What’s wrong with upstate New York Republicans? The eventual conservative favorite, Doug Hoffman, couldn’t bother mastering local issues. Now we read this in today’s WashPost from Deirdre Scozzafava:
She didn’t raise much money nor did she inspire ranks of volunteers and canvassers to do much for her. When a Weekly Standard reporter followed her to her car one night with a question about abortion, her husband called the cops.
All that before of course she switched ranks. Is this what happens when you sink into minority status in your state – you just cease attracting political talent that knows how to play the game?
23 responses so far
1 MI-GOPer // Nov 10, 2009 at 7:52 am
David, David, David… you’re so hot to flame-out the GOP that this is your best shot? “Is this what happens when you sink into minority status in your state – you just cease attracting political talent that knows how to play the game?”
She clearly did NOT know how to play the game –but I can see that actually attracts you to her cause. You’re quickly becoming the new Scott McClellan –trust me, that ain’t a good thing.
2 teabag // Nov 10, 2009 at 8:15 am
According to another story on this blog, the only way to win as a GOP candidate is to never admit you are a Republican, Never state your actual positions on your core beliefs, and state positions on global warming that mirror your opponents.
So basically you lie and cheat the electorate into voting for you! The GOP way to win.
3 joemarier // Nov 10, 2009 at 8:25 am
MI-GOPer, David is pretty clearly saying that neither of them knew how to play the game. I’m pretty sympathetic to that, because I’m still thinking that conservatives should have gotten behind Owens. If he won a crushing 70-30 victory with conservatives behind him, there’s no way he would have voted the way he did on health care (see Lieberman, Joe). As it is, he knows he’ll be bounced next year, so why bother taking tough stands?
4 sinz54 // Nov 10, 2009 at 9:39 am
teabag:
That’s exactly how Obama operated.
A doctrinaire liberal, one of the most liberal members of the Senate, who repackaged himself into some kind of pragmatic moderate.
Antiwar through and through, he talked tough on prevailing in Afghanistan in order to win over the votes of moderate voters, while his liberal antiwar base knew damn well he was lying through his teeth.
Calling for bipartisanship, while his liberal base knew damn well that when he said “bipartisanship,” he meant “giving the Republicans a pat on the head before running roughshod over them”.
You left-wingers invented duplicity, boorishness, and reveling in the sewer.
Let’s see how you like it if it’s done right back to you.
See you in the sewer in 2010.
5 mlindroo // Nov 10, 2009 at 10:03 am
> When a Weekly Standard reporter followed her to her car one night with a question about
> abortion, her husband called the cops.
Scozzafava felt John McCormack (the WS reporter) behaved aggressively. McCormack strongly denies he had any hostile intentions. I suspect both sides are telling the truth as they see it … Dede was apparently under severe pressure during her campaign as the conservative media and blogosphere were piling on. She probably genuinely felt threatened by McCormack’s persistent questioning.
Sinz54 wrote:
> Calling for bipartisanship, while his liberal base knew damn well that when he said
> “bipartisanship,” he meant “giving the Republicans a pat on the head before running
> roughshod over them”.
This is somewhat unfair, though. Take health care reform… Max Baucus is no partisan far-left politician and he really tried to bend over backwards to accommodate the GOP. But there does not seem to be much interest on the Right side of the aisle. Of course, if you have strong and fundamental objections against health care reform then no plan is ever going to satisfy you.
Unfortunately, as long as only Olympia Snowe is on board, the Dems have little choice but to pursue legislation that’s acceptable to everybody in their camp since they can afford no defections.
MARCU$
6 Oldskool // Nov 10, 2009 at 10:20 am
The funny part of Hoffman’s loss is how his lousy performance backfired into the lap of the screamers and snarlers from out of state. He can go back to whatever he did before the campaign but his well-known supporters fell deeper into the looney sterotype they created before they ever heard his name. We really should send them a monthly stipend for the great entertainment they provide the country in these hard times. Hehe.
7 ottovbvs // Nov 10, 2009 at 10:28 am
………When a party is out of office in the US and riven with schisms as the GOP currently clearly is it suffers a double whammy. Firstly, there’s a difficulties in attracting good candidates who don’t see any personal advantage in dealing with all the political infighting required to even get nominated and then having little or no power once they get to Washington because they are in the minority. And there’s the even bigger problem of money which is much harder to come by when those handing it out know you can’t do anything for them.
8 TC@LeatherPenguin // Nov 10, 2009 at 10:35 am
First: her claim, reiterated in this headline, that her name is now treated as “a verb” is kinda ridiculous. I ask Frum to show a modicum of journalistic skills and root out–with appropriate links–where this has actually happened, instead of just repeating a second hand, unsubstantiated proclamation by an obviously dubious source.
Really: her parents claim they heard it on some un-named news broadcast, concerning some–again, un-named–local Florida election… that makes it true?
As a member of the NY State Assembly, Scozzafava was, influentially-speaking, a big, fat nobody. Shelly Silver runs that joint with an iron fist. Her only “power” of any sort was being a reliable member of the NY GOP minority.
