Free Republic

. July 11, 2014 Newt Gingrich : The Bad Neighbor Policy -- Playing Americans for Fools ===================================================== Guatemala and Mexico agreed this week to make it even easier for people to show up at the American border. That's right: EASIER. After all the public outcry against thousands of foreigners crossing our border, you might have thought the Mexican government would help stop the wave of people traversing Mexico to get to Texas. That would be a good neighbor policy. On Monday, however, the presidents of Guatemala and Mexico met to announce a new policy of making it easier and more...

Updated 12:30 PM | Rep. Bill Owens, D-N.Y., announced Tuesday that he will retire from Congress after just two full terms. “After careful thought and consideration, I have decided not to seek re-election for the 21st Congressional District this November,” he wrote in a news release. “It has truly been a privilege to serve, and I plan on continuing to work for a brighter future for the region.” Owens faced a somewhat competitive race against former Bush White House staffer Elise Stefanik. Republicans view the now-open seat in upstate New York as a potential pickup opportunity in 2014. In 2012,...

The Board of the Office of Congressional Ethics  just released findings (with extensive evidentiary supporting documents) that there is “substantial reason to believe” Rep. Bill Owens (D-NY21) violated federal law and House Rules in connection with a trip to Taiwan (emphasis added): NATURE OF THE ALLEGED VIOLATIONS: Representative Bill Owens may have accepted payment of travel expenses for an officially connected trip to Taiwan from an impermissible source, resulting in an impermissible gift, in violation of federal law and House Rules. Representative Owens may have accepted payment of travel expenses for an officially connected trip to Taiwan, when that trip was in some part planned,...

PORT HENRY -- U.S. Rep. Bill Owens, D-Plattsburgh, will march with two well-known area Republicans in the Port Henry Labor Day Parade on Sunday, his campaign announced. State Assemblywoman Teresa Sayward, R-Willsboro, and Moriah Supervisor Tom Scozzafava, a Republican, will march with Owens in the parade that begins at 1 p.m. Sunday at Broad Street. “Bill is devoted to the North County. ... I think he’s done a really terrific job in Washington,”

SummaryIn 2009, Congressman Gingrich supported a candidate for a special election for the 23rd district in New York that was pro-choice, pro gay marriage and supportive of numerous other items that most Republicans opposes. A more conservative candidate was available, but did not win a primary that consisted of a vote by 11 district members and not a public vote. Congressman Gingrich came out in suppport for Mrs Scozzafava as she was the selected candidate for the Republican party. He asserted that many of her principles were in line with the Republican party. He appeared on numerous radio shows to...

Newt Gingrich has put up a new blog post, responding to right-wing criticism for his endorsement of moderate Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava in the NY-23 special election, instead of Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman. http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/10/gingrich-explains-scozzafava-endorsement-slams-right-wing-critics.php

Gingrich rips Paul Ryan's plan, then backpedals... Gingrich backed RINO establishment candidate Scozzafava (who later withdrew and threw her support to the Democrat candidate) instead of giving his support to the independent conservative, Hoffman, back during the 2009 special election; then Gingrich backpedaled over that. Winks and nods to the Republican and Democrat establishment followed by grinning mea culpas for the benefit of conservatives. Par for the course...

Former Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava, a Republican, has been appointed to a medium-level position in the Cuomo administration. Scozzafava, who supported Andrew Cuomo in his run for Governor -- and a second Democrat, a Congressional candidate, two years ago -- has been appointed the deputy secretary for local government, a job at the Department of State. No word on what her salary is.

After dropping out of a 3-way congressional race to endorse the Democrat over NY Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman in NY-23 back in 2009, Dede Scozzafava has gotten her payback- a cush appointment from Democratic NY Governor Andrew Cuomo. For many of us, the way the RNC was comprehensively out-witted and out-maneuvered by the unprincipled and ruthless Democrats came as a bit of a shock... and an early indicator that Michael Steele was really not up to the job in the face of a Chicago-Machine-style full court press in this country. Dede Scozzafava -after taking over a million dollars in GOP campaign cash- appeared...

With Republicans set to make what might be record gains in the mid-term elections, I can’t help but reflect that we seem to be saddled with the sorriest bunch of sore losers ever seen within a political party... ...Dede Scozzafava: Sore loser and traitor. ...Mike Castle: Sore loser and flip-flopper. ...Lisa Murkowski: Sore loser, party traitor, and possible blackmailer. And those are just a few. Ed Morrissey wrote a great article for the Washington Times last week, outlining many more in the Sore Loser Party, ending with the following gem: “If the Republican Party wants to survive, let alone succeed,...

Long notes Doheny called Scozzafava “terrific” in a July 23, 2009 Watertown Times article and pledged to do “everything I can for her and more.” He subsequently contributed $2,400 to Scozzafava’s campaign – the maximum allowed by law.

