NY-23: Doug Hoffman for Congress

Ruffini's post is a rather long-winded statement that adds up to a rather predictable conclusion: screw the moderates.

I agree with you on Scozzafava, but Crist and Fiorina are more electable in a general election, especially once you factor in their fundraising ability.   I don't think DeVore has much of a chance of cracking 40% in California (he's Tom McClintock without the charisma), whereas Fiorina might if she runs a clever campaign.   California's a center-left state, and conservatives have lost statewide more times than I can count over the last decade.

Crist and Fiorina are fiscally conservative and are both team players.  I don't see either of them transforming into an Olympia Snowe.  They're probably the best you can hope for in a blue/purple state context.

A center-right coalition requires some savvy centrist politicians, not 30 Jim DeMints.

Crist is one of the backslapping political insiders that is taking a pounding from ordinary Joes seeing the state sink under foreclosures and Chinese drywall. Plus, running around with Obama in the spring rattling the tin cup for federal money really irritated the tight wallet Republicans; there's a big backlash against freeloaders whining about losing houses they never should have been able to buy in the first place.

Rubio looks like something fresh in comparison. And I think lots of folks think Obama winning statewide in '08 to be a bit of a fluke; that was before the seniors figured him out. FL is not a state where we need to panic if a conservative wins a primary. Tired old hack politicians of either ideology; (i.e. "Certified Pre-Owned candidates") that's what we need to worry about.

What's the alternative? The NYGOP doesn't endorse the nominated GOP candidate for a House race?

Then they'd look like complete tools.

For good or bad, better or worse, the state party endorses the candidate who win's the nomination. And, as Michael Steele mentioned when he went out to Utah - if the state GOP endorses a candidate, they endorse them. Otherwise you start going down the slippery slope of the state party just endorsing candidates they "like" or think can win.

I'm not familiar with NY politics - but it seems like Hoffman should have entered the race as a Republican, and then had a primary, and tried to win the GOP nomination.

Today's conservatives - of which I am one - need to understand that the right to govern is granted to he who has the biggest coalition.  Without a pragmatic approach politically, the GOP can pretty much be assured the 30-seat idealogically pure minority that someone above mentioned.  Conservatives need to be willing to accommodate moderates, and vice versa, in order for Republicans to be able to ever govern again in our lifetime.  This is a fact of life in every single Western representative republic.

However, there are certain issues and conditions that should be dealbreakers for the GOP, and Scozzafava embodies many of them.  Card check should have been a warning sign, and so should her support for the stimulus package (although I can easily forgive Republicans in Obama districts for supporting it).  But these issues, combined with her flirtation with the Democratic Party, should have indicated to the GOP bosses who selected her that a Scozzafava candidacy was frought with risk in a district that is reasonably center-right.

In the end, from my perch 500 miles away, Dede Scozzafava is the product of an overraction by Republican Party chairmen spooked by the election of Scott Murphy over Jim Tedisco in NY-20.  I will be pulling for Doug Hoffmann, but I fully expect Owens to win by a substantial margin.  Hopefully a primary election next November can right the ship in this district.

First: NY-23 is not a blue district.  It is, AT BEST, a slightly purple district, with emphasis on slightly.  Yes it went for Obama by slight margins.  But the previous officeholder, as I recall, was a genuine conservative Republican who routinely got 60+% of the vote.  This is not a district for which strategic moderate candidates are required.  This is one that SHOULD be represented by a Coburn or a DeMint.

If Hoffman wins: good for us.  We get a real conservative elected in a right-leaning district.  Exactly what we need.

If Dede wins: We get a nominal Republican (I suppose), but her feet will be to the fire.  She will either support Pelosi's liberal agenda or she won't.  If she does, then everything that we've said about the unreliability of RINOs will have been proved true.  If she doesn't, then it will have been (almost) as good as getting Hoffman.  Plus, Dede would only have 7 months until the 2010 primary.  That's not exactly enough time to get entrenched with the reigns of incumbency.

If the Democrat wins: Meh.  It's not like he represents the balance of power in the House.  And he'll have only a very short time until the next election.

So the bottom line is, why NOT support Hoffman?

.. Based on Gingrich and other major GOP figures' support for Dede, I'm getting the feeling the National GOP has no regard nor even respect for its putative Conservative base or its Conservative Principles.

How can Conservatives be the GOP's "Base" then, if the National GOP is not based on Conservative Principles, but rather on special-interest pandering and corporatism?

Seems to me either the GOP or the Conservatives are going to have find another base.

We may be seeing the end of the GOP-COnservative coalition, and the resulting fragmentation of the Right.  

Maybe that's what "The Next Right" will be? A right wing apart from the GOP.