Conservatives To Gop: We Are All Joe The Plumbers

Democrats proclaimed on Sunday, that the GOP had become the party of Sarah Palin, Joe the Plumber and the ideological fringe after news broke that conservatives had purged a moderate Republican from a special election in upstate New York. And, in a sign of where the GOP psyche lies, some conservatives eagerly embraced the frame. Taking to the Sunday show circuit, officials in the White House, close presidential advisers, and longtime Democratic strategists all framed the departure of Dede Scozzafava from New York's 23rd District race as a sign that the GOP had grown dangerously, ideologically exclusive. Scozzafava felt compelled to drop out after many in her party chose to back Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman instead. Valerie Jarrett, one of Barack Obama's closest confidants, declared that the Republican Party had become "more and more extreme and more and more marginalized." David Plouffe, the man who managed the Obama campaign, insisted that the GOP was hanging up a sign saying: "No moderates need apply." "I think more they're becoming a very motivated core, but a small core, about 23 percent of the country," he said during an appearance on "Meet the Press." David Axelrod, Obama's chief communications strategist, told CBS' "Face The Nation" that the news from upstate New York "sends a clear message to moderates in that party that there's no room at the inn for them." Longtime strategist James Carville may have summarized the talking point most succinctly when he told CNN's "State of the Union" that "Ronald Reagan's big tent just collapsed in upstate New York." "It no longer exists," Carville added.