Blue Mass Group

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Purity and accountability

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Here are Bopp’s purity points, just for reference:

(1) We support smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama’s “stimulus” bill;

(2) We support market-based health care reform and oppose Obama-style government run healthcare;

(3) We support market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation;

(4) We support workers’ right to secret ballot by opposing card check;

(5) We support legal immigration and assimilation into American society by opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants;

(6) We support victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting military-recommended troop surges;

(7) We support containment of Iran and North Korea, particularly effective action to eliminate their nuclear weapons threat;

(8) We support retention of the Defense of Marriage Act;

(9) We support protecting the lives of vulnerable persons by opposing health care rationing and denial of health care and government funding of abortion; and

(10) We support the right to keep and bear arms by opposing government restrictions on gun ownership;

Per TPM the resolution concludes that any candidates who disagrees with three out of ten of these, “as identified by the voting record, public statements and/or signed questionnaire of the candidate,” shall be ineligible for the national party’s endorsement or financial support.

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david

Would be the best thing for the Democrats in ages.

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huh

Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins are clearly going to fail these tests.

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christopher

…we could get our 60th vote back if they flipped.

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huh

I would be sad to see either one of them forced out.

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christopher

I meant if either of them switched parties in this case rather than if their seats flipped.

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huh

Yes, having them stay and switch parties or become independent would be a MUCH better outcome.

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p>Bopp is a scary guy, though.  I’m guessing the defunding will be accompanied by a full on smear campaign.

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kathy

and pump money into smear campaigns and ads. Though Maine is more moderate, we’ve seen how this works in the past many times.

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huh

According to the LA Times the GOP is now considering an alternate proposal:

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p>

Meeting behind closed doors in Honolulu this afternoon the resolutions committee of the Republican National Committee adopted a watered-down version of the so-called “purity” test advocated by insiders who wanted candidates to complete a check list-8 of 10 needed to pass-to receive financial or organizational help from the party’s national controlling body.

The precise wording remains to be worked out.

But the gist is that candidates would have to pledge their fealty to the party platform-which is a lot less stringent than the original resolution sponsored by Indiana’s James Bopp, Jr., a longtime conservative activist.

“No checklist,” Bopp confirmed outside the committee room. “There’s none of that in the resolution.”

Still, Bopp declared himself satisfied-though he reserved the right to introduce his original version on Friday when the 168-member RNC meets in full session.

“The resolution that was adopted by the committee satisfies the concerns that I have and the need I think that we have for the party to insist upon accountability of our candidates to our core principles,” Bopp said.

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p>I have to say that I’m glad someone realized the checklist was political suicide.  The platform fealty pledge seems equally silly, but what do I know?  There’s something to be said for message discipline.  

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