George Allen Not Right Wing Enough for Virginia Republicans?

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    Only in today’s off-the-deep end Republican Party could George Allen be considered not conservative enough. Yet, according to this Washington Post article, that’s exactly how Allen is seen by a significant number of Virginia Republicans.

    …in the summer, grumbling about [Allen’s] past began, culminating in a Web site outlining the reasons some fellow Republicans oppose him: He’s too moderate. He’s part of the establishment. He’s partly to blame for the record spending and ballooning deficit in Washington.

    By this month, no fewer than four Republicans billing themselves as more conservative than Allen were considering challenging him for the right to run against Sen. James Webb, if the Virginia Democrat seeks reelection.

    Of course, this is the same party that ousted highly conservative Sen. Bob Bennett (R-UT), which nominated lunatic Christine “not a witch” O’Donnell over moderate/sane Republican Mike Castle of Delaware, which is filled with climate change deniers, which just recently saw 26 of its members vote against a START treaty that had been endorsed by nearly every living Republican Secretary of State and former President, which demonizes ideas – “cap and trade,” the “individual mandate” – that they invented, etc, etc. Given all that, my prediction is that if Virginia Republicans are able to unify around one hard-rightwing candidate (Jamie Radtke or Corey Stewart, most likely), then George Allen will be toast – he can ride his horse off into the sunset – and Jim Webb should have a much easier path to reelection. So yeah, part of me wishes the Republican Party would return to sanity and reason, but part of me is cheering them on as they go off the extremist deep end.

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