Posts Tagged ‘scozzafava’

LGF2 on NY-23: Updated with free speech lesson!

Posted: October 22, 2009 by datechguy in internet/free speech, opinion/news
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After touching on the WSJ piece they take the exact opposite view of Morning Joe concerning republicans:

Republicans just opened up their widest lead since 1994 on the generic Congressional ballot poll. Obama is in negative double-digits pretty consistently on Rasmussen’s daily tracking poll of political polarity. Only 43% say they’d vote to re-elect Obama. And – perhaps mosting damning of all for the Democrats – for the first time that I can ever remember at least, the GOP leads the Dems in ALL TEN of the “voters trust” issues – including “Democrat friendly” issues like health care, social security, and education. Also note, the GOP has a sizable trust advantage on abortion – so don’t tell me that social issues are a loser for the GOP. I’m not buying it.

If present trends hold, Republicans look set to take back Senate seats in Pennsylvania and Delaware (two bluish Northeastern states), and conservatives look like they’re going to be sweeping the big three races in Virginia handily (showing that conservative Republicans can definitely win in purple states). The Iowa governourship appears set to revert to conservative Republican hands (another purplish state), and in Ohio (another purple state), a relatively unknown Rob Portman has caught up with and is now virtually tied with each of the better-known, statewide Democrat elected officials that he is matched up against for the open Senate seat. How are Democrats faring in red states? Not good at all – if the news that Blanche Lincoln, Arkansas’s incumbent moderate Democrat Senator trails all four of her potential Republican opponents is any indication.

So please, don’t try to feed me this blithering nonsense about how the GOP needs to run to the centre to win, and is currently perceived as too right-wing to be viable. Quite the opposite is in fact true. The GOP is viewed by its own base as being full of squishes, and is viewed by independents as incapable of providing the leadership on the issues that they want. If that were to change, the GOP would win elections solidly, even in purplish and northeastern districts like NY-23. The reasonably conservative Jim Tedisco lost the special election in NY-20 by only a few hundred votes – and that is a district where the Dems had won handily in both the previous elections, and which Obama easily carried. If that special election were being held today, Tedisco would probably win it.

The question becomes what do they actually want? I’ve actually already answered that here:

If your primary interest as a feudal lord is getting back on the gravy train with the king you certainly don’t want to have the peasants revolt against that largess.

If people who actually plan on acting get elected they will try to act, that might spill the gravy train.

Unfortunately for the GOP establishment there is now too much attention to play the game they way they want.

Now we will see who is who and what is what.

Vote Hoffman!

Update: Dan Riehl makes an interesting point

If grassroots conservatives have dropped the ball in some way, especially in the Northeast, it is that we haven’t done the hard work to take back the Republican Party from the ground up. To truly prevail we must do that.

It disappointed me to hear the Club for Growth’s Andy Roth blame RNC Chairman Michael Steele and the D.C. Republicans for giving us a Dede Scozzafava. He knows better than that, and he shouldn’t play that game simply to get his message across. Scozzafava got the nod based upon a state and local decision. It’s important for conservatives to understand how that came about.

It is not the D.C. GOP’s job to stab a state or local organization in the back, no matter what you may think. Money and support flow up and flow back down. A national political organization capable of winning elections can not afford to function any other way. Let’s stop playing games.

His point about getting involved is well made but that doesn’t change the fact the Scozzafava is a lousy candidate and the national party should have been circumspect about offending the grass roots movement that is making the difference in their support nationally.

Oh and note to Charles Johnson (peace be upon him) this is how you respectfully disagree with someone on a subject without offense, particularly if you agree on so many other subjects and in that spirit let me remind you that there is still space of the statement of common principles for anyone who wants to sign.

Here comes the Texas Armey to the rescue in NY-23!

Posted: October 21, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
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In Texas apparently they know more about horses than in Georgia or NY since Dick Armey knows which horse to back:

Add North Texas’ Dick Armey to the list of conservative stars backing Hoffman. The former House Majority Leader has confirmed to the Hoffman campaign that he’ll spend Thursday with them, said Rob Ryan, a Hoffman spokesman. “He is with us almost all day Thursday,” Ryan told me. “There will be a bunch of different events.” Armey’s endorsement of Hoffman is personal and wasn’t offered on behalf of FreedomWorks, the conservative foundation he chairs.

