How the fate of one obscure California assemblyman has symbolized toxic infighting within conservative ranks
Few had heard of Anthony Adams until the Republican politician in California broke with his party and voted to approve Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s budget, which included tax increases. Soon the loyal Republican—he voted with his party 95 per cent of the time—was facing a recall by, as he called them, “Taliban purist elements” of the conservative movement. The fight over Anthony Adams has become, as Michael Leahy of the the Washington Post writes, an “unlikely proxy in a broadening war for the heart of the Republican Party’s, one engulfing Republicans nationwide.”