quote:

ALBANY, N.Y. - Fighting plunging support, Republican Dierdre Scozzafava abruptly suspended her campaign Saturday in a special election for a U.S. House seat that has exposed a rift among national factions of the party.



Campaign spokesman Matt Burns said Scozzafava is essentially withdrawing from the race, although her name will remain on Tuesday's ballot. She thinks stepping aside is best for the party, he said.



"It is increasingly clear that pressure is mounting on many of my supporters to shift their support," Scozzafava said in a written statement. "Consequently, I hereby release those individuals who have endorsed and supported my campaign to transfer their support as they see fit."

quote:

Originally posted by G8trGr8t:
Far right wil alienate the middle and the far left will invite them in for another voictory.

That is a lose lose proposition for the american people.

When will the far right nutjobs realize that they are a minority and their only hope of influencing policy is to join with the moderates in the middle who don't like the far left but dislike the far right even more?

It is a damn shame that the majority of the people in this country who are socially moderate and fiscally conservative do not have a party that represents their interests.

quote:

Originally posted by Florabama:
It will take quite a while for the Republican establishment aka Newt Ginrich, to get the egg off their faces over this one. They routinely critizied conservatives for backing Hoffman and said conservative Republicans need to open their arms to leftist RINOs then Scozzafava dropped out and turned around and endorsed the democrat. So much for party loyalty. I guess it's only supposed to go one way when you're talking about RINOs.

quote:

Originally posted by DixieH:

quote:

Originally posted by G8trGr8t:
It is a damn shame that the majority of the people in this country who are socially moderate and fiscally conservative do not have a party that represents their interests.

So how'd that strategy work out for John McCain??...

quote:

Originally posted by G8trGr8t:
Far right wil alienate the middle and the far left will invite them in for another voictory.

That is a lose lose proposition for the american people.

When will the far right nutjobs realize that they are a minority and their only hope of influencing policy is to join with the moderates in the middle who don't like the far left but dislike the far right even more?

It is a damn shame that the majority of the people in this country who are socially moderate and fiscally conservative do not have a party that represents their interests.

quote:

Originally posted by jiminix:
Far right gets their due in NY

Republican Scozzafava was ahead in the polls, headed for victory in a District that has been represented by a Republican for the last 100 years.

Then along comes Conservative Party candidate Hoffman, who doesn't even live in the district. He gets endorsed by Sarah Palin, Dick Armey, Rush Limbaugh, etc. Money and volunteers and big conservative organizations flood into NY from across the country to campaign for Hoffman. Scozzafava is forced out of the race because most of her Republican support abandons her.

Then Democrat Owens beats Conservative Hoffman, 49% - 46%.
NY Times story

Great show. Justice is done.
.

quote:

Originally posted by echo hargo:
A third party conservative nearly beat the establishment. I'm sure voter fraud helped them. regardless, both parties will be soiling their collective panties come next year.

quote:

Originally posted by G8trGr8t:
Mid term elections, low voter turnout, highly energized far right base with national figures making speeches and contributing large campaign sums and they still can't win in a historically pub territory.

As I predicted, the end result of the far right alienating the moderates is another democrat in congress. Does that count as a moral victory? Stupid, just plain stupid. Are they happy now with another dem in congress? Are they better off than with Scozzafava in congress?

Far right would cut off their nose to spite their face. When will they realize that the pubs cannot win without moderate middle? They can't see past their bibles and anti-abortion posters to realize it.

At least the dems realize that if they wantedto be in power, they would at least ahve to lie to the middle and pull them in. Pubs did a great job with Newt and the gang in trying to be fiscally conservative during the CLinto years and things were good for them but then they let Delay and the bible thumpers hijack the party and it went to crap. Wish they would get a clue.

Conservative does not mean far right christian in my book, it means fiscally responsible, less government and until the pubs return to that dogma, they will continue to lose significance.

Pub winners were not far right and did not pander to them. Maybe somebody will notice that.

quote:

Did Social Conservatism Sink Hoffman In NY-23?
Wed, 11/04/2009 - 12:33pm | posted by Doug Mataconis
Roger L. Simon thinks so:

[W]hy – in what was clearly a Republican year – did Hoffman lose? Well, there are several reasons and, yes, the Democratic victory was narrow, thinner than the five or so percent that went to withdrawn Republican nominee Scozzafava who herself endorsed the Democratic candidate. Still, the 23rd is a safely Republican, even conservative, district. In a year where the GOP racked up a 20% margin in Virginia and coasted easily in Jersey, a state in which Obama romped in ‘08 by 16%, what was the problem?

Well… I might as well say it… social conservatism. America is a fiscally conservative country – now perhaps more than ever, and with much justification – but not a socially conservative one. No, I don’t mean to say it’s socially liberal. It’s not. It’s socially laissez-faire (just as its mostly fiscally laissez-faire). Whether we’re pro-choice, pro-life or whatever we are, most of us want the government out of our bedrooms, just as we want it out of our wallets.

Hoffman’s capital-C Conservative campaign, however, tried to separate itself from the majority parties by making a big deal of the social issues. He was all upset that Scozzafava was pro-gay marriage, seemingly as upset as he was with her support for the stimulus plan. He projected the image of a bluenose in a world that increasingly doesn’t want to hear about these things. Hoffman’s is a selective vision of the nanny state – you can nanny about some things but not about others. I suspect America deeply dislikes nannying about anything.

There is, of course, a message in this for the Republican Party going forward. You can choose to emphasize the social issues or not. Today may show the former is a losing proposition.

But will conservatives listen?

Of course not.