State Democratic Executive Director Rodney Capel didn’t let the comments made by Ed Cox at today’s meeting of local party chairmen stand for too long, and he’s even bringing Richard Nixon into the tussle.

Capel responded to Cox’s criticism of Gov. Andrew Cuomo by suggesting there’s “an ideological civil war” in the GOP, with the chairman on the extreme end.

In his prepared remarks today, Cox said Cuomo was picking the wrong issues on same-sex marriage and gun control, and was raising taxes by extending some surcharges in his proposed $142.6 billion spending plan.

Capel responded by saying that 70 percent of New Yorkers back the governor’s successful push to update the state’s assault weapons ban and the same amount back the women’s equality package Cuomo is pursuing.

“We suggest Cox, Skelos and Mike Long all get in a room and figure out who they are and what they believe,” he said in his statement. “From what Cox says, the Republican Party doesn’t believe in a platform that fits the state. The more Cox speaks, the clearer it comes that he is the son in law of – and the rightful heir to – Richard Nixon’s extremist and divisive politics.”

Cox is the son-in-law of the late president.

Mike Long, it should be noted, isn’t a registered Republican, but a member, and the chairman of, the state’s Conservative Party.

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