The 219th Vote.
The partisan fact that remains after the brouhaha and failure of the Republican party in the recent special election New York 23rd is that the winner was a Democrat named Bill Owen who immediately cast the 219th vote for Mrs. Pelosi's healthcare reform bill in the House, Saturday November 7. The geniuses of the Club for Growth, with octogenarian pot-shotter Jackson Stephens's checkbook, having ambushed the Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava, then abandoned the 23rd to the hands of the clever Democrats. Credit to Rahm Emanuel, President Obama and the DCCC for seizing upon an opening and putting away the victory. Would Dede Scozzafava have won the special election and voted with the Republican party in the healthcare bill without the genius of the Club for Growth? The highly probably answer is "Yes."
Purer than Ceasar's Wife.
The Club for Growth is a stand-in for the timeless libertarian cause -- which can resemble a discursive and wholly entertaining celebration of Howard Roark Meets John Galt -- not a political party. In the instance of the 23rd, the Club for Growth's sophisticated, international persuasion had the effect of undermining the local Republican party and making it possible for the mundane ideology of the Democrats (status quo ante majority in Congress) to succeed. Why did the Club for Growth do this? Because bloody-minded bountiful ideology is more dear to the Club for Growth than victory or Ceasar's wife's virtue or even the wishes and needs of the district. This is of itself not a bad or good thing; it is a condition. It was not the Club for Growth that failed in the 23rd. It was the Republican party. The party failed its supporters; the party failed Dede Scozzafava. Once the party chose Scozzafava to be its nominee on the ballot, it was the party's responsibility to get her to victory. Scozzafava did nothing wrong. She was encouraged to campaign; she was endorsed; she was supported; then she was betrayed. Does she have strong feelings? Yes. Did she endorse Bill Owen in the last hours out of bitterness? Yes. Who failed?
More Genius Club for Growth Ahead.
The Club for Growth is now boosting Florida pol Marco Rubio in the Republican primary. Rubio asserts colorfully that he is a Reagan conservative, -- "It's very simple: We already have a Democratic Party in America. We do not need two Democratic parties in America." -- and he takes aim at the boastfully moderate Florida Governor Charlie Crist. Because this is a primary contest, this is all fine. If Rubio wins, then he can match his conservatism against the Democrats. If he loses, the presumption is that he will support Crist. All well and good. It would only be if Rubio launches a third party challenge in the general election that the formula of the 23rd New York would obtain. Unlikely at this point . The Club for Growth's endorsements of self-regarded conservatives against so-called RINOs is sound, cunning, cheerful political gamesmanship that keeps the GOP healthy and adroit. What happened in the 23rd NY was snooty sabotage. If the 23rd stays Democratic in 2010, it will underline the recklessness of the Club for Growth and the frailty of the Republican party. No national party has ever been successful by being the same thing all the time in all the places.
What Bullmoose Taught Us.
The six million plus males votes that elected TR in 1904 were not all or even majority the votes of progressives, and this same group split its vote wildly between the Bullmoose TR and Taft in the 1912 fiasco that let Wilson win -- a 23rd writ large. The twenty-two million male and female votes that elected FDR in 1932 were not all one thing, in fact many of them were people who voted straight segregationist their wholes lives, and a sizeable number were Republicans who had voted for Taft, Hughes, Harding, Coolidge and Hoover. Party's adapt or they fail. The GOP failed in the 23rd, just as it fails now nationally until it learns again that the only vote that matters is the 218th in the House and the 60th or 51st in the Senate and the 270th electoral vote.
yes JB history proves you are correct
History also points to a huge dead party once called the Republicans.
And they were the ones who broke the faith of their conservative supporters
we are either gonna bury the carcass now or support conservatives
The GOP has a choice to make.
Special note my dear friend- re check the vote tallies in the 23 rd Someone conceded a tad to early i am afraid
From Adirondack Almanac:
....The folks in Newcomb (and also in North Creek in Warren County) often promote their communities' connection to Theodore Roosevelt's ascendancy to the presidency. Teddy's nighttime trip from a camp in Newcomb to the rail station at North Creek as William McKinley lay dying from a bullet delivered by Leon Czolgosz's .32 caliber Iver-Johnson handgun is usually considered Roosevelt's great tie to the Adirondack region. There is a annual celebration of Roosevelt this weekend, but more of that later.....
