Sobriety Cat says: '"I'll chug to that."

by Smitty

Sobriety and sanity are vastly over-rated with the 111th Congress. The news that Senator Nelson has proven as craven, dishonorable, and un-Constitutional as my brace of buffoons, Webb and Warner, comes as scant surprise. The Weekly Standard indicates that this is tantamount to abortion approval in 13 States. Just as long as you don't waterboard the unborn after you slaughter them, it's OK.

One is momentarily tempted, this holiday season,

just to say "forget the dumb stuff" and crawl into a bottle.

---

For those wishing a weather report/update on what the proceedings looked like, Congress happens to be right there in my back yard, over in the corner.

A closeup shot of the Capitol Dome, as Heaven continues to comment on global warming.

Cracking the lid on the composterCapitol, we see the politicians busy doing what they do best: turning ideas into castings. If the weather is warm, and I, disguised as a lobbyist, roll the politicians a few times, they form a spaghetti-like bundle.

One hopes that these sorry invertebrates understand the raw fury that will meet them during the next campaign.

NY23: Biden brings Joe-mentum to Watertown; media flock to see him

Just left the Bidenmania rally eight blocks from my hotel. The star of the show, really, was N.Y. Democratic Party State Chairwoman June O’Neill, a diminuitive fireball of liberal demagoguery.

O'Neill warned of "right-wing extremists who have brought their hate-mongering tactics to this district." (Unless I was mistaken, this must have been a reference to John McCormack of the Weekly Standard, who was at the event and being closely watched by local police, lest he start asking Biden questions.)

"We have to stop the madness," O'Neill told a crowd of about 200 Democrats who turned out for an event covered by about 30 reporters, including seven TV crews. "We cannot afford to let the right-wing extremists make a point in this district. . . . The right wing is not right."

O'Neill named Rush Limbaugh ("boo!"), Sean Hannity ("boo!") and Glenn Beck ("boo!") among the out-of-town right-wingers whom she accused of attempting to impose themselves on the defenseless citizenry of the 23rd Distict.

O'Neill was introduced by state Sen. Darrel Aubertine, who was offered the Democratic Party nomination and turned it down, thus forcing the Dems to go with Bill Owens, a Plattsburgh lawyer. Owens seems to be a nice guy, but he has zero name-ID in most of the 23rd District.

Hoffman continues to lead in the latest Siena poll and, at this point, the "undecided" poll respondents should be told to stay home. If you don't know whether you're a Democrat or a "right-wing extremist," you're too dumb to be allowed to vote.

Did Joe Biden make another gaffe in today's speech? I don't know. I didn't stick around for the whole thing. Unlike big-shot media types who have state-of-the-art Internet communication gear provided to them by wealthy publishers, all I had with me was some old-fashioned stuff called "notes" written on the back of a press release. (Somehow lost my pen and had to borrow a ballpoint from another reporter.)

Anyway, I figured I'd better get back here to the hotel lobby and poach their computer to file this, before I got totally scooped. C'est la guerre!

UPDATE: See my report at The American Spectator. Also, we're linked by that right-wing extremist Gateway Pundit, and I have posted exclusive photos from the rally. Hey, I'm no John McCormack, but I try . . .

NY23: Rumors swirlConfirmed

LAKE PLACID, N.Y.
A desperate struggle to control the narrative of the crucial special congressional election in upstate New York's 23rd District has broken out in the wake of Republican Dede Scozzafava's concession yesterday.

The Watertown (N.Y.) Daily Times -- which previously endorsed Scozzafava -- stirred the pot this morning with an editorial backing Democrat Bill Owens and claiming that this was also Scozzafava's agenda:

During the day Saturday, she began to quietly and thoughtfully encourage her supporters to vote for Democrat William L. Owens.

That single sentence sparked online commentary and inaugurated a race by reporters to confirm or refute the newspaper's assertion. Kerry Picket of The Washington Times was first to follow up:

Former Scozzafava campaign spokesman Matt Burns seems to distance himself from Ms. Scozzafava's latest reported actions. He sent the Washington Times Water Coooler the following statement:
"As of yesterday, I am no longer affiliated with the campaign. Dede knows the most about the district and would have represented it well in Congress, but I am not familiar with her current thinking or decision-making." . . .
Ms. Scozzafava has yet to release a statement on the Watertown report.

Meanwhile, Democrats continue pouring on TV ads attacking Hoffman as a greedy millionaire whose agenda is to export jobs to India and China. Anti-Scozzafava TV ads -- purchased by outside groups not under control of the Hoffman campaign -- also continue airing.

