It was worse than I thought

From the Washington Post:

State Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava (R), who dropped from the special election in Upstate New York yesterday, has now thrown her support to Democrat Bill Owens.

"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," said Scozzafava in a statement released moments ago.

Owens said he was "honored" to have won Scozzafava's endorsement, noting: "Now more than ever we need bipartisan solutions to help bring jobs to Upstate New York to get our economy back on track and move our country forward."

It's not clear how much Scozzafava's backing of Owens will change the race. Democratic strategists, who just 48 hours ago saw the race moving back in their direction, have grown pessimistic about their chances in the aftermath of the Scozzafava decision.

Polling conducted by the Siena Research Institute -- and released on Saturday -- showed that more than 60 percent of Scozzafava backers were self-identified Republicans, meaning that the majority of them are likely to back Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman.

I now withdraw my partial apology to Ms. Scozzafava.

As I've said before when these "moderate" RINO's are forced to choose between left and right they will almost always reflexively turn left.

I wonder if political hack Newt Gingrich will join his chosen candidate and also endorse Owens.

Aaron Gee posted this on the American Thinker Blog:

It is being reported today that Dede Scozzafava is endorsing Democrat Bill Owens. In one fell swoop she proved her detractors right. Her actions also speak to the Republicans that made excuses for her such as Newt Gingrich; they were dead wrong. When Dede withdrew from the race on Saturday, many (including me) thought she was doing the right thing for Northern New York, and the Republican Party. Instead we have been presented with the quintessential example of what the label RINO means.

"Scozzafava dropped out after Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman experienced a late-in-the-game surge. The move was expected to consolidate GOP voters behind Hoffman on Tuesday.

But on Sunday, Scozzafava backed Democrat Bill Owens -- the announcement was made in a statement sent out by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee."

When the DNC is releasing statements for the former GOP candidate you know something is very wrong. This is a wake up call for the leaders of the Grand Old Party. The party got its hat handed to it in the last election by running the most "moderate" candidate in decades why do they continue in the same vein that didn't work last time?

Listening to voters helped create the contract with America which propelled the GOP into the House and Senate in 1994. It was ignoring those principals that led to the GOP's decline. Instead of listening to Washington insiders the GOP would do better if it listened to the people.

I d0 have one quibble with Mr. Gee. Newt's "Contract with America" did not "propel the GOP into the House and Senate in 1994".

Newt Gingrich's real achievement in that affair was to be the first to get a real sense of how the electorate was going to vote in 1994 and run very fast in that direction yelling "follow me!" at the top of his lungs.

The Contract with America helped crystallize public sentement and it probably was responsible for the GOP winning 2 or 3 seats that it might not have won otherwise, but the House bank and Post Office scandals coupled with the gigantic mess that Hillary Clinton made out of her Stalinist "health care reform" guaranteed a bloodbath for Democrats no matter what Republicans did.

Subsequent events have proven that Newt was more lucky than smart. The Democrat takeover of the legislature in 2006 and the election of Barack Obama seems to have convinced him that the public was taking a sharp turn to the left and he has once again tried to run out in front yelling "follow me!" at the top of his lungs.

This explains his teaming up with Nancy Pelosi to promote global warming hysteria, his attacks on Rush Limbaugh and his endorsment of the left-wing Scozzafava.

However this time Mr. Gingrich has miscalculated. The facts on the ground are all pointing to 2010 being a big Republican year.

This is likely to leave Newt standing all alone out in left field.