Nan Hayworth: A Tea Party Extremist on the ‘Angry, Vengeful Fringe’
This morning on the Huffington Post, Jay Michaelson condemned Nan Hayworth, the GOP challenger in NY-19, for representing “an angry, vengeful fringe” of Tea Party extremists out of step with the values of his hometown of Putnam County. Read on for a few choice quotes:
Putnam has long been a "purple" part of the country -- neither red nor blue, but somewhere in between. Generally, the county votes Republican, but there are often exceptions, and the Republicans we elect tend to be of the now-endangered, Northeastern variety: heavy on fiscal conservatism, light on hot-button social issues. Until now…
[Congressman John Hall] embodies the responsible, moderate "sanity" than Jon Stewart's minions are marching for in Washington. Hayworth, in contrast, is a cookie-cutter Tea Party pseudo-libertarian. Her talking points are straight from the national strategy desk…
For Putnam County, [Hayworth’s stands] are truly radical positions. Eliminating the estate tax without any upper limit, replacing social security with IRA's... these play well in the Tea Party's extremist backyards, but they have no place in the land of Rockefeller Republicanism…
This kind of strident Beckism flies in the face of generations of northeastern reasonableness…
What's happened to my hometown is a disgrace to the moderation that used to mark our entire part of the country. An angry, vengeful fringe has taken over the Republican Party.
