Iowa's GOP Moderates Not Ready to Rally for Their Party

[sabra]

Source: News10

Moderate Republicans, eclipsed for years by the party's social conservatives, were looking forward to Iowa's 2008 caucuses.

They had a candidate -- Rudy Giuliani -- who said early in his campaign that he could win by attracting moderate Republicans and reinvigorating onetime GOP caucusgoers.

So far, once-loyal Republicans say they feel pushed aside by the party’s right wing.

"When Pat Robertson comes out and endorses him, that was the final straw for me," said former state Rep. Betty Grundberg, a Des Moines Republican who had flirted with supporting Giuliani. "I don't buy that this signals a united party. This shows me who he is more concerned about attracting."

...

Meanwhile, some former Republicans say their hopes for 2008 have turned to alienation.

"I am no longer a Republican," said Dottie Carpenter of Des Moines, who served as a Republican in the Iowa House of Representatives for 14 years until 1995. "I'm sick and tired of every candidate for the Republican nomination kowtowing to the religious right."

Read more: http://www.news10.net/display_story.aspx?storyid=35330

[KansDem]

1. "I'm sick and tired of every (GOP) candidate for the nomination kowtowing to the religious right."

We feel your pain...
:dem:

edited for truncation

[gratuitous]

6. And it only took her, what, 20 years?

But to be fair, Dottie was a registered Republican. The GOP continues its trend of appealing to the worst and the dumbest.

[peace frog]

2. Dems should take this opportunity

to warmly welcome all disaffected former Republicans into the Democratic party. If they despise the wingnut agenda as much as we do, they are our brothers and sisters allready.

[Jackpine Radical]

4. Once they cross the divide, they discover

that the territory on this side is not what they were told it was. I know from my own political evolution, many years ago, that the shift in perception is subtle but irreversible. It's like when you learn to "do the flip" on an optical illusion. You can never go back to seeing it just one way again.

[Robbien]

3. I've been wondering how the GOPers plan on getting any votes outside

their own party. GOPers are only one third of total voters. These GOPer candidates have been making outrageous remarks hoping to rope in the far right winger voters. When the general election comes along how does the primary winner plan on getting anyone else but the rabid right to flip the lever for him?

[AndyTiedye]

9. Diebold

I've been wondering how the GOPers plan on getting any votes outside their own party.

[LeftishBrit]

5. Good to know that people are getting sick of the religious right!

I hope they stay at home, or preferably even vote Dem, rather than get yet another nutter into office.

[Kahuna]

7. Rudy was polling well in the Northeast. But the Robertson endorsement

may have given Northeastern Repubs pause.

[tanyev]

8. Blowback.

*smirk*