Posted on 11/04/2009 7:08:49 AM PST by Bob J
Now that we sit her in incredulity as Doug Hoffman wanders off into the sunset, maybe it's a good time to take a moment and think about what just happened.
Modern politics is not won with torches and pitchforks from half way across the country which is what was attempted here. No, Scozzafava should never have been handed the nomination but it was an isolated, freakish situation brought on by the sudden departure of the incumbent and exasperated by everyday political insider dealing. To claim that it was an example of how GOP politics work everyday is hyperbole by those pushing a personal agenda.
But the usual suspects arose from their well pressed easychairs exhorting all of us to pick up torches and pitchforks and storm the bastille while shouting "kick the damn RINO's out!". They lead us astray and we end up committing precious time, resources and energy to ventures that are folly.
Nobody disagrees with replacing RINO's with better conservatives. But it cannot be done at the end of a scream and threat. Political change is accomplished through the everyday hard work of local politics and changing the hearts and minds of the voters who cast the votes for those RINO's or true conservatives IN THOSE DISTRICTS.
But the same over vocalized minority that led us to disaster in NY-23 will now, just as loudly, claim where the fault lay...the GOP "elitists", Steele, Newt, etc. Everyone but themselves.
The truth is the fault lay at their doorstep. It's time we stop listening to these chicken littles who scream loudly and then pray for the easy Hail Mary pass that will save us all. It rarely does. We must commit ourselves to the local work necessary for change. We must understand we cannot fly in from afar with our torches and demand other people vote and elect the candidates WE deem acceptable...that will only lead to contempt as I noted here three days ago.
We have to gently change their minds first before the change we desire will come. Shouting in peoples faces only gets them wet and you out of breath.
But the fault DOES lay with Newt, Steele, etc.
Kick the damn RINOs out.
not true.
This is how the blue blood country club works.
in the end the country club worked because they allowed scuzzy to endorse the other major party democrat and the gave crocodile praise.
Remember this is about making pay for candidacy money for the GOP. Scuzzy was an insider. Hoffman was not.
country club for the country club.
Now we have momentum, we take over the local GOPs.
This was a good race to learn from.
A commentator said last night that the district is going away after 2010 anyway. Redistricting has eliminated this district and absorbed it into surrounding congressional districts.
Hopefully, the lesson learned is that the GOP needs to bring in people committed to Republican principles.
We need to learn to choose our battles wisely. (And imo, this was a battle worth fighting, btw.)
I have followed your posts for some time on this subject. I can only speak for me - but I will go down in a principled defeat rather than a win that I cannot in good conscience support. I’m all about absolutes - I DON’T compromise for expediency so I guess I’m not to unhappy about the results
Let us be sure that those who come after will say of us in our time, that in our time we did everything that could be done. We finished the race; we kept them free; we kept the faith. - Ronald Reagan
The ONLY unanswered question to me is how did Scuzzy still manage to get 6% of the vote
Everything else is exactly what Conservatives thought and wanted- Conservative Hoffman came out of nowhere and kicked the GOP and the hand-picked GOP RINO out of the race
I respectfully disagree with your idea of a lesson learned. You have to break eggs if you are going to make an omelet. The Republican leadership needs to learn a lesson not the electorate. The Republican leadership wants our votes and our money but they want us to just shut up and let them do their back room deals of power sharing. It don’t work that way. We conservative electorate are real participants in the process. They must engage us. They must listen to us. This crap of “we know best” won’t work anymore.
If the leadership had got on board with Hoffman in the beginning, the GOP would have held that district. And what impotent jerks they are if they support a candidate with money and cannot keep her from endorsing the Democrat.
I am content with a Democrat holding that seat until 2010 with a good chance of turning him out rather than that bloated RINO who might have been able to keep that seat until who knows when. And all the time casting votes to stab us conservatives in the back. No thank you.
RINO’s put up by RINO’s were rejected by the people well before the ballot box. Scozzafava was indistinguishable with other progressives in everything but the “R” after her name. Pro abortion, pro union, pro stimulus. The people had enough.
Hoffman was a weak speaker and had a quirky personality. Yet, he scored 45.4% of the vote as a third party candidate. With the knee jerk Scozzafava 5.5% vote that put Owens in at 49.1%. Did he run as a whack job progressive or as a fiscal conservative?