Ali Akbar of 73Wire's Campaign Trail will be riding with me to Watertown this afternoon, and we will continue to pursue the story.

UPDATE: 73Wire now has their own report up. We're hitting the road to Watertown.

UPDATE II: (Smitty) TCOT Report points to the NY Daily News:

At 10 p.m. last night - right in the middle of the Halloween festivities - Scozzafava's husband, Ron McDougall, president of the Jefferson/Lewis/St. Lawrence Central Labor Council issued a statement through the AFL-CIO that he is endorsing Owens against Conservative candidate Doug Hoffman.
...
Now that Scozzafava has bowed out of the race, her union backers are rushing to endorse Owens, which could prove crucial to him in the final hours of the race when it all comes down to the kind of GOTV that unions (or some of them, anyway) excel at.

Hopes for reconciliation dim.

UPDATE III: (Smitty) The hits just keep on comin'! Here comes the Puffington Host:

In the White House, at the very least, officials are bracing themselves for a loss, calling Scozzafava's departure bad news for Owens. The one hope, they say, is if Scozzafava -- who has more philosophical similarities with the Democratic Party than Hoffman's brand of Republicanism -- was to formally endorse her former rival.
"This hurts," one administration official told the Huffington Post on Saturday, "unless we can get her on board."
And on Sunday, the White House all but confirmed that it was after Scozzafava's endorsement. Appearing on ABC's "This Week," Obama's senior confidant, Valerie Jarrett said the administration "would love to have -- of course, have her support."

If Dede keeps up the good work, she's a shoo-in for the Arlen Specter Award for Deeply Held Principles.

UPDATE IV: (Smitty) Couple of posts at NORC,

• The Newtist Colony smack-down
• Hoffman Sends Out Request For Aid

UPDATE V: (Smitty)
TCOT Report points to the Watertown Daily Times, where, at 1406 local, Dede laid it on the line, emphasis mine:

You know me, and throughout my career, I have been always been an independent voice for the people I represent. I have stood for our honest principles, and a truthful discussion of the issues, even when it cost me personally and politically. Since beginning my campaign, I have told you that this election is not about me; it’s about the people of this District.

It is in this spirit that I am writing to let you know I am supporting Bill Owens for Congress and urge you to do the same.

I, for one, hope that the people of NY-23 form the bolded words into a polite suppository on Tuesday.

NY23 EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Democrat for Bill Owens get-out-the-vote volunteer

Yesterday, I broke the story of the massive Democratic get-out-the-vote (GOTV) effort in the crucial upstate New York congressional special election. Today, as Ali Akbar and I rolled into Plattsburgh, we encountered Sean Holmes, a young volunteer canvasser for Democrat Bill Owens:

NY23: SCOZZAFAVA QUITS! UPDATE: New poll shows Hoffman in dead heat with Democrat Owens

Just confirmed that Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava has quit the race. Speaking to supporters, Scozzafava broke down in tears.

UPDATE: Scozzafava, the hand-picked choice of the New York state GOP in the key 23rd District special election, reportedly will throw her support to Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman.

Scozzafava's withdrawal came shortly after a new Siena College poll was released this morning, showing her in third place, with Hoffman neck-and-neck with Democrat Bill Owens.

UPDATE II: Steven Foley of 73Wire Campaign Trail is also on the story. Foley's crew is over at Starbucks, while I'm poaching the lobby computer at a hotel here in Lake Placid. I am the Poacher King.

My source called this morning to confirm the story while Foley was on the phone with his source. Ali Akbar has text of Dede Scozzafava's farewell.

UPDATE III: Linked at Hot Air where Ed Morrissey comments:

Scozzafava has seen her negatives explode, while her two opponents have only become more accepted as they became more well known. She has no chance of winning this race, and her withdrawal leaves Hoffman with the Republican vote whether she endorses him or not.

My buddy Jude Seymour at the Watertown (N.Y.) Daily Times also has the story:

Ms. Scozzafava told the Watertown Daily Times that Siena Research Institute poll numbers show her too far behind to catch up - and she lacks enough money to spend on advertising in the last three days to make a difference.

UPDATE IV: Also linked at Right Klik, which is aggregating the news of Scozzafava from all sources. No word yet from Tucker Carlson.

