This is fun — Scozzafava is telling her supporters to vote for the Democrat, Owens, instead of the wingnut, Hoffman. The Watertown Daily Times has endorsed Owens and says Hoffman would be bad for the district:
Mr. Hoffman is running as an ideologue. If he carries out his pledges on earmarks, taxation, labor law reform and other inflexible positions, Northern New York will suffer. This rural district depends on the federal government for an investment in Fort Drum and its soldiers, environmental protection of our international waterway and the Adirondack Park, and the livelihood of all our dairy farmers across the district, among other support. Our representative cannot be locked into rigid promises and policies that would jeopardize these critical sectors of our economy.
Frank Rich spoke to this also:
Last week it turned out that Hoffman’s prime attribute to the radical right — as a take-no-prisoners fiscal conservative — was bogus. In fact he’s on the finance committee of a hospital that happily helped itself to a $479,000 federal earmark. Then again, without the federal government largess that the tea party crowd so deplores, New York’s 23rd would be a Siberia of joblessness. The biggest local employer is the pork-dependent military base, Fort Drum.
Little Lulu says Rich is “spooked” and has the “heebie-jeebies” about “mainstream conservatives asserting themselves in the NY-23 congressional race.” “Mainstream conservatives” is, of course, a euphemism for “nuttier than a peanut farm.” But you can tell how “spooked” Rich is:
No matter what the results in that race on Tuesday, the Republicans are the sure losers. This could be a gift that keeps on giving to the Democrats through 2010, and perhaps beyond.
Yeah, Rich is quaking in his boots.
I don’t know who’s going to win that election, but I predict that if Hoffman wins the emboldened tea partiers will embark on the bloodiest purge since Robespierre and the Reign of Terror. If Owens wins, after a period of self-indulgent whining the tea partiers will identify some scapegoats and then will embark on the bloodiest purge since Robespierre and the Reign of Terror.
Don’t forget the popcorn.