Winners: Sarah Palin, Club for Growth, Erick Erickson & Red State, Concerned Women for America, David Keene, John McCormack, conservative bloggers, conservative talk show hosts, T-Paw, Armey and others who endorsed Hoffman.
Losers: The Establishment, Newt, Boehner, NRCC, Romney and Huckabee.
Sarah Palin, using her unique sense of timing, one week ago became the biggest name of in-prime party leaders to endorse Hoffman. Had she stayed on the sidelines, this contest could have played out in predictable fashion: Republicans stayed split and Democrat Bill Owens would have cruised to victory. Instead, by all appearances, the conservative revolt has succeeded. Even the national GOP -- which had endorsed Scozzafava and was slamming outsider Hoffman as much as Democrat Owens -- is now recognizing that district voters seem to flocking to Hoffman.
Outside observers who want to dismiss Palin do so at their peril. But, there appears to be a reason that her basketball-playing nickname was "Barracuda." Recall she was the one who coined (or at least made viral) the phrase "death panel" during the health care fight during the summer -- forcing Democrats and the White House onto the defensive. Whether Palin is doing all this for PR purposes (her book comes out in three weeks) or being reckless in her political rhetoric, the fact is she is having an impact on the broader debate -- and continuing to resonate with her party's base.
Just got this in my in-box from folks working with the Doug Hoffman campaign:
Hoffman's biggest need now is volunteers. (1) Nothing is written in stone yet, (2) the margin of victory will determine how hard the losing side fights next year, and (3) in a special election, turnout is everything. They just need people to show up at their campaign offices. It would be terrific if you'd help spread the word.
Back in July, shortly after Sarah Palin left the Alaska Governorship, I published my thoughts on her political future, "Can Palin Win the 2012 GOP Nomination?"
Since, then Palin's been Coming up Aces.
From death panels to energy policy, Palin is hot! And just last week she again got out in front of the conservative movement to endorse Doug Hoffman in NY-23. Killer acumen, you think?
Here's Palin's statement upon Dede Scozzafava's withdrawal, "A Time to Unite":
I want to personally thank Republican Dede Scozzafava for acting so selflessly today in the NY District 23 race. Now it's time to cross the finish line with Doug Hoffman so that he can get to work for District 23 and the rest of America.
With Congress poised to overhaul one-sixth of our economy with so-called health care “reform” (which is really a government takeover of health care) and with plans to enact a cap-and-tax bill just as our economy struggles to recover, Doug Hoffman will be a voice for fiscal responsibility and common sense in Washington.
We need candidates like Doug now more than ever. In these final days of the campaign, it's vital that Doug continue to receive the enthusiastic support of those who want to bring common sense to Washington. Let’s help make it happen! You can help Doug by visiting his official website today and offering your support: https://www.doughoffmanforcongress.com/donate3.html.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who came under fire from some conservatives for endorsing Dede Scozzafava in next week's special Congressional election in New York, is now backing Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman.
Gingrich made the announcement via Twitter shortly after the Republican Party nominee Scozzafava announced she was releasing supporters from their commitment to back her.
"Scozzafava dropping out leaves hoffman as only anti-tax anti-pelosi vote in ny 23 Every voter opposed to tax increases support doug hoffman," Gingrich wrote on Twitter.
This race was the bellwether race, a civil war between conservatives and the Democrat-lite within the Republican party. I've been following the announcement and fallout all morning over at Dump Dede, the website I created as a catalog of news on the race - and also as a way to encourage the GOP to serve country over self. I think it was a gracious move for Scozzafava, though it is telling that she didn't endorse Hoffman on her way out.
A couple of weeks ago Neil Cavuto asked me about the contention between tea partiers and the GOP due to some of myearlier sentiments. My response was that the GOP had developed a habit of not offering a clear choice in many elections, and that's what elections are all about, right? Choice? I pointed to the contentious race in New York's 23rd district where the GOP were actually campaigning against conservative candidate Doug Hoffman, who had been rejected by the GOP elite in New York. Days later I held a press conference with Bill Hennessy on behalf of various tea parties across the country to tell the GOP to "put up or shut up" and endorse conservatism. We took some serious heat from the GOP for it, too. Several Missouri candidates did so and as conservatives across the country revolted, more and more conservatives within the GOP stood to be counted.
The percentage of voters with an unfavorable impression of Scozzafava, a member of the state assembly, spiked from 29 percent two weeks ago to 51 percent this week.
