Posted on 11/04/2009 6:10:20 AM PST by Federalist Patriot
Here is video of Ben Stein last night on Larry King Live where he said Conservative Doug Hoffman lost the New York 23 Congressional Race because the Republican candidate "actively sabotaged" him, and was "shockingly disloyal" in endorsing the Democrat, Bill Owens. Stein was talking about liberal Republican Dede Scozzafava, who was anointed by GOP Party insiders as the candidate, but who eventually withdrew from the race after a revolt by conservatives who refused to support her liberal policies. Stein said Democrats should not be excited about winning a race where Republicans had such a "disloyal" candidate. . . (VIDEO)
(Excerpt) Read more at freedomslighthouse.com ...
Yeah that's right and something few are talking about.
I thought this was a rock-ribbed conservative district?
After finding out how far to the left she was and voting for her would have been bad enough, but when she became a traitorous turncoat and not only endorsed Owens but attacked Doug and these idiots STILL voted for her?
I contributed (as did many freepers) to Doug's campaign, but I'm going to have to know more about this whole deal before I open my wallet next year to help these yahooos.
Dede is a typical RINO liberal in the best tradition of Christie Toad Witless. If she can’t win, she will work her butt off to make sure the conservative loses.
I agree...Hoffman may be a fine fellow but his lack of oomph in his presentation of self (LOL) was disappointing.
I think if he could have projected a little ‘edge’ he would have fared better.
Of course, Ben Stein endorsed Al Franken, so I’m not sure he’s the one to make the charge of “disloyal”.
But DeDe was certainly disloyal. She was chosen as the Republican nominee. The officials in the party supported her throughout the process. They sent her workers to help, they sent her almost a million dollars.
That apparently wasn’t enough for her to get the support of the voters in the district. But that’s how it goes. And instead of fighting for the Republican Party til the end, she QUIT at the last minute, when it would do the most damage, and then endorsed the Democrat, violating the oath she took when she ran for our nomination to support the eventual nominee (which in this case was HER).
So to that freeper who argued that Hoffman didn’t deserve support because he violated his pledge to support the republican nominee, what does it mean that the actual republican nominee violated HER pledge to support the republican nominee?
Hoffman lost because DeDe didn’t get ENOUGH votes. Too many liberals followed her endorsement and voted for Owens, while the die-hard republicans still voted for her.
If she had not dropped out, she would have siphoned off enough votes from Owens for Hoffman to win the race.
I fear for the republic.
The people of District 23 voted for liberalism, with or without Scozzafava.
And could this reality be the reason the local GOP chose a more liberal member of the party.
“while the die-hard republicans still voted for her.”
Which tells me that die-hard republicans are not as smart as they claim to be - in other words dumber than a box of rocks. Third party NOW!
Younger and better-looking versions of this woman routinely make hundreds of dollars per night - I’ll bet Dede’s doing better than that for her efforts here!
In politics, there’s no whore like an old whore.
A lot of those votes could have been cast early, or been absentee. And certainly there were a few percent who just show up, don’t know what is happening, and “just vote republican”.
I hope he runs in his home district.
And I think this race proves the folly of pushing a 3rd party. Here we had an established 3rd party, with a candidate supported by tons of money and national figures, AND a major party candidate who suspended her campaign, and we still couldn’t get the 3rd-party win.
3rd-party is a good way to get rid of those who are nominally on your side but who you don’t think are good enough; it’s unlikely to actually win you an election, until the NEXT election (except THAT election will be “payback” time where the other side might run 3rd-party and hurt you, so it can take several cycles).
Look, Newt was dead wrong in this election because DeDe was a traitor, as was proven by her actions. But in general, he was right that we won’t defeat the democrats if we adopt a 3rd-party strategy.
We absolutely must have some standard in the party, some lines not to cross. Scozzafave is almost 180 degrees away from me politically, that's just too much "big tent". If someone is working against you 80% of the time they aren't worth keeping for the 20% support.
When party bosses “chairmen” pick a liberal Republican for a fairly conservative congressional district that hadn't elected a democrat in AGES; something simply MUST be done to show them that someone like Scuzzyfava is simply unpalatable to conservatives (i.e. the Republican base).
I believe this may also be the home of 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum , NY.
So how many absentee military ballots were sent in a month ago voting for the “republican canidate” ?
“Oh, wait... Hoffman ran. Yet, even though every other conservative in the 23NY sat home and did nothing, he still wasn’t good enough for you. He lacked style.
I fear for the republic”
Good gravy sakes!
I certainly did not mean to get you upset. I was hoping that he WOULD win. I think my analysis was meant to understand why he didn’t win.
He certainly didn’t fail in the the tenets of conservatism...there had to be another reason. He was personally definitely hesitant and tentative in his news interviews, etc.
I don’t live in NY...if I did and could vote in the 23rd he would have had my vote.
So...why do you think he lost?
It worked there because the Republican candidate was a throw-away candidate, since we assumed Lieberman would be the Democrat and would be unbeatable.
If the republicans had had a credible candidate (like the Governor), Lieberman’s move would likely have given the republicans the seat.
Instead, the republican party pretty much abandoned THEIR candidate and threw their support to Lieberman, since we actually respected our troops and wanted to protect them MORE than we wanted to try to win an election.
There is nothing shocking about the disloyality of Rinos. It would be shocking if they were loyal to Republican ideals and values.
I do fear for the republic because your "analysis" of not stylish enough is an old chestnut that gets trotted out on FR with frequency. I find it so frustrating that some FReepers (not you) will agree that a candidate is conservative enough... but, unfortunately, not stylish enough to capture their vote.
If the tea parties lead to ordinary people running, then the electorate is going to have to lose their "Hollywood" vision of the perfect candidate and vote for the politician, regardless of the glibness quotient, that agrees with them.
Why did Hoffman lose? My opinion - because the NY23 is a left leaning district at heart. That is why the local GOP party picked a left leaning candidate. When she dropped out, the voters who were truly left leaning voted for the Democrat.
I would love nothing more than 435 members of the House of Representatives to be true conservatives. That is not going to happen. Sometimes (gasp), some districts may need a moderate or left-leaning Republican to run in order to win.
But then again, I'm of the opinion that a Repubican can be a conservative, or a moderate, or more liberal. A conservative and Republican do not equal the same.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.