Hell hath no fury like a RINO scorned and anyone who expected
Dede Scozzafava to lose gracefully got a rude awakening
over the weekend. Having stubbornly stayed in the upstate New
York congressional race long past the point where her defeat was
a certainty, Scozzafava made a tearful exit that was a
masterpiece of self-pitying distortion.
“In recent days, polls have indicated that my chances of
winning this election are not as strong as we would like them to
be,” Scozzafava said in a statement
issued Saturday morning. “The reality that I’ve come to accept is
that in today’s political arena, you must be able to back up your
message with money — and as I’ve been outspent on both sides,
I’ve been unable to effectively address many of the charges that
have been made about my record.”
This was a triple distortion by the liberal Republican
assemblywoman who had been the GOP leadership’s handpicked choice for
the nomination in the 23rd District special election.
Scozzafava’s poll numbers had been collapsing for weeks. An
Oct. 15
Siena College poll showed she had fallen behind Democrat Bill
Owens, while insurgent Conservative Party candidate
Doug Hoffman had picked up momentum. Her support melted down
rapidly after an Oct. 19 incident when her husband, union
organizer Ron McDougall,
called police on Weekly Standard
reporter John McCormack, who had tried to get her to
answer questions about her position on tax increases and
“card-check” legislation. Even before the confrontation with
McCormack, however, Scozzafava’s candidacy failed to draw strong
GOP backing in a district that regularly voted by 2-to-1 margins
for Republican Rep. John McHugh, whose appointment as Army
Secretary had created the vacancy to be filled by Tuesday’s
special election.
Hoffman’s conservative campaign effectively doomed the
Republican nominee by exposing her liberal voting record in the
New York legislature. If Scozzafava was “unable to effectively
address many of the charges that have been made about [her]
record,” that was because the charges were true. After 11 years
in Albany, during which she had risen to the rank of minority
whip, Scozzafava had amassed a voting record more liberal than
many Democratic assembly members. That her policy stances put her
at odds with most Republican voters in the largely rural 23rd
District was a liability that seems to have been overlooked by
the GOP insiders who picked her for the nomination. Once the
Hoffman campaign began hammering Scozzafava for her assembly
record and positions on national issues, the Conservative Party
candidate quickly gained ground against both her and the
Democrat, Owens.
If Scozzafava’s exit statement distorted both her poll
problems and her record, the most shamefully false of her claims
was her complaint about being unable “to back up [her] message
with money.” The Republican National Committee and the National
Republican Congressional Committee had pumped hundreds of
thousands of dollars into the 23rd District in support of
Scozzafava — to no avail, since the candidate’s message never
resonated with voters.
After the boohooing appearance Saturday morning where
Scozzafava
pulled the plug on her doomed campaign, Hoffman’s campaign
team issued a conciliatory response and privately urged their
candidate’s supporters to end attacks on their erstwhile
Republican rival.
While prospects for the Republican to endorse the
Conservative candidate were rumored, Team Hoffman hoped that at
least Dede would remain neutral. During an appearance Saturday
afternoon in Plattsburgh, Hoffman himself expressed sympathy for
Scozzafava. “I realize the decision she had to make today was
very difficult for her,” the mild-mannered accountant said during
an appearance at a VFW post with former Gov. George Pataki,
expressing hope of working together with her on behalf of the
district’s interests.
Instead, Sunday afternoon, Scozzafava plunged her knife
into the back of the party that had chosen her for the
nomination, when she announced her endorsement of the Democratic
candidate. She had “thought long and hard about what
is best for the people of this District,” Scozzafava said,
asserting that her concern for “honest principles and a truthful
discussion of the issues” led her to endorse Owens.
Thus ended weeks of intra-party division induced by the
GOP’s ill-fated choice. As Michael Patrick Leahy observed,
“The NRCC and RNC just spent $1 million on Dede Scozzafava. This
is their reward.”
The first
poll published in the wake of Scozzafava’s withdrawal showed
Hoffman with a commanding lead over the Democrat, Owens. Even if
Hoffman wins big in tomorrow’s election, however, the
consequences of the Republican Party’s blunders in this campaign
are likely to be felt far away from upstate New York. A yawning
chasm of alienation between the GOP establishment and the party’s
grassroots has been exposed.
If Scozzafava has done nothing else, she has shown
Republican leaders to be what
Michelle Malkin called them yesterday: “Suckers.”