Now what would I rather have, Dick Armey or Peter King.

Considering Dede’s performance today I’m sure Mr. King is feeling happy with himself as dump Dede elaborates:

Liberal Republican Dede Scozzafava, feeling the heat from the surge in the polls of Conservative Doug Hoffman, held a press conference this morning outside his Watertown headquarters to challenge him to a debate.

combining this with 5 press releases sent out in a single day by her campaign the entertainment values keeps going up.

Hoffman can only stand to gain from this and sharing the stage with him will only showcase just how liberal Scozzafava really is, especially if he holds her feet to the fire on her blatantly liberal record. Pass the popcorn.

Meanwhile in the real world Dick Armey and freedom works is holding an actual event:

FreedomWorks will be joining forces with the Central New York 9/12 Project for an event in Cicero, NY this Wednesday, Oct. 21st at 7:00pm. Our chairman Dick Armey has been invited to speak to grassroots activists there about the race for New York’s 23rd congressional district.

Details are here:

Hmmm Cicero, that reminds me of something I read today somewhere about someone weird.

With Rush also mentioning the race I suspect that the question is fast becoming not if people can bring Hoffman over the top but will republicans be wise enough to get ahead of the curve to support the winner.

And that doesn’t even count the Acorn connection.

Vote Hoffman

Update: Although the Armey of Texas is welcome it appears the real reason for the cards looking better is the infantry:

And what, you may ask, has turned the tide?

The grassroots. A week ago, Hoffman held a conference call during which he practically begged for national traction. According to Stacy, Hoffman had two messages: “We have her on the run” and “We need to raise money to get the message out.” Since then, Hoffman’s star has been steadily rising, the endorsements have come rolling in, the media outlets have been spinning like they’re reporting from a Tilt-A-Whirl, and his Republican opponent Dede Scozzafava has committed gaffe after asinine gaffe. It’s gotten so bad that National Review’s Jim Geraghty has called for the GOP to demand its money back and pull back completely from Scozzafava (via memeorandum). Indeed, the conservative flagship magazine has gone “all Hoffman, all the time”, according to a campaign source.

In Tip O’Neil’s autobiography he mentioned how Bobby Kennedy during Jack’s run in 1960 favored those who supported his brother before West Virginia as those who were there when they needed them. It seems clear that Dede is done done, how can we be sure? Maybe it’s just me but when you are trying to talk up a candidate you generally don’t say stuff like “she’s not the candidate he would have nominated.”

Perhaps those who will be looking for the Grassroots support in 2012 might want to get in front while they can still take some credit?

Apparently they would rather lose that to admit error

Posted: October 21, 2009 by datechguy in internet/free speech, opinion/news
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News keeps breaking from the NY 23. This time it from TCOT report as recorded by Michael Patrick Leahy:

We acted very tone deaf in how we selected this nominee.”

Joseph also took a shot at Clinton County Chairman and Assemblywoman Janet Duprey, who threw the nomination to Scozzafava despite the fact that the majority of the Clinton County committee members who attended a candidate forum voted for the ideologically conservative Paul Maroun, and not for the ideologically liberal Scozzafava.

“I would be as much offended if I was a resident or committee person of that county. This process, that started in an honorable fashion has turned into a tainted runaway election.”

Joseph conceded that because of this, Scozzafava is almost certain to lose the election.

It’s looking a lot like some local GOP people decided to flex the muscles because they could. The damage this is going to do to the party nationally can’t be overestimated, but then again this might be a feature rather than a bug to these guys who are more interested in their own fiefdoms.

Meanwhile Robert Stacy takes a few minutes away from the desperate fight to contain the Flemish Menace to attempt to get the funds to head a bit closer to my neck of the woods.

Right now, I’m on deadline for a Wednesday column about the NY-23 special election. Dick Armey’s going to be campaigning for Hoffman on Thursday. So I plan to leave either late Wednesday or early Thursday to cover it in person. Your continued generosity to the Shoe Leather Fund is necessary to this effort.

Meanwhile he writes the following for the spectator:

However, Hoffman is battling against major party candidates, with the national GOP spending hundreds of thousands of dollars for Scozzafava — angering conservatives like Michelle Malkin — while the Democratic Party pours cash into the campaign coffers of its candidate, Bill Owens.

