After Losing NY-23, Conservatives Declare War On GOP
If anything, the election of Bill Owens at the expense of the right-wing teabaggers should be a warning sign; instead, they’re going full steam ahead and gearing up to challenge a dozen House and Senate Republicans in 2010.
Conservatives and tea party activists had already set their sights on some of the GOP’s top Senate recruits — a list that includes Gov. Charlie Crist in Florida, former Rep. Rob Simmons in Connecticut and Rep. Mark Kirk in Illinois, among others.
But their success in Tuesday’s upstate New York special election, where grass-roots efforts pushed GOP nominee Dede Scozzafava to drop out of the race and helped Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman surge into the lead on the eve of Election Day, has generated more money and enthusiasm than organizers ever imagined.
Except, what actually happened is that they jettisoned a Republican candidate who voted in the 58th percentile of her party, making her more conservative than most Republicans in New York State.
Party strategists worry that well-funded, well-organized challenges from the right could force Republicans to exhaust precious resources on messy primary fights — or force moderate candidates to adopt more strident positions early on that could haunt them during the final months of the campaign.
Looking to New York-23 as a model for races to come is like looking to the Titanic as a model for how to steer a ship.
BRILLIANT!
Appeal to a smaller segment of the electorate…..
November 4th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
cons are good at declaring war. They declare war on everything. They even win the war sometimes, but then they lose the peace.
Even Joe Bananas the mafia boss could’ve told you winning the peace is always the hardest part of the fight. Hell, it’s in his autobiography from way back in the ’70s.
burqa Reply:
November 4th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
Always fun calling their bluff, especially when it’s accompanied by a bunch of tough-guy bluster….
jasperjava Reply:
November 5th, 2009 at 12:24 am
They especially like to declare war before getting all the facts, based on gut feelings, vicious lies, and defective intelligence.
Just as their ignorance and incompetence caused the Iraqi civil war, the Republican civil war will be another disaster. But it will be a good thing for the country, because it will doom the moribund Republican Party to permanent minority status for decades to come.
November 4th, 2009 at 7:19 pm
These folks are just plain off their rockers. Listening to the gal who called in tonight from Winston-Salem rant on ,I could only think that she was in denial and delusional. Are these people mentally unbalanced?
I don’t feel sorry for them, I feel disgusted that they might actually vote. They have the right to vote but please, how about being informed and not ignorant about the world around you.
piffle Reply:
November 5th, 2009 at 2:29 am
Alan, I appreciate you not running the lie that the 23rd district hasn’t had a Democrat since the Civil War. The entire Reagan period it had Democratic representation and throughout the whole Depression was solid D through and through, NY was Roosevelt’s state after all. I appreciate a liberal who can at least makes half attempt at being honest.
Your spin fits in the narrative you would like to concoct, mainly ignoring the very low turnout and the weakness of the conservative candidate. If he’d been more charismatic and knowledgable about local issues he almost certainly would have locked it up. But also the conservatives never disputed that Owens is a decent plainspoken man who at least is honest about his convictions.
burqa Reply:
November 5th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
People like the woman from Winston Salem have fallen into a common trap.
Right-wing pundits have convinced a considerable number of people to go to them for “news” and have also convinced them to not go elsewhere, because every other source for news and facts are not to be believed.
It all sounds so logical and resonable on their shows, but when they bring that blarney to a forum where it can be really hashed out, that stuff often just falls to pieces.
One of the lessons we learn is how slow conservatives are to learn. They keep believing Manatee and Limpbaugh are giving them “news” and keep getting burned in online forums, and yet they continue to touch that hot stove, establishing a stereotype about conservatives being slower on the uptake than others…
November 5th, 2009 at 1:46 am
Pif,
You got your clock cleaned. A Democrat won in a solidly republican district. But keep going with this strategy. It will be great to add to the Democratic majority one district at a time.
November 5th, 2009 at 9:42 am
As the author of the study Alan quoted, I can say he got it half right. Scozzafava IS a conservative by NY State legislative standards, but is a liberal by other standards, such as a comparison with McHugh. See here for more details: http://bshor.wordpress.com/2009/11/02/relativity-in-ideology/
November 5th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
I just went to Dede Scozzafava’s website and left this message:
As a downstate progressive liberal, I am writing to thank you for your integrity through this past election.
Although I may not agree with many of your political views, I commend you for understanding the job a politician is hired to do — to represent the constituents in whatever area you choose to run. Both you and Kirsten Gillibrand embody this.
For that I believe you are not through teaching an important civics lessons to voters wherever you decided to participate next.
Thank you again!
November 5th, 2009 at 1:52 pm
I was scrolling around on Alan’s Blogroll and I am very concerned. The language coming from people like Backmann and Steele, with go in and “Scare” your Representatives into doing what you want them to do or Steele saying things like, “we will come after you.” Are our elected officials safe. These people are crazy. Do they do back ground checks on these people they are asking us to scare people. We spend 8 yrs. being concerned about terrorism by the Republicans and then they violate any safety for our elected and start threatening them. I have NEVER seen anything like this. They threaten other Countries when they are in Power and when we elect another Party, they start threatening thier fellow Americans and our Elected Representatives.
burqa Reply:
November 5th, 2009 at 6:18 pm
I agree with you, Debby.
It is all pretty cowardly, because they want to turn up the temperature in oder to encourage violence, but they’ll sit back in their La-Z-Boys while others do it for them and then they deny being part of those cheerleading for violence….
burqa Reply:
November 5th, 2009 at 8:58 pm
Right here in Virginia we got a nut named Catherine Crabill telling folks we might have to go to the “bullet box” instead of the ballot box. On her site she says she doesn’t own firearms…
Debby Reply:
November 6th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
Thank You burga. My comment below is not refering to your statement. They must of removed the posters comments, to which I was responding. After, I addressed that posters comment, i heard about the shootings at Fort Hood. I am still so sad. My son was a Soldier at one time. I have not watched T.V. nor does our radio work in the truck but everytime I think about it, I start to weep. I also want our Representatives to be safe, Democrat or Republican. I am horrified and deeply concerned when we have a Representative asking people to “scare” our Representatives into doing what they want.There is something so deeply distrubing, (to me), in threatening our elected, by another member of Congress. They are poor role models and we saw what happened with Census worker. There is a violent and mentally unstable group following people like Backmann and Palin, Rush and Glen. Now “Bullet Box”! Steele sound be fired and Bachmann should be brought up on some kind of charges, interfering and encouraging people to terrorize our elected officials! Yesterday was a sad day in America!
November 5th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
Your last statement may be the consequences of their behavior but I don’t think they have that much thought process. These are people that will also take the law into thier own hands and kill Doctors they feel are violating their Moral Code. I have become concerned not only, for the Safelty of Democratic Leaders but also Republican, who no longer go along with the far right crazy agenda. Look at the Language they use regarding the White House. OMG……
Debby Reply:
November 5th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
My heart and Prayers go out to the Families and Solgiers at Fort Hood. This killing is Deeply Tragic. I pray, we can all do what we can to keep our fellow Americans safe!
November 5th, 2009 at 3:38 pm