WATERTOWN, N.Y.
Conservative Party congressional candidate Doug
Hoffman is a mild-mannered accountant. Therefore, instead of
campaigning against him, Democrats are now trying to
make the 23rd District special election a crusade
against various right-wing bogeymen.
"I'm sure [Hoffman is] a nice guy, but imagine him being
able, if he won this election, to take issue with any position
that Rush Limbaugh has," Vice President Joe Biden proclaimed this
morning at a rally where both Hoffman and Democratic candidate
Bill Owens were mere asterisks in the footnotes of
the speechifying.
Owens himself delivered a speech that condemned "special
interests" and "partisan ideology," while pledging to "fight for
our local dairy farmers" among much else. But the most remarkable
aspect of the rally was how much it focused on external enemies.
As
Dave Weigel of the Washington Independent notes, Biden also
took shots at Sarah Palin, whose
Oct. 22 endorsement of Hoffman seems to have turned the tide,
eventually
driving liberal Republican Dede Scozzafava to quit the
race. About 200 Democrats and 30 media personnel turned
out for this morning's Biden/Owens rally.
The tone of the rally was set by New York Democratic Party
State Chairwoman June O'Neill, who warned of "right-wing
extremists who have brought their hate-mongering tactics to this
district. . . . We cannot afford to let the right-wing extremists
make a point in this district. . . . The right wing is not
right."
O'Neill then named an unholy trinity -- Rush Limbaugh
("boo!"), Sean Hannity ("boo!") and Glenn Beck
("boo!") -- of evil right-wing demons whom she accused
of having possessed the soul of Doug Hoffman, requiring an
exorcism by Dede Scozzafava. (I exaggerate only slightly.)
"We have to stop the madness," O'Neill told the crowd, evidently
oblivious to the possibility that she might help "stop the
madness" merely by keeping her mouth shut.
