Same old pattern on the right

By Richard K. Barry

West Virginia Rep. Shelley Capito is running for the Senate in 2014. But, as in other races across the country, she is being attacked from the right for not being conservative enough. On a local conservative group's Facebook page they says she is “pro-abortion, pro-bailout and pro-debt: Shelley Moore Capito is just too liberal for WV.”

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va) is stepping down next year and this state is considered by most a significant opportunity for a Republican pick-up. Secretary of State Natalie Tennant may be the Democratic candidate and recent polling says Capito would receive 45 percent support and Tennant would get 40 percent.

According to The Hill:

In July, the National Republican Liberty Caucus, which has endorsed Tea Party candidates in the past, endorsed another Republican challenger in the race. It backed Pat McGeehan over Moore Capito.

In an interview with the Daily Caller back in April, McGeehan had this to say:

Well, I respect Shelley Capito for her years of service in the House of Representatives; however, I just believe that West Virginians deserve a true conservative in this race, someone who’s pro-gun, pro-coal, pro-life, and, most importantly, pro-Constitution.

I know it's the same old story, but the radical right continues to be hell-bent on defeating candidates in their own party who have the best chance to win in the general election.

Many of us keep expecting that the failed candidacies of people like Christine O'Donnell and Sharron Angle will stop the Tea Party madness, but it doesn't appear to even be slowing them down. Maybe movement conservatism is never going to go away, and that's not a bad thing for Democrats.