After a week of escalating race and gender rhetoric from the right over the Sotomayor nomination, it’s now looking like some in the Republican Party — those concerned with actually getting elected — have become alarmed by the political damage the more extreme members of their party may be doing and are moving to rein in the vitriol. It’s the starkest example yet of an interesting division within the right, one that has been apparent for some time, but which the Sotomayor nomination has not only crystalized but accelerated: the right-wing bomb-throwers obsessed with ideological purity versus the right-wing pragmatists who want the party to actually win election again some day.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=142246