Party Fratricide

I have not been following the various ups and downs of NY's 23rd district by-election (thanks to Obama's appointment of the incumbent to be Secretary of the Army), but Frank Rich has a delightful column charting the pathologies in play.  When Newt Gingrich supports his party's candidate and is pilloried for it, well, these are good times.  I have posted before that healthy democracy requires at least two competitive parties, but given the GOP's current stance as the Party of No, I think we could use a little Democratic dominance for a while.

 The right’s embrace of Hoffman is a double-barreled suicide for the G.O.P. On Saturday, the battered Scozzafava suspended her campaign, further scrambling the race. It’s still conceivable that the Democratic candidate could capture a seat the Republicans should own. But it’s even better for Democrats if Hoffman wins. Punch-drunk with this triumph, the right will redouble its support of primary challengers to 2010 G.O.P. candidates they regard as impure. That’s bad news for even a Republican as conservative as Kay Bailey Hutchison, whose primary opponent in the Texas governor’s race, the incumbent Rick Perry, floated the possibility of secession at a teabagger rally in April and hastily endorsed Hoffman on Thursday.

We drive through this area about half the time we visit the US as this part of  northern NY is between Canada and Syracuse.  The big supplier of jobs is Fort Drum, home to the 10th Mountain Division, which has been spending much of its time in Afghanistan. 




Anyhow, time to cue up Avenue Q's Schadenfreude.