Some local bloggers at the Watertown Daily Times provide insight into the teabaggers’ loss in NY congressional district 23. Bob Gorman writes,
The delicate dance of dips and faints that Republicans perform to keep some semblance of a two-party system in New York was turned into a chicken-fried square dance in which everybody does whatever the caller says. And the caller was far, far away in a radio studio well to the west, but really the right, of New York state.
Gorman goes on to talk about the ham-handed way “national conservative talk show hosts” with no respect whatsoever for local sensibilities hijacked the local election. Another local blogger, Jeffrey Savitskie, refers to Hoffman as the “carpetbagger candidate.”
More evidence the teabaggers are channeling the spirit of Robespierre — RedState’s Erick Erickson says that Americans for Tax Reform is no longer an organization in good standing with the Jacobins tea party patriots. And why not? Because the Tax Policy Director of ATR supported Dede Scozzafava, who had signed a “no new taxes” pledge.
ATR is a group organized and run by Grover Norquist, dedicated to the deification of Ronald Reagan and the drowning of government in a bathtub. Yet ATR is apostate, to Erickson. No longer pure.
The Terror eventually turned on Robespierre himself, remember.
As our pal Ceiling Cat might say, both the GOP and NJ voters sorta eated theyselves yesterday.
This is mostly OT but so intriguing I have to mention it: George W. Bush and Bill Clinton will debate each other at Radio City Musical Hall on Feb. 25, 2010.
Now that will be lopsided. Also probably hilarious.
Joan –
One can only hope that Bill will wake up on Feb. 25 in a mood to throw some verbal shoes. I expect that Bill will hold back, because slappin’ the shit (verbally) out of that monkey-butt Bush might reflect adversely on Hillory and by implication President Obama since it’s a given with the GOP that all Democrats are telepathically linked, like Borg drones and Bill’s opinions are the same thing as Obama’s policies.
Naturally, I will tune in and hope I am wrong.
Can it really be a coincidence that Sarah Palin’s book is going to be released on the same day as the video game “Left 4 Dead 2” hits the streets? : ^ )
(Pedant mode) Robespierre died at the start of the backlash against the Terror; the better example for a leader of the Terror who got killed by the Terror itself would be Danton.
Michelle Bachmann’s chief of staff has resigned. Per another blog – A conservative Republican House member, speaking on the condition of anonymity, suggested that Bachman’s views – and her willingness to state them – make it hard for her to keep staff.
“When your captain’s crazy, it’s time to find a new ship,†the lawmaker said.
GOP – Full speed ahead – that iceberg will move out of your way
From Limbaugh’s lips to your ears: “Here is — these are my thoughts on New York-23. … We cannot forget how this whole thing happened in the first place. There was not a primary. The right message here would indict the way party bosses, Republican Party bosses and these big thinkers like Newt screwed the whole thing up from the get go”.
The war between Newt and Rush extends back to earlier this year, when Limbaugh said Gingrich was tearing apart the conservative movement by trying to embrace “better policy ideas.†Gingrich had argued that the “era of Reagan is over,†and that Republicans needed more than simply being the “party of no.†Limbaugh is of course quite comfortable with the “party of no†status.
The voice of the party has spoken – big thinkers need not get on line for this ride. :^)
Some days one wonders seriously if Erick Erickson is an elaborate spoof. This is one of those days.
I wonder how many people went to the polls in NY-23 intending to vote for Hoffman but got turned off by out-of-townie teabaggers screaming threats at them?
You know, even if I was going to the polls to vote for your “Undead” candidate, it might disconcert me to see dozen’s of vampires running around with blood on their lips and teeth, screaming and shrieking about voting for the “Undead”
There’s not enough capes, ties, and courtly manner’s to make me vote for your candidate when you show how ‘blood-thirsty’ the rest of you are. It tells me how crazy your candidate will be if elected.
But, nice show. Thank God after it premiered in upstate NY, it won’t open! Now go ahead, take it on the road to see how well it will play.
BTW – what’s next? One of Rush’s young-man snuff films brought to Broadway with a score by Ted Nugent?
