Winning, Defined
The race has now been called for Democrat Bill Owens.
This is a huge win for conservatives.
“Whaaaa. . . ?” you say.
There are two big victories at work in New York’s 23rd Congressional District.
First, the GOP now must recognize it will either lose without conservatives or will win with conservatives. In 2008, many conservatives sat home instead of voting for John McCain. Now, in NY-23, conservatives rallied and destroyed the Republican candidate the establishment chose.
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Secondly, and just as importantly, there has all of a sudden been a huge movement among some activists to go the third party route. We see in NY-23 that this is not possible as third parties are not viable.
Third parties lack funding and ability for a host of reasons. Conservatives are going to have to work from within the GOP. The GOP had better pay attention.
I’ve been going whole hog since February with my co-extremist, Bill Hennessy, since February. We didn’t do this to create some peashooter third party. We did it to help take over the GOP, to move this brick house back to its foundation. I am vehemently opposed to this movement being cop-opted into a third party and marginalized in the same manner that third parties are usually marginalized.
The GOP is a conservative party and that’s what this fight is to me, just as much as it’s about opposing the big government schemes oozing out of Washington.
We won in NY23. This blog served it’s purpose. Dede Scozzafava was dumped. She was dumped by the demographic to which she fronted, and when no one brought her Victorian freakshow, she removed the mask and revealed herself, lest any doubters remained. We won when we forced the GOP to concede support. We won when we showed them that good political sense and sharp strategy is an instinct, not exclusive to the beltway elite. We won because we wrenched the reigns from their hands.
We the tea party have been leading since February. In order to survive, the GOP must finally cash the promise its collective mouth has been writing about “we the people” and all that jazz: it must relent and let the people lead. Asking politely is a formality: NY23 has shown that we have the power to take it when we want.
Thank you for your support of this website. Thanks to all the true patriots out there, all of the fabulous people (except the obvious ones) linked on the sidebar over there. Thanks to Doug Hoffman for taking the heat and standing up to the GOP. Thanks to those in the GOP who risked popularity with the party’s elite by supporting Hoffman.
This site will remain up for some time, mostly as a catalog of blogger reactions and headlines, all it ever existed to be originally, a way to track, a way to send a message. The message was sent, the mission accomplished, the sentiment as present as ever: dump the RINOs or get dumped.
Today was a good day.
LOL People would rather go with a Democrat than be lead by an extremist conservative.
Establishment Republicans would rather swing an election to the Democrat than support a grassroots conservative candidate.
LOL?
For the last 20 years the progressives “leading” the GOP would rather see any Dem win than a conservative! NY23 is just the latest of a very long list.
Hopefully it will be the last – jug only if we can fire the leftists now running the party inclunding the “leaders” in both houses/
Good job losing that congressional seat bozo.
It is a win. It shines the light where the liberals are hiding. That means Republicans will be working hard while the democrats fight each other. Republicans take over next midterm election.
Conservative voters will not put a RINO in by the party who continually attempts to marginalize its base. Will the GOP listen? This struggle within the party has been going on since atleast Specter/Toomey in PA.
They run a RINO – they will lose. It’s very simple yet the party leadership doesn’t seem to understand it.
Some of your commentators don’t seem to understand it, either.
The loss in NY-23 is simple. You will hear the MSM spin it a thousand ways and they will be wrong. The loss is NY-23 is because dyed-in-the-wool democrat voting union members are brainwashed into caring more about their precious union paychecks and pensions, then they care about their Country. Union members, by voting democrat, are selling out their grandchildren’s future. Not all union members vote democrat, but the ones brainwashed into doing so, are hurting this country’s future. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard a union member retort: “how can ya have family values, without a union paycheck…vote democrat”. I wonder how those union paychecks are gonna work out when their are no more healthy companies to pay them anymore? The conservative Patriots I know would GIVE their last paycheck to save America’s future for their grandchildren. Not these democrat-voting union members. They are the most selfish, and un-patriotic bunch of traitors that just don’t get how much trouble our Nation is in. When will they wake up?
You folks here did such a great job. Many many thanks.
Quoted from and Linked to at:
THERE’S GOT TO BE A MORNING AFTER
It’s Time To ROC ‘N’ ROLL: Restore Our Constitution & Restore Our Lost Liberties
John Adams, put aside his paycheck, and rode hundreds of miles on horseback, during a freezing New England winter of 1776, to make it to the first Continental Congress. He left his wife and children at their home in Massachusetts, and forgot about earning pay from his job, to put his Country first. If it were not for the unselfish bravery of Founding Fathers like John Adams, there would be no precious union paychecks and pensions in the great United States of America. I hope all of you democrat voting union members remember this, the next time you vote for your Country’s furture.
Frankly I think 70% of the US is socially liberal and fiscally conservative.
The Bush/Rove Republicans are socially conservative and fiscally liberal.
I think in New York State they tried to run a socially & fiscal liberal, it wasn’t going to work.
