Posted on 10/16/2009 10:34:48 AM PDT by ConservativeMind
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) may have stepped into a political quagmire after endorsing a moderate New York Republican's special election bid.
A host of GOP leaders have tried to distance themselves from the ongoing showdown between Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava, a centrist Republican, and Doug Hoffman, the local Conservative Party's candidate. But Gingrich offered his perspective to the three-way contest for now-Army Secretary John McHugh's vacant seat on Friday when he became one of only a handful of conservative Republicans to openly back his party's struggling candidate.
“The special election for the 23rd Congressional District is an important test leading up to the mid-term 2010 elections,” Gingrich said of Scozzafava's candidacy in a statement to supporters, as reported by the The Post-Standard. “Our best chance to put responsible and principled leaders in Washington starts here, with Dede Scozzafava.”
Gingrich's key endorsement could spell good news for Scozzafava, heretofore supported only lukewarmly by her own party. Already, the Club for Growth, Concerned Women of America, evangelical leader Gary Bauer, former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) and a host of other GOP supporters and lawmakers have sided with Hoffman, who has recently posted gains in preliminary polls.
By contrast, only about 17 Republicans have even written checks to Scozzafava's campaign, and the party's conference chairman -- Rep. Mike Pence (Ind.) -- has altogether steered clear of the tough race.
At issue for some unsure Republicans seems to be a fear of a possible political backlash. Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Tx.) knows that feeling all too well; after he announced his backing for Scozzafava, his conservative base attacked him viciously, specifically harping intimidate details of his personal life.
Gingrich, however, seems not to care about this brewing, inner-party divide. Instead, he championed Scozzafava's candidacy on Friday as the future of the party -- not necessarily the harbinger for a lingering party divide, as some pundits have speculated.
“The Republican Revolution in 1994 started very much like what we see today,” the former speaker said. “Like then, our country is reeling from misguided liberal policies, high taxes and out-of-control spending. This special election in New York’s 23rd Congressional District could be the first election of the new Republican Revolution, but we need the momentum to get it started.”
Gingrich?
Isn’t he the little short fat pink pig that sat on the sofa with Nancy Pelosi touting Globalony Warming?
And the traitorious scum that got Loretta Sanchez elected to congress to get rid of B-1 Bob Dornan?
Newtie, please have a heart attack!
No slant there huh? Like most of the authors from the DBM they can't help injecting their wishful opinion that Ms. Scozzafava's ilk are the center of the GOP. They are the left of any party, but shhhhhh we can't actually say that. We have to project them as the center so we can misrepresent the true center as Far Right Extremists. Never mind that in all actuality she is a good representative of the center of the World Workers Party.
Seriously, why doesn’t some article refer to Hoffman as the centrist Republican and Scozzafava as the far left liberal Republican?
Oh yeah, 2010 makes me so hopeful. :(
Gingrich has gone Hewitt. Same logic that was expounded to push Schwarzenkennedy as Governor of California.
Write off Gingrich if you already haven’t IMO.
How disappointing this is. Gingrich may have converted to Catholicism, but he’s of the Tony Blair variety, apparently.
The party wants only RINO’s and it wants them more to the left then in the past.
Socialists are infecting every corner of our party, their goal is to defeat us by having leftist’s in both parties.
Newt Gingrich shows what is wrong with the Republican Party. He is not strong enough to live by his earlier values. No to Newt and No to Scozzafava. No to anyone who cannot stand up for the rigors of true Conservative and American values. No to Washington Corruption....Newt is part of that corrupt swamp!
ping
I’ve taken a lot of heat here saying Gingrich wasn’t presidential timber. I appreciate him confirming that yet again. People need to see this wingnut for what he is.
Bob Dole, John McCain, Trent Lott, Lindsey Graham, Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, New Gingrich, Mitt Romney... the list goes on. We live in the kingdom of Marxists and RINOs.
The nation is dying for the want of one good man.
There is no wholesome party to support. Conservatives are not organized well enough to take this nation back. The Republican party sells us out at every turn.
If we don’t get organized and make the Republican party our own, this nation is done.
I would actually support a movement to create a U.S. Government in exile, things have gotten so bad here.
We make a lot of noise as Conservatives, but we’re kidding ourselves if we think we have any real power.
We need to devise a concerted plan to wrestle control of the Republican party away from the RINOs. Unless we do that and immediately, we just wasting our time.
I agree let’s get to it!!!
-PJ
The Fearsome Fivesome: Gingrich, Dole, Bush I, Bush II, McCain. So yesterday, so obnoxious.
I donated! To Hoffman, that is.
I’m here...and disappointed.
A few months ago, I got blasted for suggesting that Newt wasn’t exactly a rock-ribbed conservative. Lately, I haven’t seen one hint of those people.
No more RINO’s.If they’re not Conservatives or have a major conservative background,Don’t vote for them.
The RINO’s in the Republican party have placed us into such a deep hole we may never dig our way out of it.
Yes, Sarah needs to come down and campaign for the conservative.
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