Free Republic

THE hard-fought battle be tween the left, the near-left and the right being waged in New York's 23rd Congressional District has attracted national attention because of its serious implications for scores of congressional races across the country next year. The stakes for national Democrats and Republicans are enormous. The three-way North Country contest is a referendum on President Obama's policies and on the GOP's willingness to back RINO (Republican In Name Only) candidates in traditionally moderate-to-conservative districts.

If vindication means anything its name is spelled George Bush. As former U.S. president George W. Bush spoke to a Saskatoon audience, I stood in the wings, sneaking a peek through the curtains at the spectators beyond the footlights. The crowd was friendly to be sure. But more than that, the relationship was like a musical virtuoso carrying the audience through every nuance, crescendo and dynamic of a composition. With every pause, smile, laugh and down stroke of seriousness, Bush had the crowd in his hand. Before the show, a friend who recently dined with the former Texas governor and...

Fred to Newt: We're not 'deaf, dumb' By: Andy Barr October 27, 2009 07:20 PM EST Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson brushed back former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Tuesday over Gingrich’s warning that the Republican Party is wrong to thrown in its lot with the Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman over Dede Scozzafava, the GOP’s candidate, in the special election in New York’s 23rd congressional district. Gingrich has called the many prominent national Republicans – including Thompson – who have endorsed Hoffman over Scozzafava in recent days “misguided,” arguing they are making a “mistake” to back a third-party candidate...

Talk-radio icon Rush Limbaugh says the Republican Party has a death wish – and is as dangerous to the United States as the Democrat Party and its czars. Limbaugh's comments came today as he was discussing the race for Congress in New York's 23rd district, where the GOP picked a liberal nominee to oppose a liberal Democrat, passing over a conservative candidate who wanted to represent the GOP, a candidate now pursuing the seat as a third-party candidate. "They have a death wish. The Republican Party has a death wish. Gallup: 40 percent of Americans now say they are conservative,...

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) appeared on the Neil Cavuto show, and was asked for his take on the NY-23 special election, which has seen a split in Republican ranks between supporters of moderate GOP nominee Dede Scozzafava, against Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman.

A team of conservative bloggers with 73Wire.com arrived in upstate New York's 23rd District this morning and visited the headquarters of liberal Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava: Not only is the NRCC pumping hundreds of thousands of dollars into the media campaign of Dede Scozzafava, they're also organizing and coordinating teams of GOTV volunteers in the district. And they're picking up the tab. Our team just finished meeting with a NRCC volunteer named "James" who works out of the Watertown office for the Scozzafava campaign. James informed us that he was sent to Watertown, NY from Washington D.C. as a volunteer...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: In NY-23, Real Clear Politics: "Doug Hoffman, plus five."  Doug Hoffman may in fact win this with nowhere near the amount of money the two Democrats have.  I know there's a Democrat called a Republican, but we actually have two liberal Obama Democrats, one calling herself a Republican, and you've got the Reagan conservative Hoffman in there.  Tim Pawlenty threw in with him today, by the way, so you have Sarah Palin, Fred Thompson, Rick Santorum, who else?  (interruption)  Sue Collins endorsed -- so?  Is that a surprise?  That's going to sway a lot of votes.  Susan...

Gingrich calls GOP support for Hoffman a 'purge' By Jordan Fabian - 10/27/09 09:47 AM ET Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) late Monday had some choice words for Republicans supporting Conservative Party party candidate Doug Hoffman (N.Y.), accusing them of conducting a "purge" of the GOP. Many national Republican figures, such as Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-Minn.) and ex-Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Alaska), have backed Hoffman over GOP candidate Dede Scozzafava in the 23rd district's special election this year. The district has been long-held by Republicans, but many conservatives have shied away from Scozzafava for her socially liberal positions and the...

It’s hard to imagine a Republican more useless than South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham. Whether spearheading legislation that would grant amnesty to millions of illegal aliens, stumping for the $787 billion taxpayer theft known as “TARP,” being the lone GOP committee vote to confirm liberal Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor, or his recent joining with John Kerry to promote cap-and-trade—without shame and without fail—conservatives have never had a friend in Graham. And yet in 2008, Graham was reelected in the deep Red State of South Carolina over a Democratic candidate, Bob Conley, who staunchly opposed amnesty, TARP and was well...

These RINOs are still getting under my skin. Felt like I needed to do another one of these. Send one to McCain and brighten his day. I will be. For the whole series of Zero dollar bills, go here: "Flickr Archive of Zero Bills"

From a command center inside the Days Inn here, conservatives from around the country are fighting to preserve what they see as the integrity of the Republican Party. Urged on by leaders like former Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska and Dick Armey, the former House majority leader from Texas, they have come to defeat Dede Scozzafava, the Republican candidate for Congress in the 23rd District, whose views on abortion, same-sex marriage and taxes they deem insufficiently conservative for anyone running as a Republican.

