REPUBLICAN ESTABLISHMENT: WILL THERE BE ACCOUNTABILITY?

By Larry Pratt
November 12, 2009
NewsWithViews.com

The November 3 elections showed that President Obama and his statist allies in Congress have set off a political tsunami.

It seems to be obvious to all who were watching (supposedly the President was not, if you believe anything the White House says) that the huge reversal of Democrat and Republican margins from 2008 to 2009 in Virginia and New Jersey were an amazing reversal. Virginia in 2008 went 53 percent for Obama, but a year later only 41 percent went for Democrat gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds. In New Jersey, Obama's 57 percent became Democrat Governor Jon Corzine's 45 percent.

Much of the GOP sweeps in Virginia and in New Jersey resulted from independents returning to the GOP fold - an identification they had surrendered when they could not stomach the big-government records of President Bush and the Republican Congress.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared the night a victory because the Democrat won in the special congressional election to fill a vacancy in NY-23, and similarly in CA-10. Of course, she did not discuss the fact that the CA-10 seat had already been held by a Democrat.

More disappointing is the unwillingness by some of the Washington, DC Republican establishment to admit what happened in NY-23. The Republican loss there was in fact a Conservative and pro-gun victory.

Republican bosses in NY-23 chose an amazingly leftwing Republican, Dede Scozzafaza (to call her a Republican in Name Only – RINO – is an insult to RINOs). Scozzafaza was rated the third most liberal of all the members of the NY Assembly. She has been endorsed by the Working Families Party, an Acorn-spawned entity. When people in the district began to learn how much of a leftist the GOP candidate was, her support began to head into the tank.

Gun Owners of America Political Victory Fund, along with a number of other conservative political committees, endorsed Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman. Other endorsements came from prominent talk show hosts and leading Republicans such as Sarah Palin.

The race in the last month became a two-man contest between Hoffman and Democrat nominee Bill Owens. On Thursday before the election, Scozzafaza withdrew, and on Sunday she endorsed the Democrat – after having received nearly one million dollars from the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), the political committee of the House Republicans in Congress.

This was the conservative victory. A total unknown forced out a completely unacceptable Republican nominee and almost won the seat. Hoffman – and conservatives and pro-gunners – made it clear that without them, Republicans better get used to being in the minority.

This was embarrassing not only to the NRCC staff, but to its chairman, Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas (a conservative pro-gun congressman) as well as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Republican National Committee chairman, Michael Steele. Gingrich and Steele claimed – and continue to do so even after the election! – that choosing Scozzafava was a decision that had to be respected because Republicans should respect local party decisions.

That argument does not fly. Erick Erickson has written on RedState.com that numerous sources have told him that the outrageous decision made by the 23rd district’s eleven county chairmen (the ones who selected Scozzafaza) was pushed by the “professionalsâ€