UPDATE V: Also now linked at Paco Enterprises, Underground Conservative, Jammie Wearing Fool, and million-hitter William Jacobson at Legal Insurrection. We're grateful for the link by Michelle Malkin and by Richard McEnroe at Three Beers Later who says:

NEVER believe you don't have power. NEVER let them tell you that. . . .
Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, the rest of the thieving, corrupt, smug, lying Democrat Party . . . NEVER believe we aren't coming for you

Note the New York Daily News summary of the Sienna Poll:

Hoffman's voters are the most committed, with 93 percent of them saying that are either absolutely or fairly certain they won't be changing their minds on Election Day, while 84 percent of Owens' voters say the same thing about him and 73 percent of Scozzafava supporters are loyal to her.

There is something about the kind of grassroots underdog campaign that Hoffman is running that creates a resolute determination on the part of the candidate's supporters.

Speaking of resolute determination, now would be a good time to thank Nathan Cossey and all the dozens of other readers whose contributions to the Shoe Leather Fund have made possible this road trip. Please continue to hit the tip jar. Ali Akbar needs a ride to the Buffalo airport on Wednesday.

UPDATE VI: Thanks to Kim Priestap of Wizbang for noting that Eric Odom of 73Wire first reported the news of Dede's withdrawal via Twitter. The generosity of Odom, Foley and Akbar during this trip has been greatly appreciated, and certainly I don't want to glory-hog, given how often they've scooped me -- and will no doubt scoop me again. We're a news-busting posse, and it's a friendly competition.

We're a headline at Big Government and, via Memeorandum, we learn of our linkage from Doug Brady at Conservatives for Palin. Hey, does Sarah deserve credit for answering the call, or what? She's a big-game hunter, and the same skills that bag a moose can obviously be applied to RINOs. While we're handing out kudos, how about The Man Upstairs? Two weeks ago, I wrote at The American Spectator:

Hoffman's pro-life supporters have reportedly launched an e-mail campaign -- including prayer requests -- to secure the endorsement of Palin . . .

Well, those prayers were answered, weren't they? When you pray for angels, keep an eye out for those "angels unawares."

UPDATE VII: Big shout-out to Erick Erickson of Red State, who came out strong and early for Hoffman and pushed hard. The role of CPAC director Lisa De Pasquale -- who got about a dozen conservative bloggers on an Oct. 14 conference call -- must also be acknowledged. (Note to self: Make list of names for Wednesday a.m. discussion panel about NY23.)

Well, time to hit Starbucks, meet up with the crew and go get ready for the trip to Plattsburgh.

Our complete coverage of the NY23 special election

NY23: Live from Watertown, N.Y.

Actually, there's not much happening here. I'm poaching the lobby computer at the Best Western Carriage House Inn where I am not a guest. But Gina the night clerk doesn't know that. She just brought me a fresh cup of coffee. (Shame? We don't need no stinkin' shame!)

That big poll news? Just got off the phone with Pat Austin, who's blogging NY23:

Allahpundit notes the poll with the reminder that this isn't actually a Daily Kos poll - they just paid for it. The pollster, Research 2000 is reliable. In addition, he says "Remember too that the campaigns have been whispering for the past week that internal polls show a two-man race now with Scozzafava fading. Consider this confirmation."

Oh, ye of little faith! We're linked at American Power and, meanwhile, Jimmie's got the complete NY23 roundup at NTC News.

More news at Memeorandum. I'd love to stay and blog more, but Gina (an undecided voter who supported Hillary in the '08 primaries) might start getting suspicious and my buddy Ali and the Campaign Trail crew expect me in Lake Placid before dawn.

NY23: Hey, college conservatives, are you up for a Hoffmania weekend road trip?

OK, I'm close to finalizing plans for my own road trip to cover the crucial special election in upstate New York's 23rd District, leaving Thursday morning. Now what I'm wondering is this: Are any conservative college students planning to go up to volunteer this weekend for the Doug Hoffman campaign?

Watch this video of Hoffman volunteers Jeremy Kain and Tony Maglione, recorded last Friday:

If you're a conservative student who has been wondering what you can do to make a difference, the Hoffman campaign needs you. Maybe your Mom and Dad are conservatives who are fed up with RINO sellouts in the GOP establishment, and they'll help pay your way to upstate New York.

This is the last weekend before Election Day Nov. 3, and there's lots of work to do. All you have to do is get up there and contact the Hoffman campaign, and you'll be in the middle of the biggest election of the year. Please read:

• NY23: 'Do You Believe in Miracles'?
• Doug Hoffman, Ordinary American
• Ordinary Americans Make Miracles Happen
• Hoffman Campaign Seeks 'Boots On the Ground' vs. ACORN
• Memo to the Grassroots: Stop Asking What You Can Do, and Start Doing What You Can
• EXCLUSIVE PROFILE: Conservative Doug Hoffman: 'Citizen Who's Had Enough'

HOFFMANIA: CATCH IT!