No, the National Republicans and the establishment RINO’s were called out on the carpet for not following conservative principles. This was McCain's lesson not learned one year later. Maybe they will learn it now? Will you?
Sorry, disagree with this post completely.
This loss is clearly at the feet of the idiots who picked Dede in the first place. They put up, in their “moderate” wisdom an absolutely abysmal candidate. Owens was up long before Hoffman entered the race. Had Dede remained in she would have most likely lost the race, she was a horrible candidate.
Had the R’s put up a conservative its a safe bet they would have won the seat, instead they put on a R that was in essence a D, proven by her actions without question.
The straight party line voters, walked into the voting booth, pulled the PARTY LINE R lever and walked out were the majority of DEDE’s votes, had the R’s put up a conservative they would have won.
Getting rid of a RINO before they are in office and you are dependent on them is a GOOD THING. Because they WILL bite you, when you need and depend on them, they will betray you. So better they never be in office to begin with.
DEDE wasn’t a “moderate” republican, she was a liberal republican who like spectre and others should have been a D all along, for crying out loud she’d contemplated running as a D for this very seat and admitted as much, why oh why did the R put her up? Let alone spend $1MM+ money supporting her?
Hoffman didn’t win the election, but it was the R leadership that cost the seat, not the voters.
Nonsense.
The GOP played old party politics and appointed a RINO.
Constituents revolted and held to their ground.
The RINO withdrew and proved the point by supporting the Democrat.
Meanwhile, the real Conservative in the race surged and came close.
Kick the RINOs out!
Scuzzy was the type of “R” to get rid of. You do it over and over until the party leadership learns or until you have become the party leadership.
Even if the “D” won, the party felt pain. You must keep the pain up to get your way.
You also need to infiltrate and replace your local GOP and replace and outnumber the country-clubbers.
Thanks Doug, you tried. Hopefully it will work out better for us next time.
Over the years I've noticed that those who most often advocate that we can't really accomplish anything until we "change hearts and minds" do the least to actually change hearts and minds.
For if the trumpet makes an uncertain sound, who will prepare for battle? -- I Corinthians 14:8
Bob this was a victory. WE — not you — kept a RINO from blocking the way forward. If not for OUR — not your — support and encouragement the RINO would have won an interim election and then would have been the Republican on the ballot in 2010. WE WON a ballot position for a real conservative REPUBLICAN IN 2010.
We also won a great moral victory on the ground there — a INDEPENDENT PURE CONSERVATIVE nearly won — the final ballot counting is not even settled and will not be for a few weeks as the absentees are counted. It is unlikely that Hoffman will win — but the race is so dang close that it is still an outside possibility that Hoffman could win!
Bob J — rejoin the winners and quit the whiners.
I heard on tv last night that after the census this district will probably be gerrymandered out of existence into a new solid Democrat district, so in the long run its probably lost forever anyway.
I agree with some of what you say however a proper pre-election review of the candidates should have demonstated that there was a high probablity that Scozzafava was going to defect to the Democrats as soon as she got in.
Personally I look at this as training for 2010, to address the problems in the process, improve research and communication and to improve the candidate selection process.
But the fault DOES lay with Newt, Steele, etc.
Maybe some but not all by a long shot. After all it was the 11 county chairs that made the selection from 9 candidates. It wasn’t Steele nor Newt that made that selection. Now I don’t know that the make up of the local county GOP organizations are in each of those 11 counties but I’d lay the blame more at their feet than the national GOP leadership.
I was looking a county in Texas I’m somewhat familiar with and in the GOP organization there are over 50% of the precincts without a chair to represent them in the county group. So take it to the lowest level, the precinct and see where a lot of the failure begins.
I believe Rush said yesterday that many people had voted for her before she dropped out,probably absentee.
I think we should continue onward as yesterday was just the beginning of a revolt that needs to spread across this country against RINO’s and liberals, at least we learned yesterday that conservative ideals are not dead or going away.
Wait, wait - that was the plan before the election.
This was a 100-year GOP seat, held by a trucon + RINO coalition. You kicked the damn RINOs out. You were left with 44% of the vote. You need 51% to win.
EPIC FAIL.
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