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You are here: Home / Politics / What up with that?

What up with that?

by | 53 Comments

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I’m sure there’s a reason for this but I don’t know what it is:

Dede Scozzafava, the GOP nominee in a key upcoming House special election, is running dangerously low on campaign cash, according to several GOP sources familiar with her spending and fundraising.

[…..]

“Chairman Steele hasn’t put up a cent, not even the obligatory $5,000,” said a New York-based GOP operative. “There’s been no support from the RNC. Democrats are going all out for this race. Everyone’s in the same direction.”

My guess is that the teabag wing of the party wants the RNC to stay out, because it prefers third-party whack job Doug Hoffman in the race. But not even putting up the token 5K seems extreme.

Meanwhile, the Democrat, Bill Owens, has pulled slightly ahead in the race.

I grew up in this district and having picked Dede Scozzafava, the race should have been a gimme for Republicans. I still can’t believe they’re letting the nuts teabag the race away.

Reader Interactions

53Comments

  1. 1.

    General Winfield Stuck

    The first thing I read this morning and it brought a smile to start the day. The big snipe hunt for the purist wingnut is good news to democrats. Also, Too.

  2. 2.

    ellaesther

    …they’re letting the nuts teabag the race away.

    Now THERE’S a sentence you don’t see everyday!

    I’m sorry, that’s not really a contribution, but I was too entirely thrown off by your wordsmithery, DougJ! In my head, that line is now set to the tune of a particularly noxious Rod Stewart ditty.

  3. 3.

    The Grand Panjandrum

    I still can’t believe they’re letting the nuts teabag the race away.

    Guffaw.

    I was just coming over here to see if you had posted on this. I am fascinated by the RNC these days.

    Rep. Grayson is having a good laugh down in Fla as well. He pointed out in a tweet yesterday that Charlie Cook downgraded his chances of reelection to a toss up a couple of weeks ago. He was getting a chuckle out of it since the 7th string Republican just bailed.

    Looks like the GOP is ripping a page out of the Dem play book and forming circular firing squads. Damn shame, that …

  11. 11.

    The Bearded Blogger

    In all nerdyness, to me this looks like a number of systems that have lost all their negative feedback loops and have plenty of positive feedback…

  12. 12.

    The Moar You Know

    Looks like the GOP is ripping a page out of the Dem play book and forming circular firing squads.

    @The Grand Panjandrum: Is it a “circular firing squad” when the method seems to be to load up the magazine of the gun and then empty it into your own ballsack?

  13. 13.

    Buzzybill

    I also endorse the phrase “letting the nuts teabag the race away.”

    I hope that we get many opportunities to see this phrase used in elections all around the country.

    So as the GOP train starts to pull away from the Regional Party station, what will the next stop be?

  15. 15.

    Zifnab

    @Bnad: I was going to say – it’s a win win here. You’ve got a GOP candidate that’s more liberal than the Dem in the race. If the Dems win, it’s another notch on the Obama score card. If the Republicans win, you get a GOP House candidate that doesn’t owe the party jack squat and is that much more likely to work with the progressives on health reform, environment, and immigration.

    You almost wonder why Scozzafava isn’t the one running as an independent.

  18. 18.

    gbear

    The republicans are simply too busy investigating Islamo-Fascist spy interns. This one is as funny as anything of the other republican missteps that have happened this week.

    Four House Republicans are charging that the Council on American Islamic Relations is infiltrating Capitol Hill with undercover interns, and they’re basing the charge on a WND-published book that itself is based on the work of a man who posed as a Muslim to infiltrate CAIR as … an intern!

    The only reason I can see that Bachmann wasn’t in this group is that they didn’t trust her not to go public early so as to take credit for the whole thing.

  19. 19.

    Brian J

    Assuming things don’t get worse, let alone actually improve to the point where people feel happy, this is one reason why I feel Republican gains will be limited for the next few years, at minimum. No, they aren’t going to launch a primary battle against everyone, but these clowns have a way of inflicting lots of harm against themselves. I imagine they will do it to someone like Mary Bono in California for voting for Waxman-Markey, despite the fact that she won her seat by over 30 points. There aren’t that many districts where Republican moderates are in office, so the potential for damage is naturally limited, but off the top of my head, I’d bet they’ll be stupid enough to sacrifice their moderates, allowing Democrats to be competitive and thus essentially canceling out any losses.

  21. 21.

