This Was Inevitable
Nothing surprising about this (via the GOS):
It is in this spirit that I am writing to let you know I am supporting Bill Owens for Congress and urge you to do the same.It’s not in the cards for me to be your representative, but I strongly believe Bill is the only candidate who can build upon John McHugh’s lasting legacy in the U.S. Congress. John and I worked together on the expansion of Fort Drum and I know how important that base is to the economy of this region. I am confident that Bill will be able to provide the leadership and continuity of support to Drum Country just as John did during his tenure in Congress.
In Bill Owens, I see a sense of duty and integrity that will guide him beyond political partisanship. He will be an independent voice devoted to doing what is right for New York. Bill understands this district and its people, and when he represents us in Congress he will put our interests first.
Please join me in voting for Bill Owens on Tuesday. To address the tough challenges ahead, we must rise above partisanship and politics and work together. There’s too much at stake in this election to do otherwise.
We’ll see if the wingnut purge works out for them. In related news, it turns out that Hoffman is a Glenn Beck follower and has signed his pledge. This just gets more awesome with every day.
And this from Hoffman’s position page made me chuckle: “I was brought up to believe marriage is between a man and a woman. That’s how I feel. I don’t want to persecute anyone but that’s what I believe. Marriage ought to stay marriage. Period.”
Unless, of course, your name is Michael Schiavo, and then marriage is between a man, a woman, the wingnuts, and a Republican congress.
valdivia
I cant wait to hear what the strike force has to say about this and how the GOP reacts.
MattF
Gosh. Politics ain’t beanbag.
valdivia
I hope Owens makes a lot of the Beck thing. I would.
beltane
This is just awesome. I’ve been loving every bit of it. Except I don’t love hearing Hoffman discussing the topic of marriage. He is exceptionally creepy looking; the thought of him copulating with any other living being will give me nightmares.
It is funny that not too long ago, Plattsburgh elected a liberal, gay Republican as mayor. He was popular and photogenic, unlike Hoffman.
scott
I’m not exactly sure why, but this is excellent news for John McCain
calipygian
When Hoffman loses, does that mean that the voters of NY-23 have sided with the San Francisco/Liebrul/Pelosi agenda and rejected Beck?
Just Some Fuckhead
lolz
Vodkis
Refreshing to hear of a republican with some class and sanity. Of course, her name will be mud for this betrayal of real amerikun wingnut values.
beltane
@MattF: Not beanbag. Politics is now nutbag and teabag.
calipygian
I kind of agree with Hoffman on this point:
At least in the sense that I don’t think that the gubmint should be in the business of administering a Catholic Sacrament and giving it official primatur.
Now, if the government recognizes a partnership established between any two adults for the purpose of establishing a household, I can get behind that.
Then that couple could go out and find the clergyman of their choice to shake the chicken bones and make it a “marriage”.
Although, I wonder how he squares the “don’t want to persecute anyone” with Rush’s pronuncmiento that he wants to build a big tent GOP regardless of people’s sexual orientation.
The Grand Panjandrum
What I find most interesting about this whole episode is that she is pretty much a traditional Republican with the exception of her views on marriage equality and abortion. The social conservatives are squeezing out the last few sane folks from the party.
I just wonder how this will effect other women who self-identify as Republicans but are pro-choice and amendable to marriage equality? Will this be the final straw for them?
Mark S.
Where do you stand on issues such as the war/terror/military?
There’s a hefty fuckin’ fee!
Hookers and Cocaine
Where’s the football thread? Or don’t you guys want discuss Dallas’ dominating performance today.
Psst, haters… Romo is having the best year of his career.
The Saff
Good quote from Frank Rich’s column today about the NY-23 special election:
This is highly entertaining.
Skullduggery
Let’s all buy coats, turn them inside out, and then send the turncoats to Scozzafava
/RS Strike Force
calipygian
@The Grand Panjandrum: Wasn’t Goldwater pro-choice and gay friendly?
The Tea Baggers would be taking him on an Argentine helicopter ride and dumping Goldwater’s body at sea these days.
Wile E. Quixote
@John Cole
Or your name is Larry Craig, in which case you believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman, but that sucking dick in airport toilets is A-OK as long as you’re wearing a flag pin on your lapel.
kay
*Except those listed in #4, who are the ultimate authority.
licensed to kill time
Well, jeez Hoffmann, thanks for sharing.