Our complete coverage of the NY23 special election

NY23: Hoffman's NY Post endorsement Also: The GOP's Mondello Syndrome

Hat tip to Da Tech Guy for this one, with a succinct summary of the New York GOP's problem:

Scozzafava is the hand-picked candidate of former state GOP chairman Joseph Mondello.

Mondello had the magical ability to grasp defeat from the jaws of victory. Sort of an anti-Midas: Everything he touched turned to crap. Back in August, just before he was forced out of the chairmanship, the Democrats issued a sarcastic statement:

Democrats say they like Mondello' ability to lose state races, including the recent loss of an open congressional seat in the Albany area. Mondello backed Republican Jim Tedisco' failed candidacy.
"The recent chorus of Republican officials calling for Joe Mondello to step down as State GOP chair is disappointing and a step backwards for New York," said Shams Tarek, DSCC spokesman.
"With the New York GOP' recent loss of both the State Senate and the overwhelmingly Republican 20th Congressional District to Democrats, we couldn’t be more pleased with Chair Mondello's work."
"For the benefit of a population completely fed up with years of GOP cynicism and dysfunction in both Washington and Albany, Chair Mondello should remain in place and continue to remove Republicans from office in New York."

Everybody can recognize Mondello as that Peter Principle type of guy, the flawed mediocrity with a glory-hog tendency to take credit for other people's success, so that he keeps getting promoted until, at last, he's in charge of the whole shebang and then -- disaster!

You need to talk to New York conservatives about the Tedisco debacle in the 20th District, if you want to understand how tone-deaf GOP Establishment types like Mondello -- a tool of the old D'Amato Long Island machine -- have bungled away their opportunities and alienated the Republican grassroots.

It's all a backroom old-boys-network. A decade ago, the state GOP chairman hand-picked John Sweeney for the 20th District. A state party staff lawyer, Sweeney subsequently established a reputation as a drunken, corrupt womanizer -- NTTAWWT, in the view of the sold-out GOP hacks who supported him -- and went down in flames in 2006.

Mondello repeated that blunder by picking the clueless Tedisco for the 20th District this year, which one New York blogger summed up this way:

Few party activists are aware that Joe Mondello made the surprising decision to personally chair the meeting in which Jim Tedisco was selected to run for the vacant seat previously held by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. The move was unprecedented, as nowhere in the state election law or the state committee bylaws was the involvement of the state party mandated. . . .
Observers inside and outside the 20th Congressional district have reached a rare consensus about the ghastly display that was witnessed in the election. The Wall Street Journal summed it up neatly: "Republicans lost because they fielded a poor candidate who ran a lousy campaign."

People keep claiming the GOP loses elections by being "too conservative," but that misses the point. The basic problem is this old-boy network way of running campaigns -- the favor-swapping, back-scratching, let's-give-my-college-roommate-a-consulting-contract modus operandi -- that leads to tactical incompetence in the Republican electoral apparatus.

You could write a 50,000-word book and call it The Encyclopedia of Republican Stupidity, Volume One. Maybe 20 volumes would suffice to sketch the outline of what's wrong with a party which managed to fumble away, inter alia, the George Allen 2006 Senate campaign because Dick Wadhams didn't understand Virginia politics.

UPDATE 11:32 a.m.: New poll confirms the Scozzafava meltdown.

NY23 VIDEO: New Doug Hoffman TV ad features Fred Thompson

NY23: Club for Growth poll shows Hoffman (31%) now leading Democrat Owens (27%), Scozzafava third (20%)

Press release from Club for Growth:

A poll released today by the Club for Growth shows Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman surging into the lead in the special election in New York's 23rd congressional district to replace John McHugh, the former congressman who recently became Secretary of the Army.
The poll of 300 likely voters, conducted October 24-25, 2009, shows Conservative Doug Hoffman at 31.3%, Democrat Bill Owens at 27.0%, Republican Dede Scozzafava at 19.7%, and 22% undecided. The poll's margin of error is +/- 5.66%. . . .

Read the rest. The poll details are online in PDF format. This could be considered an "internal" poll, but it's the only poll released to date that fully refelects the "call the cops" meltdown by Scozzafava and the Palin endorsement. We're still waiting for the Quinnipiac numbers and the Thursday release of the next Siena poll.

