Conservatism is where the passion lies right now

LA Times:

The triumph of conservative forces over the Republican Party establishment in upstate New York has emboldened like-minded activists around the country, and it could drive the GOP sharply to the right as it lines up candidates for the 2010 midterm congressional elections.

The rebellion that drove a moderate Republican off the ballot in a special House election today is sending a clear message to the party leadership and its candidates: Ignore the conservative grass roots at your peril.

That message is likely to resonate in the coming months in several congressional primaries and in races where third-party challenges are springing up and threatening to divide the Republican vote.

In Columbus, Ohio, a conservative has decided to run for the House because he does not see enough difference between Democratic Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy and her leading Republican opponent.

In southern Virginia, where Democratic Rep. Tom Perriello has been expected to face a tough fight for a second term, a conservative is campaigning against a Republican he considers a RINO -- Republican in Name Only.

The most prominent battlefield on which the conservative wildfire is spreading is Florida, where Gov. Charlie Crist, the GOP front-runner for the Senate nomination in 2010, faces a spirited challenge from a conservative former state House speaker, Marco Rubio.

That's why all eyes in the party will be turned toward the northern reaches of New York in today's off-year elections. In the state's 23rd Congressional District, voters face a choice between Democratic lawyer Bill Owens and businessman Doug Hoffman, who is running on the Conservative Party ticket.

Hoffman's persistent charges that the Republican Party's hand-picked candidate, state Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava, was too liberal -- an assertion echoed by conservative activists nationwide -- resulted in her dropping out of the race Saturday.

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Congratulations to Times writer Janet Hooks who is one of the few journalist who seems to understand the dynamic in the NY-23 race. Most of the others in the media has said the objection to Scozzafava was she was "too moderate." I have never seen a quote from Hoffman or any other conservative who have said that. They have all said she was too liberal. In fact she was more liberal on some important issues than Democrat "moderates."

The point of the story is that the passion right now is with the conservatives and they are pushing the GOP for candidates that reflect that passion and they will push for those candidates in the general elections too. While many liberals have used demeaning terms to describe the Tea Party movement and the health care Town Hall protesters, there should be no doubting their feelings. You can't invalidate feelings with insults. That goes for the media too.