Corner Stone
@Mark S.: I was pretty sure it cost a buck O five. Freedom costs $1.05.
calipygian
Its a good thing he wasn’t brought up to believe that women were for breeding, but boys were for fucking.
Corner Stone
@Hookers and Cocaine: Nobody likes America’s Crackwagon.
Corner Stone
It may be just me, but Hoffman is fucking spooky to just look at. Not saying he’s ugly or handsome or anything about that…just sayin’ that I see those crazy fucking eyes of his and I start wonderin what he’s willin to do to bring bout the Pocalypse.
Demo Woman
Hoffman could win. Ultimately the far right could drag down the GOP for decades but at what cost to us as a nation. The far right could do a lot of damage in the meantime.
kay
@licensed to kill time:
It makes more sense now that I’ve read The Pledge. His spouse and him are the ultimate authority. We’d be giving gay people “authority” with that marriage license.
I have one. I had no idea what awesome powers it gave me. I plan to wield my near-dictatorial power unwisely.
beltane
@Corner Stone: My kids are afraid of him. His ads are on TV non-stop and they think he looks kind of pervy. I personally think his ads are pretty funny.
mistersnrub
@Corner Stone:
I think its hilarious how people like Coulter and Rush mock liberal men as wimpy and neutered and effeminate, and they then go on to champion guys like Hoffman. He looks like a brainwashed geeky pervert.
licensed to kill time
@Corner Stone:
Like Michelle “Stop Me Before I Hurt Myself” Bachmann?
or Sarah “In What Way Am I Qualified, Charlie?” Palin?
or Ann “Dead Eyes” Coulter?
or Michael “What The Fuck Am I Doing?” Steele?
(well, he doesn’t really have those creepy shiny dead eyes, but I didn’t want to be all sexist and just list femmes.)
@kay: Hmm, “ultimate authority” over what exactly? It’s a puzzle…I guess I should go read the Pledge, and see what ultimate authority I can sling about with gay abandon. Maybe do some smitin’ in my spare time.
Corner Stone
@kay:
Is there any other way to wield it?
Chuck Butcher
It may be emotionally unsurprising, it is politically quite surprising. Scozzafava wasn’t chosen on the basis of some momentary enthusiasm, she is scarcely a someone that could be characterized as a recent phenomonen in NY23 Republican politics. The complete absence of a {R} candidate may allow her politically to align herself with the {D} Owens but that is a hell of a stretch.
About the only time election doesn’t have a candidate from both major parties is when it is so lopsidedly foregone that no one will even put their name on the ballot. This almost never happens in Fed elections, somebody will, in the interests of their party, play the sacrificial goat and accept the 20+% vote just to have (X) on the ballot.
The implication here is that the Palinesque candidate is so offensive to organized {R} that the oppostition party becomes an acceptable alternative. Bit players do not get nominated to these races in one that should absolutely be a win. This is a step up the political ladder awarded to someone the Party wishes to advance and reward. This isn’t some dogcatcher sinecure.
Her silence would have been a more ordinary political stance. She seems have consulted with the Owens’ campaign, but I’d also be real surprised that the {R} were not also consulted with – draw what conclusions from that speculation you can. To assume she didn’t you would have to ignore an awful lot of political debts and rewards on all sides for someone important.
I’d be nuts to speculate how this will play with NY23 voters, this is about as queer as it gets. (short of everything else around this)
Corner Stone
@licensed to kill time:
You should be careful here at BJ. Some of the front pagers may wonder why you’re always screamin’ for equal rights with the rest of us who are slingin’ things about with straight abandon in our spare time.
pcbedamned
@The Grand Panjandrum:
This is the reason I am now here as opposed to my previous home, Hot Air. They are now completely off the wall and anyone who doesn’t agree with the rest of the ‘echo chamber’ is nothing but a ‘commie’. (and apparently being Canadian automatically makes you a s*cialist anyway)...
oh really
@calipygian:
What’s most important is that religious organizations should have no right to bestow civil and constitutional rights on people.
Everyone should have to have their relationship recognized by the state. Then, if individuals want to find a religious group to sanctify their union that’s up to them. But the religious ceremony should not be allowed to bestow rights on anyone.
We’ve allowed churches (synagogues, etc.) to do a job that should never be theirs—religious organizations should be about religion and nothing else. You want tax benefits, rights of inheritance, etc. then that is the purview of government, not religion.
The government ceremony should be recognized in all fifty states. The religious ceremony should be recognized by no one but the religion itself and its adherents.