With high-profile supporters including Fred Thompson, Dick Armey, Bill Kristol and the Club for Growth, the Hoffman campaign has become what John Gizzi of Human Events calls a “national conservative crusade.”

Conservatives have had their eye on the Hoffman campaign for weeks, but now major national media are finally taking notice. “The race the nation should be watching is a special election in upstate New York,” Newsweek magazine’s David Graham wrote yesterday, saying the outcome would show “whether Democrats can hold on to voters who went for Obama in 2008.”

This is actually going to show nothing of the sort as the Democrat candidate is unlikely to break the mid 40’s if he is lucky but it will certainly be a referendum of the NRCC and on Newt who appears to think that the majority of the sales of his new book (my review here) are going to come from NRCC mass purchases than from conservative history buffs or he just wants to keep his viability for income as a party pundit (that’s what many candidacies are actually all about.) hey it’s a living.

Fred Thompson has other sources of income so he is less resistant to picking sides based on conservative beliefs.

The real question is will Rush or Palin risk capital on this race that in the end means very little although it will be used a a propaganda victory for the Obamacult, but if Palin is interested in making trouble for Romney and Paulenty she can come out for Hoffman. That will put them in the uncomfortable position of either joining her (and having them appear as followers) or supporting Dede (and making particularly Paulenty unacceptable to conservatives, Romney is already iffy) or not being willing to stand up for anything.

The party make a bad investment in NY and their stock is crashing. Apparently they’d rather lose their stake then re-invest in Doug Hoffman. What fools.

However it turns out it won’t be boring.

I’m not a political operative but I do know this…

Posted: October 20, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
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…if being questioned by the weekly standard on your positions causes you to call the cops then you have no business being in the house:

Earlier today Lindsay Beyerstein reported that Scozzafava responded to an AFL-CIO questionnaire by saying she would support card-check legislation that eliminates the secret ballot requirement for organizing unions. As Beyerstein notes, this contradict statements made by a Scozzafava spokesman in September.

So after the dinner, I asked Assemblywoman Scozzafava if she supports card check. “Yes, yes I do,” she replied.

At that point someone from her campaign placed himself between Scozzafava and me and told me I should direct all my inquires to the campaign’s spokesman. I nonetheless asked Scozzafava if her signing of the Americans for Tax Reform pledge not to vote to raise taxes means she would oppose any health care bill that raises taxes. “What kind of taxes?” she replied. Then another couple of gentlemen interposed themselves between Scozzafava and me as Scozzafava headed for the door.

I spotted Scozzafava later as she was walking to the parking lot, and asked her: ” Assemblywoman, do you believe that the health-care bill should exclude coverage for abortion?” She didn’t reply. I asked her twice more. Silence.

After she got into her car, I went to my car and fired up my laptop to report the evening’s events.

Minutes later a police car drove into the parking lot with its lights flashing. Officer Grolman informed me that she was called because “there was a little bit of an uncomfortable situation” and then took down my name, date of birth, and address.

This is the RINO that the NRCC wants us to support? This is the candidate that Newt endorsed? Her positions are bad enough but this performance shows this lady (who might be nice, I’ve never met her) is not ready for prime time even as a democrat.

It matters not our feudal lord demands allegiance to Dede Scozzafava and we must obey, at least we would have to if it wasn’t the 21st century.

If that isn’t worth a Nelson I don’t know what is.

And if you won’t accept my reasons to care about this how about we ask the American Papist:

* NY23 is the only congressional race this election cycle, so everyone is watching it, making the stakes very high.
* The pro-life republican candidate (Hoffman) is gaining far more grassroots support than the liberal, pro-abortion republican candidate (Scozzafava). He is a classic underdog, come-from-behind candidate. Now he has to beat the pro-abortion democrat (Owens).
* if Hoffman beats Scozzafava and Owens, it sends a strong message to the Republican Party about what kind of candidate will win in upcoming elections, namely, one who is strong on “social issues” like traditional marriage and pro-life. It says that “RINOs” (Republicans in Name Only) is not the way to go. People are more passionate about issues and the integrity of their representatives than they are about the letter behind a person’s name.

You know the Palin idea is looking better and better

Vote Hoffman!

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