While I Was Absentmindedly Pondering…
By Mitch Berg
…last night, this crossed my mind.
Remember last November?
For starters, Democrats tried to spin their crushing, upset, turnaround defeats in Virginia but New Jersey as something other than “a referendum on Obama?” It was untrue, of course, but it’s understandable that they’d float it as damage control, and I’d never expect that the utterly compliant lefty blogosphere would repeat it as anything other than fact).
Then they tried to paint the New York 23rd District race, where a virtually unknown Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman, running a ,last-minute, poorly-funded campaign against a liberal “Republican”, Dede Scozzafava, (who actually ran to the left of the Democrat, and spent more money against Hoffman than against her putative opponent), very nearly won running against both of them, as a defeat for the GOP. I’ve never really figured out the logic behind this – and being Democrat propaganda, it wasn’t intended for consumption by the logical anyway – but apparently it has something to do with Sarah Palin’s endorsement not causing the sky to open and rain ballots like it did for Obama.
Now, the “reason” given for this is that “It’s proof that the conservative movement is too partisan and extreme!” (ignoring, of course, that Scozzafava waas an extremist for the other side, in a district that had always voted for real Republicans).
But let’s take it at face value; let’s bite our tongues and accept for argument’s sake that Hoffman’s “loss” – and the temporary loss to the GOP of a fairly backwater House seat that will return to the GOP in about eleven months anyway – was a symptom of an “extremist” takeover of the GOP?
Very well.
So, all of you who were hopping up and down like poo-flinging monkeys over Hoffman; aren’t, then, the departure of the vastly more power Chris Dodd and Byron Dorgan even more-proximate symptoms of the side-effects of the inflexible extremism of the Pelosi/Reid/Obama agenda?
January 8th, 2010 at 8:14 am
Angryclown doesn’t know much about NoDak – nor does he care to – but if you think Dodd’s seat is going to turn Republican, you are high.
January 8th, 2010 at 8:36 am
Mitch doesn’t know much about Connecticut politics, nor does he care, nor did he say he figured Dodd’s seat was going anywhere. Dodd’s seat is as solidly Demcrat as…oh, I dunno, the New Jersey governor’s seat. At least.
But if Hoeven runs and wins (and if he runs, he’ll likely win), losing this seat’ll be on a par with losing Daschle; Dorgan is one of the most powerful, senior Democrats there is, anywhere.
The good news for NoDak? With ACORN registering voters for whomever goes up against (fingers crossed) Hoeven, the state’s population will jump from 620,000 to four million by this fall.
January 8th, 2010 at 8:52 am
The good news for NoDak? With ACORN registering voters for whomever goes up against (fingers crossed) Hoeven, the state’s population will jump from 620,000 to four million by this fall.
Excellent — NoDak should get about four new congresscritters, then!
January 8th, 2010 at 8:59 am
Wouldn’t that be SHOCKING, if the midterm elections were to go against the president’s party. UNPRECEDENTED even. Please. You guys don’t get to claim a win unless you win. If you want to pretend 41 Republicans in the Senate is a win for you, Angryclown sure can’t stop ya.
January 8th, 2010 at 9:55 am
I think a lof of people from both sides jumped the gun on Hoffman.
Conservatives shouldn’t assume that his success is indicative of something more. He could have been a reactionary flash in the plan that demonstrate a brief lapse in GOP organization than anything else.
At the same time, Democrats shouldn’t assume the opposite. Hoffman was a very weak candidate and still almost won. It is very possible that a stronger conservative 3rd party candidate would have crushed a general election. Hoffmanesque candidates in 2010 will be much more prepared and much more formidable.
January 8th, 2010 at 3:11 pm
How about the Senate special election on the 19th to fill Ted Kennedy’s seat. The libs are starting to wake up and smell the coffee. This is a moveon.org letter I found on my daily dailykos search…
Dear MoveOn member,
In 11 days, we could lose progressive hero Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat—and with it, any hope for passing major progressive legislation this year.
A new poll Tuesday showed Democrat Martha Coakley’s lead in the special election to succeed Kennedy is at the edge of the margin of error, and the non-partisan Cook Political Report now says it’s very competitive.1 And today, some of the people behind the infamous Swift Boat and racist Willie Horton ads are spending $400,000 on a new attack ad. Republican Scott Brown and his extreme right-wing supporters are significantly outspending Coakley on TV.2
A Republican victory here would be a catastrophe—Democrats would lose their 60th vote in the Senate, health care could die, and the Republicans could block pretty much anything they want.
We can’t let a right-winger take over Ted Kennedy’s seat because not enough progressives are paying attention. Coakley urgently needs help before it’s too late. Your contribution in the next 24 hours will help her expand her all-out campaign for victory. Can you contribute $25 to Coakley’s campaign right away?
https://pol.moveon.org/…
Martha Coakley will carry on Ted Kennedy’s progressive legacy. In endorsing Coakley, Vicki Kennedy, Ted Kennedy’s wife, said, “My husband fought for healthcare reform for more than 40 years. Martha Coakley shares those critical beliefs.” Coakley has also been outspoken against restrictions in the bill on women’s right to choose.3
As Massachusetts Attorney General, Coakley was aggressive in challenging the Wall Street titans who helped bring on the financial crisis, and she recovered tens of millions of dollars for taxpayers and victims of Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, and UBS for their deceptive activities.4 She’ll be a strong fighter in Washington for tough regulations on the financial industry.
And Republican Scott Brown? He’s a “free enterprise advocate”5 who thinks the system works just fine. But he’s giving Coakley a serious challenge. He promised, “As the 41st senator I can stop a lot of this stuff in its tracks….I can actually force them to go back to the drawing board.”6 And there are rumors that the Republican Party and the Club for Growth will also begin attack ads on Coakley soon.
And the race is further confused by the presence of a 3rd candidate, named Joe Kennedy, who isn’t related to Ted Kennedy, but is a tea-party extremist. Martha Coakley needs our help to cut through the clutter and get her message out—on TV, at the doors, and on the phones.
At this moment, when Ted Kennedy’s greatest goal in life is within reach, we cannot afford to let Republican extremists snatch away his legacy. Can you help with an urgent contribution of $25? Click here:
https://pol.moveon.org/…
Wow…
January 8th, 2010 at 4:07 pm
They’re desparate, Ben. They know they’re in a bad spot and have no margin for error.
It is SO freakin much fun to watch 🙂
January 11th, 2010 at 1:55 pm
Ben, when isn’t moron.org foaming at the mouth over something or other?
“…outspoken against restrictions in the bill on women’s right to choose.”
Well, well, well, maybe one of the liberals around here can explain this to the readers. Wouldn’t an actual restriction of rights make the bill unconstitutional? Peevee? Too coward to answer? AssClown? DG?