February 6, 2012

Republicans target Seward for 'folly' and 'tyranny'

Now that's a headline I never thought I'd write. It's Dryden Republicans, too.

First came Henry Kramer's blast at One of Nine, Liberty or Tyranny, arguing that "Home Rule is Undemocratic", but not mentioning Senator Seward by name.

Then came the followup, which starts by noting the earlier piece and then quotes Energy in Depth Marcellus, the PR site for the gas companies where "if you're not with us you're against us."

Seward is a very dedicated and well-received member of the New York State Senate among both his colleagues and his constituents. Why is he, then, buying into this campaign? Because he apparently thinks it won't amount to much and he can thrown a bone to his Cooperstown friends. What he is doing, though, is sending a message, a message that New York State is closed for business, when it should be open.

Isn't that nice? Seward is well-liked, but he's sold out to the people in Cooperstown. (I guess EID forgets this end of the vacuum cleaner district.) They even manage to rephrase "giving aid and comfort to the enemy" into the somewhat gentler:

Trying to play ball with both sides only enables the anti-gas special interests to maintain the pretense they are winning a status quo battle against the future.

Never compromise, never surrender, never imagine a world in which your opponents might have a point. It's kind of a strange position to take in New York politics, though maybe New Yorkers are so tired of random Albany compromises that it has some small chance of working. (Either that or EID hopes that all part of New York State that have gas will decide to become part of Pennsylvania instead.)

Anyway, it's strange to watch the ever further shift right of our local Republican party, especially on energy issues. I can no longer bring myself to call these folks "conservative". They're not. "Right wing" is about the only term I have left, except maybe the 1860s "Radical Republicans" name, which doesn't seem to fit.

Posted by simon at February 6, 2012 7:14 PM in ,
Note on photos