Saving
Republicans from Themselves– RINO Hunting in Upstate New York
GrassTopsUSA Exclusive Commentary
By Don Feder
10-26-09
“There are two parties in America – the evil party and the stupid party. I’m proud to say
that I’m a member of the stupid party.” – remark attributed to conservative author M.
Stanton Evans.
In a just-released Rasmussen survey, for the first time in memory, Americans trust
Republicans more than Democrats on 10 key issues. On the economy, foreign policy and
social concerns, a majority or plurality think solutions lie with the GOP.
This is true on issues where Republicans historically hold sway (the economy, taxes and
national security), as well as on those where voters generally favor Democrats (Social
Security, abortion, education and health care). On health care, Republicans are ahead
46% to 40%, on abortion – 47% to 35% (“fiscal conservatives” take note), Education –
43% to 38%, and Social Security – 45% to 37%.
On Republican-dominant issues, it isn’t even close: national security (54% to 31%), and
taxes (50% to 35%).
Republicans should be counting the days until the 2010 election. But don’t underestimate
the capacity of the stupid party to sabotage itself.
Take former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s dumb-as-dirt endorsement of a congressional
candidate in upstate New York. Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava, picked by party bosses as
the Republican candidate for an open seat in the 23rd Congressional District, is a
conservative’s waking-up-in-a-cold-sweat nightmare.
Naturally, Scozzafava is pro-abortion (recipient of Planned Parenthood’s coveted
Margaret Sanger Award – the Iron Cross of the right-to-kill movement) and pro-gay
marriage. She also has ties to ACORN, having once run for office on the Working
Families Party line. The party is closely aligned with Obama’s favorite Marxist agitators.
None of this has deterred Gingrich. In the face of criticism, the recent convert to
Catholicism shot back that Scozzafava was endorsed by the NRA and has signed a
no-new-taxes pledge. A Republican really has to go out on a limb to get the NRA’s
endorsement in upstate New York, where beauticians, ballerinas and pets own guns.
In light of her history, Dede’s no-new-taxes pledge is reminiscent of Louis B. Mayer’s
definition of a verbal contract (not worth the paper it’s written on). According to
The Wall Street Journal, as a member of the New York State Assembly, Scozzafava “voted
for so many tax increases that the Democrat is attacking her as a tax raiser.” She also
supports Obama’s stimulus spending and Card Check (at least that’s what she told the AFL-CIO),
which would coerce millions of workers into union ranks.
Outside the district, most of Scozzafava’s money has come from the left – $1,000 from
the Planned Parenthood PAC (the Sanger-award winner supports abortion bordering on
infanticide), $2,500 from New York Choice PAC, $2,500 each from the International
Longshoremen and United Transportation Union, and $1,000 from the Brotherhood of
Electrical Workers.
The
National Education Association – a pedagogical arm of the Comintern, which hates authentic
Republicans with a white-hot passion – bestowed $5,000 on the Newt-certified candidate.
The real Republican in the race is New York Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman,
who’s backed by Sarah Palin, Fred Thompson, former House Majority Leader Dick Armey,
Rep. Michelle Bachman and the ghost of Ronald Reagan.
Hoffman is pro-life, against marriage substitutes, opposes “stimulus spending,” calls
Cap and Trade a “terrible bill” and opposed a bailout of New York State’s banks. And
Newt is afraid he’ll siphon votes from the ersatz Republican.
According to the latest polling, the other Democrat in the race has 33%, Scozzafava
29% and Hoffman 23%. But the conservative is moving up fast (up 7 points since the last survey).
If the major-party candidates split the left vote, Hoffman – who says he’ll caucus with the
GOP – will win. If Scozzafava is elected, she’ll probably switch parties, since she can’t
get past a primary challenge.
Still, Gingrich grouses, “What’s happening in New York and New Jersey (where another
pseudo-Republican is losing ground to a third-party conservative) should be a sober
warning to every purist in this country.” Purist is here defined as a Republican who
expects his party’s candidates to look more like Reagan than Nancy Pelosi, as opposed
to a pragmatist – a Republican who can look at a Scozzafava and not gag.
Scozzafava is like the leader of her party (Obama) in another respect – the urge to
crush dissent. When a reporter for The Weekly Standard asked embarrassing questions
at a candidate forum, and later confronted her (in a non-belligerent way) in a parking
lot, Dede called the cops on him.
Besides making her look a political lightweight, the incident also made for an amusing
Hoffman radio spot:
911 Caller (agitated female voice) “Yes, I work for Dede Scozzafava. A reporter just
asked her about voting to raise taxes!”
911 Operator: “I see the problem. Which of Scozzafava’s 190 votes to raise taxes did
the reporter ask about?”
Caller: “I don’t know. I mean she’s been in Albany (a member of the state legislature)
10 years …”
Newt is put out by us purists. “If you seek to be a perfect minority, you’ll always be a
minority,” says he.
According to the former House
Speaker, the road to majority status lies in not standing for much of anything,
having a tent so big that it’s hard to find a principle therein, and embracing
any political mutant (no matter how grotesque) with an “R” next to its name. If
Gingrich is for Scozzafava, is there any Republican he would not support?
You’d think the 2008 presidential election would have been a wake-up call for Republican
pragmatists. In a crowded field, the Grand Old Party nominated Not-So-Grand, But Really-Old
Sen. John McCain, the quintessential Republican-in-name-only (RINO).
