The Bright Side Of Repudiation

The New York Observer Joe Conason October 31, 2006 11:25 PM

Stricken with anxiety as the polls continue to indicate a Democratic resurgence, certain Republicans have started spouting justifications and explanations for their party's possible eviction from office. No matter what may happen on Election Day, they say, the results must not be taken at face value--because liberal Democrats can only prevail by pretending to be right-wing Republicans.

Among the first to test out this excuse in recent days was Laura Ingraham, the hard-line radio and TV talker who insisted that the defeat of Republican candidates would somehow represent a triumph of her ideology. What she told CNN's Larry King on Oct. 30 is worth examining, if only because we will surely hear more of the same in the days to come from other sources--and because those same claims are already surfacing in the political coverage of The New York Times.

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