CUND Gulag – The show IS on the road in FL. Charlie Crist, the GOP Governor is running for a Senate seat in 2010. Though Crist was a strong supporter of McCain, he was right in line for stimulus money when Obama signed the stimulus bill. Damn good thing, too because Florida needed the money.
Fast forward to this week. Crist was not on hand to welcome Obama for something-or-other in Florida because Charlie ‘didn’t know’ Obama was going to be here. His picture with Obama from Feb. is being used by the teabagger candidate in the primaries. Palin is offering/threatening to campaign against the popular Governor and FOR the teabagger.
I saw Charlie Crist on CNN tonight and he looked like a deer in the headlights. He’s running to the right as hard as he can, against Obama on spending and health care – the government can’t do anything right. .
Here’s what I see. Crist is being pressured to withdraw from the Senate run to give the teabagger a clear shot. Crist won’t do it, because he’s ambitious and he’s the favorite. If Crist wins in the primaries, the teabaggers may adopt a scorched earth policy and run their man as an independent, ensuring a Democratic victory in a swing state. If the teabaggers don’t run their man against Crist in this scenario, they must abandon forced idealogical purity in candidates.
I want to expand on that. Muchael Steele has made it clear. The fact that less than 20% of voters identify themsleves as GOP is no problem because INDEPENDENTS ARE VOTING CONSERVATIVE IN THE GE! (Big surprise – almost all the ‘I’ voters used to be Republicans.) The lunatics have taken over the GOP asylum, and they expect to sweep on an ultra-conservative platform by owning the process of selecting GOP candidates, and then cashing in on the independent who won’t vote for a Democrat. The GOP does not WANT moderates voting in the primary – that might result in moderate GOP candidates in office.
There’s two tents here – a big tent for voters and a tiny tent for candidates. Driving moderates out of the GOP may have been the plan all along. Will it work?
Doug,
While I understand the Dem’s usual pussyfooting around, and not doing anything to go the left, I’m at a loss to explain why the right would do what they’re doing. The tea-baggers are leading the Republicans off a cliff, and still, they’re following like lemmings.
Don’t they realize yet that their base is soooo base, that to cave to the cavemen, they will lose the rest of the country? Are they are banking on that as their winning strategy? How does that win? Does it win Florida? Other seats? I’m at a loss…
They call Obama Hitler, yet they’re the ones into purity – maybe not racial, but ideological and philosophical. I fear for this country. If the conservatives have gone mad, and the middle follows, “Something wicked this way comes…”
I’m not saying it’ll happen. It’s just that every hurricane starts with a small breeze.
“Can it really be a coincidence that Sarah Palin’s book is going to be released on the same day as the video game “Left 4 Dead 2″ hits the streets?”
Good Question, why can’t the MSM be so inquisitive?
No it couldn’t be. Left for dead again. Quitters always fade away softly. In order to die and be left for dead one must have been alive and had made some difference….
Sorry Sarah
c u n d gulag –
The GOP IS the teabaggers now. The moderates have left to become independents, but their voting habits are mostly conservative. In our 2-party system, the primary process in most states excludes independents, so the teabaggers will be able to select a slate of wingnuts. Probably. They EXPECT that Independendent voters will check the box with the ‘R’ because they will be repelled by the ‘D’ brand. Thus getting teabaggers elected in droves where they previously would not have passed the primary selection process. This may have been the plan after the GOP got whipped for 2 elections in a row.
The GOP is satisfied they they are the minority party at 17% of registered voters. The money is still there for candidates – VA & NY prove that they can still win. CD23 says the Democrats have shine a light on the movement – what it is and what it means – identify any non-moderate Republican as a teabagger and demand he declare where he stands on the issues of that movement. Otherise they will run (aafter CD23) as stealth teabagggers.
Oh joy – the tea partiers have found their Nostradamus:
For more than a decade Dr. Igor Panarin, a Russian academic, has been predicting that sometime around 2010 the United States will collapse, splintering into separate states, some of them controlled by foreign powers. Outside of Russia, no one’s put much stock in his crackpot and stereotype-based theories—until now, that is. Who are the newest members of the Igor Panarin fan club? Tea partiers who’ve rallied against the Obama administration’s policies and blasted the president for pushing a “socialist†agenda. And he’s especially big among tea party activists in Texas, who have hosted Panarin and promoted his work.