, neither one of which we should trust as guiding principles. You end up with moderate this on that . or liberal that on this, Blue Dog Democrats, Liberal Republicans, John McCain’s daughter campaigning for Republican votes among the GLBTs.
    ‘
    As a Christian Conservative, not a Republican, I am proud to stand for traditional American values, political as well as personal, and that includes being a believer in civil rights issues in the ’60s, because it was the right thing to do. So, my suggestion is test away and let the chips fall, but don’t demonize one group or the other because of their test.

  • mrjiblet

    Bring on the Purity Tests. We should be able to elect principled people who are willing to represent the values we hold dear, and we should have standards to judge them against if they go astray (oh, hello Senator Bennett).

    Bring the purity tests on. When working with chemicals and other materials, we always test for purity before putting them into the mix. Why should our politics be any different?

    And, for heaven’s sake, please, fellow voters in Utah, let’s give Bennett more valuable time with his grandchildren. His new campaign is entitled “now is the time to fight.” It sure is Bob. It’s time to fight for a return to what we know to be right and true — Bob falls into neither of those categories.

  • TxCon

    He’s like the guy that goes 3-5 in Game 7. His three hits are singles when no one is on base. His two outs come with the bases loaded each time.

    He is always liberal when liberals need him to be.

  • acat

    (happy fat tuesday, y’all)

    Mew

  • Richard Mullins

    It’s just because he saw a way out and didn’t want to go down with the sinking ship. I think that is the chickens way out or it might be a setup for higher office(provided that the Dems toss Obama under the Bus). If he goes and runs for President, his record of being a waterboy at times should get any GOP nominee ammo against him. He really hasn’t been disloyal to the Democratic party in fact he’s very loyal to them. That doesn’t make make him loyal to the country at large though.

    As for Lugar, he’s a special case. He needs a good primary in 2012 to oust him or at least make him think.

  • Richard Mullins

    He’s never a moderate to us more like a leftie but the Democratic party on the National level is so repeated at the state level.

  • Maggie_in_Indiana

    describe Bayh and Lugar. Both men are well respected and even loved in their home state. They have ran into a bump in politics now where you have to choose one way or the other. Hoosiers seem to want more of the definite lines drawn,like the purity tests or signing of the pledges. Lugar will retire and Bayh will change gears and perhaps parties,ya never know.

  • http://pocketchangeproductions.net/ anotherindyfilmguy

    Without some decent standards you end up with… Democrats…

  • vamoose

    Here’s Bill Schnieder’s crack analysis after Specter came out as a Democrat.

    Tony, this has been going on for years. Republicans in the Northeast have been defeated….They’ve been losing general elections. The Republican Party — there’s a big message here, which is that the Republican Party has moved so far to the right, that it is making itself uncompetitive in significant parts of the country, like the Northeast. This is really a cannon shot at them, saying this party is no longer competitive in lots of the country.

    6 months later, down goes NJ!
    8 months later, down goes MA!

    Bring on the purity. Meanwhile the Dems are in the middle of a self-pruning operation.

  • huskerchuck

    TxCon: That’s exactly right. Funny thing is, it’s amazing who that could have been another analogy for. And it’s pretty much voting in the opposite direction. Chuck Hagel was there on little stuff, but when it came to the big stuff (and especially opening his big mouth when it didn’t need to be), he was MIA. Not to diminish that term to our military.

    Just glad Johanns is there now. Now to get rid of Big Spendin’ Ben. Big ‘I’ll vote with the Dems when they need me’ Ben. Big ‘I’ll invoke Warren Buffet’s name when it serves my purposes, and not mention that outside of business, he’s a card-carrying Obama liberal’ Ben. Sheesh.

  • http://www.USRevolution2.com usrevolution2

    Like prize fighters, Bayh and Hillary Clinton can’t run for president, unless they are undefeated. This is why Hillary never ran for her second term of her NY Senate seat before she ran for President and why Bayh is dropping out now. Clearly Hillary would have lost if she ran for the second term, and who would elect her President, if she lost a Senate race.

    The NWO is pulling it’s thoroughbreds (i.e. Bayh) out now, because Bayh has no chance of winning another term now in Indiana. So his NWO handlers are pulling him now, so they can run them later when “Climate Changes.”

    P.S. The whole Bayh family needs a hair manager. His son looks like he had a swirly.