The cottage TR stayed in while McKinley was dying is finally stabilized and under repair.
NY23 is still being contested, Military and overseas votes are still being counted.
-classic! I just realized the video clip above. Rachelle Maddow is Exactly who should interviewing Dede
Mr Batchelor - My Apologies sir- I was once invited to the gran' old Party big tent by an amiable elder statesman - A man who's message was truer to the virtues & beliefs of the founding principles of this nation than any one I had heard from before.
I was asked during the Reign of Bush Jr. to Suspend my concerns in the effort to " protect us all" from the evil terrors that faced us . . . in the end i was left w/ a war that at best is retreatable from, an economy on the verge of collapse, and fraudulent corporations and banks bilking the US TAXPAYERS and a republican party that ignored everything enough to have effectively be considered as having committed suicide
I can not in good faith back the republican party- I will follow the Conservative line and if that means the End of all we believe in - I guess we deserve it. We squandered our opportunities
I understand your point, but lets not pretend for a minute that Pelosi wouldn't have come up with another Dem vote for the Health Care bill had Hoffman or Dede been sworn in a few days before the vote. It was all about providing cover.
Did you see the debate on Saturday, John? All your kinder, gentler Republicans voted NAY, en masse. Their stated reasons for opposing the bill were: it would raise taxes to a prohibitive level, put us in debt, and further destroy our personal freedoms. All of which is stuff that John Galt cared about and Dede Snatchafloozie didn't. What place does she have in that group? None. She doesn't stand for any of those things, from what I know about her. If I'm wrong or been misinformed, then I apologize. Your point about history is well-taken. And your point about party loyalty is fine too. But the candidate has to meet us halfway. The person needs to be vetted better and not even be nominated for the Republican Party candidate if he or she is as far to the left as Dede evidently was.
No, you may mock libertarianism all you wish, but it was the libertarian spirit that drove the Tea Parties, it was the libertarian spirit that made the difference between the bunch of quivering, weak-kneed NO-YES group that we saw cave in on TARP I, and the cohesive, well-spoken bunch of freedom fighters we saw on 11/7. I for one think that everything's fine and that we as a conservative movement did absolutely as well as we possibly could have over the last few months. You're also ruling out the possibility that there was some corruption going on in NY 23 that has yet to be exposed. I find it very suspicious that the polls were all off by 10% or more in the 'wrong' direction (i.e., they're usually off by understating conservative support; in this case, they were off by overstating it.)
Dede and others like her don't give a hoot about the Maple Street of your childhood. Why do you give a hoot about her?
Excerpt - first few paragraphs of article just posted on RCP. It's as if it was from my lips to .... uh .... Capitalism's ears:
----------------------------------------
Polls suggest healthcare debate a boon to GOP Senate candidates
By Aaron Blake - 11/12/09 04:45 PM ET
The healthcare battle appears to be helping Republicans running for the Senate.
Two Quinnipiac polls released Thursday show the leading GOP candidates in Connecticut and Ohio growing their leads.
Former Rep. Rob Simmons (R-Conn.) leads Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), 49-38, and former Rep. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) has opened his first leads over two potential Democratic opponents.
----------------------------
It goes on to say that this appears to be related to Saturday's health care debate in the House. See, people know now where Republicans stand. They weren't sure for a while. That was the entire problem - people need to know where Republicans stand. It's so simple that it has to be repeated 50 times or more to sink in. Fortunately, I'm just the man for the job!!! Of course, who am I to suppose I'll ever convince the great John Batchelor of anything, but as long as he comes around to the realization eventually, that's all that matters.
And now we see Hoffman catching up, now within 3000 of owen with 10,000 absentee ballots to count. So went JB's narrative, and least it's possible. While we are at it, even the Whigs were a party at one point, supplanted by the GOP. Now it would be nice to Mr. Potato Head Steele and his circus to go away and something better to be formed. Good riddance whigs, good riddance GOP.
While we're at it let's order some new suits for the Congressmen and Senators of our new party, and get them memberships at 24 Hour Fitness. There's a certain "dowdyness" that seems to plague the Republican Party that is probably a turnoff to women of all ages.
On second thought, Barney Frank isn't exactly Favio either.
