Republican Scozzafava Robocalling for Democrat Owens
Dede Scozzafava is in hot – ok boiling – water with her Republican Party, after bucking the GOP to endorse her former Democratic opponent in the race to represent New York's 23rd congressional district. (Scozzafava's endorsement yesterday - after she dropped out of the race on Saturday - threw what was already a turbulent contest into even more chaos. Democrat Bill Owens and Conservative Doug Hoffman, who's supported by the GOP, are now competing for the seat left vacant when Republican John McHugh resigned to serve as Secretary of the Army.) Powerful members of Scozzafava's party have accused her of “betrayal,” and she's been called a “turncoat” who's “driven by bitterness.” But she's campaigning for Owens nonetheless. In addition to meeting up with Owens (in front of the news media) at a local event Sunday evening, Scozzafava is also voicing a robocall on behalf of the Democrat's campaign. Here's the script (courtesy of the Watertown Daily Times - scroll down for audio):
"Hi, this is Dede Scozzafava calling on behalf of Bill Owens. And I wanted to let you know that I am supporting Bill for Congress.
Since beginning my campaign I have said that this election is not about me, it's about the people of this district. It's not in the cards for me to be your representative but I strongly believe Bill Owens is the only candidate who can build upon John McHugh's lasting legacy in Congress.
In Bill Owens I see a sense of duty and integrity. He will be an independent voice, devoted to doing what is right for New York. To address the tough challenges ahead we must rise above partisanship and politics, and work together.
Please join me in voting for Bill Owens on Tuesday.”
And, for the record, maybe the White House and other national party leaders shouldn't get all the credit for Scozzafava's bombshell decision to endorse Owens. Yes, Scozzafava received many many phone calls over the weekend from high-profile Democrats after she dropped out of the race, urging her to support Owens over Hoffman. (Scozzafava's cell phone voice mailbox and home answering are both full and not accepting any more messages.) She also met with state and national Democratic party leaders on Satursday. But her husband Ron McDougall tells me Scozzafava actually made the decision to endorse her Democratic opponent while at church on Sunday morning.
The former candidate had gone to church for choir practice about an hour before her husband on Sunday and when the two met up just before services began, Scozzafava told McDougall she had made a decision. “She's a strong-willed woman,” said McDougall, a powerful union leader in the district who had endorsed Owens less than 24 hours before his wife. “She's been involved in public office for 21 years, she makes her own decisions and her decision was made alone.”
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1
Boy, I didn't see this coming. Scozzafava '10. Brilliant move, GOP.
The accusation of "betrayal" is particularly scathing. Wait, I meant hypocritical.
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2
Thanks, Kate. I don't know if you're back home covering this, but if so, will you get to interview Dede in person? Did you or friends / family get one of those robocalls at 3am? What's her REAL motivation? Revenge? Personal acquaintance with Owens / helping out a friend? Personal dislike of Hoffman? A shoutfest with Sarah Palin at the mall's food court in Plattsburgh? I'm strictly guessing that there's more to this than just similar politics / dedication to put her at risk with her own party. What else is at play here? With the heat she's getting from other R's, do you see her leaving the party? thx
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3
demoCATS: "All Your Moderates Are Belong to Us"
...she's been called a “turncoat” who's “driven by bitterness.”
Oh of course...there's never a good reason to support a Democratic candidate; there's only people who are bitter, feel racial guilt, or are tree-hugging Stalinists.
Oh, and Kate? Thanks for the straight-up reporting on this.
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3.1
/sighs
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linky
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4
Is the real new's story here Kate the infiltration of the Republican Party in NY 23 with liberals? Perhaps that is what is going on.
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Of course feeling jilted and being a woman, I am not surprised that she is on a vendetta to get a Democrat elected. Women can be the biggest, caddiest bunch if they get their panties all up in a bunch, or is it a matter of National attention? What better way to get on a talk show or reality show. How does that go? "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned", or something like that.
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"Scozzafava takes on Blagovich to see who is the biggest Democrat scumbag"....More at eleven!!-
4.1
Women can be the biggest, caddiest bunch if they get their panties all up in a bunch...
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Should have never given them the right to vote, right, Rusty?
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(ladies and gentlemen, reason #231 in why the far right-wing will shrivel and fade away; thank you, Rusty, for illustrating) -
4.2
…liberals in the R party? Really? Names, please.