    Napoleon

    @Zifnab:

    Are you insane? There was not one single vote during the entire Republican rule where defections from their moderates cost them a vote and in fact they had a well reported program of “catch and release” whereby to allow their “moderates” to fool their constituants the Republicans would allow a certain number of them to vote with the Dems on an issue to give them cover. Here is a good example of how it partially went wrong for them with my “moderate” Rep Congressman Steven L..

    http://www.factcheck.org/democratic_radio_ads_can_stand_clarification.html

  23. 23.

    ellaesther

    @The Grand Panjandrum: A) “Twisting the Night Away,” doofus, not “Don’t You Think I’m Sexy”! Of course DougJ is sexy! As are we all! (“Teabagging, teabagging, teabagging the race awaaaaay…!”)

    but B) He’s a mathematician? Huh! I did not know that. I clearly have not been paying enough attention.

  24. 24.

    Napoleon

    By the way a PS to my two earlier post, the Republicans had a rule when they ran the house that an issue did not even come to a vote if a majority of Reps did not approve it. So your Rep. Congress person could be Micheal Moore and the only vote he will even make that matters is voting for the Rep. Speaker of the House. Anyone who voted for their Congress person on any other basis (barring that they are simply a crook or insane) is nuts.

  25. 25.

    ricky

    @Napoleon: Syracusing me of insanity? Oneida have my head examined?
    Adirondack after they have a look at me. In the meantime, Oswego, so goes the nation.

  30. 30.

    Brian J

    On a related note, what is it with states like North Carolina, Arizona, Georgia, and Minnesota? Perhaps it’s a matter of relativity, but the nuttiness that we see from their Republicans is just astonishing.

  32. 32.

    Zifnab

    @Napoleon: That was btw ’02 and ’05 under DeLay. The current GOP playbook is lockstep opposition. Check the stimulus bill. Did you see any “catch and release”? Look at the health care votes. Near iron clad Republican opposition.

    And check how DeLay kept his troops in line. Often, it was a combination of carrots – pork that came out of homeland security or highway budgets – and sticks – cutting off the K-Street cash.

    But the Republicans aren’t in a position to offer freebies to friendly districts. And the RNC isn’t dropping a dime on the race, indicating they’ve already beat the stick off to a nub. What is going to keep her in line except a lot of brow beating and cat calls of RINO?

  34. 34.

    Napoleon

    @Zifnab:

    If they regain the majority why do you think they would be any differant then last time? A vote for ANY Republican Congress person is a vote for the most conservative 51% of the Republican caucus.

  35. 35.

    ricky

    @MikeJ:

    And pretty soon somebody will have a list of 43 of them in his or her pocket. Next thing you know they will be popping up like tiny Michale Steele’s all over government web sites.

  36. 36.

    burnspbesq

    @ellaesther:

    I must be a little older than you. I’m hearing Sam Cooke.

    Teabag, teabag,
    Everybody’s doing great!
    Teabag, teabag,
    Teabag the race away.

  37. 37.

    jibeaux

    They spent the $5k making Steele walk onto the website, or maybe focus-grouping the title “What Up” with a focus group apparently composed of stealthy Sadly, No! commentators?

  38. 38.

    Molly

    Serious question…

    I’m watching the Republican party destroy itself, or rather, become the party of the weird uncle at Thanksgiving who drinks too much Zinfandel and then rails about liberals and socialism.

    So, what’s next? One viable party, the Democrats? I’m in Texas, I know we’ll always have right-wingers to deal with, but they are rapidly becoming utterly irrelevant. But what I’m seeing is one viable party, the Democrats, in which there is such a variety of views it’s not a united party at all. We’re caught in this tension of wanting the Democrats to be one block, but also having the fact that the Democratic party is where everyone is landing right now, either voluntarily or because they’ve been basically forced out of the Republican party by the radicals.

    Do we end up with one party in the United States, made up of individuals who sometimes have very little in common from an ideological perspective? Do we end up with a new party of Republicans that is somewhat sane? Because the Democrats are now, and will continue to be, ineffective as group because they simply are so ideologically diverse.

    It’s fascinating to watch unfold.

  39. 39.

    Molly

    Stuck in moderation because I used the dreaded sociali$m word. I will be flogging myself soon.

    Serious question…

    I’m watching the Republican party destroy itself, or rather, become the party of the weird uncle at Thanksgiving who drinks too much Zinfandel and then rails about liberals and sociali$m.

