Posted by
The Hermit Crab on Wednesday, November 04, 2009 10:27:47 PM
It's nice to know that political corruption and double-dealing are still around for bloggers to decry. The whole course of the fight over the New York 23 congressional seat was amazing for its multiple shifts of double-dealing and self-interestedness. (Is that a word?) A brief step-by-step chronicle of events is in order here.
Let's start with the fact that a vacancy existed at all. Just like when President BO nominated Republican Judd Gregg to become his Secretary of Commerce, he nominated Republican congressman John McHugh to be his Secretary of the Army in order to create an open seat in a "Blue State", one which Baby Barry had one easily in 2008. Judd Gregg, to his credit, realized that he was being used and eventually rejected the "offer". McHugh didn't.
BO's gamble could have backfired, at least slightly. The district opened up by McHugh's "promotion" (Does anyone even remember who President Bush's Secretary of the Army was?) had been in Republican hands since 1852, according to the reports I've heard. However, this advantage was immediately thrown away by New York State's Republican Committee chairmen, who decided to take all of the real Republicans for granted, and tried to win the ACORN types votes by nominating Dede Scozzafava, a "Republican" somewhere to the left of Chris Shays. The conservatives in the district revolted, since the choice was revolting. The New York Post called Scozzafava's nomination a "corrupt bargain", and it certainly must have been, since there was no logical explanation for it otherwise.
Enter Doug Hoffman. He had (narrowly, it is reported) lost the nomination in the caucus of knuckleheads to DIABLO Dede. (As fans of Mark Steyn and Hugh Hewitt know, a DIABLO is a Democrat In All But Label Only.) Since he was not willing to watch a race between two leftist for a historically Republican district, he ran for the seat on the Conservative line. It seemed with a week to go that he would pull off the upset. It was time for another dirty deal.
Enter the BO White House. When Scozzafava withdrew from the race (having polled as low as 13% in recent polls), BO sent staffer (and Valerie Jarrett confidante) Patrick Gaspard to strike a deal with the disappointed DIABLO. Reports vary, but the most accepted theory as I write this is that the President promised to obtain for Dede a cushy administration post or, failing that, a nice high-paying union job. Within 24 hours, Skozzafava endorsed the Democrat candidate Bill Owens. With the confusion resulting from Scozzafava remaining on the ballot on two lines (Republican and Independence), Owens narrowly defeated the conservative Hoffman by 3%. Let's keep an eye on the DIABLO, and see what cushy port she docks in.
Checking the scorecard, I see a dirty political trick by BO that opened the seat to begin with, then a shoddy deal by the Republican bosses to nominate a hopelessly bad candidate for the vacancy, and then an 11th hour intervention by the White House operators to bribe a phony Republican to endorse a Democrat by offering a lucrative post with (presumably) a fancy title. I'd caution Dede to get a long contract in writing, since the people she made this devil's deal with are no more trustworthy than she is.
My neo-conservative (in the traditional sense - I'll return to this subject soon) friend A often tells me she hates politics. With dealings like this occurring in our times, who can blame her?
By the way, when was the last time you heard of any politician earning the nickname "Honest"?