Fred Thompson has gotten involved in the special election in NY-23:
With the NRCC posting stories that are more anti-Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava than anything, one has to wonder if there are Republicans who are quietly trying to sabotage Scozzafava and get behind Conservative Party candidate (and registered Republican) Doug Hoffman.
That theory might not be so far fetched.
The conservative Club For Growth endorsed Hoffman over Scozzafava today. You might remember that it was the Club For Growth that released a poll last week showing a very close race for Hoffman, Democratic candidate Bill Owens and Scozzafava.
Also on the conservative front, former Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson endorsed Hoffman as well.
Fred even throws in some teabag rhetoric in his endorsement:
“Doug is a conservative, who understands that our freedom is our greatest strength, that life is a precious gift, and that getting back to our founding principles will ensure our nation’s security and prosperity for us and for our children and grandchildren.”
And now a new Sienna poll shows teabagger Doug Hoffman polling at 16%.
If I were a Republican, a third-party teabagger screwing up what would otherwise be an easy win (Scozzafava is well-known in the district and her politics are close to dead center for upstate New York) would scare the hell out of me. But instead they’ve got Fred Thompson, and to some extent the NRCC itself, giving the bagger a hand.
Very strange, and possibly a harbinger of things to come.
Laura W
My bold prediction of one month ago today was prescient indeed, DougJ.
You are going to have to dig much deeper for October.
You’re off to a great start!
Zifnab
Shit. I don’t know if this is good news or bad news for Scozzafava. On the one hand, Fred Thompson is a lazy, apathetic, ignorant blowhard whose one-term Senate career rates as decidedly lackluster and whose future was nothing but TV Star powderpuffing and Talk Radio blowharding – so he’ll be an instant GOP favorite. On the other hand, Thompson tends to fuck up everything he touches, so he could just as easily drive Republicans back towards Scozzafava as he does draw them towards Hoffman.
Either way, it’ll be worth plenty of popcorn.
KG
best case scenario for those of us who want some semblance of sanity to return to the right is for the teabagger to come in third (or preferably, fourth) place. It gives the few moderates left within the GOP the ammunition they need to tell the crazies STFU or get out.
feebog
I think you need a new catagory called Republicans eating their own. This is nothing new. The Club for Growth brought down several incumbent “moderate” candidates (Michican and Maryland come to mind immediately). All of the batshit crazy rightwingnuts supported by Club for Growth then went down in flames in the general election. CfG is quickly becoming the Democrats best friend in moderate districts.
Sentient Puddle
Meh, I don’t think this is anything new, really. The Club For Growth has an outstanding track record of sabotaging their own races in this very way. I suppose the national party actually jumping on board is new, but I don’t know, I’m not feeling any surprise for some reason.
slag
I heard somewhere that Fred Thompson was going to be the saviour of the Republican Party. Old Spice and all. But it looks like the Republicans prefer to be saved by Bible Spice instead. Who knew?
That’s probably why we voted in a less spicy alternative.
Tsulagi
Hey, don’t forget lesser luminary RSSF Commander EE. On this race for a fellow teabagger adding his spittle to the fire complete with a little flashing siren…
House Republican Leadership Aligns With ACORN: Support pro-gay marriage, pro-abortion, pro-big government ACORN endorsed candidate
SenyorDave
Club for Growth – a stupider version of the John Birch Society
Brick Oven Bill
After a long day skiing the slopes, who would not look forward to a evening exercising Glenn Beck’s Value of Hard Work, steeping their teabag with Shar and her friend?
At this point in history, it is more important to stand on Principle, rather than follow the political winds of who can give away more free stuff. This is because we are broke.
Fred Thompson was prescient when he informed us that ‘Son, the Russians don’t take a dump without a plan.’ He is also correct in keeping allegiance with the Founding Documents, and endorsing the Teabagger Candidate.
gVOR08
Just a grammatical note, proper usage is “Club for Growth [sic]”.
Irrelevant,YetPoignant
@slag: Cripes. Can I just say that it’s really embarrassing to have a weird crush on the President? I mean, he’s the Chief Executive fer crying out loud, not a teen heart throb . . . but he’s just too much, sometimes. I mean, yeesh.
Andy K
Didn’t the Saint of Surfside receive right around that percentage in all of the ’08 GOP primaries?
Matthew Hooper
@Brick Oven Bill: ….in the bedtime stories I tell my daughter, we often discuss Noberry Pie, a strange pastry that turns you invisible and creates other surreal situations.
Bill’s pie may well be Noberry Pie at this point. Or special brownies. It’s hard to decide which.
Morbo
@Brick Oven Bill: Shar shouldn’t be allowed to vote though, right?
UncommonSense
The Republicans didn’t think this teabagger thing through before they jumped on the bandwagon over the summer. The GOP has historically had a problem with far-right challenges to establishment candidates. This is potentially worse than anything they have had to deal with on that front.
