American Spectator: "Hell hath no fury like a RINO scorned"

The American Spectator has what may be the best commentary on the NY-23 race yet:

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.

 

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.

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.

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.”

There’s a great deal more at the link above, that details the mis-steps and faux-pas that have characterized the Republican’s behavior, not just in Upstate New York, but also nationally.  Somehow in the transition from Ronald Reagan to Michael Steele, the “Big Tent” has been mistaken for a different sort of welcoming committee; where we went from “arms wide open” to something else wide open.

A-Hem!

Note to the Republicans, as well as the Democraps: The Tea parties are here, and we don’t take prisoners.

~Johnny~

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