Politico: Conservatives Ousted Scozzafava Because She's A Woman

"Conservatives say they pushed Dede Scozzafava out of the House race in New York's 23rd District a week ago because of her left-of-Republican social views - and not because she is a woman. But the growing schism between the Republican Party's ascendant right wing and its shrinking moderate core has clear gender undertones..."

So wrote Politico's Meredith Shiner and Glenn Thrush Monday in another attempt by a liberal media outlet to completely misrepresent what Scozzafava's ouster as Congressional candidate was really about.

As NewsBuster Candance Moore reported Thursday, ABCNews.com tried the same disgraceful, underhanded tactic last week.

Unfortunately on Monday, Politico didn't even try to be subtle with its attempt to fabricate sexism where it clearly doesn't exist (h/t Jennifer Rubin):

Conservatives say they pushed Dede Scozzafava out of the House race in New York’s 23rd District a week ago because of her left-of-Republican social views — and not because she is a woman.

But the growing schism between the Republican Party’s ascendant right wing and its shrinking moderate core has clear gender undertones — and Scozzafava’s departure raises fresh questions about the GOP’s ability to recruit, elect and even tolerate the sort of moderate women who used to be part of its ruling mainstream.

While Republicans scored a pair of impressive electoral victories in New Jersey and Virginia with solid support among female voters, the events of the last week offer harbingers of serious trouble ahead with the largest swing voter bloc in the country — women.

As evidence of this sexism, Politico cited three -- wait for it! -- women. One's a friend of Scozzafava's, one's a devout feminist, and one's the director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University:

“The case in the [23rd District] is a terrific example of what happens when you have a strong, moderate Republican woman on the ticket,” said Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers. “She struggled because the stalwarts of the party turned against her.” 

Scozzafava’s friend Janet Duprey, a moderate Republican who represents the adjacent state Assembly district in western New York, says the defection of party elders like George Pataki to her more conservative opponent Doug Hoffman reminded her of the GOP’s bad old days in the mid-1970s.

“I started my career in politics in 1975. ... I went through that,” Duprey told the Albany Times-Union. “I had some people who felt that a woman should not enter politics, a woman should not run. ... I hope that we’ve moved beyond that point. But I have to tell you, watching this go on, I’ve had some déjà vu back to 1975.”

“It has been very difficult to watch,” she added. “You have to ask some of these men, why weren’t they there with our Republican candidate when she could have really used our help?”

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), one of the most outspoken feminists in the House, put it more bluntly: “This is a party that doesn’t respect women, a party that doesn’t believe women are equal to men,” she told POLITICO. “I don’t think they attract women to their party,” added Wasserman Schultz. “I think they repulse women.”

Commentary's Rubin responded:

Wait. I’m confused. I thought the GOP was in the grip of a right-wing wacko mother from Alaska. And Maureen Dowd warned us that Liz Cheney’s sex appeal is going to mesmerize the masses and vault her and her pro-torture, pro-war views into the ascendancy. Which is it — are Republicans punishing women or elevating them? There are women running for governor and the Senate in California, but maybe that doesn’t count. It couldn’t be that the base has had it with wishy-washy Republicans who are indistinguishable from Democrats, could it? No!

Exactly. After all, Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) decided to leave the Republican Party this year. 

Was that ALSO because of sexism?

On the other hand, maybe Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) left the Democrats last year because they were too feminist!

Hmmm. 

Of course, this is all a red herring, for having watched Republicans give up both Chambers of Congress and the White House in the past two major election cycles in an obviously unsuccessful attempt to attract so-called moderates, conservatives have had enough of RINOs.

And, ladies of gentlemen of the press -- it has NOTHING to do with GENDER!

To further demonstrate how preposterous this all is:

“Women tend to have a more practical, less ideological way of approaching life and, therefore, approaching politics, and our party doesn’t always take kindly to that,” said former Ohio Rep. Deborah Pryce, chairwoman of the House Republican Conference from 2003 to 2007.

Yeah, those awful, sexist GOPers really treated her poorly. After all, chair of the House Republican Conference is the fourth highest Republican position in the House.

Imagine the nerve of those sexist pigs to advance this woman so!