UPDATE: At The American Spectator, Jim Antle writes:

Important caveats: The sample size is small, the undecided vote is large, Hoffman's lead is well within the nearly 6 percent margin of error, and the Club for Growth has endorsed Hoffman.

Of course -- grain-of-salt time. The most important thing in these numbers, however, is the indication that the liberal Republican Scozzafava has slipped into third place.

Remember that NY23 has consistently voted 2-to-1 for the conservative Republican Rep. John McHugh. So if GOP voters in the district perceive Scozzafava as a likely loser, you can expect a decisive shift toward Hoffman by Republican voters whose main concern is not to give Nancy Pelosi another Democratic vote.

If such a shift occurs, and Hoffman gets 60% of the GOP vote, that would likely put him at about 40% -- neck-and-neck with the Democrat Owens in a three-way race, with Scozzafava getting about 20%.

UPDATE II: Filling in for Allahpundit on the pessimism beat, Ed Morrissey says:

Republicans usually win this district easily, so a 4-point lead over a Democrat is still worrisome -- and this is just one poll. Twenty-two percent undecided voters will make the difference.

"Worrisome"? Not really. Hoffman has low name ID, while Scozzafava is part of the GOP leadership team in the NY Assembly. Scozzafava is especially well-known in her legislative district, but that has only about a quarter of the voters in the congressional district. Once Republican voters get the idea that (a) Hoffamn is the conservative, and (b) Scozzafava is a loser, the vote-shift toward Hoffman should be decisive.

An outcome in the range of Hoffman 45%, Owens 35%, Scozzafava 20% is easily possible. There is a TV debate this week, but you aren't likely to have enough public polling afterward to be able to project the final Election Day numbers. Hoffman's had a solid week of good news, and his staff are optimistic, but working hard and keeping their fingers crossed.

Now a Memeorandum thread. We're linked by Reaganite Republican and by Fisherville Mike, who once worked for the guy who's now managing editor of the Watertown (N.Y.) Daily Times.

HOFFMANIA: CATCH IT!

Our complete coverage of the NY23 special election

NY23: Ordinary Americans make miracles happen; start doing what you can

Letter to the editor, Watertown (N.Y.) Daily Times:

It has recently come to my attention that the Republican Party bosses met behind closed doors to select the candidate for the special election to fill the vacancy created by the appointment of John McHugh to the office of Army secretary.
They selected Dede Scozzafava, a liberal member of the state Assembly. She received the same Planned Parenthood award that was awarded to Hillary Clinton. With President Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushing an anti-life agenda through the House, we do not need another pro-abortion politician in Washington.
Let's send a message: both the Democratic and Republican candidates are pro-abortion, but the Conservative candidate Doug Hoffman is pro-life. On Nov. 3, pull the lever for Doug Hoffman on the Conservative line and cast a vote for life.
Ann Dougherty

To repeat what I wrote in "Memo to the Grassroots":

One of the problems that hinders grassroots activists from making a difference is that they see problems so big that they think to themselves, "What's the point? I'm just one person. I'm not important. Why waste my time? There's nothing I can do anyway." . . .
The reason the GOP national leadership is so out of touch is because too many grassroots conservatives don't know how to fight back against the RINOs and sellouts and self-serving GOP headquarters staffers who collect fat paychecks for screwing up over and over again. . . .

If you haven't read that essay yet, you should do so now. Because if all you're going to do is sit around whining, "What can I do?" you're part of the problem, not part of the solution.

Don't become discouraged and start telling yourself that you can't do anything to fight back. Doing the little things you can do -- like sending short, clear, well-reasoned letters to the editor of your local paper -- is the key to successful grassroots activism. "Steady licks kill the Devil," they say.

Ms. Dougherty's letter boiled down to its essence a key point about the NY23 special election, namely that it was the "lords of the backroom" who picked Scozzafava as the GOP candidate. How many people in the 23rd District are really aware of that dirty little secret? With that one letter, then, Ms. Dougherty may have struck an important blow for Hoffman by helping inform local readers about the real story of this election, namely the battle between the grassroots and the out-of-touch Republican elite.

That's just one example of the difference the Ordinary American can make, if you'll ignore those pessimistic Eeyores who are always spreading negative gloom and doom by telling you there's no point trying, because you're certain to lose. If Doug Hoffman had listened to that kind of advice -- when he was growing up poor, pumping gas at age 14 to earn money -- he never would have become a successful businessman, and he sure wouldn't be running for Congress today.

The Doug Hoffman campaign collected $116,000 online in a single day last week. This morning, I spoke with a campaign source who told me that the overwhelming majority of those donations were in the $20-$50 range.

