The liberal New York Times columnist has embraced Conservative Doug Hoffman, not for his politics, but for what Frank Rich thinks this campaign is doing to the Republican Party.<\/p>\n
The right\u2019s embrace of Hoffman is a double-barreled suicide for the G.O.P. On Saturday, the battered Scozzafava suspended her campaign, further scrambling the race. It\u2019s still conceivable that the Democratic candidate could capture a seat the Republicans should own.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
But it\u2019s even better for Democrats if Hoffman wins. Punch-drunk with this triumph, the right will redouble its support of primary challengers to 2010 G.O.P. candidates they regard as impure. That\u2019s bad news for even a Republican as conservative as Kay Bailey Hutchison, whose primary opponent in the Texas governor\u2019s race, the incumbent Rick Perry, floated the possibility of secession<\/a> at a teabagger rally in April and hastily endorsed Hoffman<\/a> on Thursday.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
It’s been a bizarre experience, looking at the North Country through the lens of national media figures like Rich.<\/p>\n
Here’s an example of Rich’s view of our corner of New York state:<\/p>\n
…without the federal government largess that the tea party crowd so deplores, New York\u2019s 23rd would be a Siberia of joblessness. The biggest local employer<\/a> is the pork-dependent military base, Fort Drum. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n