Religious organizations should never have been allowed to stand in for the government.
KCinDC
Unfortunately Owens doesn’t support marriage equality either, apparently.
licensed to kill time
@Corner Stone: I’ll be careful though I’ve been slinging stuff with straight abandon w/my license for many years. Right after I hit submit I realized that the term “gay abandon” might be construed as a statement of some kind. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that! ;-)
Corner Stone
@KCinDC: Does NY-23?
MattF
@KCinDC
Right. I’m sure that Owens is a conservative Democrat—this is a fight between different flavors of conservatism. No one should be anticipating an upsurge of liberalism from the woods of upstate New York.
Corner Stone
@licensed to kill time: We accept you for who you are.
KCinDC
I don’t know, Corner Stone. My point was that his position seems to be no different from Hoffman’s on that issue. I do hope that he’s at least more open to the idea of passing the Respect for Marriage Act and leaving marriage up to the states (repealing DOMA) than Hoffman probably is.
Corner Stone
@KCinDC: Well, my point was that I can’t expect a D candidate to run in my district and be for gun control.
I agree with your thesis, and wish it were a different scenario but if NY-23 has been convinced of (or just believe in) certain positions then it’s not really news to say people running for that seat are some-what aligned with those positions.
Comrade Darkness
It is in this spirit that I am writing to let you know I am supporting Bill Owens for Congress and urge you to do the same.
You know this IS how re-allignments happen.
Comrade Darkness
Which brings up an interesting question, if the contest had instead come down to Jellybelly and the Parochial Hotdog, what would the polls look like?
Frank Wilhoit
We’ve had the wrong end of the stick on this business right along. What has happened in NY-23 is VERY simple.
The Republican Party has overturned a primary whose outcome they did not like.
That is it and that is all.
It is closely tied in with Lamont/Lieberman and it raises all kinds of huge questions, to which the common entry point is “what are primaries for?”
dmsilev
@calipygian:
No, it will mean that Hoffman was Stabbed In The Back by the Party Elite, and that therefore the Party must be purged of all weakness.
-dms
dmsilev
@Frank Wilhoit: In fairness to the teabaggers (a phrase I hope never to write again), there wasn’t an actual primary in this race. Scozzafava was selected as the nominee by the state Republican Party. Not too unusual for special elections, as I understand it.
-dms
chrome agnomen
i, for one, welcome our new teabagging underlords.
jnfr
The Republican base is adamant in defining everyone left of Limbaugh or Palin as a Dem, and they’re going to get their wish in the end. Then what will they do?
Mark S.
@Frank Wilhoit:
Not exactly:
ppcli
@KCinDC:
There is still an important difference between someone who is opposed to marriage equality [but cares infinitely more about the care and feeding of the local military base] and someone who will pursue the campaign against marriage equality as one of his central crusades with all the scorched-earth, manic intensity of the truly deranged wingnut fringe.
dmsilev
More lolz coming from Erik and the teabaggers (worst. band. name. ever. But I digress). They have a new acronym to play with, DIABLO, Democrat In All But Label Only. And they’re already calling for Charlie Christ’s head on a platter and waving toy swords in the air while screaming “Never surrender!”.
-dms
Nellcote
@licensed to kill time:
I always think of him as the Cow on the Train Tracks of Progress these days.
Rosali
This sounds exactly like the ex-Miss California. Did he hire her to write speeches for him?
Balconesfault
@Chuck Butcher:
Huh … I’m a little lost. Is Scozzafava the “Palinesque candidate”?
Just Some Fuckhead
@Nellcote:
He needs to moove.
Left Coast Tom
@dmsilev:
Why are they naming their campaign after a San Francisco Bay Area mountain range (Diablo)? I thought they wanted to use the Bay Area as a shibboleth with which to make their followers wet themselves in fear.
licensed to kill time
@Nellcote:
Michael “I Stand Athwart The Tracks of Progress and say – Splat!” Steele
CalD
I loved this (from the Watertown Daily Times article):
...qoth the senior spokesweasel for Douglas Hoffman, the (former) Republican running on the American Conservative Party ticket.
Johnny Pez
@Comrade Darkness:
Man, that’s got to be my favorite Smashing Pumpkins album.
Anya
Why is DailyKos refered to as GOS?
calipygian
Holy shit. They aren’t calling for Christ’s head on a platter, they are calling for his head on a pike, his body pulped, salt rubbed into the remains so nothing else grows and the apparatus of the Florida GOP slain or sold into slavery.