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As for catty behaviors, what about Hoffman? Wasn't he rejected by the R's in favor of Dede, so he paid his way into a RW independent party to get on the ballot? -
4.3
"Women can be the biggest, caddiest bunch ..."
Yeah, that's why they make great golf partners.
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4.4
Of course feeling jilted and being a woman, I am not surprised that she is on a vendetta to get a Democrat elected. Women can be the biggest, caddiest bunch if they get their panties all up in a bunch
Something tells me you have some experience with being jilted Rusty. Feeling a tad bitter?
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4.5
Yes grape, that was a crass statement on my part about women in general. I apologize.
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Scoz is simply a progressive that got caught with her panties down around her ankles, and the real conservatives in her district were made aware.
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Now she is just being a scumbag and vindictive for being thrown to the curb.
."what about Hoffman? Wasn't he rejected by the R's in favor of Dede, so he paid his way into a RW independent party to get on the ballot?"
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Hoffman was rejected by the 11 member Republican Party bosses that nominated a progressive. A Republican Progressive instead of a Conservative.
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There wasn't a primary, simply an in-party nomination of a progressive Republican. Tea Party conservatives found out about the party bosses' nomination and they said "no". Then it became nationally known and folks like Pawlenty and Palin endorsed the true conservative in the race. -
4.6
Thanks for the apology, Rustydog.
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The problem with the statement isn't that it's crass --who cares?-- the problem is that it goes against what we know as Americans: that people should be judged on individual merit, and not gross, blanket stereotypes (that just so happen to elevate the group in which the person resorting to the stereotype belongs).
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Saying that the professional legislator Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava is endorsing the Democratic candidate because"Women can be the biggest, caddiest bunch if they get their panties all up in a bunch"
is like saying
"Rustydog can't stand that Obama is President because he's a Republican --and you know they're all poor racist hicks who need to feel superior to anybody who isn't white."
, don't you think?
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4.7
Well, Rusty, it shore looks like that Sleeping White Giant is dead!
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Did I not see this coming? Oh, well, doesn't matter anyway.
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It's time to grab those shovels... -
4.8
I really think it was the infiltration that did it.
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I mean, really, we had a couple sappers kill the night guard, cut the phone lines, and all the rest of 'em crawled on their bellies under the boobytrapped barbed wire perimeter fence gaurded by trigger happy teabaggers drinking rum.
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Just like in the movies!
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The drama... -
4.9
Yes grape, that was a crass statement on my part about women in general. I apologize.
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Scoz is simply a progressive that got caught with her panties down around her ankles
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Hell of an apology there, chief. "Yeah, sure, I'm sorry about your stupid womanly feelings, whatever." -
4.10
I'm assuming rusty's wife doesn't read the blog. Say hello to your hand rusty.
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4.11
"Caught with her panties down". How typically Republican. Exploit someone and then claim it was their fault.
Every so often the Republicans on this site reveal their true colours. The "if Chuckie Shumer doesn't pay taxes, then why should I" was one. This is another.
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5
I got one of these calls. I need to change my cellphone # out of the 315 area code.
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6
Powerful members of Scozzafava's party have accused her of “betrayal,”
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hmmmm.
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National Republicans throw a local candidate under a bus and then have the audacity to complain that she caused the wheels to hit a bump.
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It doesn't get much uglier than that! -
7
Apparently the GOP is beefed up by disloyal agents who would work for the other side.
Does any Republican dare condemn Republican John McHugh for decamping to the other side? Or is McHugh on an secret GOP mission to hasten the downfall of the Obama administration - as decreed by their wingnut luminaries like Limbaugh? -
8
Of course feeling jilted and being a woman
Nice to get another chance to see Rusty's true colors.
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He never was good at hiding his prejudices.....-
8.1
Dirks, it's not like such neanderthalism is exclusive to our pet rightist. Remember this from the GOP's leading 2012 contender?
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"Huckabee had been asked on the TV show about his support of the Baptist convention's statement of beliefs on marriage. The former Arkansas governor and his wife Janet signed a full-page ad in USA Today in support of the statement with 129 other evangelical leaders in 1998."