Beloved of the mainstream media, famous for bipartisanship (Evans adage also holds: Sometimes
the stupid party and evil party get together and do something both stupid and evil, which is
called bipartisan), McCain spent almost a quarter century in the Senate perfecting his ability
to change identity at will, to the point where it was like something from “Animal Farm”: “The
creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again;
but already it was impossible to say which was which.”
McCain could have run on border security – if he weren’t the co-sponsor of the 2007 amnesty
bill (along with his dear friend Teddy the K), which would have given a
stay-in-the-country-free card to 12 million illegal aliens, and sent their cousins
back home heading north.
He could have run on fiscal responsibility, if he hadn’t rushed back to Washington in
the fall of 2008 to vote for former-President George W. Bush’s $700 billion bailout. Compassionate conservative
that he is, the Senator wanted to use $300 billion of that to buy out the loans of the
deadbeats who took out mortgages they couldn’t afford.
He could have run on traditional values, like preserving marriage (state marriage
amendments passed handily in states McCain lost easily, including California and Florida),
except he opposed the federal marriage amendment, while saying he supported state measures –
which made sense only to someone like John McCain.
In the end, he was left with a truly inspiring platform – Sarah is my co-pilot and I’m not
Barack Obama.
Let’s see, nominate a Reagan or a George W. Bush (who gave a passable imitation of a
conservative, at least on the campaign trail) and win. Nominate a Gerald Ford, a Bush ’41,
a Bob Dole or a John McCain and lose. Hmmm, any lesson here? Don’t ask Gingrich.
The Republican establishment regularly outfoxes itself. In 2004, Bush and Rick Santorum
(then Pennsylvania’s junior Senator), rode to the rescue of RINO Sen. Arlen Spector, who
was to the Republican Party what Arnold Schwarzenegger is to the Republican Party.
Without their intervention, Specter would have lost the GOP primary to conservative
Congressman Pat Toomey. (Specter won the nomination by 1% of the primary vote.) Arlen’s
the man, the pragmatists shouted in unison; we must preserve a Republican Senate, at all costs.
Specter won. Republicans lost the Senate in 2006, because so many Republican Senators
were virtually indistinguishable from the away team.
In 2009, Specter switched parties – the first honest thing he did since entering politics.
Keystone state conservatives were so outraged by Santorum’s betrayal, that when he ran for
reelection in 2006, enough of them stayed home to ensure his defeat. Where we could have
had two Republican Senators from Pennsylvania (Toomey and Santorum), thanks to the pragmatists,
now we have none. Way to go, Karl Rove!
There’s a scenario somewhat similar to the New York 23rd shaping up in New Jersey, where
Republican gubernatorial nominee Chris Christie (another of Newt’s heroes) squandered a
sizeable lead over incumbent Democrat Jon Corzine, a multi-millionaire socialist
and big-spender in a league all by himself.
A former U.S. Attorney, Christie is probably a RINO. No one knows for sure, because
he’s running what The Wall Street Journal calls a “content-less” campaign.
Where he stands on the issues is a closely-guarded secret. (He’d tell you, but then
he’d have to kill you.) Under intense questioning, he will admit that he opposes
corruption – and is unwavering in that position. While claiming to be a fiscal conservative,
he has no plan to reduce taxes and spending in the most-heavily taxed state in the union.
A thoroughly disgusted Republican base has produced another 3rd party conservative
candidate.
In Massachusetts, RINO Republicanism’s hometown, businessman Charlie
(“I’m proudly pro-choice”) Baker is the frontrunner for the GOP gubernatorial
nomination for 2010.
When asked about same-sex marriage, which the state’s judiciary pioneered, he
mentions his “gay brother.” (Got any trans-sexuals in the family, Chuck?) Hey,
my parents were married for more than 50 years, Baker discloses. My wife and
I have been married for 22 years.
“I think marriage is a wonderful institution – critical to the success and
happiness of any democratic society. I support marriage.” He loves it so
much that he wants to deconstruct it, opening the door to demands that all
kinds of living arrangements be so designated, devaluing the institution that
forms the foundation of civilization. If Baker says he loves fiscal responsibility,
look for a tidal wave of red ink.
Massachusetts is a case study in the futility of me-too-ism. (I’m a fiscal conservative
but a social liberal.) After a succession of RINO governors, starting in the early ‘90s,
the GOP is on life support. The state legislature is 88% Democratic. If Baker triumphs,
he may succeed in finally pulling the plug.
Why should we trust Scozzafava, Christie and Baker when they insist they’re fiscal
conservatives? Their rejection of Judeo-Christian morality (which includes “thou shalt
not steal”) presages a betrayal of free market economics. Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe is
forever telling us that while she rejects her party’s unfortunate social conservatism,
she’s a fiscal hawk. The hawk just announced her support for Obama’s health care
debacle, which would add a trillion dollars to the national debt.
Newt has a new historical novel out, “To Try Men’s Souls.” Set in December of 1776,
when the American cause was almost lost, it’s about the courage and dedication of men
like General George Washington and pamphleteer Tom Paine, who avoided the shoals of
pragmatism and stayed by the helm of principle. Imagine Washington endorsing a Tory
candidate for the Continental Congress who was running as a patriot.
It’s easier to write about
men of principle than it is to be a man of principle.
Don Feder is a former Boston Herald writer who is now a political/communications consultant. He also maintains his own website, DonFeder.com.