Think about that. Raising a six-figure sum -- in one day! -- with the average donor contributing less than $35. If you haven't kicked in yet, what are you waiting for? And if you've already given the Hoffman campaign $20 or $50, how about another $10 or $20 just to say, "Keep up the good work?"

HOFFMANIA: CATCH IT!

Our complete coverage of the NY23 special election

(Cross-posted at Hot Air Greenroom and Not One Red Cent.)

NY23: Pawlenty and Huckabee MIA?

Rachelle Friberg points out:

Tim Pawlenty and Mike Huckabee have something in common other than the fact that they are prominent Republican men. The commonality these men share is the fact that they have yet to endorse the third-party Conservative Party candidate, Doug Hoffman in New York's 23rd District Race. . . .

Read the whole thing. I don't know what Pawlenty's excuse is; perhaps Huckabee's Fox News contract might prevent him from openly endorsing candidates. But as TPM notes, Huckabee did everything but endorse Hoffman during an appearance last week on Neil Cavuto's show:

"Certainly his views represent more closely to mine," said Huckabee. "I'm not taking a role in that with my PAC, simply because I feel like it would be inappropriate with me at this point -- mainly because I'm already speaking to the Conservative Party next week. But it is not an endorsement speech, it is an awards speech, and I don't want to get the two confused."

Speaking of liberal Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava, Huckabee said he couldn't "support somebody who does not believe that every human life has value and meaning," and also criticized Scozzafava's support for the TARP bailout. Here's the video:

Huckabee will speak Tuesday in Syracuse at the Conservative Party's annual recognition dinner. I haven't spoken to Mrs. Other McCain yet about plans for further coverage of the NY23 special election, but if y'all want me to go back, please contribute to the Shoe Leather Fund.

Actually, I might need to start calling it the "New Tire Fund." This last road-trip was more than 1,300 miles, and the tires on the 2004 KIA Optima are starting to look a little worn, which could be risky when I'm making the Watertown-to-Plattsburgh run at 95 mph.

Y'all may think I'm kidding about how fast I drive when I'm in a hurry (and I'm always in a hurry) but I take notes while I'm on the road to help me keep track of where I was and what I was doing during my trips.

At 1:53 p.m. Friday, I left Watertown, N.Y., en route to Saranac Lake. At 2:41, I stopped at Nice 'n' Easy Shoppe #2802 in Harrisville, and 12 minutes later -- at 2:53 --was on the road again. By 3:46, I was at Tupper Lake, 60 miles to the east. Google Maps estimates the drive time as an hour and 31 minutes, but I did it in 53 minutes -- on a two-lane highway clogged with slow-moving morons and where some small towns have local speed limits as low as 30 mph.

And to the old lady in the burgundy Ford Probe who flipped me off when I blew past her on State Route 3: I forgive you.

HOFFMANIA: CATCH IT!

UPDATE: Just scored an exclusive for The American Spectator: Hoffman Campaign Seeks 'Boots On the Ground' vs. ACORN.

Linked at Memeorandum. Meanwhile the Reaganite Republican blog comments:

For the Republicans to offer such a liberal candidate as Dede Scozzafava -- thereby inspiring this competitor from the NY Conservative Party -- truly boggles the mind . . . and sure helps make the case that the GOP is often out-of-touch with the party's base

.Our complete coverage of the NY23 special election

NY23: Hoffman says, 'Take back the party!'

In a column for the New York Post:

At this time, three months ago, I was wrestling with a decision. A decision as to whether or not to run in a special election to fill the seat vacated by the new secretary of the Army, John McHugh. If you had told me 90 days later I would be penning an op-ed piece for the New York Post, I would have laughed in disbelief. I would have laughed even louder had you told me that I would be receiving endorsement and support from political leaders like Fred Thompson, former Majority Leader Dick Armey, or Sarah Palin . . .
You see I’m not a professional politician; I've never sought elected office. I grew up poor in Saranac Lake, in the heart of the Adirondacks. My siblings and I were raised in a single-parent household by our mother. We worked to help her pay the mortgage. But, like so many others in this great land, I worked hard, got a good education, did a six-year stint in the military, married, landed a good job with a "big eight" accounting firm and started living the American dream.
It's funny what can happen in America, when you are able to dream and have the courage to follow your dreams. . . .

Read the whole thing. What Hoffman says about not being a "professional politician" is very important. Doug Hoffman's campaign has been likened to Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, but it could also be compared to Revenge of the Nerds.

