| Rep Randy Kuhl (NY-29) has never been one of the more impressive of GOoPer Reps. He's always been pretty unremarkable, a get along go along shlub. (though he does a fantastic hair.) These days it appears the wingnut wing of the Republican party is doing everything they can to coerce his compliance with their agenda, making him all the more vulnerable in 2008. It looks to me as if they will get everything they want from Kuhl in this Congress, then they are going to lose him.
What am I talking about? Well, first Randy had to go on record as supporting our idiot President's "plan" for escalating the war in Iraq. Yeah, that's going to play well in 2008, especially against a candidate like Eric Massa. Now we find out that Randy has voted against labor legislation that he co-sponsored. This is the second time he's done that. True, this may be nothing more than a FU to the unions who supported Massa last cycle, but Kuhl has generally been one of the more sympathetic GOoPs to labor issues. It's even more remarkable when one looks at the 13 Republican reps who voted with the Democratic majority on the Employee Free Choice Act, a group that the Fighting 29th describes as "a Whos-Who of vulnerable Northeast Republicans."
Now he's being pressured to support building a multi-billion dollar boondoggle of a wall along the Mexican border. How so? Let the fine folks at Rochester Turning explain:
Fighting29th has a postup about why Kuhl is pinned down into supporting the war to the hilt: if he strays off the grounds of the right-wing loony bin, he may face a primary challenger or, what might be worse, a conservative party line challenger in the general. Apparently, Bob Lonsberry is threatening to run against him support a primary challenger against Kuhl unless Randy gets behind a plan to build a moat along the Mexican border.
To quote Borat, "Very Nice!"
More on the flip... |
| Personally, I think Massa wins next time no matter what, but if the wingnutz force Kuhl further to the right, it becomes easier for Massa, IMHO. This war isn't going to get any more popular. It mat be hard to believe that support for the war can fall any further, but it will. Bank on it. And if the wingers decide to run a primary challenge at him or, even better, run a Conservative party candidate in the general, say hello to Rep Massa.
Kuhl is screwed.
Back to RT:
This really takes me back…in 2000, a nutter who once taught my sister high-school Spanish almost beat Sherwood Boehlert in the Republican primary (I grew up in Madison County, a rural area about 100 miles east of here) in the old NY-23 district. I don't think Walsh faces the same problem: Onondaga and Monroe Counties don't have a high enough concentration of right-wing lunatics to turn out Walsh in a primary. But the 29th certainly has enough to frighten Kuhl.
This will be interesting to watch.
Hat tips to RT, Upstate Blue and the Fighting 29th |