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"A wife is to submit graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ," the convention says in its statement of faith. Baptist Press reported that the 1998 ad was addressed to denomination leaders and said: "You are right because you called wives to graciously submit to their husband's sacrificial leadership."
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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,316735,00.html
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9
Go ahead folks, eat it up today...just not on Thursday, please.
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10
I like the part about how she made the decision at church. The LORD told her to endorse Owens! How can Palin World argue with that?
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10.1
But at least she didn't SAY that the LORD telling her to do it was her reason!
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10.2
Or that the Democratic plan was God's plan...
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10.3
The Lord told me to order out for pizza tonight. God's will be done.
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11
Now I got a robocall from Bill Clinton.
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11.1
Hot, sexy ex-presidents are waiting to talk to you – right now! only 4.99 per minute, discreetly billed to your phone.
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11.2
Sorry about that – some straight lines are just too hard to resist.
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11.3
...or ex-governors. Especially those in $150k tight outfits.
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11.4
With red, white and blue star-spangled patriotic whips...
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12
Hahaha.
I turned off my cell. MY minutes!
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12.1
…you don't have AT+T with those rollover minutes that the pushy teevee mom keeps force-feeding her family? She's headed for a Kate Gosselin-style divorce if she doesn't let up on the leash.
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13
Is scozzafava still going to be on ballot? I assume so.
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Therefore, isn't her robocalling/endorsement counterproductive. By associating herself with Owens, doesn't she call attention to more voters, many of whom probably aren't paying that much attention to the race and may have pulled the lever for the "R" Scozzafava, and now who may go for Hoffman. I would think that the best strategy would have been for her to simply keep quiet and (a) not bring down Owens with some of her goofiness (i.e., calling cops and getting clowned by giving a speech outside Hoffman HQ) and (b) not calling attention to herself and maybe hoping that some untuned in "R" voters pulled the lever for the "R" candidate.-
13.1
She is doing some robocalling, but other support for Owens is coming in the form of her unions now calling for Owens. Her husband is the president of the AFLCIO, and he'd wrangled some other normally pro-democrat unions into backing her.
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They are now calling for Owens. -
13.2
Also, I don't think it's possible for many voters in NY 23rd to not be "paying that much attention to the race". I assure you, this is an overwhelming event for the backwoods North Country. Phones are ringing off the hook for registered voters.
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13.3
That would only happen if one were a left handed FOX listener...
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14
Dede Scozzafava is in hot – ok boiling – water with her Republican Party
Mostly interesting reporting, Kate, but "her" Republican Party? It's pretty obvious, regardless of whose fault the rift was, that Dede had no future whatsoever with the GOP, even before she endorsed Owens.
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15
In one headline and one paragraph, Kate Pickert hails: "Republican Scozzafava" (headline); "her Republican party"; "Powerful members of Scozzafava's party".
Someone may want to inform the clueless Kate Pickert that Scozzafava is not (and has never been) a "Republican". She's as much a boilerplate leftist loon as Bill Owens and the political activists who write for Time magazine.
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15.1
Hey! Clueless Kate Pickert!
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Textee says that Scozzafava was never a Republican!
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Whew. Said it.
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Did that help, textee? -
15.2
Commenters:
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See how the rightists have been able to work the left-right binary choice convention the press corps adopted?
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When there isn't a center (or the press corps doesn't acknowledge it except in administering praise), that means that anything to the left of right is...left.
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When Kate Pickert writes a column that demonstrates she isn't writing from the right...she's writing from the left.
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The writers at Time Magazine are all "boilerplate leftist loon", because they're not Fox News.
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That's all there is.
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When we allow the press to define the center (the political wing of their own professional "truth somewhere in the middle" tendency) out of existence, we enable the rightists to attack the press as leftist...because it isn't rightist. When the rightists endlessly attack the press over alleged left-wing bias, the repeated lies gain predictable currency (the meme is now over 30 years old) in American popular culture, the press seeks to escape by disappearing themselves and the reality of their establishment, anti-populist, centrist perspective even further (He Said-She Said), and the cycle continues.
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Fox News then becomes "Fair and Balanced" because it is rightist, which balances out the "leftism" of writers at Time Magazine. Journos won't admit the reality of this by accurately describing Murdoch & Co as right-wing, which advertises their lack of left-wing position, and the right knows that the attacks continue to succeed.