There were indications that Scozzafava suffered from TV spots that appeared to have been placed by her supporters but were financed by a conservative group slyly calling attention to her support for gay marriage and unions. Of those who reported seeing Scozzafava commercials, 45 percent said they were less likely to support her and only 9 percent more likely to support her. No other candidate saw a lopsided effect.
"First I want to thank Dede Scozzafava for her hard-fought campaign in this special election. And, I'd especially like to thank her for dropping out of this race for the good of the Party. I'm certain that it was not an easy decision for her to make, but it was the right one.
"I'd also like to urge anyone who can help Doug Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate in that race, to mobilize all their energy and resources to ensure Hoffman's victory next Tuesday.
"The polls all show that Hoffman's message of fiscal responsibility and conservatism are resonating strongly with the voters in that district. I am very hopeful that they will send him across the finish line in first place Tuesday night."
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) today released the following joint statement from House Republican Leader John Boehner, House Republican Whip Eric Cantor, and NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions regarding the the special election in New York’s 23rd Congressional District:
“As the House stands on the cusp of the forthcoming vote on a trillion-dollar healthcare reform measure, it is vital that we unify behind a candidate that will support reining in massive government spending and work with Republicans in Congress to restore fiscal sanity and propose thoughtful measures to get our nation’s economy on the right track.
“With Assemblywoman Scozzafava suspending her campaign, we urge voters to support Doug Hoffman’s candidacy in New York’s 23rd Congressional District.
“He is the only active candidate in the race who supports lower taxes, fiscal responsibility and opposes Nancy Pelosi’s agenda of government-run healthcare, more government and less jobs.
“We look forward to welcoming Doug Hoffman into the House Republican Conference as we work together for the good of our nation.”
Throughout the course of my campaign for Congress, I have made the people of the 23rd District and the issues that affect them the focal point of my campaign. As a life long resident of this District, I care deeply and passionately about its people and our way of life. Whether as a candidate for Congress, a State Assemblywoman or a small town Mayor, I have always sought to act with the best interest of our District and its residents in mind—and today I again seek to act for the good of our community.
The opportunity to run as the Republican and Independence Party candidate to represent the 23rd District has been and remains one of the greatest honors of my life. During the past several months, as I’ve traveled the district, meeting and talking with voters about the issues that matter most to them, I’ve been overwhelmed by the amount of support I’ve received as I sought to serve as their voice in Washington. However, as Winston Churchill once said, Democracy can be a fickle employer, and the road to public office is not always a smooth one.
In recent days, polls have indicated that my chances of winning this election are not as strong as we would like them to be. The reality that I’ve come to accept is that in today’s political arena, you must be able to back up your message with money—and as I’ve been outspent on both sides, I’ve been unable to effectively address many of the charges that have been made about my record. But as I’ve said from the start of this campaign, this election is not about me, it’s about the people of this District. And, as always, today I will do what I believe serves their interests best.
It is increasingly clear that pressure is mounting on many of my supporters to shift their support. Consequently, I hereby release those individuals who have endorsed and supported my campaign to transfer their support as they see fit to do so. I am and have always been a proud Republican. It is my hope that with my actions today, my Party will emerge stronger and our District and our nation can take an important step towards restoring the enduring strength and economic prosperity that has defined us for generations.
On Election Day my name will appear on the ballot, but victory is unlikely. To those who support me – and to those who choose not to – I offer my sincerest thanks.
Republican state Assemblywoman Dierdre Scozzafava has suspended her campaign for upstate New York's 23rd Congressional seat, leaving Democratic nominee Bill Owens and Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman in the race that will conclude Tuesday, Fox News has confirmed.
The move comes on the heels of a new poll that showed Scozzafava had fallen behind her two competitors in a race too close.
The Siena College poll has Owens picking up 36 percent of the vote, while Hoffman has 35 percent. Scozzafava has 20 percent, with nine percent of voters undecided.
It's a turnaround from the first Siena poll on the race in September, which had Scozzafava leading, followed by Owens and Hoffman.
The special election is Tuesday.
Hoffman will pick up most of Scozzava's 20 percent in the Siena poll. This race is pretty much a done deal.
I've just spoken with Sean Carpenter and he is upbeat about his chances of winning a seat on the school board. He said he's receiving nothing but positive feedback from everyone he talks to and that Karen Porter's smear campaign is pissing people off.
Below is the Democratic video that libels Carpenter, a conservative and pro-victory activist, as an extremist::
This is the blurb at the YouTube page:
The definitive video about Sean Carpenter and the Sheepdogs, a pro-war, pro-torture, far right wing group. In their own words, their own actions, and their own vile behavior they expose their real values and true nature to the West Chester, Pa community and the entire world.