If the republicans ever want to be a majority party, dump the fundamentalists pickup the rest of the country.
If you ‘dump the fundamentalists’, you’ll be a permanent minority…
You need to realize that the left has FAR more interest in controlling every aspect of your life than does ANY fundamentalist.
If the Republican party had nominated an actual conservsative and ran a conservative campaign, they would have won, just as they won in Virginia and New Jersey. They lost when they nominated Scuzzface. They lost because even if they won, they lost.
Republicans win when they nominate conservatives and run conservative campaigns. This has been true for decades and nothing has changed except the Republican leadership who seem to want to curry favor from the beltway pundits more than they want to turn this country back in the right direction.
This is a win only IF–and that is still a huge ‘If’– Republican leaders stop taking conservatives for granted.
NY-23 was an excellent test. If the Republican leadership still does not listen, then conservatives will have the time to organize challenges to the establishment RINOs in the Republican primaries.
Hoffman came close to winning, so it’s easy to say ‘damn! I thought he was going to win! the dems sure pulled this off, against all odds!’
That’s ridiculous. Owens had a gift handed to him. The NRCC, led my that _____ Pete Sessions, attacked fellow conservative Hoffman as lacking integrity and not deserving any public office. Hoffman was in single digits a couple of weeks ago. Just before the election, Dede endorsed Owens.
While the goal included electing Hoffman, and it’s a damn shame he didn’t, that he would manage to become a serious contender was nearly inconceivable a couple of weeks ago. Before Palin, the TEA partiers, and others got on board, did ANYONE think Hoffman was going to win? Or even get a fourth of the vote?
But because Hoffman surged so fast, and took the heat so well, people are having a hard time accepting just how unlikely his victory was a few days ago.
Owens and the democrats did a hell of a lot worse than they should be expected to do in NY 23, a seat that often goes to democrats, and not in an area that went for Obama in 2008 and is only slightly republican at best. I hope Hoffman runs again, but I don’t blame him if he wants to pass the torch along. The media was horrible to him, Dede was a monster, and the NRCC leadership should simply be fired at this point.
I hope Hoffman knows that we appreciate what he did. he was not a polished candidate, he’s not a pretty boy who looks like a movie star on TV, and he didn’t have the kind of help Owens had. It’s fucking awesome that he took on both parties and let them know they were in a fight.
He dumped Dede, and that alone is more of a life accomplishment than most people will even make.
Well said!!
…and that’s the point that all the spinning tops on the left just don’t get.
Will the GOP listen?
Last night, they too got a visit from:
THE AMERICAN REGENT
http://naturalfake.wordpress.com/2009/11/04/the-american-regent
With all due respect, I think you have it all wrong. The best way for the people who have supported things like the “tea parties” is to represent themselves as an interest group like the NRA or the AARP. To hell with the political party–focus on the candidate. Punish or reward depending upon how they vote with your agenda regardless of party affiliation. I’ll take a libertarian/small government Democrat (rare as they are) over a liberal Psychofavabean Republican anytime.
Its time for the political class to learn that a party label is no shield against corruption, rank incompetence, and economic illiteracy.
Well, that sounds all nice and good, but there’s NO SUCH THING as a ‘libertarian/small government Democrat’!!!
ulee: Scozzafaw would have voted with dems anyway. So the message sent, in this case, would appear worthwhile.
Would Dede have won had Hoffman never emerged? Because the only way to really say that we “lost” is to prove that Dede would have won.
I don’t believe she could have.
Owens did not win a majority of the vote. A majority voted against him.
Maybe if those who voted for Dede had voted for Hoffman instead, Hoffman would have won. And why did a few thousand people vote for Dede? Simple: she was on the ballot and had an R after her name. Not everyone is “in” to politics. Not every voter has spent the last two weeks listening to Glenn Beck or reading Sarah Palin’s Facebook notes. Quite a few people out there pay no attention to anything in the news – but still go out and dutifully vote a straight R or D ticket in November.
If Dede had dropped out early enough to be removed from the ballot, Hoffman could have won.
More to the point: if the R nominee had been Hoffman all along – if Hoffman had received close to a million bucks from the NRCC – if Hoffman had been allowed to tap into party organization – then…
Hoffman would have won.
Oh well… we’ll just see what happens in a few months when primaries roll around… betcha Hoffman is the GOP nominee next year…
A congressional seat lost? Maybe. Hoffmann had no time, no GOP endorsement until the last minute and no money.
Gey back to us, ulee, in a year or two.
I think there is another message for the party bosses. If you nominate a centrist, and s/he loses a primary challenge, s/he’ll endorse the Democrat. If a RINO endorses the Democrat after losing the election, s/he wasn’t much of a Republican, now was s/he? If you want to back a moderate/liberal, that’s fine, just make sure s/he’s a Republican in more than name-only.
