There is panic in the ranks of the left this Halloween. In today’s Times, Frank Rich, does his level best to whistle past the graveyard, but the fear is clear. He astonishingly titles his piece, “The G.O.P. Stalinists Invade Upstate New York.” I guess they feel the Hitler moniker has lost its zest, so the leftists resort to calling those on the right, Stalinists. Their disorientation could not be more palpable.
What has them in such a tizzy? It centers around the special election in New York’s 23rd Congressional District. The local Republican party bosses chose a candidate, Dede Scozzafava, who would never be mistaken as a conservative, although Mr. Rich actually called her, “a mainstream conservative by New York standards.” That’s like saying David Letterman is chaste by liberal standards, as if these things are measured on a relative scale. But that’s the way liberals and statists think. If your neighbor is more promiscuous than you, then you must be celebate. If you want to make Nancy Pelosi a moderate, move her to Cuba.
Ground Shift
What has Mr. Rich and his cohorts nervously clearing their throats, is that the uprising against the entrenched statists, led by the Tea Parties, actually delivered results. Ms. Scozzafava is pro-abortion, pro-same-sex marriage, pro-Obama stimulus package, pro-card check to make it easier to form a union without a secret ballot election, and supported by ACORN. This is what Mr. Rich calls a conservative, “by New York standards.” What sticks in his craw is that the election was a win-win, for him and his friends. Elect the Republican or the Democrat and it doesn’t matter much, they both hold the same basic views. Then along came Doug Hoffman.
Doug Hoffman threw his hat in the ring on the Conservative Party line. By this Saturday, with support pouring in all across the country from true conservatives, Hoffman was in a dead heat with the conservative and the Republican Scozzafava was fading fast. So she decided to suspend her campaign, and Mr. Rich and company hit the panic button.
So how does Mr. Rich frame his argument? Well he starts by saying Hoffman has no grasp of local issues. Uh, the position is United States Congressman, not city alderman. He well understands the issues at the national level and how the policies of the Obama Administration are bankrupting the country. Those policies will negatively affect the people in his district. But leave it to Mr. Rich to scoff at Hoffman, because he doesn’t know how much pork barrel spending the district needs. A true patriotic Congressman, like John Murtha, finds a way to build an airport in the district that nobody uses and hands the bill to people in other districts like, well, New York’s 23rd. He’s going to Washington to fight those who are bleeding the Treasury dry. So Mr. Rich fights that by calling Fort Drum, home to the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division, a “pork-dependent military base.” Hmmm…the last time I read my copy of the Constitution, it specifically required providing for the national defense. I couldn’t find in my copy where it required building airports no one needed so that John Murtha could get re-elected in perpetuity. I understand it is a fine distinction, but I would have thought someone employed by the New York Times would be able to make it.
Frank Rich’s Happy Talk
Mr. Rich oddly calls the developments in New York as good news. With a recent Gallup Poll, showing that for every self-described liberal there are two self-described conservatives, Mr. Rich says the ideologues that brought about the events in New York’s 23rd, may then start picking off other conservatives and destroy the party. Does he mean conservatives like Arlen Specter, Lincoln Chaffee, Olympia Snow, Susan Collins, Charlie Crist, oh my! With 73% of GOP voters saying that Congressional Republicans have lost touch with their base, this is not good news for Mr. Rich and company. What he believes is that a small cabal of conservatives will put unelectable candidates on the ballot that voters will reject and the Democrats will gleefully reap the rewards. In reality, the GOP leadership has for too long put weak candidates on the ballot that Democrats easily beat because the Republican base cannot get excited about them. McCain is a war hero and worthy of our admiration, but just look at his signature legislation: McCain-Feingold, McCain-Kennedy. He was not a conservative on many fronts.
Nixon was a conservative, Ford was not. Reagan was a conservative, Bush 41 was not and Dole was not. George W. started more conservative than not, but then drifted to become a big spender. McCain was not a conservative. Do you see a pattern here? Conservative Republicans win.
With Obama’s approval rating going down in a virtual straight line, Mr. Rich confidently proclaims that the only politician Obama has to fear is Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan. By all means, Mr. Rich, you keep telling your pals that.