Despite a recent exposure of a vicious backdoor smear campaign, in which Democrat committeemen and a representative of the Democrat WCASB candidates conspired to subvert campaign finance rules for a negative literature drop on the Republican candidates; they still press on with a negative campaign. You can view their latest attempt HERE. The video was crafted by John Grant, an avowed socialist and chavez groupie. The candidate highlighted in the video is Sean Carpenter, a well respected member of the West Chester community and devoted dad.
In the weeks leading up to its conference, J Street was wracked by a series of controversies. The group had to cancel a poetry session after it was exposed that one of the participants had compared the Guantanamo Bay prison camp to Auschwitz and another likened Israel to a "whore." The organization's credibility was further challenged when Israeli ambassador Michael Oren refused an invitation to speak at the conference, and an embassy spokesman said that J Street could "impair Israel's interests." Due to these incidents and pressure from the group's skeptics in the Jewish community, 13 senators and congressmen removed their names from the event's host committee. ("Had we known more about J Street back in the summer, it would've been a different story," says a spokesman for one of these members, who affirmed that the congressman would refuse to appear on the host committee next year if invited.)
In the wake of these public defections, Ben-Ami granted an interview to the Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg in which he repositioned himself much closer to the center. He criticized Walt and Mearsheimer's views and backed away from his initial calls for Israel to negotiate with Hamas. He said that the prospect of threatening to cut off military aid to Israel "should not be on the table." And, he added, "I hope that we have a very strong left flank that attacks us."
But Ben-Ami's stated goal of having J Street represent "the center" of American Jewish sentiment on Israel was undermined by a variety of events at this week's conference, most notably a bloggers panel featuring the likes of avowed anti-Zionists Philip Weiss and Max Blumenthal, as well as Helena Cobban, the newly-appointed executive director of the Council for the National Interest, one of whose founders has spoken at a conference of a Holocaust denial group. At the panel, Blumenthal attacked Ben-Ami for "capitulating" to Goldberg ("What happened really disappointed me, at least on the point of Walt and Mearsheimer," he said) and mocked Elie Wiesel for investing money with Bernie Madoff. Though information about the event did not appear on the conference agenda and Ben-Ami told Goldberg that J Street was not giving "sanction to their beliefs," the organization provided space--adorned with a giant J Street banner--for the panel, and Ben-Ami himself dropped in on the event.
While Ben-Ami has distanced himself from the Walt-Mearsheimer thesis, their theories about the Israel lobby were widely touted at the J Street conference. At a full Monday afternoon panel entitled, "The View from the Hill: Congress and the US-Israel Relationship," Democratic congressman Bob Filner cited the defeats of his erstwhile colleagues Earl Hilliard and Cynthia McKinney as examples of how the Israel lobby "intimidates" politicians. In response, freshman Democrat Jared Polis repeatedly implored the audience to avoid talking about the pro-Israel lobby in such dark tones. "I encourage everyone to resist talking about this in ways that demonize the Jewish people," he said.
And while Ben Ami is trying to assert his group's Zionist bona fides, a number of speakers at the conference questioned the very idea of a Jewish state--and actually received loud applause. Cheers greeted Bassim Khoury, the former Palestinian Authority's Minister of National Economy, when he said that "if the majority of the Israeli people want to define Israel as a state with a religion like the Islamic Republic of Iran, let them." And Hussein Ibish of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee similarly received applause after delivering a lengthy denunciation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's call for the Palestinians to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.
A specter is haunting the Republican Party — the specter of John Galt. In Ayn Rand’s libertarian epic “Atlas Shrugged,” Galt, an inventor disgusted by creeping American collectivism, leads the country’s capitalists on a retributive strike. “We have granted you everything you demanded of us, we who had always been the givers, but have only now understood it,” Galt lectures the “looters” and “moochers” who make up the populace. “We have no demands to present you, no terms to bargain about, no compromise to reach. You have nothing to offer us. We do not need you.”