“Christ Delenda Est”.
Those Red State peeps – they ain’t normal, and they got a real freaky case of Jihad envy.
I wonder who the first wingnut to suicide bomb a local Republican HQ will be.
licensed to kill time
@Anya:
Great Orange Satan (pages are a weird orange hue), or see Lexicon.
dmsilev
@Anya: Atrios has been calling it (in jest) the Great Orange Satan for a while now.
-dms
Chuck Butcher
@Balconesfault:
Scarcely, and no, Palin -et al – are not the NY organized {R}.
Organized (X) rules vary from state to state and also by National Parties but in both major Parties the State Party has important roles to fill such as in this case nominating Scozzafava. I don’t know NY {R} rules but it may be the case that the nomination was strictly the Counties within that CD. Regardless, State Parties do know something about elections and who is running in them and why they should. They also know where political debts and rewards lie within their own more narrow areas.
Palin and the others have stomped on some perogatives that are highly prized within a State organization. A lot of those people have invested a lot of years and efforts to have some effect within the political system and that got messed with big time. This kind of a mess has effects beyond just what voter demographics are – this could have some real nasty (for them) effects within the State Party.
dmsilev
@calipygian: I figure that they’re about a month away from literally calling for a Night of Long Knives. A week away, if Owens pulls out the win in New York.
That’ll be a massive history FAIL, of course, because the real NoLK consisted of the elimination of the amateur street thugs (the SA) by the professionals (SS and Gestapo). In other words, the teabaggers would be the knifees, not the knifers.
-dms
Corner Stone
@CalD: I enjoyed reading the comments to that article. ISTM that the vocal peeps of NY-23 would best be served by Hoffman.
Corner Stone
@dmsilev:
But there isn’t the organization skills in the GOP any longer. All those people have moved on – either out to wonder what the hell happened to the GOP, or to the Right.
There aren’t any professional knifers left any longer in the national GOP.
ISTM they would all kind of bleed to death all over each other in an event like that.
calipygian
@dmsilev: I wonder if the GOP will even bother having a presidential primary, or if the rules will be amended and a aGOP candidate for President will be chosen by the party leadership in a back room.
At this early point in time, a tea bagger victory in the GOP primaries will produce a bloodbath on the convention floor, and who the hell wants that (besides me, for the lulz).
gnomedad
@Mark S.:
Freedom paid for with young blood: OK.
Freedom paid for with taxes: not OK.
Anoniminous
NY-23 is the gift that keeps on giving. I don’t care, since I don’t live there, who is going to represent the district for a year.
I do care about the implications for the balance of power in the Senate after the 2010 elections. The Dems need to pick-up 3 or 4 seats – more would be better.
A Hoffman win could easily embolden the Tea Bag Faction to primary the sitting “RINO” senators so as to run a Real Conservative© as the Hoffman win proves the powerful attraction of
being a nutterConservativism. A Hoffman loss could easily enrage the Tea Bag Faction to primary the sitting “RINO” senators so as to run a Real Conservative© because if the GOP had run a Conservative in NY-23 they would have held the seat. Since the Tea Baggers are the GOP base and it’s the base who decide who gets the nod in a primary it becomes a distinct possibility the Tea Baggers will toss sitting Senators to run A Nut putting a secure seat in jeopardy.This has, in a way, already happened. Cristie, Gov. Florida, was, by all accounts, a slam-dunk to win the open Florida Senate seat. Rubio, the Conservative candidate, has been coming on strong and put the nomination in doubt. Should Rubio win the nomination the election becomes a horse race, opening the chance for a Dem pick-up.
The GOP is in deep doo-doo. The RayGuns coalition has blown-up, it’s gone. Can’t win elections if all you’ve got is a bunch of old cranky “Get Off My Lawn” white guys, Caribou Barbies, Fundie dimbulbs, Tea Baggers, and southern nincompoops.
(I concede overlaps in the previous list.)
Never thought I’d write this:
I’m no longer confident the GOP will be around in 10 years.
CalD
Woops, I stand corrected: American Conservative Party, Conservative Party of New York, two different things. (Hoffman being the latter, not the former as I had mistakenly assumed.)