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Textee might not know that calling Kate Pickert a leftist is as idiotic in reality as calling Pat Robertson a Muslim, but the people who deliberately put that idea into Textee's head know that doing so works --and how it works.
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We must put an end to the left vs right construction of the press corps, folks, and get them to acknowledge the ideological and political center which the press inhabits and from which they derive their obvious biases, otherwise reality-based, liberal critiques of the press will be unlikely to ever gain cultural currency.
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If we don't we'll be left with the lunacy of rightists defining Kate Pickert's reporting as a symptom of "the Liberal Media", and the lunacy of pros like her being incapable of effectively denying it, which portends ill for the reality-based political reporting necessary for small-d democratic processes to function. -
15.3
Relativistic politics, sz.
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As their share of the spectrum narrows, and they keep moving farther and farther right, it only serves to reinforce their perception that the entire planet is caught up in a vast left wing conspiracy.
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I mean, we "infiltrate" now, according to Rusty... -
15.4
We must put an end to the left vs right construction of the press corps, folks, and get them to acknowledge the ideological and political center which the press inhabits and from which they derive their obvious biases
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Suggestions?
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Because the last time we tried this with JNS, her response was "LalalalalaLALALALALA I CANNOT HEAR YOU I AM DOING GOOD REPORTING RIGHT NOW!"
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Similarly, we get a sneer from Joe Klein, intellectual claptrap from Scherer, and accusations of insanity from KT.
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16
Because the last time we tried this...
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The rightists started their campaigns over twenty years ago with letters mailed to the circular files of huge corporations.
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I'll bet we can make the journos understand that there is a whole world of criticism --intelligent, fact-based, data-sourced, well-argued, angry criticism-- that they've only just begun to experience delivered at the speed of the internet, and it's not coming from the rightists this time.
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This is a war for our country, for our democracy.
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We can be patient, yet motivated and dedicated to progress because we're liberals. That's what we do.
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We look to the future, and we say to ourselves:
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"We'll get there..."-
16.1
"I love the smell of optimism in the morning!"
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16.2
You do love it, Oregon JC, you old dreamer, you.
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16.3
Or we can fight fire with fire. I'm not above sinking to their level if it gets results. It's been my experience that people who turn the other cheek wind up with both getting slapped. I wish I had your patience and reserve SZ.
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16.4
Okay, but do we have concrete goal posts, and ways to get there? Do we concentrate on forcing Dana Milbank to call each and every one of us 'dicks'?
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Or do we just sit back, read the blogs, and watch print news wither and cable news transform into propaganda? -
16.5
Stu-One thing flying under the radar right now is the fact that Comcast is really close to buying NBC from GE. There will be some changes through out NBC if this deal goes through and not necessarily for the better.
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16.6
Gunny:
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Holy sh*t!
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17
If history repeats itself, the new Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Sarah Palin republican party and its fanatic right are doomed . No party has ever held a majority when it leans to this extreme; and this "new bible thumping" GOP is teeter tottering almost on its face.
So, what are us old guard republican moderates to do??? Dede Scozzafava has the right idea. I'm following her lead.
P.S. Democrats don't have to actively strengthen and build their party, the GOP is doing all the hard work for them.
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17.1
Welcome to the darkside. Have a cookie.
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18
The most hilarious part of this story is that the GOPpers actually believe Scozzafava is a raging Leftist.
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18.1
And the saddest part of the story is that she was by far the best candidate for the locals of NY23. In all the "debates", she had by far the best command of the issues over the other two, who had "no comment" about 95 times apiece. She wasn't an idealogue. She is not cut of the political cloth that believes everyone across the aisle is automatically wrong/Communist/whatever.
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Owens might do OK, but he has all the warmth of a Norwegian turd. Think Al Gore circa 1999, but without the personality. It works in Hoffman's favor.
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Hoffman comes off as the smug condescending multimillionaire that he is. But he's animated, he has momentum, and he has a crapload of out-of-state money. He's also pissing locals off, so ... tomorrow might be interesting.
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19
The right has just succeeded in pushing the Republican party further out of the northeast. The Conservative Party is not going to win National elections from a base in the south.
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19.1
It is setting up quite a battle for the redistricting following the 2010 census. I'm very interested in seeing how many moderate republicans switch parties and whether they become democrats or independents.
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