Between a tea bag and a hard place
Poor Pete Hoekstra. He tries so hard but fails so big. His “Yellow Girl” Superbowl ad all but tanked his candidacy. His fundraising in completely in the toilet and his Democratic opponent, should he win the primary (probably but not certain), is eating his lunch in terms of donations.
But his life is getting worse. Yesterday, the right-leaning Livingston County Press & Argus had a blistering op-ed accusing Hoekstra of doing what he very blatantly IS doing: trying to position himself as a bipartisan, work-across-the-aisle-with-the-other-guys, tea party.
No, I’m not kidding.
Pete Hoekstra wants to have it both ways…Hoekstra, who served in Congress until leaving in 2010 for a failed bid to become Michigan’s governor, says that bipartisan experience makes him the best choice to unseat two-term incumbent Democrat Debbie Stabenow.
At the same time, though, Hoekstra wants to keep close ties with the “tea party,” the take-no-prisoners, make-no-compromise, ultraconservative wing of the Republican Party. {…}
The “tea party” can be described many ways — a grass-roots movement upset with government overreach and the federal debt, or a creation of big-money Republican operatives. But it is never described as a coalition of people interested in compromising with Democrats. {…}
Hoekstra looks to be a solid candidate to carry the Republican challenge to Stabenow in November. But if he isn’t willing to tell the “tea party” that he’s going to be his own man, then his boast about reaching across the aisle is empty talk.
It IS empty talk because Hoekstra no longer is tethered to anything resembling a political stance. He tells more moderate groups one thing and then throws red meat to his rabid tea party followers who are probably more likely to vote for his even-further-right primary opponent Clark Durant.
Even if Hoekstra wins his primary, he will not get much support from the tea party and Democrats just laugh at him. Stabenow, with her ample political war chest, is going to clean his proverbial clock.
Part of me will be sorry to see Pete go. He’s been such amazing fodder for political writers like me. The other part has only one thing to say:
Good riddance, Pete. You’ve been an embarrassment to the state of Michigan.