Watching Hoffman get introduced at events Thursday by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey -- gregarious, extroverted, a natural-born Texas-style storyteller -- was a stark contrast. Hoffman is a quiet man who has never had any direct involvement in politics, and it shows. His speeches aren't a memorized list of talking-points and well-timed applause lines.

If it's slick speech-making and "charisma" you're looking for, that ain't Doug Hoffman. I've said before that some guys (e.g., Bill Clinton) go into politics for the same reason teenage boys learn to play guitar. IYKWIMAITYD. And that ain't Doug Hoffman, either. If he's elected to Congress, Hoffman will instantly become No. 1 on any list of "Washington Politicians Least Likely to Be Involved in a Sex Scandal." The guy's an accountant, for crying out loud.

However, if you study his life story -- Hoffman took a job pumping gas at age 14 to help support his family -- you understand that, beneath his nerdy exterior, there is a man of real character. And his willingness to step up to the plate and take on the GOP Establishment in this special election is another example of that.

Conservatives nowadays often complain that we don't have "another Reagan," but maybe that's not what we need. Maybe what we really need is a grassroots movement so powerful, so energized, that it doesn't have to wait around for the next Ronald Reagan to show up. (See "Memo to the Grassroots.")

Maybe what we need is a grassroots so fired up it can elect a real conservative, even if he isn't a telegenic media superstar or a dynamic public speaker.

HOFFMANIA: CATCH IT!

UPDATE: Linked by Pat Austin at So It Goes in Shreveport, by Donald Douglas at American Power, and by Al B. at Free Republic. Meanwhile:

• I blogged about Rachelle Friberg's question of where 2012 GOP contenders Tim Pawlenty and Mike Huckabee stand on the Hoffman campaign.
• The Politico reports that the national Republican Party "leaders" are planning to spend big bucks attacking Hoffman, with a "top GOP official" derogating the Hoffman campaign in a way that Erick Erickson finds insulting.
• Please see my latest Hot Air Greenroom post, "Ordinary Americans Make Miracles Happen -- Start Doing What You Can!"

Our complete coverage of the NY23 special election

NY23: Hanging with Jeremy and Tony; Can You Volunteer for Hoffman Campaign?

Just in case anyone didn't see the video I shot Friday in the Plattsburgh, N.Y., office of the Doug Hoffman campaign, I've now posted it in the Hot Air Greenroom. And here's a photo of Hoffman volunteers Jeremy Kain and Tony Maglione chilling out after Friday's meeting:

These two guys are buddies from Plattsburgh -- they know each other from attending St. Peter's Church -- and when Tony held a Hoffman fund-raiser at his house in September, Jeremy was one of the guys he invited. So now these two average citizens are at Ground Zero in a campaign of national significance.

When I arrived at the Hoffman headquarters in Saranac Lake earlier Friday, I was frankly surprised that the office wasn't swarming with College Republican volunteers and Tea Party activists from across the country. There were about a half-dozen people in the office. Phones were ringing off the hook, people were walking in to ask where they could get yard signs, and there was an obvious need for more volunteers to help out with the campaign.

The Hoffman campaign is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for people to get involved in an election that could make a huge national impact. Maybe you're a college student. Maybe you're a retiree. Maybe you're just an ordinary working American who's tired of watching the GOP Establishment run roughshod over the conservative grassroots.

The message is simple: The Hoffman campaign needs you. If you can take a few days off work to go help out in NY23, they'll find something for you to do -- answering phones, distributing yard signs, canvassing precincts, whatever. Just contact the Hoffman campaign and tell them you want to come help. Here's that video one more time:

HOFFMANIA: CATCH IT!

Our complete coverage of the NY23 special election

NY23: Hoffman takes no-pork pledge

Which might not be totally popular with some locals:

Rep. John M. McHugh won a reputation as a friend of Fort Drum by securing tens of million of dollars in congressional earmarks that may have helped save the post from closure in 2005.
Douglas L. Hoffman, the Conservative seeking to replace him, has sworn to oppose just those sorts of projects if elected to Congress.
To obtain the endorsement, and campaign cash, of the conservative Club for Growth, Mr. Hoffman signed a statement promising not to request earmarks, which the group defines as any spending requested by only one chamber of Congress or not requested by the White House. By that definition, a total of $114 million in construction at Fort Drum -- including weapons training facilities, improvements at Wheeler-Sack Army Airfield and a family support center -- would not have been built this decade.
Sixteen projects at Fort Drum since 2000 have met the definition of earmarks followed by the Club for Growth and were listed in the annual Congressional Pig Book published by an allied group, Citizens Against Government Waste. . . .

