January 26, 2006
AND UGLIER:
Lib Dem candidate defects to the Tories (Toby Helm and Brendan Carlin, 26/01/2006, Daily Telegraph)
Francis Maude, the Conservative chairman, offered disillusioned Liberal Democrats a "new home" with his party yesterday after a former Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate defected to the Tories.The surprise move by Adrian Graves, the candidate for West Suffolk at the last election, revived rumours that up to three Lib Dem MPs were also considering their positions.
Leading Lib Dem warns of more defections to Tories (Andrew Grice, 26 January 2006, The Independent)
A prominent Liberal Democrat has said that some senior figures in the party may defect to the Tories because David Cameron has positioned them on the political centre ground.Harold Elletson, a former Tory MP who joined the Liberal Democrats in 2002, said some Liberal Democrat MPs were considering whether to switch to the Tories - and hinted that he might rejoin his old party.
From an American perspective, the question is: if the Democrats hadn't moved back to the traditional looney Left ground they'd occuppied pre-Clinton would the Greens have supplanted them eventually and do they have to remain so far Left as to be unfit for governing just to avoid imploding?
MORE:
Hughes: I've had gay sex (TREVOR KAVANAGH, 1/26/06, The Sun)
LIB-DEM leadership challenger Simon Hughes last night spoke frankly about his gay sex life — and said he had been WRONG to hide it.Posted by Orrin Judd at January 26, 2006 8:10 AMIn an exclusive admission to The Sun, he apologised for twice denying he is homosexual.
--political centre ground.--
Labour-lite. No consequences of jumping.
Why vote for them when you can vote for the real thing?
Posted by: Sandy P at January 26, 2006 9:30 AMOJ, the answer was revealed in 1948: Truman beats Wallace.
Posted by: Chris Durnell at January 26, 2006 2:00 PMTruman was an incumbent who'd just won the war and ended the Depression fifty years ago and so dominated the Left side of the spectrum that there was no hope for Wallace. The point is germane though--a Democrat likely still has to run on the New Deal/Great Society just to keep the party whole.
Posted by: oj at January 26, 2006 2:31 PM"if the Democrats hadn't moved back to the traditional looney Left ground they'd occuppied pre-Clinton would the Greens have supplanted them eventually"
A pure left party would be a very marginal affair. As Michael Barone pointed out, when it came down to cases, even the most liberal New Yorkers would not entrust the value of their co-ops to the Democrat candidate for mayor of NYC in the last election.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at January 26, 2006 10:27 PMWhat was John Kerry or Al Gore (as a presidential candidate) if not entirely Orthodox Left?
Posted by: oj at January 26, 2006 10:41 PM