And she screwed them, twice. She threw her support to the opposition’s candidate, and did nothing to refute Silver when he let the press know he would welcome her to his caucus with open arms.
She’s nothing more than a backwater Arlen Specter. May this be the end of her Warhol Moment.
9 DFL // Nov 10, 2009 at 11:38 am
Look on the bright side. New York continues to lose population and congressional seats. Texas has a bigger population with Florida soon to follow. Might New York join Massachusetts, Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio on the population ride down while North Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia bypasses them by mid-century? What is New York other than a bunch of city stockjobbers, fashion designers, restaurant personnel and government workers surrounded by dying,delapidated industrial hubs like Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Binghampton(killed by unions, big government and absolute free trade) and a few dairy farms?
10 sinz54 // Nov 10, 2009 at 12:36 pm
Marcus:
The Right side of the aisle knew better. Look what happened to Olympia Snowe.
Olympia Snowe tried for months to work with the Dems. Her reward was that Reid trashed all her ideas and passed a liberal bill anyway that contained an immediate public option, which no Republican can possibly accept, not even Snowe. Reid didn’t just bypass her, he bypassed Baucus too. Baucus wasn’t a happy camper.
The problem is that Obama and Pelosi are so far to the left, that the GOP has no hope of successfully working with Dems to pass a truly moderate bill. Olympia Snowe found that out the hard way.
It didn’t have to be that way. Obama could have sent signals that he wanted a moderate bill. He could have publicly accepted Snowe’s trigger. He could have demanded some concession to the GOP on tort reform. That would have made it much harder for moderate Republicans to just say no.
Instead, Olympia Snowe is now very likely to vote against the health care reform package. And if she can’t deal with the Dems, no other Republicans can.
11 Arch // Nov 10, 2009 at 5:15 pm
I think Harry Reid is going through the motions on the public option to satisfy his left wing. Then once they see that they don’t have the votes another bill, one with AT MOST a trigger will be voted on.
12 SpartacusIsNotDead // Nov 10, 2009 at 7:21 pm
Sinz wrote: “The problem is that Obama and Pelosi are so far to the left, that the GOP has no hope of successfully working with Dems to pass a truly moderate bill. ”
Only in the bizarro world of today’s conservatives would a policy that is supported by 55% of Americans be considered far to the left. This goes to show how out of touch todays GOPers and conservatives are with the rest of the country.
13 MI-GOPer // Nov 10, 2009 at 8:31 pm
AutomaticBS declares: “When a party is out of office in the US and riven with schisms as the GOP currently clearly is it suffers a double whammy”…
Double whammy?
Like winning Virginia and New Jersey governorships?
That kind of 2x whammy? AutomaticBS, you are the Village Idiot personified.
14 MI-GOPer // Nov 10, 2009 at 8:38 pm
Sparty-is-brain-dead offers: “Only in the bizarro world of today’s conservatives would a policy that is supported by 55% of Americans be considered far to the left….”
Bzzzzt. Got those numbers wrong again, Sparty-Is-Brain-Dead.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/healthcare/september_2009/health_care_reform
As of Nov 9th, 52% of American VOTERS remain opposed to the Obama Health Care Reform “plan”. And that includes 58% of unaligned independent voters…. ouch, ouch, ouch.
And on the 2 issues that the Obama originally said were driving this plan –namely, lowering health care costs and getting mo’ folks covered– 52% of voters say the plan will increase costs, 53% of voters say it will hurt the quality of helath care.
I seem to recall one of your echo-chambered troll peers recently telling all that the GOP accomplished nothing by opposing health care reform?
Yeah, you work that girl. You’ve got as good a chance with that angle as a 550 pound hooker scoring at an after hours party of a PETA convention.
15 KL7212 // Nov 10, 2009 at 11:32 pm
>Like winning Virginia and New Jersey governorships?
Keep on drinking that Conservative Kool-Aid.
Polls in both VA and NJ showed that President Obama had little to do with the outcome. Virginia always switches to the “out party” in their off-off year gubernatorial races after Presidential elections.
Being a native of the Delaware Valley, which includes Southern New Jersey, I can attest to Jon Corzine’s unpopularity with New Jersey voters and local issues while in Virginia the GOP candidate McDonnell ran to the center by throwing away the conservative playbook and talking about issues and seeking consensue. Besides, VA govs are limited to one four year term.
Meanwhile, Republicans lost an historic House seat in New York in a race which should have been a slam dunk. Or would have been, had out-of-state activists pitchforked the Republican candidate in the race.
16 SpartacusIsNotDead // Nov 11, 2009 at 12:25 am
Mi-Idiot cites a poll by the GOP-leaning Rassmussen Reports, which has never shown majority support for Obama’s plan. Of course, Rassmussen Reports is practically the only polling firm that has NEVER shown majority support for Obama’s plan at some point. So, how credible is Rassmussen Reports? Not very.
In fact, the Rassmussen report cited by Mi-Idiot even said that polls are all over the map on the issue of a public option.
ABC News/Washington Post Poll shows 57% support for the public option.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2009/10/20/GR2009102000148.html?sid=ST2009101902502
17 Independent // Nov 11, 2009 at 9:48 am
“Sparty-is-brain-dead offers: “Only in the bizarro world of today’s conservatives would a policy that is supported by 55% of Americans be considered far to the left….” Bzzzzt. Got those numbers wrong again, Sparty-Is-Brain-Dead.” mi-gop.
