Rasmussen: 73 percent say GOP leaders have lost touch with Republican base

I know what the first 50 comments below are going to say if I don’t say it here first, so here you go: Only 73 percent?

President Obama told an audience at a Democratic Party fundraiser Wednesday night that Republicans often “do what they’re told,” but GOP voters don’t think their legislators listen enough to them.

Just 15% of Republicans who plan to vote in 2012 state primaries say the party’s representatives in Congress have done a good job of representing Republican values.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 73% think Republicans in Congress have lost touch with GOP voters from throughout the nation. Twelve percent (12%) are undecided…

Republican women are nearly twice as likely as men to say their representatives in Congress have done a good job of representing GOP values.

That last part is probably explained by the fact that men tend to be more fiscally conservative than women at the polls.

This seems like the perfect place for a Hoffman vs. Scozzafava update, so if you haven’t already listened, check out DH’s new radio ad goofing on Team Dede for calling the cops on the Weekly Standard. I’m skeptical that most voters up there are following the race closely enough to get the reference but the grassroots conservatives who are tracking it hour-by-hour on the ‘Net should love it.

Meanwhile, courtesy of Laura Ingraham’s producer Tom Elliott, here’s Gingrich taking yet another stab at defending his decision to back the liberal Republican in NY-23. He’s got a blog post about it out today too, but for my money, the exchange starting at around 5:10 is the best he’s done thus far to make the case. In a nutshell, he doesn’t care about Scozzafava; what he cares about is the encouragement third-party conservatives will take from Hoffman’s run, which could prove disastrous next year if centrist Republican candidates in purple districts suddenly find themselves bleeding votes to right-wing independent challengers. Populists like Beck — and Sarahcuda, maybe? — will love the idea of fiscally conservative third-party insurgents making the GOP sweat, but if it produces a split vote among Republicans in a bunch of close midterm races, it could be the difference between the Democrats losing or keeping the House. I still think he’s wrong on balance since there’s no good reason for the local party bosses to have nominated a liberal in a reliably red district, but he’s right that this could have bad repercussions.

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