“Atlas Shrugged” was published 52 years ago, but in the Obama era, Rand’s angry message is more resonant than ever before. Sales of the book have reportedly spiked. At “tea parties” and other conservative protests, alongside the Obama-as-Joker signs, you will find placards reading “Atlas Shrugs” and “Ayn Rand Was Right.” Not long after the inauguration, as right-wing pundits like Glenn Beck were invoking Rand and issuing warnings of incipient socialism, Representative John Campbell, Republican of California, told a reporter that the prospect of rising taxes and government regulation meant “people are starting to feel like we’re living through the scenario that happened in ‘Atlas Shrugged.’ ”
Actually, Ayn Rand's influence on the tea parties wasn't all that strong over the summer, outward influence at least. (As measued by the popularity of Ayn Rand paraphernalia at the tea parties and town halls.) Of course, Rand's philosophy has been prophetic this year, and current interest in objectivism is record-breaking (which explains why some neo-communists are strangely trying to expropiate her work). And some argue we're living the state-socialist wrecking ball. See, "We Are Living in an Ayn Rand Novel." Leftists can spin all they want. Atlas Shrugged is not a slip cover for what's happening today, but its accuracy in so many other ways in mind-boggling. Image Credit: From the Orange County Tax Day Tea Party, April 15, 2009.
A suspect in the 9/11 plot whose German passport was found in a mud hut in western Pakistan this week has not been in touch with his family for two years, his mother said in a telephone interview on Friday.
The suspect, Said Bahaji, a German citizen whose father is Moroccan, was the main logistics supporter of the 9/11 attackers, paying their rent and telephone bills, according to the authorities. The Pakistani military said it found his German passport five days ago in the village of Sherwangai in South Waziristan, during a search operation.
Mr. Bahaji was part of the Hamburg cell of Al Qaeda, a tightly knit group of young Arab men who met in Germany in the mid- to late 1990s under the leadership of Mohamed Atta, who eventually became the central planner of the 9/11 attacks.
A Pakistani military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, said that Mr. Bahaji was not in custody, and that the military did not know whether he was dead or alive. He said the passport stamp for Mr. Bahaji’s entry into Pakistan — Sept. 4, 2001 — was too old to shed any light on his current whereabouts.
The Pakistani military is in the second week of a major military operation against militants in their South Waziristan stronghold, and General Abbas said one aim was to flush out foreigners.
German intelligence officials have said they believe that Mr. Bahaji, who is still on the German authorities’ wanted list, has been in Pakistan’s tribal areas since Sept. 11, 2001. The discovery of the passport this week was the first concrete evidence.
Many top Qaeda members are believed to have taken refuge in the area. A Pakistani intelligence official interviewed on Friday said the discovery “proves that our militants have had close associations with Al Qaeda.”
As far as I can tell, THE Andrew Stern was the top outside visitor to the White House with approximately 20 visits, or about three visits per month, including four relatively small meetings with the president and a dozen with other White House staffers. Stern has openly bragged about the SEIU's $61 million investment in Barack Obama. It certainly bought him a lot of access.
*********
This is one of the most cluster**ked things I've heard all year.
In a move it is hailing as "transparency like you've never seen before," the White House on Friday released nearly 500 visitor records of individuals visiting the executive mansion between Inauguration Day and the end of July.
Many of the names appear, on first glance, to be boldface ones -- such as Michael Jordan, William Ayers, Michael Moore, Jeremiah Wright, Robert Kelly ("R. Kelly") and Malik Shabazz -- but the White House warned on its blog that these names in particular were "false positives."
"The well-known individuals with those names never actually came to the White House," wrote Norm Eisen, special counsel to the president for ethics and government reform.
Yeah. Right. "False positives"? That's a good one.
We just happen to have a "William Ayers" and a "Jeremiah Wright" on the administration's visitors' list along with Thomas Daschle, Howard Dean, Kim Gandy, Edward Kennedy, John Podesta, and Andrew Stern - all Democratic-Socialist power hitters [source].
Yep, those crazy conservatives sure are wacked out. I mean, William Ayers was "just a guy who lived in Obama's neighborhood," remember? Besides, it's not like Obama actually heard Reverend Wright preach hatred of America in nearly 20 years of attending those sermons.
Rep. Michelle Bachman is calling all Americans to join her on the steps of the Capital Building in Washington DC on Thursday November 5th to stop “the Crown Jewel of Socialism” – the democrat’s bill to take over the US health care industry.
In the span of a few short weeks, the special election in New York's 23rd congressional District has become the one result that the savviest church members are polishing off our sharpest metaphors for.
But what would a victory by the Democrat, Bill Owens, or the Conservative, Doug Hoffmann, actually mean? And is it possible that the political community will over-interpret the consequences? Most certainly. We're all lit-crits now; on Wednesday morning, the real lesson will be decided by whose explanation triumphs in a contested arena: Republicans versus Conservatives, Governing Conservatives versus Theoretical Conservatives, Palin-Beck Crazies versus Sane Modernists.