Anya
@licensed to kill time: Thank you. I was hoping it was something like that. It is a curious place and yes, the color is odd.
liberal
That is TEH AWESOME
Did you pull that from somewhere, or is that original?
jcricket
@CalD: You meant the Judean People’s Front, not the People’s Front of Judea. Totally different :-)
Bostondreams
I just wish to clarify, as a resident of Florida, that his name is Charlie CRIST, not Charlie CHRIST. He may THINK he is the latter, however…
kommrade reproductive vigor
You know what’s weird? All of his responses are written in the 1st person, except the reply to the question about the 2nd Amendment.
Very nice. Clearly being back with your pets has inspired the hell out of you.
@jnfr: Demand a bailout.
ChrisB
@CalD: That is hilarious.
Talk about being blissfully ignorant.
SiubhanDuinne
I looked at Hoffman’s position page as linked in the main article. He seem’s to have trouble with apostrophe’s both for plural’s and possessive’s.
SiubhanDuinne
@kommrade reproductive vigor 7:05 pm
Yes, I was aslo struck by that. Hoffman needs—at the very minimum—a good editor.
Shell
Because of course, that’s all politics is, indulging your personal feelings, others be damned. (And just thinking of two guys kissing just makes him feel all icky!)
And if you decide to ankle off to South America for face-time with your mistress, leaving your stranded staff making more and more ludicrous excuses, well, that’s just dandy!
Shell
“Pledge’ makes me think of the Temperance Pledges of the 19thc. (we have just such a page in an old family Bible) where folks would swear off the Demon Rum. But the way Beck has been acting on air lately, I don’t think it’s the same kind
Leelee for Obama
Props to Ms. Scozzafava! She may not be a good little follower for the Repubs, but she sure stands by what she believes. That’s so cool and unusual.
As to the Floriduh situation-Crist could very well get knocked out if the running if the regular Repubs, if there are any left now, don’t get out and vote for him in the Primary. They were there for him in 2006, cause there was another Moral Majority Conservative running against him, and Jebby had endorsed that guy. With luck, they’ll stick by him again. Me, I’ve got Kendrick Meek, so I don’t have to feel like I owe Charlie anything. I don’t like that crossing to the other side to screw around in Primaries, but in this case, I could be persuaded it was for the good of the Country. Hard to say how many real Rubio lovers there are, cause there isn’t much talk just now. Anybody got any juicy tidbits?
HRA
@The Grand Panjandrum:
This Republican woman who voted for Obama decided to change her political affiliation last week after having had heard enough of the idiocy that now permeates and identifies the Republican Party. Yes, I do believe in the right to choose and I do believe sexual orientation should not be a reason to deny the rights of anyone in this country,
Leelee for Obama
@HRA: Welcome to the crowd! We’re growing by leaps and bounds, it seems! Sanity is so attractive, ain’t it?
HRA
@Leelee for Obama:
Thanks! It’s refreshing, too. I predict I will not be the only one bolting from the party.
Leelee for Obama
@HRA: From your heart to theirs-women are not safe when these yo-yos get power. We’re not the only ones, obviously-GLBT folks, workers of almost all kinds, families, military members, sick people-the list is just endless. I keep wondering who’s still voting for them? I’m the first person to say Democrats are an imperfect lot, they’re mine and I poke them constantly, but the other side has let all the butter slide off their toast!
shoutingattherain
@HRA:
Welcome to the Dark Side! Just remember: if you’re ever in a room with ten Democrats/Liberals there will be be ten different opinions about everything. That’s just how it is. It’s not you. Also.
HRA
@Leelee for Obama:
Yes, the realization of their one-sided opinions has been with me for longer than I want to admit. I really stopped voting for them even as I kept the affiliation to the party. I would have changed for Obama. Then I thought I should stay to add to the list of Republicans voting for him. I was going to change right after the election and family matters kept me off of the focus. Nine + months later I went to get the enchanced driver’s license and saw where I could also change my affiliation on the application. The Democratic Party is where I definitely belong.
@shoutingattherain:
Thanks. Oh I do know how Democrats respond to each other. Sunday dinners while I was growing up had our dining room table with at least 10 relatives and friends of my parents’ conversing those many opinions. I am home, again.
kommrade reproductive vigor
A Florida Neo-Con pol’s lovers can be determined by hanging around public restrooms.
rachel
@shoutingattherain:
Only ten? I disagree. But on the other hand…
Ginger Yellow
I was brought up to believe in Santa Claus. I don’t want to persecute naughty kids, but that’s what I believe.
Daily Digest for November 2nd | Random Fate
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