Folks
Rahm, Obama, et al would not have appointed a Republican House Member as Army Secretary if they did not think they could capture his seat. (Note that they came close to loosing) JB may be right about a third party - after all you need the machinery and infrastructure if you want a wide victory not just POTUS/TOTUS. The Dems needed another vote and figured they could get it here. Dede S. threw her support to Owens after initially declining to support anyone -- perhaps understandable but not party loyal. Why? This appears to have local over tones which go beyond parties...
AS I see it, the Dems won (shall we say) fair and square. What else can we expect to happen here in America? Sometimes the Dems win; sometimes it's the Republicans. Why is it such an affront whenever the Dems win?
I'll tell you why! It's because the Dems are not the Dems anymore. It's because the Dems are operating under false pretenses. Because they cheat openly; because they lie; because they don't play by the rules.
What happens if it should turn out that Hoffman won after all the absentee ballots are counted? Will they do a do-over of the health care vote? Probably not. But it would be the right thing to do. Would it not?
Barney Frank isn't even Barney Rubble or Barney the dinosaur, although he probably likes the purple.
It isn't quite over yet Peter.
- Question- If after all the votes are counted and Hoffman did win What then?
Is he still tied to his concession?
I realize that is not likely but hell I am just as interested
According to an article by Mark Weiner in The Post-Standard, "The new vote totals mean the race will be decided by absentee ballots, of which about 10,200 were distributed, said John Conklin, communications director for the state Board of Elections.
Under a new law in New York that extended deadlines, military and overseas ballots received by this coming Monday (and postmarked by Nov. 2) will be counted. Standard absentee ballots had to be returned this past Monday.
Conklin said the state sent a letter to the House Clerk last week explaining that no winner had been determined in the 23rd District, and therefore the state had not certified the election. But the letter noted that Owens still led by about 3,000 votes, and that the special election was not contested -- two factors that legally allowed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to swear in Owens on Friday.
"We sent a letter to the clerk laying out the totals," Conklin said. "The key is that Hoffman conceded, which means the race is not contested. However, all ballots will be counted, and if the result changes, Owens will have to be removed."
Nopers..... the right thing to do would be for Hoffman to say, I may have gotten more votes but I conceded, my word is my word, you're the Congressman, congratulations. Why is it that such an obvious answer seems to elude everyone?
It doesn't matter, anyway, at least not with respect to the House vote. The abortion thing appears to be the death knell of health care reform, at least anything as intrusive as the House bill. Pelosi has shot her wad. She has some very powerful people (Democrats) at her throat. This public option stuff is going to blow away like one of those little clouds of flies in "The Green Mile".
Canada Free Press is reporting that the missing votes for Hoffman are a sign of fraud, since there were 4 precincts where Hoffman's vote total were mistakenly entered as zero, but no similar errors were made for Owens' votes. If one assumes the hypothesis of the errors being randomly distributed with a p=.5 then the chance of all 4 being against one of the candidates is 2 * .5^4 = 1/8 and the chance of all 4 being against Hoffman with Hoffman being specified a priori is .5^4 = 1/16 (15 to 1 against for those of you who play the ponies.)
Hey, it was ok when Al Franken did it.
NYS is DEm controlled state, HQ told upstate loyalists to make sure the Dem wins.
How can any voting official sign a false ballot count?
Hallmark of Democrats is they're sore losers and will keep on recounting and whining until they win.
I do think, however, there's a difference between too-close-to-call, honest mistakes (which you just have to accept and move on from within a reasonable amount of time), and out and out massive fraud. I always had a keen disrespect for the hanging-chad-conspiracy-theory whiners after the 2000 debaucle; I'd almost rather lose the election than become like them.
Anita's Dunn!!
Anita may be dunn but her hubby is slated to replace Greg Craig (or is it Craig Greg?). tight group them obama-ites!
Who is the power in the Rep party? Grover Norquist? NRA? christian coalition? Bushes? Baker? "they" seem invisible. they appointed Steel. I don't know who I'm supposed direct my frustration toward?
Enlighten me ye learned gentlemen.
Even a loss for Hoffman is at this point a victory, as he edges closer and closer to the winner's current totals. To have come so close, after coming out of nowhere, making several political errors... shows the power of these values. With a little fine-tuning, it is a winning message. In the meantime, the GOP has been put on notice. Don't give us liberal candidates. It is a non-starter. Whether the GOP elites like it, or don't like it, it doesn't matter. They're going to have to deal with it.
Is JB the "GOP elite"? lol .....