“cites a poll by the GOP-leaning Rassmussen Reports” sparticus.
given that rasmussen nailed the 06 and 08 elections closer than any polling firm and given that he only polls voters, not general population adults who may not even go to the booths on election day, i’d say you lose this pissing match, sparticus. but then, that’s a skill you’ve honed to an art.
18 Independent // Nov 11, 2009 at 9:59 am
“Polls in both VA and NJ showed that President Obama had little to do with the outcome.” kl7212
no, the exit polling shows that voters were not, per se, making their choice for republicans as a counterweight to obama. you are right on this point, though. even with all of obama’s campaign stops in va and nj, endless rallies, constant pleading, arm-twisting and cajoling, the secret ops parallel campaign organizations and placing obama’s entire white house polling staff into nj 3 weeks prior to the election… all of that and additional fundraising for the nj democrats and va democrats to spend independently on black ops, negative campaign ads… even with all of that effort, obama still had little to do with the outcome. he couldn’t affect the result.
what you really meant to say was even with all that work and underhanded campaigning, obama couldn’t do jack to save va or nj for the democrat incumbents… and the voters were well aware of his presence there and collectively said “so what”? if an incumbent president can’t even swing the 2nd most politically corrupt state in the nation (after illinois, of course) into a win for his man, what good is all that supposed charisma, political smarts and oozing charm?
thanks for making the case that obama really did lose va and nj for the democrats.
19 sinz54 // Nov 11, 2009 at 10:08 am
KL7212:
Obama tried, though.
He tried hard.
His men took personal charge of the Deeds campaign. Obama’s own pollster went to work for Deeds. Obama campaigned for both Democratic candidates. He had no effect, proving he no longer has coattails. The reason is that the coalition Obama built–young people and blacks–had no similar enthusiasm for Deeds or Corzine.
Finally, note that exit polls did show that the economy was a major issue in the minds of voters. And the economy is a national issue; what Washington DC does or doesn’t do about the economy will affect the local economies of both VA and NJ.
That’s a warning sign for Dems in 2010. Sure, voters will look around at the local economies in their states and communities before casting their votes. But if the Obama policies haven’t reduced unemployment nationally, then voters will notice that in their own states and communities–and end up blaming their own Dem representatives.
20 mlindroo // Nov 11, 2009 at 12:04 pm
TC@LeatherPenguin wrote;
> And she screwed them, twice.
> She threw her support to the opposition’s candidate,
> and did nothing to refute Silver when he let the press know
> he would welcome her to his caucus with open arms.
Actually, Hoffman started the whole thing by reneging on his promise to back whatever candidate chosen by the GOP selection committee. Like it or not, these were the rules and he promised to honor them. If he felt a possible Scozzafava candidacy was unacceptable then he should have said so in advance.
The NY-23 candidate selection process certainly had its flaws, but it seems critics such as Hoffman did not perform “due diligence” checks before signing the dotted line. The honorable thing to do for him would have been to sit quietly on the sidelines, and then propose to reform the way the NY GOP picks its nominees after the elections.
MARCU$
21 SpartacusIsNotDead // Nov 11, 2009 at 2:20 pm
Independent wrote: “given that rasmussen nailed the 06 and 08 elections closer than any polling firm and given that he only polls voters, not general population adults who may not even go to the booths on election day, i’d say you lose this pissing match . . . ”
You obviously didn’t bother to think before writing. The issue is not how likely voters feel about the public option. The issue is whether or not a majority of Americans support the public option, irrespective of whether or not they are likely to vote.
Sinz claimed that support of the public option is limited to the Left. I said a majority of Americans support a public option. The poll I provided shows 57% of Americans support a public option. But even 47% of likely voters in the Rassmussen poll support a public option. So, again, it is foolish to claim that only the Left supports a public option unless you now believe that 47-57% of Americans are on the Left.
I suspect this is too much nuance for most conservative brains.
22 Demosthenes // Nov 11, 2009 at 5:36 pm
She was a lousy candidate. Period. Hoffman was an even worse one. Owens, the victor, was the best candidate. Simple. Similarly, the better candidates won in NJ and Virginia. Simple. We all tend to over-analyze off-year elections, but there is nothing more to the entire story than this.
23 Socrates // Nov 11, 2009 at 11:51 pm
i am surprised that very few people have covered the personal aspect of the NY23 election. some where in the process, the “professional” journalists and political operatives — the limbaugh, beck, palin, etc — lost sight of the fact that dede is a human being. feeling betrayed, attacked, and smeared with all kinds of names by her own people, she reacted as any human would: revenge!
when i think about this woman, she must have been heart broken. one day, she thought she had a shot at becoming a congresswoman, only to later saw her career and life shattered by a mob. i hope none of us will have to go to the political grinder that she went through.
long ago a chinese philosopher refused to enter politics because “he was a ‘vegetarian’ and not a ‘carnivore.’” dede was eaten by her own kind.
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