So, what does NY 23 mean to the fringe right?

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Look, like most people to the right of Lenin, I opposed the candidacy of Dede in the 23rd.

Like most mainstreamers, she was a democrat who had found it politically expedient to run as a fake "R" because someone else was running as the "D."

As a rule of thumb, candidates endorsed by the scummier elements like ACORN and Kos are not particularly "Republican" in nature. That the decision to run this miscreant as an "R" was made by 11 county GOP chairs instead of going with a primary or at least getting a PCO vote district-wide shows the all-too-frequent incompetence of the GOP on the ground.

Let's remember the topography here: this Congressional District had ONLY been represented by the GOP since the Civil War.

Since the Civil War.

So, even though in most areas where elections took place, the GOP made gains; some, like in the case of New Jersey, spectacular gains; the GOP also managed to take some moronic, unnecessary loses

And let's remember: Christie was no Hoffman in his political positions or philosophies. Christie was much closer to Dede then he was to Hoffman.

Christie did not win running a campaign on GOP social themes. He ran a campaign on the classic fiscal and integral themes to clean up rampant corruption and to rein in out of control government spending. Fortunately, Corzine was dragged down by the multiple appearances of a clueless president; a situation he obviously (and wrongly) felt to be to his advantage because he, Corzine, had failed to appreciate the impacts of campaigning with a failure.

And looking at New Jersey, let's not forget there was an independent candidate in this election as well, and how well did he do? (He has 5.7% of the vote at this writing)

The largest newspaper chain in New Jersey, the Star Ledger, had even gone so far as to endorse the independent, saying among other things, thus:

The lamentable fact is that the two parties are, themselves, little more than narrow special interests. Their competition for short-term political and/or monetary gain has jeopardized the state’s long-term economic health and left it with a tarnished national reputation.

Where the major parties have differed, their differences have been inconsequential. Where they’ve been the same, their similarities have been destructive.

All political parties seem to have become punch lines on the political scene; many of them populated by the most gullible, blinded, desperate, arrogant people I have ever known.

That type of attitude is marked here locally with the fringe-right wing support of Tim "The Liar" Leavitt and among those surrounding the conservative in the NY 23rd.

Here locally, we get this kind of garbage from a Jon Russell lackey:

Finally, I want to offer some advice to Jon’s political opponents within the Republican Party who have so eagerly manipulated this to reflect negatively on Jon. Take a look at all the Comments left by readers of what you’ve published on this. No doubt, I haven’t found all that has been written along these lines but of the ones I’ve found, I haven’t found one single Comment that supported the author’s position. With that in mind, I would encourage you to consider what I have termed the “Hoffman v Scozzafava … Wake-Up-Call …”. As the old folk song says, “The times, they are a changing” and you should be giving more sober thought to how your words and especially your actions, fit in with the current political landscape.

As deftly shown in the NY 23rd, the advice this political ingrate provides is worthless. It's also breathtaking in it's pomposity and arrogance.

I oppose Jon Russell's candidacy for reasons that transcend politics and enter into my personal knowledge of him as a man. No amount of political posturing or branding can change that, and no amount of bullying by his supporters will change the facts of what I know.

There can be no doubt that the GOP ran the wrong candidate in the NY 23. There can also be no doubt that had the powers-that-be ran a primary, or took the control of making the candidate appointment out of the hands of a mere 11 people, that the NY 23 would still be in GOP hands, instead of such a massive embarrassment because the GOP hammered the 3rd party candidate like a nail until, all of a sudden, their candidate, being such great judges of character, bailed and quite effectively endorsed her fellow democrat, there being no accounting for character.

Hoffman's fringe-right perspectives were not enough. His lack of charisma, the GOP's hammering of him on Friday and sudden support of him on Saturday, the lack of a coherent message from GOP leadership, the ultimately successful efforts by the media and leftists to demonize the right... all combined to take away a seat that the GOP has owned, outright, for over 140 years.

The GOP focuses on the wins in NJ and VA... they run around telling us the tide has turned.

And in the same breath, they try not to even talk about the debacle of the NY 23... like it was all a bad dream.

I view myself what I refer to as a "pragmatic conservative," sharing many of the views of the right. But I don't do it so blindly that I can blow past common sense, my own eyes, or develop the ability to suspend disbelief. That goes to the heart of why I've bailed on the GOP.

BOTH sides took hits yesterday. BOTH sides have much to consider. Both sides won, and both sides lost.

The unanswered question is this: what are they going to do about it?
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