The teabaggers are the Club for Growth crowd on steroids, but without the smarts. The GOP unleashed them at precisely the wrong time. A loud, scary, extremist base actually producing candidates is the last thing the Republicans can afford if their goal is to fight back from a 177-seat minority in the House and a 40-seat minority in the senate.
The teabaggers constitute a large, vocal know-nothing contingent with a massive sense of entitlement. They’re not fighting to regain a congressional majority. They think they are fighting to “take their country back.” They couldn’t care less if their presence in an election threatens to siphon votes from the establishment Republican candidate. They are True Believers, and if you ain’t for ’em, you’re agin ’em.
Good luck stuffing that crazy genie back into its bottle, GOP.
slag
@Irrelevant,YetPoignant: I know. And it’s much harder to stay pissed off at someone who you see as a real, true-to-life human being.
I find it funny to think back to people like Old and Bible Spice whenever wingnuts claim that Obama is an empty suit. It reminds me of how vastly different their world is from mine. And that doesn’t even factor in GW’s empty flight suit.
DougJ
My bold prediction of one month ago today was prescient indeed, DougJ.
That was one of the few post titles to be made into a category.
geg6
OT, but I think this is very, very good news:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/01/cheney-fbi-interview-must_n_306329.html
Midnight Marauder
@Matthew Hooper:
Personally, I think he has been filling up on PCP muffins.
Citizen_X
@Brick Oven Bill:
Was that in Hunt for Red October or in, you know, the real world?
More on topic, I’ve half a mind to donate to the Club for “Growth,” seeing as how they have such a perfect fuckup record and all.
AkaDad
I think we can all agree with B.O.B. that being a radio or TV pundit is the finest example of hard work and productivity.
Legalize
Sane people?
licensed to kill time
BoB’s a creepy steeper.
Zifnab
@Citizen_X: I think BoB may be living in a world where the Russians won the Cold War. Also, I hear Cuba has invaded Colorado. And… oh shit! Here comes a scary brown skinned guy with an AK. Hold the line, brothers! Hold the line!
WOLVERINES!
JGabriel
DougJ:
It’s the Purity Spiral in action. As the Republican party gets smaller, the people that are left get more conservative (i.e., crazier), and more demanding that any candidates are at least as conservative as themselves.
Eventually the party will factionalize, with each separate faction declaring that they are the true conservatives and not those other guys.
.
cursorial
Just read the HuffPo link @18
I guess “fear of satire” is now a national security issue? Nice.
The Grand Panjandrum
@Tsulagi: EE’s closing sentence is priceless. Hoffman can win? That’ll happen right after I claim the Miss America title.
EnderWiggin
@gVOR08:
Fixed
Pangloss
I desperately want to do a remake of the 1960s hit “Barefootin'” with the lyrics changed to “Teabaggin’.” This mash up song has been running through my head for weeks.
“Teabaggin”…..Teabaggin'” Argggghhh!
JGabriel
@The Grand Panjandrum:
They feel like they win when they lose.
Hey, isn’t that from an Abba song? Oh, right. It’s from: Waterloo.
Seems fitting somehow …
.
Notorious P.A.T.
“At this point in history, it is more important to stand on Principle, rather than follow the political winds of who can give away more free stuff.”
I assume you are referring to the president who promised us free tax cuts and, in 2003, a free war.
Notorious P.A.T.
@Pangloss:
Looking at the lyrics to that, it does seem ripe for a fresh update. It mentions a party, and a red dress (change to “red state” maybe) etc.
chuck
The crazy thing about this race is that the Great Orange Satan himself is endorsing the *Republican* candidate. She’s apparently to the left of the Democrat who isn’t even being called a “Blue Dog”, but an outright “LieberDem”.
Wile E. Quixote
@Brick Oven Bill
This is why Fred Thompson did as well as he did in 2008 and why his endorsement carries value for the Teabagger Candidate (Which, BTW, would be a totally awesome title for a steamy gay porno version of The Manchurian Candidate). The people who are going to vote for the Teabagger Candidate think that Fred Thompson was actually a navy admiral and then went on to run the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.
BruinKid
Yep, here’s the link to DailyKos where Markos says he’s rooting for the Republican to win. And given that RedState is having the vapors over the official GOP candidate, maybe that’s a good thing. I mean, she’s been backed by the Working Families Party in the past, while the Democrat has run as an independent before. (The county chairs couldn’t find ONE loyal Democrat to run?)
gocart mozart
It is a race between a Teabagger, a Lieberdem, and an arguably more liberal Republican. I am with Kos on this one. I am rooting for the Republican. A Christopher Shay’s type Rep or a blue dog Dem? Lets have the Rep cause problems for her party for a year and then run a real democrat in 2010.
gocart mozart
and if the teabagger should somehow win, he is toast in 2010.
gocart mozart
@Brick Oven Bill:
Something tells me that Shar and her friend will never teabag you B.O.B. They seem like nice girls. I think they are just tolerating you because they are too polite to call you an asshole to your face.