Carl Hulse on GOP Candidates With 'a Very Conservative if Not Extreme Agenda'

Congressional reporter Carl Hulse has some chuckles at the expense of "extreme" Republican candidates: I thought what [the Times pollster] said was interesting about voters being willing to vote for untested or extreme candidates. Well they're going to have a chance in a lot of these House districts. A lot of people with no previous political experience and people who are pushing, you know, what many people would consider a very conservative if not extreme agenda."

Congressional correspondent Carl Hulse made a rare appearance on Thursday's "Political Points" at nytimes.com, a weekly podcast hosted by Sam Roberts and Sheryl Gay Stolberg, and milked the "extreme" stands of some Republican congressional candidates for a dry chuckle.

Hulse appeared on the podcast with "Caucus" editor Michael Shear and news survey editor Janet Elder, and gave his opinion on the "conservative if not extreme agenda" some Tea Party candidates were pushing, like cutting federal spending:

Carl Hulse: "I thought what Janet [Elder] said was interesting about voters being willing to vote for untested or extreme candidates. Well they're going to have a chance in a lot of these House districts. A lot of people with no previous political experience and people who are pushing, you know, what many people would consider a very conservative if not extreme agenda. Yesterday the Senate candidate in Utah, who's gonna win, the Republican Senate candidate, he said that federal spending may have to be cut by forty percent. That's a pretty good chunk to a lot of people."

Hulse is well known at Times Watch for reliably providing anti-conservative, pro-Democratic slant.