The 23rd district in New York had been getting some extra attention this election season...

There's an on congressional seat and a special election to fill out the time on that seat...

KEY POINT...there was no primary for the seat, so the local New York GOP had to make a selection on who they wanted to run in this primarily Republican area...

They picked Dede Scozzafaa because they believed she had the best chance to win...Unfortunately, she is NOT really a Republican, so the NYGOP picked gaining a seat over selecting someone with actual conservative values...

So someone WITH conservative values, Doug Hoffman, (who would've been happy to run as a Republican) decided to run as a 3rd party candidate since the campaign was pretty much a Democrat versus a Democrat in Republican clothing...

This made people choose between the values of conservatives and simply voting for someone simply because they have a "Republican" brand name...The Dems just had to sit on the sidelines and eat popcorn watching this internal right-of-the-aisle conflict...

Rare for elections, the brand name started losing and the values took over...so much so that the Republican has decided to bail out of the race since she was doing so poorly...

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"You get the respect that you give" - cnredd

Republican Scozzafava Endorses Democrat After Exiting N.Y. Congressional Race

Republican Dede Scozzafava endorsed her former Democratic opponent Sunday in the race for an upstate New York congressional seat, shaking up the contest for the second day in a row after exiting the race Saturday.

Scozzafava dropped out after Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman experienced a late-in-the-game surge. The move was expected to consolidate GOP voters behind Hoffman on Tuesday.

But on Sunday, Scozzafava backed Democrat Bill Owens -- the announcement was made in a statement sent out by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

"I am supporting Bill Owens for Congress and urge you to do the same," she said. "In Bill Owens, I see a sense of duty and integrity that will guide him beyond political partisanship. He will be an independent voice devoted to doing what is right for New York. Bill understands this district and its people, and when he represents us in Congress he will put our interests first."

more at link...

Republican Scozzafava Endorses Democrat After Exiting N.Y. Congressional Race - FOXNews.com


I know she is a moderate republican and that isn't popular right now with the loud right-wingers. I'm sure this will result in even more ire from the right! She'd better put her tough skin on!!!

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Here, kitty kitty...

Just another indication that the Republican Party has no real leadership at the moment. Dede didn't win a primary to become the Republican candidate - she was "elected" on the third ballot taken by the 11 Republican county chairmen within the 23rd Congressional District, who apparently thought that to be competitive they needed to run someone like her. Sarah Palin (being one of the wannabe leaders of the GOP) decided they were wrong. We'll have to wait until the election to see who was wrong. Meanwhile, the Repubs drift aimlessly....

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Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -Friedrich Nietzsche, philosopher (1844-1900)
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Just an old sweet song keeps Georgia on my mind

You can call it "drifting"...I call it a "realignment"...

The Republicans were in this EXACT same position in the early 90s...It's wasn't until The Contract with America and the solid conservatives takeover that the Republicans became a stronghold...

And "yes", I fully understand that they didn't really live up to the contract and once they had the market cornered on majorities, they started acting just like Democrats and lost their way...

The last 2 elections were like getting it in the face with an iron...and sometimes that needed to be done in order to regroup...which is where they're at now...

If they decide to be "Democrat-lite", the conservatives will have NO party whatsoever (A Democrat's dream since dissent is not allowed unless it's them)...So the Republican Party better take a good, hard look at whether or not they want to continue to sit at the kids' table or they go back to their core principles...

I am a conservative before I am a Republican...

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"You get the respect that you give" - cnredd

First Scozzafava supporter goes to…Owens

First Scozzafava supporter goes to…Owens - Capitol Confidential - New York Politics - timesunion.com - Albany NY

“We would like to commend Dede Scozzafava for a hard-fought campaign and she will always be a friend of the UAW. Like Bill Owens, she has been a fighter for working families and a dedicated public servant. Doug Hoffman’s commitment to privatizing Social Security, opposing efforts to reform healthcare, and supporting tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans is directly at odds with the best interests of working families in Upstate New York, and right now we can’t afford to send a voice for those kinds of priorities to Congress.”

read more at the link....

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Here, kitty kitty...

As I have noted previously, those who use the term "moderate" as an adjective typically do so because they generally dislike or disapprove of those who comprise the noun to which it is attached. That is true whether the phrase, in its entirety, is "moderate Republicans," or "moderate Muslims," or anything else.

It (quite intentionally) denigrates the overall group, while extending some modicum of tolerance--sorta-kinda, anyway--to those whom it characterizes as "moderate."

Which, of course, necessarily implies that all others within the group are immoderate.

If you truly believe that the GOP, for the most part, holds views that the majority of Americans find extremist, then it would behoove you to say so, unabashedly.

But let us not pretend that left-of-center thinkers would respond more favorably toward RINOs (or, as we used to call them, Republocrats) than they would toward real Democrats.

To add to that, there are plenty of people that will call someone "moderate" when they have NO core principles to the party that they are part of just as well as someone calling someone a "moderate" from their OWN party because they don't tow the line 100%...

Ron Paul supporters believe that 98% of Republicans are "moderate" because they aren't rigid enough in their core values, while Libs will call 2% of the same grouip "moderate" even though they express NONE of those core values...

This is for simply nothing more than a political advantage...

A perfect example of this McCain...

For YEARS (and years and years), the left and the media (apologies for the redundancy) were happy to label McCain as a "moderate"...a "maverick" even...because he didn't walk the imaginary line they believe all Republicans walk on...

But the SECOND he challenged Democrats as a nominee, they got whiplash and yelled from the highest mountain that he was the epitomy of rightwing neo-conservativism lockstep and unfaultering in all things Republican...

As far as Dede Scozzafava goes and the term "moderate"...

She is FOR abortion and same-sex marriage...

She is FOR CardCheck...

She is FOR increased taxes...

She is FOR Obama's stimulus package...

For pete's sake, she won the Margeret Sanger Award from Planned Parenthood last year!!!...

That is not a "moderate" Republican...That's a liberal...

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"You get the respect that you give" - cnredd

Funny, cause most people on this board consider themselves "moderate".

Personally, I believe it is a good thing to be moderate...as in, "not fringe", especially in politics. Compromise is necessary in our system of gov't.

No, no one is pretending - it is ridiculous to suggest that any left of center thinker would prefer a moderate republican to another dem or left of center politician.

I spoke highly of a moderate republican in another thread and was accused of being Al Qaeda. How 'bout them apples?!?

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Here, kitty kitty...

McCain labeled himself a "maverick".

On the second point in the above quote, Gingrich disagrees with you.

Hey, you guys knock yourselves out...break with the GOP if you want...it will be better for the country if you do!

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Here, kitty kitty...

Only if one defines "moderate" as as the antithesis of extremist.

I consider myself a conservative--center-right, to be more precise--but not exactly (or almost exactly) in the center.

(By the way, those who wish to express the thought in a way that is not intentionally tendentious will use the term centrist--not "moderate." The term "moderate" is used, in this context, to try to tar conservatives as being--allegedly--immoderate.)

I have found that those on the left (or even the center-left) typically believe that "[c]ompromise" is a virtue when practiced by Republicans and conservatives; but it is a sellout when practiced by Democrats and progressives.

Personally, I believe that compromise may be acceptable when the subject at hand is merely a matter of judgment, as regarding degree; but that compromise is never justifiable whenever it involves the sacrifice of principle.

I'm glad to see that we agree on that point.

But why, then, should a Republican wish to become a faux Democrat?