Actually, at the post, Ambinder gets sidetracked with local political minutia. Not to say that stuff's unimportant, but frankly Doug Hoffman in NY-23 is symbolic of the monumental success of grassroots conservativism this year. See, Dan Riehl, "NY - 23: Conservatives Should Declare Victory." (More at Memeorandum.)
Well it turns out that Kos has had a major change of thinking. At Dump Dede, "Kos Un-Endorses Scozzafava."
And quoting from Kos' un-endorsement (the link's at Newsbusters):
I have no love for the Democrat, Owens, and I clearly have no love for Scozzafava in that post, so only an idiot would construe that as an "endorsement". An endorsement implies love for the candidate being endorsed. I wish nothing but ill will for all candidates in this race. But the GOP is full of idiots, and they've run strong with it, making my "endorsement" part of their anti-Scozzafava narrative. And now we're in a situation in which the conservative candidate Doug Hoffman has a real chance of performing better than the Republican.
... Dede Scozzafava, the Republican, is actually the most liberal candidate in the race ....
Sure, she is a Republican, and opposes the public option. But she's been willing to raise taxes when budgets require it, and is to the left of most Democrats on social issues (including supporting gay marriage) ....
So it's official, I'm rooting for the Republican to win. As a congresswoman, she could either move even more to the left to properly represent her progressive-trending district and be a pain in the side of the GOP caucus (they have nothing like our Blue Dogs), or Democrats can field a real Democrat to challenge her in 2010.
The government has overstated by thousands the number of jobs it has created or saved with federal contracts under the president's $787 billion recovery program, according to an Associated Press review of data released in the program's first progress report.
The discrepancy raises questions about the reliability of a key benchmark the administration uses to gauge the success of the stimulus. The errors could be magnified Friday when a much larger round of reports is released. It is expected to show hundreds of thousands of jobs repairing public housing, building schools, repaving highways and keeping teachers on local payrolls.
Snyderman was chatting with White House advisor Melody Barnes, who didn't seem to take the possible defeat as hard as did her host . . .
NANCY SNYDERMAN: Melody, it was all going so well. It was all on track. The president went to Europe and--honest to God--I could feel sitting in this chair, that the energy sucked, just sort of went out of the whole thing. And then, frankly, the rumors, the innuendoes, the half-truths, the mistruths, the frank lies, have they all hijacked the conversation? So if it's stability and reassuring the American public, how do you address those sort of hot-button issues that frankly I think need to be reframed? How do you take something like the public option and give it a new name?
Originally, the New York Times reported on President Barack Obama’s visit to Dover AFB and the arrival of fallen serviceman by explaining that the White House wanted Obama to be seen as concerned and aware of the sacrifices made in America’s war policies:
A small contingent of reporters and photographers accompanied Mr. Obama to Dover, where he arrived at 12:34 a.m. aboard Marine One. He returned to the South Lawn of the White House at 4:45 a.m. <…> The images and the sentiment of the president’s five-hour trip to Delaware were intended by the White House to convey to the nation that Mr. Obama was not making his Afghanistan decision lightly or in haste.
Following that link now, the second paragraph quoted is nowhere to be seen. The Jeff Zeleny report contains no editorial announcement of changes after its publication, and no indication of any retraction. Greyhawk at Mudville Gazette and Nice Deb both noticed the change, however, and Greyhawk also noticed that the NYT didn’t quite redact that paragraph from everywhere on its servers. The story now reads like this:
The trip was a symbolic one for Mr. Obama, given the gravity of his coming announcement of a new strategy for Afghanistan.
The image of the commander in chief standing on a darkened tarmac, offering a salute to one of the soldiers, highlighted the poignancy of a decision he is facing.
People often criticize me for "dishonoring" the office of the president (the anarcho-socialist James Webb, for example), but I wrote a respectful post yesterday in response to President Obama's visit to Dover: "Obama Honors Fallen Troops at Dover." Sure, the president's visit was perhaps the worst instance of political grandstanding since taking office, but knowing he's already stabbing our troops in the back, I imagine Obama sleeps better having staged the Dover event.
It's too awful to think that the President would be so base and cynical as to use the death of these brave and worthy men to prop himself up. One is inclined to hope that he only had the best of intentions.
The images and the sentiment of the president’s five-hour trip to Delaware were intended by the White House to convey to the nation that Mr. Obama was not making his Afghanistan decision lightly or in haste.
