Moderate GOPer in NY-23 Cuts Robocall For The Democrat
A source forwards the script of a new robocall that moderate Republican Dede Scozzafava, who was driven from the race for New York’s 23rd by national conservative opposition, has cut urging voters to back the Democrat over right-wing candidate Doug Hoffman:
“Hi, this is Dede Scozzafava calling on behalf of Bill Owens. And I wanted to let you know that I am supporting Bill for Congress.
“Since beginning my campaign I have said that this election is not about me, it’s about the people of this district. It’s not in the cards for me to be your representative but I strongly believe Bill Owens is the only candidate who can build upon John McHugh’s lasting legacy in Congress.
“In Bill Owens I see a sense of duty and integrity. He will be an independent voice, devoted to doing what is right for New York. To address the tough challenges ahead we must rise above partisanship and politics, and work together.
“Please join me in voting for Bill Owens on Tuesday.”
Scozzafava had already endorsed the Dem, and her willingness to take an extra step and record a robocall on his behalf will be cited by Dems as proof of the deep split in Republican ranks that this race has produced, and of the toxicity of the conservative support for Hoffman. Audio soon.
Update: Because of a technical problem I couldn’t get the audio posted — apologies — but you can now listen to it here.
This blog’s homepage is here. RSS feed here. Twitter feed here. Email me here.
The only thing I regret about Dede’s endorsement of Owens is that it provided old tub-o-guts Neutered Gingrinch political cover to disavow her now as being a “turncoat” Gee Oh Pee-er, after previously having supported in her in the face of strident Mooseburger/Teabagger opposition.
Mooseburger?
Well Greg, I had to choose between that term and Cruella Wasilla…. : )
Benton… I agree. This gives cover to not only Newt but the state party as well.
Sorry to be way off topic, but I see Greg on the thread, so…
Can you ask your techies why there’s no little icon (there’s a term for it, but I’ve forgotten it) beside the URL for theplumline in my browser. When the website has one, and I look at the RSS list, the little icon appears beside the posts I’ve read. Because this blog doesn’t have one of those icons/symbols, I can’t easily tell what I’ve already read.
Sorry, back to your regularly scheduled programming.
It is because Greg is an Iconoclast.
He threw the icon on the ground.
“Will be cited by Dems”? I think it just was, or is Greg apolitical like Tamron Hall on MSNBC?
Limbaugh on Scozzafava:
We can say she is guilty of widespread bestiality. She has screwed every RINO in the country.
Chris Wallace of the Fox Propaganda Network:
Limbaugh is “very nice, very sweet” and “vulnerable”
I’m sorry, but Chris Wallace describing Rush as sweet and vulnerable has got to be some sort of strategy. It’s Rovian ridiculous.
The guy is a pompous ***.
LOL. Serious question, very amusing answer.
Baby H. I didn’t know you watched MSNBC, I’m shocked.
I think DeDe got reamed by her own party and she’s pissed, I would be too. They don’t seem to care about how many moderates they lose because if they’re to the left of them, as some here would say, they’re leftists.
There are also quite a few people in the local community according to the local paper who don’t appreciate all the interference in their “parochial” issues. I’ve worked in local politics for a long time and there are plenty of times when local issues transcend party affiliation or ideology.
Personally Mike, Wallace’s comments want to make me throw up.
AHA. It’s called a “favicon” and Greg’s techies can create one from any .jpg and rename it favicon.ico and put it on the server. The Plumline needs a favicon (a plum?).
I’m glad Democrats aren’t beholden to a shock jock on the radio.
Imagine if the Democrats all had to answer to Howard Stearn? That would be about the equivalent. Except Howard isn’t mean spirited in the way Limbaugh the windbag is.
Edit: make me want to TU.
While the most recent polls show Hoffman ahead by a scant 1% beyond the margin of error, there are still at least 18% undecided. Hoffman should not be declaring victory quite yet. How angry are moderate Republicans at the carpet/tea-baggers? Will they vote D or even just stay home?
The Watertown Daily Times endorsed Dem. Owens saying, “Bill Owens is by far the superior and only choice.” They also said, “Mr. Hoffman is running as an ideologue.” An ideologue who does not live in the district and doesn’t apparently follow the news in his ersatz district.
He’s absent, he’s an imbecile, and he’s an inflexible holier-than-thou warrior bent on purifying all he surveys. He has even declared his allegiance to Beck’s bogus 9/12 project principles. What possible appeal could Hoffman have for the 23rd district?
So, Obama congratulated Karzai. I’d say that was the next needed step needed for a commitment to more troops, be it ceremonial or whatever you want to call it.
I believe the time line was somewhere between the 4th and the 11th when the Afghan strategy was to be revealed. I think all the scheduled meetings with the war council have convened.
I’m anxious as hell to find out what this strategy going forward will be. He’s damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t unless this admin sells this the right way. I think he’s damned no matter what from the partisan elected officials if he doesn’t bend 100% to McChrystal’s will.
As far as AFPAK goes…I am guessing Obama will increase the troop force but more importantly he will lay down several detailed benchmarks including a timeline with exit strategy. If he doesn’t do that he may have a problem getting his efforts funded.
Everyone see this?
Hoffman Calls Glenn Beck His ‘Mentor,’ Will Keep In Touch
Doug Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate in NY-23, appeared today on the Glenn Beck show — and declared that Beck is a “mentor” of his, and that he’ll stay in touch with Beck if he’s elected:
HOFFMAN: I have good mentors here.
GLENN: Wait, wait. Wait, wait. Are they mentors that will show -
HOFFMAN: I’m talking about you, Glenn.