Read the whole thing in the Watertown (N.Y.) Daily Times. All pork is local, eh? You can see a PDF of Hoffman's no-pork pledge here.

HOFFMANIA: CATCH IT!

Our complete coverage of the NY23 special election

NY23: Triumphant return?

No, not for Dede "Abramoff" Scozzafava, but for me. Just pulled off I-87 about 40 miles north of Albany, N.Y. to file a quick note about my three-day trip to cover the Doug Hoffman campaign in the upstate New York special congressional election.

Departed my home Wednesday -- "I'm leaving today" -- and that afternoon phoned into Jimmie Bise my first exclusive: "All aces" for the Hoffman campaign. About 8:30 that evening, Jimmie blogged about Dick Armey's trip to NY23, while I was hanging out with the Freedomworks chairman at a meeting in Cicero, N.Y.

Thursday morning, I filed an American Spectator exclusive from Watertown, N.Y., and Jimmie picked it up here. A few hours later, I linked Hoffman's interview with the Watertown newspaper.

Thursday afternoon, I reported on Armey and Hoffman's Syracuse news conference for the Spectator, and blogged it here. Then I tried to get some sleep, but woke up and discovered that Sarah Palin had endorsed Hoffman. Meanwhile, Jimmie blogged about a new Hoffman radio ad.

Friday morning, I posted the "Go, Doug, Go" video and urged readers to emulate Dick Armey's objectivity. I posted Hoffman's radio interview with Glenn Beck and then scooped everybody with the $116K Thursday fundraising news.

Four hours of breakneck driving later, I filed from Hoffmania HQ in Saranac Lake, then set a nighttime speed record to make it to the campaign's Plattsburgh office for the video with Jeremy and Tony.

OK, so it's now nearly 2 a.m., and I'm poaching the computer at the business center of the Country Inn and Suites in Lake George, N.Y. When I asked for the key to the business center, the manager assumed I was a guest, and I exercised my right to remain silent. (Advice to would-be reporters: always wear a sports coat.)

Have I done enough? Can I make it home before 10 a.m.? Say a prayer for me. If you've enjoyed the coverage, just hit the tip jar and I'll try to make it back up here next week.

And if anyone wants to be a blog intern . . . well, if you've got a car, that would help. Don't know how much more of this the 2004 KIA Optima can handle. Let's hope New York State Police don't see me coming.

UPDATE (Noon): Just got home. Total round-trip, 1,328 miles. Exhausted. Must sleep.

NY23 VIDEO: Doug Hoffman and the 'fight for the heart and soul of America'

Tonight, I shot a 3-minute video at the Plattsburgh, N.Y., office of the Doug Hoffman congressional campaign. If you care about America, local volunteers Jeremy Kain and Tony Maglione have a message for you:

HOFFMANIA: CATCH IT!

Our complete coverage of the NY23 special election

NY23: Live from Saranac Lake!

Saranac Lake, N.Y., is lovely this time of year. At 1:53 p.m. ET, I left Watertown, 116 miles to the east, with a Google map telling me the drive time would be "about 2 hours, 59 minutes."

Pulled into the parking lot here at 4:16 p.m. ET. Don't tell my wife. Or the New York State Police.

UPDATE: Thanks to Ed Morrissey at Hot Air and Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit for the linky-love, also at Memeorandum. Bloggers linking here should be sure to send the URLs to Smitty for the FMRJA Saturday linkback orgy.

UPDATE II: Just made a quick trip to see Ground Zero of the nationwide viral pandemic:

National headquarters for HOFFMANIA!

Volunteers standing by to take your calls.

Our complete coverage of the NY23 special election

NY23 VIDEO: 'Go, Doug, Go!'

From yesterday in Watertown, N.Y. Dick Armey's endorsement speech for Doug Hoffman is interrupted by chants from supporters.

"Doug saw the need to have a conservative in this race and stepped into the race. I believe that instantaneously made him the front-runner."
-- Dick Armey

Well, you see who supports Doug Hoffman. There's also Mark Levin, the Susan B. Anthony List, Fred Thompson, the Club for Growth, Sarah Palin . . . lots of people.

Who supports Dede Scozzafava? The abortion lobby and labor unions. Only one thing to do: Dump Dede.

HOFFMANIA!

Comment of the Day

by Smitty

Beto_Ochoa:

The RNC called today asking for a donation.
I told them "Go Scozzafava Yourselves"