That line was changed to this:
The image of the commander in chief standing on a darkened tarmac, offering a salute to one of the soldiers, highlighted the poignancy of a decision he is facing.
Greyhawk noted that the President’s approval ratings on Afghanistan have been in free fall:
How to turn the situation around? Some say more troops, some say change strategy, others say withdraw – but someone in the White House got the bright idea that now would be a good time for a photo op.
Obama could have visited Dover at any time during the past 8 months - 10, if you take into account the fact that there was no need to have the press document his visit for the TV cameras. But I don't think the facts matter to these people at all. Their hatred is so strong that it blinds them to anything but simmering anger and poisonous contempt. To them, fallen warriors are nothing more than cannon fodder, conscripted against their will - even in death - to fight an obscene war against a President who is no longer in office. Consumed by hatred, they just can't let it go.
What they cannot understand is that unlike Barack Obama, who makes sure the few sops he throws to the military are well documented by the press, George Bush understood our wish not to be used as photo ops. It ought to be simple to understand why George Bush was never photographed at Dover: under George Bush, the press were not allowed at Dover. So there would be no photograph. But more importantly, President Bush understood that the families of the fallen had given enough. The last thing grieving families want is to have a camera or a microphone shoved in their faces; to have legions of Secret Service, White House aides, and other support staff invade an exquisitely private moment that ought to be reserved for those who knew and loved the deceased. Our funerals are not public spectacles, but private observances of grief. Our last President, unlike the antiwar left, understood and respected that.
Read the whole thing. Cassandra includes this video, and adds: "When hatred is so strong that its adherents fear the truth, no factual rebuttal is likely to pierce the wall of lies that surrounds the willfully ignorant. But the truth remains, regardless of their stubborn refusal to admit it":
It appears my post yesterday got the teabaggers all riled up.
Apparently, their position is that George W. Bush’s refusal to honor fallen Americans as they return to this country for the last time — something his predecessors all did — is proof that a) he loves the troops more than anyone else and; b) because Obama did so, he shamefully, cynically exploited our dead.
As much as I hate to have to interpret plain English for someone who apparently does not know how to read, there are times when such measures are necessary.
Nowhere in Confederate Yankee's, Donald Douglas' or Gateway Pundit's posts (the three Blue Texan linked to "support" his dishonest claim) do any of these bloggers claim that Bush loved the troops any more than any other President.
When the only way you can "win" an argument is to manufacture false claims and then "disprove" them, you're in trouble.
Furthermore, the Dover ban was not in effect when Reagan was President.
It was put in place by President Bush, Sr. in 1991 in response to CNN doing exactly what Firedoglake just did - politicizing the deaths of American soldiers ...
Larry King gives Communist Michael Moore a soapbox (and at around 12:00 minutes Moore would make ANSWER proud with his comments on Afghanistan):
On healthcare, Moore might as well have been separated at birth from Paul Krugman, "The Defining Moment" (via Memeorandum):
Past efforts to give Americans what citizens of every other advanced nation already have — guaranteed access to essential care — have ended not with a bang, but with a whimper, usually dying in committee without ever making it to a vote.
I doubt anyone with half a brain didn't see this coming. With Doug Hoffman continuing to pull ahead in New York's 23rd congressional district, Republican Party hacks are left with little choice but to get behind the conservative ideological insurgent. From the Politico, "In Shift, GOP Leaders Embrace Hoffman":
The House Republican leadership is prepared to welcome Doug Hoffman into its ranks, National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Pete Sessions (R-Texas) said Thursday, a sign that the GOP establishment is recalibrating its approach toward the contentious New York special election and the Conservative Party nominee whose candidacy has divided the party.
“He would be very welcome, with open arms,” Sessions told POLITICO in an interview off the House floor.
Sessions’s comments came as polls showed Hoffman surging in the Nov. 3 special election against Republican nominee Dede Scozzafava, a moderate who supports abortion rights and gay marriage, and Democratic attorney Bill Owens. Nearly a dozen rank-and-file Republican members announced their endorsements of Hoffman Thursday.
While the NRCC–along with House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.)—have all thrown their backing to Scozzafava, grassroots conservatives have revolted against the GOP nominee, asserting that she is too liberal for them to support. Some have even called for conservatives to withhold donations from the NRCC in protest.
On Thursday afternoon, Sessions appeared to tacitly acknowledge that Hoffman may represent the GOP’s best chance to keep the Republican-held seat from being picked up by a Democrat.