English novelist George Eliot once penned the following: "Iteration, like friction, is likely to generate heat instead of progress." Albert Einstein famously quipped, "insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."  There are more than a few famous quotes on the destructive nature inherent in the repetition of foolish behavior. What is to be said for the way in which the Republican Party is actively pursuing a repeat of last November's special election for NY's 23rd Congressional District? If you were outraged at Dede Scozzafava, wait until you see their latest candidate, Matt Doheny. It...

GOP Faces Possible NY 23 Repeat June 21, 2010 3:09 PM By Reid Wilson GOPers stung by a divisive intra-party battle last fall face the prospect of a split party, once again, in the race for an upstate NY House seat that should favor the minority. Last Nov., Rep. Bill Owens (D) won Army Sec. John McHugh's seat with just 48.3% of the vote. Still, it was enough to win after Assemb. Dede Scozzafava (R) and accountant Doug Hoffman, running on the Conservative Party line, split the GOP vote. After Hoffman attacked Scozzafava's moderate -- GOPers backing Hoffman labeled her...

Six months after losing a bruising battle for the 23rd Congressional District seat, Dierdre K. Scozzafava has decided to take a break from politics. The Gouverneur resident said Wednesday she will not seek a seventh term in the 122nd Assembly District. “If you go back to the run for Congress, I was really looking to do something different and go in a different direction and be challenged differently,” the Republican said Wednesday. “That hasn’t changed. As much as I’ve enjoyed my time in the state Assembly, I think it’s time for me to take a breather and go in a...

Watertown, NY - In her six campaigns for Assembly, Dede Scozzafava has never had a close call. But that was before the North Country Republican became national news by dropping out of a 23rd Congressional District race in November and throwing her support to a Democrat, instead of to Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman. With Scozzafava’s backing, Bill Owens won the special election, becoming the first Democratic congressman since the Civil War to represent that 11-county region of Northern and Central New York. Four months later, fallout from the congressional race is threatening Scozzafava’s political future. She is mulling whether...

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Rep. Bill Owens, saying he feared "dire consequences" if nothing is done to reform the nation's health care system, said today he will vote for President Obama's sweeping plan when it comes to a vote Sunday. "This has been a difficult decision, one that I have taken very seriously," Owens said in a conference call with reporters this morning. "One of the questions that weighed very heavily on mind is what happens if we do nothing," Owens said. He said he was convinced there would be "dire consequences" with skyrocketing health insurance premium costs. Owens, D-Plattsburgh, said...

POTSDAM — Assemblywoman Dierdre K. Scozzafava will be the keynote speaker at a gay rights rally being held at SUNY Potsdam this week. The rally, which will be open to the public, is sponsored by Standing on the Side of Love, a national campaign organized by the Unitarian Universalist Association. "This is a reimagining of Valentine's Day as a day and a time of acceptance, tolerance and understanding for everyone," said Austin J. Kenyon, who is organizing the campus event. "The main focus of the event is love and same-sex marriage." The college's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Association also...

Gingrich: I was wrong to endorse Scozzafava By Eric Zimmermann - 02/01/10 03:42 PM ET Newt Gingrich says he regrets endorsing Dede Scozzafava in the hotly contested primary for the NY-23 congressional district in November. Scozzafava was criticized by many national Republicans for being too liberal. She eventually dropped out of the race and endorsed Democrat Bill Owens, who eeked out a victory. "She turned out to be a huge disappointment, and she turned out not to be frankly a loyal Republican," Gingrich told an interviewer in New Hampshire this weekend. The former speaker added that conservatives who criticized his...

A special Senate election is being held next Tuesday in Massachusetts to finish Edward Kennedy’s term. The candidates are Martha Coakley (D), and State Senator Scott P. Brown (R). The election is particularly noteworthy for a number of reasons. First, recent polls show Brown matching or even exceeding Coakley’s electoral support, in one of the most liberal states in the entire country (and one that hasn’t elected a Republican in four decades). See Pollster.com’s aggregation of polls here, and Intrade’s political market for the election here. Second, the consequences of a Brown victory could be the derailment of the Democratic...

In early November, Democratic representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida accused House Republicans of giving women "back-of-the-hand treatment" during a parliamentary dust-up over a health care debate. Her ridiculous rhetoric, about what amounted to a heated argument, happened to coincide with the media blitz of newly ordained press darling Dede Scozzafava, playing the role of mistreated moderate woman ousted from the Republican party by rabid conservatives because of her views on social issues. And thus a storyline was born. The Politico's coverage led the way, under the headline, "The GOP's women problem": Conservatives say they pushed Dede Scozzafava out of...