    So, what’s next? One viable party, the Democrats? I’m in Texas, I know we’ll always have right-wingers to deal with, but they are rapidly becoming utterly irrelevant. But what I’m seeing is one viable party, the Democrats, in which there is such a variety of views it’s not a united party at all. We’re caught in this tension of wanting the Democrats to be one block, but also having the fact that the Democratic party is where everyone is landing right now, either voluntarily or because they’ve been basically forced out of the Republican party by the radicals.

    Do we end up with one party in the United States, made up of individuals who sometimes have very little in common from an ideological perspective? Do we end up with a new party of Republicans that is somewhat sane? Because the Democrats are now, and will continue to be, ineffective as group because they simply are so ideologically diverse.

    It’s fascinating to watch unfold.

  40. 40.

    John Cole

    @Molly: LOL. Don’t fool yourself. We are a few bad economic quarters away from a Republican house. If the economy does not get noticeably better, it will be Speaker Boehner before you know what hit you.

  41. 41.

    PanAmerican

    @Ash Can:

    This is my take as well. That kind of disparity between the fund raising rhetoric and actual expenditures is certainly a red flag. Would any one be shocked if it turned out they were cooking the books?

  43. 43.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    Based on my experience with a moderate Republican congresswoman, Connie Morella, Scozzafava will break your heart by only voting moderate on the small things. Connie didn’t need party money, but the party still owned her when it mattered.

  44. 44.

    Molly

    @John Cole:

    We are a few bad economic quarters away from a Republican house.

    Oh, I understand, but I’m curious as to what that party will actually BE. It’s feeding on itself right now, becoming smaller and smaller, and more and more weird. What will be left in the end to take advantage of the situation you described above?

  45. 45.

    superluminar

    OT slightly, but thought I’d draw people’s attention to this via Atrios. For those not wanting to visit, this is what it says:

    Earlier this evening, as most of you now know, one of our own, Rush Hudson Limbaugh, while taking withering fire, crashed and burned.

    Tonight, Rush is no longer ‘just’ a radio personality.

    Tonight, Rush is no longer ‘just’ a NFL owner denied

    Tonight, Rush is us. And we are him.

    Tonight Rush became the metaphor for all of us… every man woman and child in this great nation of ours.

    The enemy of this great nation, the enemy of you and me, Rush’s enemy… those on the left, inside and outside of this nation abhor success… and when faced with it will destroy it… by any and all means possible.

    We all have our dreams in life… such as they might be. Rush dreamed of being an owner in the NFL.

    Tonight the left proved that they will stop at nothing to end our dreams. Our dreams of success and happiness devastate their need to dominate and control you and me… and well everything and everyone.

    Chrysler bondholders

    GM dealers

    Bankers and stockbrokers

    Small business owners

    Medical Doctors

    Oppressed people wanting freedom around the world

    The left can not and will not allow anyone to realize their dreams

    Tonight a light went out… a dream died… it died from political correctness

    Tonight we are under withering fire, we on the right those in the middle,

    Tonight our values are under withering fire, those thoughts ideas and dreams that made this great nation are under withering fire

    Will your light of your dreams be next?

    Will my dreams be next?

    First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a communist;
    Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist;
    Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist;
    Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew;
    Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out for me.

    – Pastor Martin Niemöller

    Tonight… We Are All Rush Limbaugh

    That has got to be some genius spoofing right there, or maybe the Wingularity has been reached.

  47. 47.

    Gunner

    I see that Erick son of Erick has revved up the mighty Red State Strike force to throw their full support behind Hoffman. I can’t wait to see what they decide to send in the mail.

  50. 50.

    LD50

    Wow, Scozzafava must be appalled by this:

    On October 1, 2009, the Club for Growth announced a $250,000.00 ad campaign in support of Hoffman’s candidacy

    HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!

  53. 53.

    Chuck Butcher

    The Republicans have set course and they’re going to stay that course. A handful of “moderates” will make not one iota difference.

    For lessons in “moderate” Republican strategy please see ex-Sen Gordon Smith (OR-R) who played that for all it was worth. For an even more informative lesson in what utter crap will pass that measure see Rep Greg Walden (OR-02-R). You can blow smoke up your own ass about more progressive than x(D) and then go look at the right down the line votes of all those “moderates.”

    Utter and complete horse shit, I’ve even fallen for it a couple times many years ago. That “R” is all that counts once the crush comes.

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