GOP in Washington assailed by conservatives over Scozzafava

Politico is reporting that conservative groups in Washington continue to berate Republican leaders over their pick of North Country Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava in the race to replace John McHugh.

Reporters Alex Isenstadt and Johsh Kraushaur say the “rift” is “so serious that it threatens the party’s chances of keeping control of the upstate New York seat.”

At a private Washington luncheon attended by activists last week, frustrations spilled over, and several attendees demanded to know why NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions of Texas, who was the featured speaker, was supporting Scozzafava over the more conservative Hoffman.

After Sessions conceded that Scozzafava’s record on gay marriage and abortion fell short of where those at the lunch wanted it to be, he sought to defend her record on taxes. At that point, according to two sources who were present, the Texas congressman came under forceful pushback from several conservative leaders who insisted Scozzafava fell far short in that area as well.

“I was flabbergasted that he could come into a meeting of conservatives and be as defiant as he was,” said one person who was at the Free Congress Foundation’s Paul Weyrich lunch meeting, adding that the Texas congressman “stuck a finger in our eye.”