GLENN: Oh, okay. I was going to say all right, as long as they are standing out from the shadows. [...]
HOFFMAN: No. Yeah, well, I’m going to keep in touch with people like you so I don’t get infected with that disease.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/11/hoffman-calls-glenn-beck-his-mentor-will-keep-in-touch.php
The dude wants to turn over the Congressional District to a TV PERSONALITY.
Seriously. This is insane.
My understanding of New York’s Conservative Party is that it has long been the home of the John Birch Society folks in that state.
For the sake of the citizens in the district, one hopes that Hoffman who is clearly in this for reasons unrelated to district issues/concerns, will lose.
For the larger national picture, it probably doesn’t matter who wins. The extreme wing is already intoxicated by the blood smell and they will continue elsewhere exactly as happened here regardless. A couple of months ago I suggested we ought to turn our attention to Florida and the Crist/Rubio internal contest as a measure of how strong or weak the extremist element of the RNC and movement would prove. But the answer has come sooner than I imagined via NY 23. The nutballs are fully in charge and there’s no one left to impede them.
As Josh and others have predicted, we’ll see the consequences of this race throughout the Republican primary battles and thus in the positions held (or stated to be held) by everyone running. Pawlenty will now start to quote Beck and refer to him as mentor, one could predict with high certainty.
And I think all of this could well achieve some short term gains for the RNC. But only short term. They are defining and institutionalizing themselves into an entity which, in its single-minded, extreme self-righteousness and and unyielding character, will be unable to temper or shift their trajectory even as circumstances might demand that.
He’s absent,
Actually from what I’ve read today over at Sully’s blog the only reason he’s not in the district is because during the last redistricting the district boundary was moved a few miles, and thus put him out of it whereas he otherwise had long been a part of it.
That means that in fact (for all practical purposes) he’s indeed a local (& he’s promised to relocate back inside the district if he wins).
If he’s long been a local, and he can’t answer the local paper’s questions about his stances on local concerns, that’s an even bigger indictment of him than if he was truly a carpet bagger!
The extreme wing is already intoxicated by the blood smell and they will continue elsewhere exactly as happened here regardless. A couple of months ago I suggested we ought to turn our attention to Florida and the Crist/Rubio internal contest as a measure of how strong or weak the extremist element of the RNC and movement would prove. But the answer has come sooner than I imagined via NY 23. The nutballs are fully in charge and there’s no one left to impede them.
According to TPM the Florida senate race is next in their sights.
They are defining and institutionalizing themselves into an entity which, in its single-minded, extreme self-righteousness and and unyielding character, will be unable to temper or shift their trajectory even as circumstances might demand that.
Yes. At this rate it won’t be too long in the future that they face a choice between ideological purity and permanent marginalization, or moderation.
I don’t know what to expect at this point. If they choose permanent marginalization I won’t be surprised if for all practical purposes the Republican Party vanishes (or becomes yet another of the country’s trivial third parties).
oddjob,
Yes, it’s true that he no longer lives in that district because of redistricting. I also live in part of N.M. that used to belong to Texas. Can I run for governor of Texas? It also used to be part of Mexico, Spain, and France. Can I be a foreign head of state?
Hoffman should only be running for a district in which he actually resides. He is an opportunistic carpet/tea bagger unfamiliar with the issues in the district he seeks to represent.
Evening roundup posted:
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/health-care/happy-hour-roundup-106/
msmolly, that’s a good question. there was one in the works. not sure what happened to it.
Again, making it obvious to anyone who isn’t trying to push the ridiculous “GOP forcing out moderates” meme that she isn’t a moderate. Every speech she makes for the Dems, every message she records asking people to elect Owens makes it more difficult to make a case that she is “moderate”. Everyone with a brain knows it, but they can’t admit it because they would no longer be able to use the “Moderates not welcome in GOP” line.
Yes, it’s true that he no longer lives in that district because of redistricting. I also live in part of N.M. that used to belong to Texas. Can I run for governor of Texas? It also used to be part of Mexico, Spain, and France. Can I be a foreign head of state?
Rather a silly analogy, don’t you think? New York has a long history of welcoming outsiders to run for stuff (remember Bobby Kennedy & Hillary Clinton?). New York’s election laws permit what your analogy does not. If you don’t like it, take it up with the New York legislature.
they can’t admit it because they would no longer be able to use the “Moderates not welcome in GOP” line.
While it does not directly pertain to the NY-23, this article on the front page of the Boston Globe suggests otherwise:
…“We aren’t going to win back the majority without fighting hard in the Northeast, and we intend to do it,’’ said Representative Pete Sessions of Texas, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, who hopes to pick up a half-dozen or more seats in the region.
Since Republicans believe their losses in the region were largely due to Bush’s unpopularity, they see a greater opportunity to reclaim the seats. But a pushback from rank-and-file conservatives in the party, who are recruiting their own candidates, combined with a damaged national GOP image, is making the effort an uphill battle.
Several contenders from the right flank of the party – including Jennifer Horn, a New Hampshire congressional candidate – are making challenges in the Northeast, upsetting the political dynamic in a part of the country where traditionally Republicans are centrist….
Like it or not, you wingnuts are your own worst enemies.
If they try to regain some of the many seats they have lost in New England, I hope they do it from the ground up and develop some serious candidates, not the collection of Larrys, Curlys, and Moes that Mitt Romney bragged about running in MA the year that every one of his candidates lost plus a couple of incumbents to boot.
http://news.antiwar.com/2009/12/27/officials-eye-yemen-war-in-wake-of-lap-bombing/