Scozzafava Is Not a Moderate

There's a concerted effort on the part of Democrat activists to explain the events in NY-23 as "the GOP hates moderates". Not so. To describe ousted RINO GOP candidate Dede Scozzafava as a moderate is simply dishonest. There isn't anything moderate about her.

She's a liberal on all the important social issues, including gay "rights", abortion, health care, etc., and a fiscal liberal when it comes to taxes and big government spending. She has voted for tax increases so many times in the NY legislature that she was being attacked for it by her Democrat opponent. Bill Owens, the Democrat she endorsed and who won the seat, is more conservative than she is.

Had Scozzafava been a social liberal but a fiscal conservative - the Rudy Giuliani model - she probably wouldn't have been opposed by conservatives in the party. It was the total liberal package that turned conservatives against her.

In some districts, and NY-23 may be one of those, it may take a moderate Republican to win. But running a pure liberal who wouldn't even guarantee that she wouldn't change parties after the election was not acceptable. As Michelle Malkin put it on Twitter:

Better a donkey in office that acts like a donkey than a donkey in elephant’s clothing making a complete ass of the GOP.

Agreed.