I thought I'd narrow things down a little to a state level and provide some relief from all the Palintology... the Sarah Palin' tall... I know it might Palin comparison.
Rep. Neil Peterson, R-Bloomington, was the first member of that insurgent group to go down. A former mayor of Bloomington and lifelong Republican, Peterson lost his party's House District 41B primary to Bloomington business consultant Jan Schneider, who was endorsed by the GOP last spring.
No good deed goes unpunished. -- Republican State Representative Neil Peterson
In the latest example of how Republicans have lost their way and are working against common people, the State Republican party strongly contested Neil Peterson due to his participation in the veto override of Governor Tim Pawlenty's refusal to sign the infrastructure gas tax increase last year, resulting in a victory by Jan Schneider, who will go up against the Democratic-Farmer-Labor candidate in the fall.
The legislation in question allowed us to do such bloated, tax & spend things as fix our roads and make our bridges not collapse, but the Taxpayer's League is now taking credit for the targetting of the Override 6... let's look at what they had to say:
"It is interesting that many legislators were so proud of the $6.6 billion in tax increases that the legislature passed during this legislative session," Phil Krinkie, the League's president said in a statement. "Now, come election time, a whole lot of tax-and-spend legislators are worried about their records and we will be reminding voters every day until Nov. 4 how their legislator votes."
Classy. I can't believe this "tax and spend" thing still gets play when Pawlenty raised the sales tax for a huge, obtrusive new Twins Stadium west of downtown. I also imagine that they won't mention the fact that the pothole over on Harmon Place downtown that would go up to my shin if I stepped in it was no longer wrecking axels or creating a danger to cyclists when they call to harass voters.
Of course, Phil Krinkie here knows something about losing seats; he was the 16 year veteran Republican state rep that lost to a complete newcomer, DFL now-Representative Paul Gardner in the 2006 elections. Gardner, it should be noted, espouses a strong ethic for transparency and accountability... heck, he keeps a blog so that his constituents know what he's up to.
Getting back to the Republicans that made up the Override 6, currently there are three out: Aside from Peterson, Kathy Tingelstad of Andover and Bud Heidegerken of Freeport both retired, no doubt under deep pressure from the party. Ron Erhardt of Edina, who has won nine terms in landslides in a district that is increasingly Democratic, shucked his party and is running as an independant (the difference between Erhardt and Lieberman is that one is a Republican with a soul and the other is a Democrat without one). Rod Hamilton of Mountain Lake somehow maintained the party's endorsement (it probably wouldn't look good to purge them all at once) and Jim Abeler of Anoka, in a race where the party endorsed nobody (really?) destroyed his main challenger easily, in the best example of groundlevel support for the override as I've seen yet.
It remains to be seen whether replacing independant thinkers and people who put their consituents before their careers will backfire on Minnesota Republicans; any of them could easily be defeated by the DFL on November 4th. It will also be a referendum on Tim Pawlenty, as the veto override was seen as a great stain on his reputation with the Taxpayer's League, which is so critical to his aspirations of someday holding national office (Tim, to be honest, I wasn't for you as VP before, but I'm actually pulling for you now. McCain dropping Palin to go with your boring face would be brilliant).
We now return you to your regular Palin bashing already in progress.