If the straight line “R” votes Dede got (5% I heard) were atributed to the Candidate likely to have won a primary (if held), then this would have been a win for “R” conservatives. Also, the GOP and the nearly non-existant Conservative Party (that is mainly just a line for independants) did not organise as well as Dems did in those few Dem areas. So more of them got out to vote. If the correct Republican had been the ticket, all those trumping the Dem win would be saddend by the loss.
I wonder how many of DeDe’s votes were cast absentee before she pulled out and switched to Owens.
Doug Hoffman was a newbie. He looked terrified in front of cameras. Then, Sarah Palin went “all in” for conservative values, and people fled.
Hoffman didn’t have to lose this race! Dede dropped out when it was apparent she was coming in 3rd!
But the 11 men who selected Dede, called RINOs, did have something at stake, here! Sarah Palin lost last night! And, if conservatives begin to understand politics, better, they’ll recognize the BIG TENT. (Ronald Reagan recognized the big tent! And, that means you cannot force social conservatives down the public’s throat!)
Doug Hoffman, as an accountant, should have been the FISCALLY responsible man. But people ran away. They looked. They were happy Dede withdrew. But Sarah Palin was wrong to ’suggest’ (conservative values.) That’s what gave Pelosi the edge.
Does Owens go to DC and vote for health care? You’re kidding me! What Pelosi did do, however, was sharpen the knives against Sarah Palin. That was the threat. Even Newt Gingrich knew that much.
I agree with Sestamibi, I know for sure that Obama, Pelosi and others in the Washington D.C. front are intelligent. These two GOP wins in NJ and VA will be just the beginning. Try to take a good look at the Michael Savage show and there will be “good things” happening. These outspoken czars will get fired. They will get fired and criticize to death by the media. But If the true Conservatives of this country don’t look at their politicians in office and make sure they do things they were elected to do during the campaign. History will tend to repeat itself.
God Bless & It’s going to be a nasty fight.
BFR
Your analysis regarding Sarah Palin is just so much wishful thinking.
Immediately prior to Palin endorsing Hoffman, he was still in 3rd place and Dede was within 4 points of Owens. Immediately AFTER Palin’s endorsement Hoffman jumped to 2nd, Dede fell to a distant 3rd, and even Owens dropped a few points.
You just keep spinning, though. It creates a nice breeze.
Believing that statist Republicans are any better than statist Democrats is flat out dumb. They spend and tax and borrow and wiretap and censor just like any statist liberal. The same people fund them both, the same people control them both, and wasting your energy on either of them is doing exactly what they want. Until people realize that both the Jackass and Dumbo parties are corrupt up to their eyeballs, two wings of the single Incumbent party, they will get more of the same: taxes, debt, war and a police state. We don’t need a third party, we need a viable SECOND party.
Had Dede occupied that seat it would still be lost to conservatives and republicans, even though it would be occupied by a ‘Republican.’
So, I’d call that a Dede loss, and a republican win. The ‘Republicans’ can make their own choices.
is this statement really so different from pelosi’s ridiculous ‘we won’ spin on the election ?
perhaps the lesson here is that there is no one-size-fits-all position if the GOP hopes to get the vote. maybe we should let the locals decide what type of republican candidate works for them rather than sending well-financed national forces, who are bent on destroying infidels, into local elections
btw, ‘dumpTheRhinos.com’ appears to be available….
Only an energized group could pull off taking out the establishment candidate. And both parties LOVE an energized group because that’s what drives victory. IMHO, NY23 could not have come out better. National GOP got a stiff reminder about RINOs. TEA-partier types got a lesson that the thousands of local GOP organizations across the land are key if the other side fights back hard. And all for the slight cost of a conservative Democrat in a seat he’ll likely lose in 12 months, while avoiding Dede being a ticking time bomb of a political whore ala Specter and Jeffords.
Sorry for Hoffman, he seemed a good man even if a marginal campaigner with short time and thin organization to get up to speed. But big picture, it’s a great result for us who consider ourselves conservative first and GOP second.
When a “Republican” drops out of a race and endorses a liberal Democrat over a conservative Republican, I think the problem is clearly that the “Republican” wasn’t a Republican in the first place. The Republican party is a big tent already, with plenty of moderates. Scuzzface wasn’t a “moderate” or a “centrist.” She supported hard left liberal issues like the bailout, health care reform and card check.
Those of you who think the problem here is that the conservatives in the Republican party ran off a “centrist” are the ones who are misreading the situation.
Hoffman may not have been the right candidate either, but had he been nominated in the primary, I suspect he’d have won the election. Of course I’d rather have a more telegenic and experienced conservative running, but regardless, in the midst of all this turmoil, the guy managed to make it close. That’s what you anti-Palin folks are missing. With everything he had arrayed against him, he still made it a close race.
When you reach the conclusion that we needed a Health Care, Bailout, card check supporting liberal running as a Republican in order to claim we have a “big tent” you are not the solution. You are the problem.