Yeah, I kinda figured that Dede would be that sort of prick who is vindictive rather than the bigger person. Apparently, her decision to drop out of the New York’s 23rd District race was selfish – if she couldn’t win, she didn’t want to lose – so she decided to throw her voters to Bill Owens the Democrat candidate. That demonstrates to me that she wasn’t fit to represent conservatives of the district in the first place.<\/p>\n
Frank Rich wrote in the New York Times yesterday that “The GOP Stalinists invade New York<\/a>“;<\/p>\n Last week it turned out that Hoffman\u2019s prime attribute to the radical right \u2014 as a take-no-prisoners fiscal conservative \u2014 was bogus. In fact he\u2019s on the finance committee of a hospital that happily helped itself to a $479,000 federal earmark. Then again, without the federal government largess that the tea party crowd so deplores, New York\u2019s 23rd would be a Siberia of joblessness. The biggest local employer is the pork-dependent military base, Fort Drum. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Yup, Jefferson County’s largest employer is Fort Drum – no dispute here. In fact, John McHugh stayed in office for decades because he preserved the sprawling military base’s presence in the North Country. Before Mario Cuomo decimated the business climate in Upstate New York, it was home to sprawling family farms and now-dormant factories. In fact, most of Upstate New York still remembers what it was like to not depend on the whims of government largess for their future – that’s why they’re Republicans.<\/p>\n EJ Dionne, in the Washington Post<\/a>, tries to dispute the grassroots aspect of Hoffman’s success thus far;<\/p>\n But the truth is that it was national money (notably from the conservative Club for Growth) and national muscle (from former House Majority Leader Dick Armey and Sarah Palin, among others) that prevented Scozzafava from ever having a chance. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Yeah, except neither Armey nor Palin are elected officials anymore – like Joe Biden who is in Watertown tomorrow to campaign for Owens tomorrow. They oppose the party machine – that makes them grassroots. And I suppose that Rich wouldn’t see anything wrong with “Organizing for America” trying to convince a resident of Maryland to influence a local race in Virginia<\/a>. How is that different? <\/p>\n Gingrich was being the true conservative here, arguing that local party people ought to be able to choose candidates in their own jurisdictions, even if national conservatives don\u2019t like how the locals choose. This is at least as much a victory for the inside-the-Beltway conservative machine as for grass roots conservatives.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n I guess Dionne thinks that to be a “true conservative” we have to follow the party’s instructions and vote for their choice, no matter how contrary to our views they intend to vote. Party machines in Upstate New York are the folks who inflicted Eric Massa on them. Eric Massa is the Democrat who told his voters<\/a> that “I will vote adamantly against the interests of my district if I actually think what I am doing is going to be helpful. I will vote against their opinion if I actually believe it will help them.”<\/p>\n That’s the type of pompous, elitist representation New York’s 23rd District would’ve had from Scozzafava. So because she’s petty prick, she throws her voters to Owens – in favor of the establishment and the political machine. That’s the way the Inside-the-Beltway folks like ’em.<\/p>\n\n
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