Gingrich: 'You can't have a purely right-wing majority' Posted: October 26th, 2009 12:03 PM ET From CNN Radio's Bob Constantini WASHINGTON (CNN) – Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has taken considerable heat from conservative activists for endorsing Republican Dede Scozzafava over Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman in next month's special congressional election in New York. But Gingrich is defending his approach to re-building the Republican Party. It begins, he said, by accommodating those who might disagree with you. "Both parties have to recognize, you can create a center-right majority in America, which we did with Reagan in '80 and we...

Former Los Angeles Mayor and state Education Secretary Richard Riordan has endorsed Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, adding to her collection of high-profile endorsements such as from former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. In the Whitman news release sent out this morning, Riordan says, "Meg believes the future of our state and the strength of our nation depend on Californians rededicating ourselves to education. Her commitment to returning control of our schools back to parents and teachers and demanding accountability makes Meg the best candidate." Whitman repeated the education theme in her quotes in...

HOUSE RACE: Maine senator attends rally to support Scozzafava. BY MARTHA ELLEN CANTON — More than 50 supporters of Republican Dierdre K. Scozzafava's campaign for the 23rd Congressional District turned out Saturday at Phoebe's Restaurant to hear U.S. Sen. Susan K. Collins, R-Maine, and Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Fla., tell them she was the best candidate.

With polling now showing NY-23 has come down to a two man race between Hoffman and Owens, the Democrat, momentum is clearly in Hoffman’s favor. Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota is now adding to the momentum becoming the first sitting Republican Governor to endorse Hoffman. This comes on the heels of Sarah Palin’s endorsement from last week. What makes this stand out even more than the Palin endorsement is that Pawlenty has not been seen as diverging with the Republican establishment. He’s not seen as the maverick that Palin is. But Pawlenty has a huge amount of stature inside the...

WASHINGTON (CNN) –The conservative Club for Growth is spending another $300,000 on a new ad attacking the Democratic and Republican candidates in the race to fill the congressional seat vacated by New York Rep. John Hughes. The group, which is backing third-party candidate Doug Hoffman, calls Republican Dede Scozzafava and Democrat Bill Owens "two liberals" in a new television spot set to hit airwaves in parts of New York's 23rd district on Tuesday. "Tired of choosing between two liberals for Congress?" a narrator asks in the ad, before calling Hoffman a "conservative Republican" and the "common sense choice."

John McCormack is a reporter working for The Weekly Standard. Dede Scozzafava is the extremely liberal New York Assemblywoman running as a Republican to succeed Rep. John McHugh from the Empire State's 23rd congressional district in the upcoming special election.Scozzafava was speaking at a GOP dinner Monday evening. McCormack was reporting on Scozzafava's campaign, including her recent pledge to the AFL-CIO to support Big Labor's top legislative objective, the Card Check proposal - currently stalled in Congress -  to abolish the secret ballot in workplace representation elections.Scozzafava apparently didn't appreciate being asked about her support of Card Check because after she left and...

Dede Scozzafava is the Republican Party's candidate in a special election to fill a congressional seat in upstate New York. More than that, she's served -- as a Republican -- in the state Assembly for more than 10 years, and is a member of her party's leadership. But according to conservative blogger Michelle Malkin, Scozzafava is a "radical leftist." Yes, the special election in New York's 23rd congressional district has gotten a little odd. Scozzafava is, to be sure, a moderate Republican; she's pro-choice, and favors same-sex marriage. Markos Moulitsas, of Daily Kos fame, has declared her the most liberal...

From the you can’t make this up file: The person who called the cops on Weekly Standard reporter John McCormack was none other than Scozzafava’s husband, Ron MacDougall, a leading labor official in upstate New York. Keep in mind that before Scozzafava won the Republican nomination, MacDougall reportedly spoke with several Democratic officials in the district to see if they would be interested in supporting her for Congress if she switched parties. The full story, from the Watertown Times: The husband of the Republican candidate in the 23rd Congressional District race on Monday night called police to a Lewis County...

-snip- The November 2 contest will replace nine-term Republican John McHugh, who resigned to become Secretary of the Army. President Obama carried the district along the Canadian border with 52%, but George W. Bush carried it twice and Republicans outnumber Democrats by 45,000 or so. With voters alarmed about the economy and runaway spending, this ought to be an easy GOP retention. Yet party bosses have managed to nominate a rare Republican who could lose: Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava, whose liberal record has caused voters to flee to Doug Hoffman, a business executive who is running on the Conservative line. Mr....